DataCore vFilo Installation

1 w w w . D a t a C o r e . c o m vFilO_installation_guide Version 2019 Build 4.2

Installation Guide

Version 2019 Build 4.2

http://www.datacore.com/


Installing and Deploying DataCore vFilO ........................................................................3

System Overview ................................................................................................................... 3

System Requirements ........................................................................................................... 4

Important VMware Virtual Machine settings ...................................................................... 5

Time Synchronization in VMware environments ............................................................... 5

Firewall requirements ............................................................................................................ 7

Installing Anvil ................................................................................................................. 10

Installing the first node in an HA cluster ........................................................................... 18

Installing the second node in an HA cluster ..................................................................... 21

Installing Data Services (DSX) ........................................................................................... 24

Upgrading DataCore vFilO .............................................................................................. 30

Upgrading the product ............................................................................................................ 32

Licensing .......................................................................................................................... 34

Wrap-up and Next Steps ................................................................................................. 36



Installing and Deploying DataCore vFilO

DataCore vFilO consists of a set of software services on an appliance OS deployed on

virtual machines or on bare-metal hardware. One or more NAS storage volumes are

needed to hold user data. For details on how to configure storage, please see the

Configuration Guide.

System Overview

The DataCore vFilO software platform contains the following main components:

1. Anvil metadata server deployed as a highly available (HA) service and is

responsible for managing all the metadata for the namespace. The Anvil also

includes an NFS v4.2 server.

2. DataCore vFilO Data Services (DSX) includes several different components:

Portal - Enables protocol access from NFS v3 and SMB clients. The portal is

stateless, file locking such as SMB file locks are maintained across portals.

Mover - The mover is stateless and runs on each DSX instance. It moves files

non-disruptively between storage volumes within the global namespace.

Cloud Connector - The cloud connector provides connectivity to compatible on-

premises object storage and cloud storage from Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure

and Google GCP.

Store - The store service makes block storage available for use in the global

namespace. Using DSX Store is a simple way to include local NVMe drives and

white box storage solutions into the global namespace

Note: If you are deploying DataCore vFilO on a cloud platform – please see the deployment guide specific to each respective cloud platform.



The diagram below illustrates the DataCore vFilO components. They are illustrated as

individual components however all DSX components can run in a single virtual machine

for small environments.

Figure 1 High-level architectural diagram

System Requirements

This section provides information about the system requirements for all elements of the

system.

Anvil (metadata server)

It is important that Anvil is given sufficient resources to deliver low-latency metadata to

the clients. The Anvil will take full advantage of the resources assigned as it runs

continuous optimizations on the metadata and placement of data. It is normal for the

Anvil to operate at 50% or higher CPU utilization even with a modest metadata load in

large file environments. If the system becomes heavily loaded, it will, for example,

automatically reduce the amount of system resources that are dedicated to continuous

optimization.

The table below includes recommendations for virtual and bare-metal deployments.

Production deployments must not use less resources than specified below.

Virtual machine Bare-metal CPU Cores 24 vCPU Intel Xeon E5 v3 2680 or

better. 24 cores

Memory >=64 GB >=64 GB

Boot disk 200 GB 200 GB (Hardware RAID recommended)

Additional disk drives for metadata storage

(2x) 400 GB backed by SSD. Supports up to 200 million files

(2x) 400 GB. NVMe recommended. Hardware RAID is not needed



Network adapter (2x) 10 GbE. One link is dedicated to HA services

(2x) 10 GbE. One link is dedicated to HA services

Table 1 Anvil requirements

DataCore vFilO Data Services (DSX)

The resources required for DSX depends on what services are in use. For example, if a

single DSX is used for Portal, Store and Cloud Connector and Mover, then it will need

more resources vs. if multiple DSX nodes are deployed. The specifications below will

match what is needed to get started. DSX nodes can be added (and removed if needed)

easily after initial installation to match a scale-as-you-grow deployment.

Virtual machine Bare-metal

CPU Cores >= 8 Intel Xeon E5 v3 2620v3 or better

Memory >= 16 GB >= 24 GB

Boot disk drive (1x) 100 GB (1x) 100 GB (Hardware RAID recommended)

Additional disk drives Only needed for DSX Store Only needed for DSX Store

Network adapter (1x) 10 GbE (1x) 10 GbE

Table 2 DSX requirements

Important VMware Virtual Machine settings

If DataCore vFilO is deployed in a virtual environment hosted by ESX, please make sure

that reservations have been made for CPU and Memory resources.

VMware ESXi 5.5 & 6.X specific settings

CPU reservation = (CPU cores * CPU core MHz) * 0.95

Memory reservation Reserve all memory

Network adapter VMXNET 3

Guest OS version Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (64-bit)

VM hardware version VM version 9 or higher

Table 3 Virtual machine settings

Time Synchronization in VMware environments

It is important that Anvil and DSX nodes are time synchronized. DataCore vFilO uses

Network Time Protocol (chrony implementation) and the Anvil acts as a time server for

all DSX nodes. In VMware environments, vSphere can sometimes adjust the clocks on

the VMs and this can cause the DataCore vFilO nodes to lose time sync which can

cause problems. For this reason, it is necessary to follow the guidance in the VMware

knowledge base article, “Disabling Time Synchronization (1189)”.

Before installing Anvil and DSX software, do the following to ensure a properly setup

environment and to streamline the installation flow:


https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1189


1. Launch the vCenter web client.

2. Select the virtual machine in the vSphere Web Client inventory and power it off.

3. Right click the virtual machine and choose Edit Settings...

4. Click the VM Options tab.

5. Expand the Advanced option.

6. Under Configuration Parameters click Edit Configuration.

7. Click Add Row and add this information:

Name Value

tools.syncTime 0

time.synchronize.continue 0

time.synchronize.restore 0

time.synchronize.resume.disk 0

time.synchronize.shrink 0

time.synchronize.tools.startup 0

time.synchronize.tools.enable 0

time.synchronize.resume.host 0

Table 4 VMX file settings

Note: When adding tools.syncTime via the Configuration Parameters in vSphere 5.x, it is not displayed again after the entry has been accepted and closed. When you view the vm_name.vmx file, you see the parameter inserted as tools.syncTime = "FALSE". Please refer to the VMware KB article for more details.


https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1189


Firewall requirements

All Anvil and DSX nodes are protected by their own firewalls for increased security. However, if any other firewalls are used between the nodes, the following ports must be open for Anvil and DSX nodes to communicate between each other, and for management and protocol access.

Incoming Ports on Anvil

Source Ports Protocol Service Description

Any 22 TCP Management Console Secure Shell for CLI

Any 80 TCP Port forward to https GUI

Any 111 TCP &

UDP

Storage RPC (rpcbind)

NTP service 123 UDP NTP NTP

Any 137, 138,

139, 445

TCP &

UDP

Samba SMB file sharing

Any 161, 445 TCP &

UDP

SNMP SNMP (optional)

Any 443 TCP HTTPS GUI & REST endpoint

External Syslog 514 UDP syslogd Syslog (optional)

NFS client 662 TCP/UDP NFS - statd NFS

NFS clients 875 TCP/UDP NFS - rquotad NFS

NFS clients 892 TCP/UDP NFS – mountd NFS

NFS clients Storage

systems

DSX

2049,

20490,

20491

TCP NFS NFS

DSX 4379 TCP/UDP CTDB SMB High Availability, CTDB

in and outbound

Anvil/DSX 4505,

4506

TCP SALT Node management, SALT

External Syslog-TLS 6514 TCP &

UDP

Syslog-TLS Syslog with TLS encryption



Source Ports Protocol Service Description

Anvil/DSX 8443 TCP HTTPS GUI & REST endpoint

Anvil/DSX 9090 TCP DSX/Anvil Services management

Anvil/DSX 9093 TCP Kafka Services monitoring, Kafka

DSX 9094,

9095,

9096

TCP Data Mover Data Mobility

Object Store/DSX 9098 TCP Cloud Mover Object Storage (S3), Cloud

mobility

Anvil/DSX 9099 TCP/UDP HMDB Cloud mobility

NFS clients

DSX

20048 TCP &

UDP

NFS - Mount NFS

NFS clients Storage

systems

DSX

20490-

20491

TCP

Anvil 7789,

2224,

5405,

21064

TCP &

UDP

High Availability/DRBD Anvil High Availability

NFS clients

DSX

32803 TCP &

UDP

NLM NFS File Locking

Table 5 Incoming firewall port settings

Incoming ports on DSX

Source Destination Protocol Ports Description

Management

Console

Anvil TCP 22 Secure Shell for CLI

DSX/Anvil Mail Server(s) TCP 25 Alerting

Storage Anvil TCP &

UDP

111 RPC (rpcbind)

NTP Anvil UDP 123 NTP



Source Destination Protocol Ports Description

SNMP Anvil UDP 161 SNMP (optional)

Syslog External syslog TCP &

UDP

514 Syslog (optional)

Storage Anvil TCP &

UDP

2049, 20490,

20491

NFS (Network File System)

DSX/Anvil Anvil/DSX TCP 4379 SMB High Availability (CTDB)

DSX/Anvil Anvil/DSX TCP &

UDP

4505, 4506, 5405 Node management

Management

Console

Anvil TCP 80, 443, 8443 Web management interface

Anvil Anvil TCP &

UDP

7789, 2224, 5405,

21064

High Availability/DRBD

DSX/Anvil Anvil/DSX TCP 9090 Services management

DSX/Anvil Anvil/DSX TCP 9092 Services monitoring

DSX/Anvil Anvil/DSX TCP 9093 Event monitoring (Kafka)

DSX/Anvil Anvil/DSX TCP 9094, 9095, 9096 Data Mobility

DSX/Object Store Object Store/DSX TCP 9098 Object Storage (S3)

DSX/Anvil Anvil/DSX TCP 9099 Cloud Mobility

Table 6 Outgoing firewall port settings



Installing Anvil

Anvil is installed from a bootable ISO image and contains its own appliance operating

system. No other OS license is required, everything is provided by the DataCore vFilO

ISO image.

Note: The installation of a 2-node Anvil HA cluster will take approximately 30 minutes.

Most of that time is spent waiting for the system to be installed and network

parameters configured. The installation of DSX can be done in parallel and does not

have to wait for the Anvil installation to finish.

Note: The installation of a standalone Anvil node is not recommended for production

use. The use of a standalone Anvil node configuration is suitable only for limited

situations where continuous availability of the vFilO namespace is not required. Once

installed, a standalone Anvil configuration cannot be upgraded to an HA cluster

configuration.

1. Confirm that the VM or bare-metal server meets the minimum system requirements.

2. Load the Quickstart ISO image and power on the VM or bare-metal server.

The Anvil Installation screen displays:

3. Select the Install DataCore vFilO option and press Enter.



Note: By default, the “Boot from next device in boot order” option will be selected in

case the ISO image has been left attached after an installation. Make sure that the

CDROM is ejected and ISO image removed from the Virtual Machine after a

successful installation.

4. The installation program discovers local storage devices. Select the boot device for

installation and then INSTALL to continue.

Important: All discovered block devices will be over-written during the installation.

Any existing data on these devices will be erased.



5. After confirming the installation device, the installer will write the boot image and reboot the freshly installed image before any additional user input is required.



6. Review the End User License Agreement (EULA), then select Accept.



7. Select which Product the installation will install and configure.



8. The Virtual Hardware Validation screen displays. Confirm that the discovered

hardware is validated, select PROCEED. In the example below, the installer has

flagged the caution flag for the lack of CPU and Memory reservations. It is strongly

recommended that a production installation always uses CPU and Memory

reservations.



9. Configure networking by optionally bonding interfaces together and then assign roles

to the available network interfaces.

To create a bond, use the tab or arrow keys to select an entry in the

“BONDING PEER” column and then press Enter. Then use the arrows keys

to select an interface to bond with and press Enter.

To select the roles, use the tab or arrow keys to select an entry in the

“NETWORK ROLES” column and then press Enter. Then use the arrow keys

to select the role and press enter to assign. When all roles are assigned,

select NEXT and press Enter.

The network roles provide the following functionality:

[Data] - Used to connect all storage clients and servers (including DSX

nodes). NFS and SMB data traffic flows across the data Network, as well as

some Inter-node communication.

[Management] - Used for management and monitoring tasks. This role is not

used for file sharing, data movement, or HA cluster communications.

[High Availability] - Used for peer to peer communications between the nodes

in an HA deployment. Select the interface on this network that is configured

to be connected to the second node on a private interconnect. For bare-metal

deployments, a back-to-back network cable connection is preferred (no

switch needed).



All Anvil installations require network interfaces with management, data and high availability roles. This can be configured with only two interfaces if one interface is configured to share Data and Management traffic and the other is dedicated for high availability traffic. It is also possible to configure additional interfaces once the system is installed. DataCore vFilO supports floating IP addresses as well as VLAN assignment to interfaces. All of these configuration settings are accessible from the admin CLI interface after the installation has been completed.



Installing the first node in an HA cluster

10. Fill in your settings on the following screen. The installation process has been

designed to ask for all the required information up-front, even before the second

node is installed.

Select the Installation type: “Install the first node of a new HA cluster”

Host Name. Enter the host name of the first node

Peer Host Name. Enter the hostname of the second node

Local Domain Name. Enter the name of the local domain

DNS Server(s) (optional), use comma separated entries, for multiple DNS

servers.

NTP Server(s) (optional), use comma separated entries, for multiple NTP

servers.

Timezone. Set the Timezone of the installation

Ethernet Interface. For the Management and Data Ethernet Interfaces,

configure the following:

IP Address

Peer IP Address

Subnet Mask (or Prefix)



Note: data and management interfaces must be on different

subnets.

VLAN ID (optional)

MTU size

Note: The default MTU size is 1500 bytes. To use Jumbo frames,

change the MTU size to match your network infrastructure,

typically the correct value is 9000.

Default Gateway IP address of the Default Gateway

Administrator Password sets the password for the admin user

Review the configuration for accuracy. If all settings are correct, select INSTALL and

press Enter.

Confirm a final time and press Enter to apply the configuration.

The networking and cluster setting are applied, and the installer will now wait for the

peer node to be configured. The installation is not completed until the second node of

the cluster has been added.



Once the installation of the first node completes the following screen is displayed:

Continue to the next step for installing the second node.



Installing the second node in an HA cluster

11. Repeat steps 1 thought 8 for the HA peer node.

12. Enter following settings:

Select the Installation type: “Install the second node of a new HA cluster”

13. Tab down to “Peer IP Address” and press Enter

The peer IP address will be automatically discovered using the private

interconnect.



14. Once the Peer IP address is discovered select Install and press Enter.

Verify that the discovered Peer IP address is the same as displayed on the console of

the first node.

15. Select Yes and press Enter

16. The HA cluster and network settings are automatically created, and the installation

starts



17. The following screen is displayed after the install completes.

18. Validate the installation. Open a web browser and go the URL for the Management

Graphical User Interface.

The management URL is the cluster IP, https://10.10.3.220 in the example used

here.

19. When the web interface displays, login using the admin credentials to confirm

installation was successful.

Reminder. If you installed from an ISO image in a vSphere environment, you must

configure time synchronization settings for each VM. See the time synchronization

section for information.



Installing Data Services (DSX)

DSX is installed from an ISO image that contains the operating system as well as the

DSX software.

1. Confirm that the VM or bare-metal server meets the minimum system requirements.

2. Load the ISO image and power on the VM or bare-metal server.

The installation screen displays:

3. Select the Install DataCore vFilO option and press Enter.



4. The installation program discovers local storage devices. Select the boot device for

installation and then INSTALL to continue.

Note: All discovered block devices will be over-written during the installation. Any

existing data on these devices will be erased.



5. Review the End User License Agreement (EULA), then select Accept and press Enter. The EULA is the same as with the Anvil installation.

6. Select the Product Type, DataCore vFilO Data Services.

7. The Virtual Hardware Validation screen displays. Confirm that the discovered

Hardware is validated, select PROCEED and press Enter

8. Configure networking by optionally bonding interfaces together and then assign roles

to the available network interfaces.

To create a bond, use the tab or arrow keys to select an entry in the

“BONDING PEER” column and then press Enter. Then use the arrows keys

to select an interface to bond with and press Enter.

To select the roles, use the tab or arrow keys to select an entry in the

“NETWORK ROLES” column and then press Enter. Then use the arrow keys

to select the role and press enter to assign. When all roles are assigned

select NEXT and press Enter.

The network roles provide the following functionality:

[Data] - Used to connect all storage clients and servers (including DSX

nodes). NFS and SMB data traffic flows across the data Network, as well as

some Inter-node communication.



[Management] – Used for management and monitoring tasks. This role is not

used for file sharing, data movement, or HA cluster communications.

[Portal] – Optionally used for NFS v3 and SMB network traffic to clients. If it is

not configured, then the [Data] network will be used for client traffic.

All installations require management and data roles. This can be configured with only two interfaces if one interface is configured to share Data and Management traffic. It is also possible to configure additional interfaces once the system is installed. DSX supports floating IP addresses as well as VLAN assignment to interfaces. All of these configuration settings are accessible from the admin CLI interface after installation has been completed.



9. Fill in your settings:

Enable Data Portal (optional)

Create Data Stores (optional)

Enable Striping (optional)

Enable Mirroring (optional)

If no options are selected, the DSX will only act as a Data mover between NAS

devices as well as Object storage and Cloud.

Host Name. Enter the DSX node’s host name.

Local Domain Name. Enter the name of the local domain.

DNS Server(s) (optional), use comma separated entries, for multiple DNS

servers

Ethernet Interface. For each Ethernet Interface, configure the following:

IP Address (each interface needs to be on a different subnet)

Subnet Mask or CIDR

VLAN ID (optional)

MTU size (default is 1500), 9000 for Jumbo Frames.

IP address of the Default gateway

IP address of the Anvil Cluster IP (set during Anvil installation)

DSX auto-join – allows the DSX to automatically join the Anvil. Requires the

input of the Anvil admin password

Anvil admin password – set during Anvil installation



Review the configuration for accuracy. If all settings are correct, select INSTALL and

press Enter. To change settings, use the tab or arrow keys to navigate to the setting.

Select Yes and press Enter.

The installer configures the networking and the installation program installs the DSX

software. Once the installation completes, the installation complete screen displays.

Note that if the Anvil installation has not yet completed, the DSX configuration phase

will simply pause 60 seconds and re-try until successful.

10. Validate the installation by finishing the DSX configuration in the Management GUI.

Login into the GUI via a Browser then select Infrastructure & Data from the left

panel and click Storage Systems. The DSX node is automatically added if the

admin credentials are specified during installation, if not, click the + icon in the right-

most column to add the node.



Upgrading DataCore vFilO

DataCore vFilO supports upgrading an existing, running version without downtime (HA

deployment required) for applications. As part of the download package, there is a .upd

file that is the update file for the release.

The update file can be uploaded using the GUI or the admin CLI using software-upload.

Each version of DataCore vFilO can be applied as an upgrade for a specific set of prior

versions. These are the upgrade paths. For specific information on these upgrade

paths, see the Release Notes.

To begin the upgrade, start by uploading the update file into the product.

Navigate to Administration and then Software Update:



Click on Upload Software Package to select the update file for the release. Once the file

is selected, the file will start uploading and a progress bar will be shown for the upload.



Upgrading the product

Upload the update file using the GUI or on the command line using software-upload.

Once the upload is complete, the Update actions are enabled. It is highly

recommended that the Update All action is used as DataCore vFilO will automatically

determine the correct order of applying the updates. The equivalent functionality is also

available on the command line using software-apply.

If you decide to update manually, the supported order is:

1. Anvil Secondary Node

2. Anvil Primary Node

3. DSX nodes can be updated in any order after step 1 and 2. Floating IP addresses

will automatically be restarted on other DSX nodes during the upgrade.

The screen below show that the installation is currently running 4.2.1-36 and that 4.2.1-

36 is available as an upgrade version.

Press Update All to start the process. It may take up to a minute for the process to kick

off. The example configuration is an HA config and it will start by upgrading the

secondary node first.

Progress can be monitored using the task window, software update page or on the CLI.



The table with nodes will show progress, it may take a few minutes for it to update.

Once the secondary node is upgraded, the primary node upgrade will start and the

management UI will not be accessible for a few minutes. Manually refresh the

management UI and the new login page will be shown. After logging in, navigate to the

Software Update page and check status.

Even though the management UI is not available for a few minutes, the metadata and

data paths are not affected.

Below you can see the completed product upgrade. The end to end, non-disruptive

upgrade process took approximately 20 minutes however your mileage will vary

depending on configuration and environment.



Licensing DataCore vFilO requires a valid license to use the software. Without a license, the software will operate as a trial for 30 days. At the end of the trial period, client access to data will be disabled however the data itself is unaffected. A license key is required to continue using the software past the trial period.



Activating Licenses

To activate your license please refer to the entitlement email received from DataCore vFilO, note the ActivationID and follow the steps below. Please contact your DataCore vFilO representative if you did not receive an ActivationID.

1. Login to DataCore vFilO via ssh as an admin user. 2. Enter your ActivationID using the ‘license-activate’ command, example:

# license-activate --activation-id aaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeee-ffff-gggg-hhhh

3. Validate DataCore vFilO licenses using the cluster-view command, example: # cluster-view ID: a5aa941c-9846-4a08-902a-821f12690573 State: HA Since: 2019-08-29 01:40:59 UTC VVOL support: true Online activation support: true Activation ID: aaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeee-ffff-gggg-hhhh License activation date: 2019-08-29 17:34:19 UTC License details:

Name: DataCore vFilO Status: VALID Expiration: 2020-08-30 23:59:59 UTC Number of acquired licenses: 2

If you attempt to use a license that the DataCore vFilO is already using, you will see similar results to those shown below: # license-activate --activation-id aaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeee-ffff-gggg-hhhh license-activate: Already licensed with aaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeee-ffff-gggg-hhhh on 2019-08-29 17:34:19 UTC

If you attempt to use an already expired license, you will see similar results to those shown below: # license-activate --activation-id aaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeee-ffff-gggg-hhhhlicense-activate: License activation failed, The activation ID was denied, All features of entitlement, aaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeee-ffff-gggg-hhhh, are expired.

If you attempt to use a license with the wrong format, you will see similar results to those shown below: # license-activate --activation-id 1234 license-activate: activationId invalid activation-id format

Try 'license-activate --help' for more information.



Wrap-up and Next Steps

Wrap-up

At this stage, you have installed the components necessary to start using DataCore

vFilO. You have installed the Anvil and DSX nodes.

Next Steps

Open the configuration guide and use that guide to assist in configuring storage as well

as creating shares.


Documents

DataCore vFilo Installation