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BlueXP setup and administration

Maintain the Connector VM and operating system

Contributors netapp-tonias netapp-bcammett
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Maintaining the operating system on the Connector host is your (the customer's) responsibility. For example, you (the customer) should apply security updates to the operating system on the Connector host by following your company's standard procedures for operating system distribution.

Tip If you have an existing Connector, you should be aware of changes to supported Linux operating systems.

Operating system patches and the Connector

Apply OS security patches without stopping Connector host services.

VM or instance type

If you create a Connector from BlueXP, it deploys a VM instance in your cloud provider with a default configuration. After you create the Connector, don't switch to a smaller VM instance with less CPU or RAM.

The following table lists the CPU and RAM requirements:

CPU

8 cores or 8 vCPUs

RAM

32 GB

Learn about the default configuration for the Connector.

Monitor the Connector

BlueXP notifies you when the Connector VM is unhealthy, including disk space, RAM, and CPU issues. Monitor these notifications in the Notifications Center within BlueXP or configure email notifications. Occasional increases in disk space, memory, or CPU usage are normal, but if it happens frequently, you should take steps to resolve.

BlueXP notifies you when a Connector resource (CPU, RAM, or disk space) exceeds 90% of its total capacity for 30 consecutive minutes. Afterwards, if the resource usage drops below that threshold, the notification displays as resolved (green) in the Notifications Center.

Note Work with NetApp support if you have questions about modifying your Connector VM.

Learn more.

Notification Action needed

Disk space is too high

Review the NetApp Knowledge Base article.

CPU usage is too high

Increase the CPU size of the Connector VM in your hyperscaler or on-premises, depending on where you installed it. Alternatively, create additional Connectors and distribute the workload across multiple Connectors. RAM utilization can vary based on your environment, ONTAP workloads, number of Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems, and the data services that you are using.

RAM usage is too high

Increase the RAM of the Connector VM in your hyperscaler or on-premises, depending on where you installed it. Alternatively, create additional Connectors and distribute the workload across multiple Connectors. RAM utilization can vary based on your environment, ONTAP workloads, number of Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems, and the data services that you are using.

Stopping and starting the Connector VM

If you need to, stop and start the Connector VM using your cloud provider's console or standard on-premises procedures.

Be aware that the Connector must be operational at all times.

Connect to the Linux VM

If you need to connect to the Linux VM that the Connector runs on, use the connectivity options from your cloud provider.

AWS

When you create the Connector instance in AWS, provide an AWS access key and secret key. You can use this key pair to SSH to the instance. Use the user name 'ubuntu' for the EC2 Linux instance. For Connectors created prior to May 2023, use the user name 'ec2-user'.

AWS Docs: Connect to your Linux instance

Azure

When you create the Connector VM in Azure, you specify a user name and choose to authenticate with a password or SSH public key. Use the authentication method that you chose to connect to the VM.

Azure Docs: SSH into your VM

Google Cloud

You can't specify an authentication method when you create a Connector in Google Cloud. However, you can connect to the Linux VM instance using the Google Cloud Console or Google Cloud CLI (gcloud).

Google Cloud Docs: Connect to Linux VMs

Change the IP address for a Connector

You can change the internal and public IP addresses of the Connector instance assigned by your cloud provider if needed.

Steps

  1. Follow the instructions from your cloud provider to change the local IP address or public IP address (or both) for the Connector instance.

  2. Restart the Connector instance to register a new public IP address with BlueXP.

  3. If you changed the private IP address, update the backup location for Cloud Volumes ONTAP configuration files so that the backups are being sent to the new private IP address on the Connector.

    Update the backup location for each Cloud Volumes ONTAP system.

    1. From the Cloud Volumes ONTAP CLI, set the privilege level to advanced:

      set -privilege advanced

    2. Run the following command to display the current backup target:

      system configuration backup settings show

    3. Run the following command to update the IP address for the backup target:

      system configuration backup settings modify -destination <target-location>

Edit a Connector's URIs

You can add and remove the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) for a Connector.

Steps

  1. Select the Connector drop-down from the BlueXP header.

  2. Select Manage Connectors.

  3. Expand the Connector URIs bar to view connector URIs.

  4. Add and remove URIs and then select Apply.