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BlueXP setup and administration

Manually install the Connector in AWS

Contributors netapp-bcammett
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A Connector is NetApp software running in your cloud network or on-premises network that gives you the ability to use all BlueXP features and services. One of the available installation options is to manually install the Connector software on a Linux host running in AWS. To manually install the Connector on your own Linux host, you need to review host requirements, set up your networking, prepare AWS permissions, install the Connector, and then provide the permissions that you prepared.

Before you begin

Step 1: Review host requirements

The Connector software must run on a host that meets specific operating system requirements, RAM requirements, port requirements, and so on.

Dedicated host

The Connector is not supported on a host that is shared with other applications. The host must be a dedicated host.

Hypervisor

A bare metal or hosted hypervisor that is certified to run a supported operating system is required.

Operating system and container requirements

BlueXP supports the Connector with the following operating systems when using BlueXP in standard mode or restricted mode. A container orchestration tool is required before you install the Connector.

Operating system Supported OS versions Supported Connector versions Required container tool SELinux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

9.1 to 9.4

8.6 to 8.10

3.9.40 or later with BlueXP in standard mode or restricted mode

Podman version 4.6.1 or 4.9.4

View Podman configuration requirements.

Supported in enforcing mode or permissive mode 1

Ubuntu

24.04 LTS

3.9.45 or later with BlueXP in standard mode or restricted mode

Docker Engine 26.0.0

Not supported

22.04 LTS

3.9.29 or later

Docker Engine 23.0.6 to 26.0.0

26.0.0 is supported with new Connector 3.9.44 or later installations

Not supported

Notes:

  1. Management of Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems is not supported by Connectors that have SELinux enabled on the operating system.

  2. The Connector is supported on English-language versions of these operating systems.

  3. For RHEL, the host must be registered with Red Hat Subscription Management. If it's not registered, the host can't access repositories to update required 3rd-party software during Connector installation.

CPU

8 cores or 8 vCPUs

RAM

32 GB

AWS EC2 instance type

An instance type that meets the CPU and RAM requirements above. We recommend t3.2xlarge.

Key pair

When you create the Connector, you'll need to select an EC2 key pair to use with the instance.

PUT response hop limit when using IMDSv2

If IMDSv2 is enabled on the EC2 instance (this is the default setting for new EC2 instances), you must change the PUT response hop limit on the instance to 3. If you don't change the limit on the EC2 instance, you'll receive a UI initialization error when you try to set up the Connector.

Disk space in /opt

100 GiB of space must be available

BlueXP uses /opt to install the /opt/application/netapp directory and its contents.

Disk space in /var

20 GiB of space must be available

BlueXP requires this space in /var because Docker or Podman are architected to create the containers within this directory. Specifically, they will create containers in the /var/lib/containers/storage directory. External mounts or symlinks do not work for this space.

Step 2: Install Podman or Docker Engine

Depending on your operating system, either Podman or Docker Engine is required before you install the Connector.

Example 1. Steps
Podman

Follow these steps to install Podman and configure it to meet the following requirements:

  • The podman.socket service must be enabled and started

  • python3 must be installed

  • The podman-compose package version 1.0.6 must be installed

  • podman-compose must be added to the PATH environment variable

Steps

  1. Remove the podman-docker package if it's installed on the host.

    dnf remove podman-docker
rm /var/run/docker.sock

  2. Install Podman.

    Podman is available from official Red Hat Enterprise Linux repositories.

    For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9:

    sudo dnf install podman-2:<version>

    Where <version> is the supported version of Podman that you're installing. View the Podman versions that BlueXP supports.

    For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8:

    sudo dnf install podman-3:<version>

    Where <version> is the supported version of Podman that you're installing. View the Podman versions that BlueXP supports.

  3. Enable and start the podman.socket service.

    sudo systemctl enable --now podman.socket

  4. Install python3.

    sudo dnf install python3

  5. Install the EPEL repository package if it's not already available on your system.

    This step is required because podman-compose is available from the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repository.

    For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9:

    sudo dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm

    For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8:

    sudo dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

  6. Install podman-compose package 1.0.6.

    sudo dnf install podman-compose-1.0.6
    Note Using the dnf install command meets the requirement for adding podman-compose to the PATH environment variable. The installation command adds podman-compose to /usr/bin, which is already included in the secure_path option on the host.
Docker Engine

Follow the documentation from Docker to install Docker Engine.

Steps

  1. View installation instructions from Docker

    Be sure to follow the steps to install a specific version of Docker Engine. Installing the latest version will install a version of Docker that BlueXP doesn't support.

  2. Verify that Docker is enabled and running.

    sudo systemctl enable docker && sudo systemctl start docker

Step 3: Set up networking

Ensure that the network location where you plan to install the Connector supports the following requirements. Meeting these requirements enables the Connector to manage resources and processes within your hybrid cloud environment.

Connections to target networks

A Connector requires a network connection to the location where you're planning to create and manage working environments. For example, the network where you plan to create Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems or a storage system in your on-premises environment.

Outbound internet access

The network location where you deploy the Connector must have an outbound internet connection to contact specific endpoints.

Endpoints contacted from computers when using the BlueXP web-based console

Computers that access the BlueXP console from a web browser must have the ability to contact several endpoints. You'll need to use the BlueXP console to set up the Connector and for day-to-day use of BlueXP.

Prepare networking for the BlueXP console.

Endpoints contacted during manual installation

When you manually install the Connector on your own Linux host, the installer for the Connector requires access to the following URLs during the installation process:

  • https://mysupport.netapp.com

  • https://signin.b2c.netapp.com (this endpoint is the CNAME URL for https://mysupport.netapp.com)

  • https://cloudmanager.cloud.netapp.com/tenancy

  • https://stream.cloudmanager.cloud.netapp.com

  • https://production-artifacts.cloudmanager.cloud.netapp.com

  • To obtain images, the installer needs access to one of these two sets of endpoints:

    • Option 1 (recommended):

      • https://bluexpinfraprod.eastus2.data.azurecr.io

      • https://bluexpinfraprod.azurecr.io

    • Option 2:

      • https://*.blob.core.windows.net

      • https://cloudmanagerinfraprod.azurecr.io

    The endpoints listed in option 1 are recommended because they are more secure. We recommend that you set up your firewall to allow the endpoints listed in option 1, while disallowing the endpoints listed in option 2. Note the following about these endpoints:

    • The endpoints listed in option 1 are supported starting with the 3.9.47 release of the Connector. There is no backwards compatibility with previous releases of the Connector.

    • The Connector contacts the endpoints listed in option 2 first. If those endpoints aren't accessible, the Connector automatically contacts the endpoints listed in option 1.

    • The endpoints in option 1 are not supported if you use the Connector with BlueXP backup and recovery or BlueXP ransomware protection. In this case, you can disallow the endpoints listed in option 1, while allowing the endpoints listed in option 2.

The host might try to update operating system packages during installation. The host can contact different mirroring sites for these OS packages.

Endpoints contacted from the Connector

The Connector requires outbound internet access to contact the following endpoints in order to manage resources and processes within your public cloud environment for day-to-day operations.

Note that the endpoints listed below are all CNAME entries.

Endpoints Purpose

AWS services (amazonaws.com):

  • CloudFormation

  • Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)

  • Identity and Access Management (IAM)

  • Key Management Service (KMS)

  • Security Token Service (STS)

  • Simple Storage Service (S3)

To manage resources in AWS. The exact endpoint depends on the AWS region that you're using. Refer to AWS documentation for details

https://support.netapp.com
https://mysupport.netapp.com

To obtain licensing information and to send AutoSupport messages to NetApp support.

https://*.api.bluexp.netapp.com
https://api.bluexp.netapp.com
https://*.cloudmanager.cloud.netapp.com
https://cloudmanager.cloud.netapp.com
https://netapp-cloud-account.auth0.com

To provide SaaS features and services within BlueXP.

Note that the Connector is currently contacting "cloudmanager.cloud.netapp.com" but it will start contacting "api.bluexp.netapp.com" in an upcoming release.

Choose between two sets of endpoints:

  • Option 1 (recommended) 1

    https://bluexpinfraprod.eastus2.data.azurecr.io
    https://bluexpinfraprod.azurecr.io

  • Option 2

    https://*.blob.core.windows.net
    https://cloudmanagerinfraprod.azurecr.io

To obtain images for Connector upgrades.

1 The endpoints listed in option 1 are recommended because they are more secure. We recommend that you set up your firewall to allow the endpoints listed in option 1, while disallowing the endpoints listed in option 2. Note the following about these endpoints:

  • The endpoints listed in option 1 are supported starting with the 3.9.47 release of the Connector. There is no backwards compatibility with previous releases of the Connector.

  • The Connector contacts the endpoints listed in option 2 first. If those endpoints aren't accessible, the Connector automatically contacts the endpoints listed in option 1.

  • The endpoints in option 1 are not supported if you use the Connector with BlueXP backup and recovery or BlueXP ransomware protection. In this case, you can disallow the endpoints listed in option 1, while allowing the endpoints listed in option 2.

Proxy server

If your business requires deployment of a proxy server for all outgoing internet traffic, obtain the following information about your HTTP or HTTPS proxy. You'll need to provide this information during installation. Note that BlueXP does not support transparent proxy servers.

  • IP address

  • Credentials

  • HTTPS certificate

Ports

There's no incoming traffic to the Connector, unless you initiate it or if the Connector is used as a proxy to send AutoSupport messages from Cloud Volumes ONTAP to NetApp Support.

  • HTTP (80) and HTTPS (443) provide access to the local UI, which you'll use in rare circumstances.

  • SSH (22) is only needed if you need to connect to the host for troubleshooting.

  • Inbound connections over port 3128 are required if you deploy Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems in a subnet where an outbound internet connection isn't available.

    If Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems don't have an outbound internet connection to send AutoSupport messages, BlueXP automatically configures those systems to use a proxy server that's included with the Connector. The only requirement is to ensure that the Connector's security group allows inbound connections over port 3128. You'll need to open this port after you deploy the Connector.

Enable NTP

If you're planning to use BlueXP classification to scan your corporate data sources, you should enable a Network Time Protocol (NTP) service on both the BlueXP Connector system and the BlueXP classification system so that the time is synchronized between the systems. Learn more about BlueXP classification

Step 4: Set up permissions

You need to provide AWS permissions to BlueXP by using one of the following options:

  • Option 1: Create IAM policies and attach the policies to an IAM role that you can associate with the EC2 instance.

  • Option 2: Provide BlueXP with the AWS access key for an IAM user who has the required permissions.

Follow the steps to prepare permissions for BlueXP.

IAM role
Steps

  1. Log in to the AWS console and navigate to the IAM service.

  2. Create a policy:

    1. Select Policies > Create policy.

    2. Select JSON and copy and paste the contents of the IAM policy for the Connector.

    3. Finish the remaining steps to create the policy.

      Depending on the BlueXP services that you're planning to use, you might need to create a second policy. For standard regions, the permissions are spread across two policies. Two policies are required due to a maximum character size limit for managed policies in AWS. Learn more about IAM policies for the Connector.

  3. Create an IAM role:

    1. Select Roles > Create role.

    2. Select AWS service > EC2.

    3. Add permissions by attaching the policy that you just created.

    4. Finish the remaining steps to create the role.

Result

You now have an IAM role that you can associate with the EC2 instance after you install the Connector.

AWS access key
Steps

  1. Log in to the AWS console and navigate to the IAM service.

  2. Create a policy:

    1. Select Policies > Create policy.

    2. Select JSON and copy and paste the contents of the IAM policy for the Connector.

    3. Finish the remaining steps to create the policy.

      Depending on the BlueXP services that you're planning to use, you might need to create a second policy.

      For standard regions, the permissions are spread across two policies. Two policies are required due to a maximum character size limit for managed policies in AWS. Learn more about IAM policies for the Connector.

  3. Attach the policies to an IAM user.

  4. Ensure that the user has an access key that you can add to BlueXP after you install the Connector.

Result

You now have an IAM user that has the required permissions and an access key that you can provide to BlueXP.

Step 5: Install the Connector

After the pre-requisites are complete, you can manually install the software on your own Linux host.

Before you begin

You should have the following:

  • Root privileges to install the Connector.

  • Details about a proxy server, if a proxy is required for internet access from the Connector.

    You have the option to configure a proxy server after installation but doing so requires restarting the Connector.

    Note that BlueXP does not support transparent proxy servers.

  • A CA-signed certificate, if the proxy server uses HTTPS or if the proxy is an intercepting proxy.

About this task

The installer that is available on the NetApp Support Site might be an earlier version. After installation, the Connector automatically updates itself if a new version is available.

Steps

  1. If the http_proxy or https_proxy system variables are set on the host, remove them:

    unset http_proxy
unset https_proxy

    If you don't remove these system variables, the installation will fail.

  2. Download the Connector software from the NetApp Support Site, and then copy it to the Linux host.

    You should download the "online" Connector installer that's meant for use in your network or in the cloud. A separate "offline" installer is available for the Connector, but it's only supported with private mode deployments.

  3. Assign permissions to run the script.

    chmod +x BlueXP-Connector-Cloud-<version>

    Where <version> is the version of the Connector that you downloaded.

  4. Run the installation script.

     ./BlueXP-Connector-Cloud-<version> --proxy <HTTP or HTTPS proxy server> --cacert <path and file name of a CA-signed certificate>

    The --proxy and --cacert parameters are optional. If you have a proxy server, you will need to enter the parameters as shown. The installer doesn't prompt you to provide information about a proxy.

    Here's an example of the command using both optional parameters:

     ./BlueXP-Connector-Cloud-v3.9.40--proxy https://user:password@10.0.0.30:8080/ --cacert /tmp/cacert/certificate.cer

    --proxy configures the Connector to use an HTTP or HTTPS proxy server using one of the following formats:

    • http://address:port

    • http://user-name:password@address:port

    • http://domain-name%92user-name:password@address:port

    • https://address:port

    • https://user-name:password@address:port

    • https://domain-name%92user-name:password@address:port

      Note the following:

      • The user can be a local user or domain user.

      • For a domain user, you must use the ASCII code for a \ as shown above.

      • BlueXP doesn't support user names or passwords that include the @ character.

      • If the password includes any of the following special characters, you must escape that special character by prepending it with a backslash: & or !

        For example:

        http://bxpproxyuser:netapp1\!@address:3128

    --cacert specifies a CA-signed certificate to use for HTTPS access between the Connector and the proxy server. This parameter is required only if you specify an HTTPS proxy server or if the proxy is an intercepting proxy.

  5. Wait for the installation to complete.

    At the end of the installation, the Connector service (occm) restarts twice if you specified a proxy server.

  6. Open a web browser from a host that has a connection to the Connector virtual machine and enter the following URL:

    https://ipaddress

  7. After you log in, set up the Connector:

    1. Specify the BlueXP organization to associate with the Connector.

    2. Enter a name for the system.

    3. Under Are you running in a secured environment? keep restricted mode disabled.

      You should keep restricted mode disabled because these steps describe how to use BlueXP in standard mode. You should enable restricted mode only if you have a secure environment and want to disconnect this account from BlueXP backend services. If that's the case, follow steps to get started with BlueXP in restricted mode.

    4. Select Let's start.

Result

The Connector is now installed and is set up with your BlueXP organization.

If you have Amazon S3 buckets in the same AWS account where you created the Connector, you'll see an Amazon S3 working environment appear on the BlueXP canvas automatically. Learn how to manage S3 buckets from BlueXP

Step 6: Provide permissions to BlueXP

Now that you've installed the Connector, you need to provide BlueXP with the AWS permissions that you previously set up. Providing the permissions enables BlueXP to manage your data and storage infrastructure in AWS.

IAM role

Attach the IAM role that you previously created to the Connector EC2 instance.

Steps

  1. Go to the Amazon EC2 console.

  2. Select Instances.

  3. Select the Connector instance.

  4. Select Actions > Security > Modify IAM role.

  5. Select the IAM role and select Update IAM role.

Result

BlueXP now has the permissions that it needs to perform actions in AWS on your behalf.

Go to the BlueXP console to start using the Connector with BlueXP.

AWS access key

Provide BlueXP with the AWS access key for an IAM user that has the required permissions.

Steps

  1. Ensure that the correct Connector is currently selected in BlueXP.

  2. In the upper right of the BlueXP console, select the Settings icon, and select Credentials.

    A screenshot that shows the Settings icon in the upper right of the BlueXP console.

  3. Select Add Credentials and follow the steps in the wizard.

    1. Credentials Location: Select Amazon Web Services > Connector.

    2. Define Credentials: Enter an AWS access key and secret key.

    3. Marketplace Subscription: Associate a Marketplace subscription with these credentials by subscribing now or by selecting an existing subscription.

    4. Review: Confirm the details about the new credentials and select Add.

Result

BlueXP now has the permissions that it needs to perform actions in AWS on your behalf.

Go to the BlueXP console to start using the Connector with BlueXP.