VMware: Deploying grid nodes

You must deploy a virtual machine in VMware vSphere for each grid node.

1. Open VMware vSphere Web Client, and sign in.
2. Navigate to the vApp or resource pool where you want to deploy the StorageGRID grid, and select Actions > All vCenter Actions > Deploy OVF Template.
3. Select the vsphere-node.ovf and NetApp-SG-version-SHA.vmdk files.
4. Specify the name of the virtual machine, which is typically the name of the grid node.
   The best practice is to name the VM during the initial virtual machine deployment instead of changing it later.
5. In the Network Mapping page, select the networks to use by associating a network port to each network. The Grid Network is required. The Admin and Client Networks are optional. Select the Grid Network to use, and then choose the following as applicable:
   • If you are planning to use the Admin Network, assign the Admin Network adapter to a network in the vSphere environment.
   • If you are planning to use the Client Network, assign the Client Network adapter to a network in the vSphere environment
   • If you do not plan to use an Admin Network or Client Network, assign their network adapters to the same network as the Grid Network.
6. Provide the required StorageGRID information in the Properties page, and click Finish.
   1. Enter the Node Name.
   2. Enter the Primary Admin IP.
      If you omit the primary Admin Node IP address, the IP address will be automatically discovered if the primary Admin Node, or at least one other grid node with ADMIN_IP configured, is present on the same subnet. However, it is recommended to set the primary Admin Node IP address here.
   3. Under the Grid Network (eth0) section, enter the following values:
      • Grid network IP
      • Grid network mask
      • Grid network gateway
   4. In the Admin Network (eth1) section, under Admin Network IP configuration, select STATIC, DHCP, or DISABLED.
      • If you select STATIC, enter the Admin Network IP, Admin Network mask, and Admin Network gateway.
      • If you select DHCP, the Admin Network IP, Admin Network mask, and Admin Network gateway are automatically assigned.
      • If you do not want to use the Admin Network (eth1), select DISABLED and enter 0.0.0.0 for the Admin Network IP. You can leave the other fields blank.
   5. Under the Admin Network (eth1) section, enter the Admin network external subnet list.
   6. In the Client Network (eth2) section, under Client Network IP configuration, select STATIC, DHCP, or DISABLED.
      • If you select STATIC, enter the Client Network IP, Client Network mask, and Client Network gateway.
      • If you select DHCP, the Client Network IP, Client Network mask, and Client Network gateway are automatically assigned.
      • If you do not want to use the Client Network (eth2), select DISABLED and enter 0.0.0.0 for the Client Network IP. You can leave the other fields blank.
7. Click Next and then Finish to start the upload of the virtual machine.
8. Assign storage to the virtual machine.
   If you are using only one storage volume for each Storage Node, you must assign it at least 4 TB of space. If you are using more than one storage volume for each Storage Node, you must assign at least 2 TB to object store 0; however, 4 TB is recommended. See "Storage and performance requirements" for more information.
   Attention: The Storage Node OVF provided defines several VMDKs for storage. Unless these VMDKs meet your storage requirements, you should remove them and assign appropriate VMDKs or RDMs for storage before powering up the node. VMDKs are more commonly used in VMware environments and are easier to manage, while RDMs may provide better performance for workloads that use larger object sizes (for example, greater than 100 MB).
9. If you want to remap ports used by a node:
   1. If you specified DISABLED for the Client network IP configuration, you must enter 0.0.0.0. for the Client Network IP under the under the Client Network (eth2) section. Completing this field is required.
   2. Right-click on the VM, and select Edit Settings.
   3. Select vApp Options.
   4. In the Authoring section, expand Properties and scroll down until you see PORT_REMAP_INBOUND and PORT_REMAP.
      You might need to remap a port if your enterprise networking policies restrict access to one or more ports that is used by StorageGRID. See "Internal grid node communications" or "External client communications" for the list of ports used by StorageGRID.
   5. To symmetrically map both inbound and outbound communications for a port, select PORT_REMAP and click Edit.
      Enter the port mapping as <network type>/<protocol>/<default port used by grid node>/<new port>, where network type is grid, admin, or client, and protocol is tcp or udp.
      Example
      To remap ssh traffic from port 22 to port 3022, enter the following:

      client/tcp/22/3022

      Click OK.

      Note: If only PORT_REMAP is set, the mapping that you specify applies to both inbound and outbound communications. If PORT_REMAP_INBOUND is also specified, PORT_REMAP applies only to outbound communications.
   6. To specify the port used for inbound communications to the node, select PORT_REMAP_INBOUND and click Edit.
      Enter the port mapping as <network type>/<protocol>/<remapped inbound port>/<default inbound port used by grid node>, where network type is grid, admin, or client, and protocol is tcp or udp.
      Example
      To remap inbound SSH traffic that is sent to port 3022 so that it is received at port 22 by the grid node, enter the following:

      client/tcp/3022/22

      Click OK.

      Note: If you specify PORT_REMAP_INBOUND and do not specify a value for PORT_REMAP, outbound communications for the port are unchanged.
10. Power on the virtual machine.