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Perform the prerequisite tasks for installation

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Ensure that you perform the necessary checks and verify that your environment meets the configuration, IP addressing, and networking requirements before you install SolidFire eSDS.

Install the required hardware
Configure the host (node)

  • Install RHEL based on the supported versions listed in the NetApp Interoperability Matrix (login required).

  • Configure a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server to use with all the hosts in your network.

  • When selecting the installation destination, select the radio button to manually configure file system partitioning. On the Manual Partitioning page, use the + and - buttons to remove any existing partitions, and create new partitions and size them following the recommendations listed here. Using the default LVM partitioning scheme enables you to easily resize later, if needed.

    By default, RHEL chooses xfs as the default file system for the partitions that you manually create. You should change it to ext4, except for the /boot and swap partitions. Your /boot partition should use ext2.
    Partition Size

    /boot

    1GB

    /opt

    50GB

    /var

    50GB

    swap

    4GB

    /home

    5GB

    / and /usr

    Split remaining space

    The minimum required partition layout is as follows:

    Partition Size

    /opt

    40GB

    /var

    40GB

    /

    10GB (RedHat recommendation)
    The /dev/sdb disk is not used by any process.

  • Disable RAID for /boot.

  • On the Software Selection screen, where you select specific packages to install, select Server or Infrastructure Server based on your RHEL version.

  • After the first boot, do the following:

    • Install Red Hat Subscription Manager, and enable the following repositories:

      rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms
rhel-7-server-optional-rpms
rhel-7-server-extras-rpms

    • Enable SSH on your nodes.

    • If you want to disable IPv6, follow the steps detailed in this KB article (login required).

Install the required software

  • Install Ansible, Git, and Python 3.0.

Verify that your configuration matches NetApp’s requirements for installing SolidFire eSDS

  • Use the SolidFire eSDS configuration listed in the NetApp Interoperability Matrix Tool (IMT) as a reference.

    If you contact NetApp Support for assistance with issues relating to SolidFire eSDS, Support will first verify that your platform complies with the reference configuration for SolidFire eSDS listed in the IMT. If Support determines that your underlying platform does not comply with the reference configuration, Support will guide you in aligning the non-compliant firmware, software, and/or hardware components with the correct versions in the IMT.

  • Run a compliance check for SolidFire eSDS.

    1. Run the ansible-galaxy install command to install the nar_solidfire_sds_compliance role.

      ansible-galaxy install git+https://github.com/NetApp-Automation/nar_solidfire_sds_compliance.git

      You can also manually install the role by copying it from the NetApp GitHub repository and placing the role in the ~/.ansible/roles directory. NetApp provides a README file, which includes information about how to run a role.

      Ensure that you always download the latest versions of the roles.

    2. Move the roles that you downloaded up one directory from where they were installed.

       $ mv ~/.ansible/roles/ansible/nar_solidfire_sds_* ~/.ansible/roles/

    3. Run the ansible-galaxy role list command to ensure that Ansible is configured to utilize the new roles.

       $ ansible-galaxy role list
 # ~/.ansible/roles
 - nar_solidfire_sds_install, (unknown version)
 - nar_solidfire_sds_upgrade, (unknown version)
 - ansible, (unknown version)
 - nar_solidfire_sds_compliance, (unknown version)

    4. Create the playbook to use for the compliance check.

    5. Run the compliance check playbook as shown in the following example:

       $ ansible-playbook -i yourinventory.yml yourplaybook.yml
    Even after you start using the SolidFire eSDS system, you should run the compliance check regularly to ensure that your system is in compliance. In some cases, NetApp Support will ask you to run the compliance check to help diagnose and troubleshoot issues.
Understand network and IP address requirements

  • Familiarize yourself with how to configure and manage networks and network interfaces in RHEL. See the RedHat documentation.

  • Configure your network following the IP requirements detailed here:

    Component Storage network IP address Management network IP address Total # of IP addresses

    Storage node

    1

    1

    2 per node

    Management node

    (Optional) 1

    1

    1 per cluster on the storage network + 1 per cluster on the management network + 1 FQDN per cluster for the management node

    Storage cluster

    1 storage IP (SVIP)

    1 management IP (MVIP)

    2 per storage cluster

  • Configure the storage network on 25GbE Ethernet switches and the management network on 10GbE switches. See the following cabling illustration:

    Shows the ports on the DL360 node.
    Item Description

    1

    Ports for storage network

    2

    Port for IPMI

    3

    Ports for management network
The illustration given here is intended to be an example. Your actual hardware might be different based on the server you have.

  • Change the switch port MTU to 9216 bytes.

Allow specific ports through your datacenter’s firewall

  • If firewalld is enabled on the storage node running RHEL, ensure that you have the following ports open, so that you can manage the system remotely, allow clients outside of your datacenter to connect to resources, and ensure that internal services can function properly:

    Source Destination Port Description

    Storage node MIP

    Management node

    80 TCP/UDP

    Cluster upgrades

    SNMP server

    Storage node MIP

    161 UDP

    SNMP polling

    System administrator PC

    Management node

    442 TCP

    HTTPS UI access to management node

    System administrator PC

    Storage node MIP

    442 TCP

    HTTPS UI access to storage node

    iSCSI clients

    Storage cluster MVIP

    443 TCP

    (Optional) UI and API access

    Management node

    monitoring.solidfire.com

    443 TCP

    Storage cluster reporting to Active IQ

    Storage node MIP

    Remote storage cluster MVIP

    443 TCP

    Remote replication cluster pairing communication

    Storage node MIP

    Remote storage node MIP

    443 TCP

    Remote replication cluster pairing communication

    SolidFire eSDSsfapp

    Per-node UI and API access to create a cluster

    2010 UDP

    Cluster beacon (to discover nodes to add to a cluster)

    iSCSI clients

    Storage cluster SVIP

    3260 TCP

    Client iSCSI communications

    iSCSI clients

    Storage cluster SIP

    3260 TCP

    Client iSCSI communications

    SOAP server

    SolidFire eSDSsfapp

    7627 TCP

    SOAP web services

    System administrator PC

    N/A

    8080 TCP

    System administrator communications

    vCenter Server

    Management node

    8443 TCP

    vCenter Plug-in QoSSIOC service
    Ports 2181, 2182, and 2183 are needed for are needed for the Element distributed database, and will be dynamically opened from the Element container when you install SolidFire eSDS.

  • Use the following commands to open the ports mentioned above:

    systemctl start firewalld
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=snmp
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/tcp
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/udp
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=442-443/tcp
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=442-443/udp
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=2010/udp
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-source-port=2010/udp
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=3260/tcp
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=7627/tcp
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8443/tcp
firewall-cmd –-reload
Configure your host network

  • Configure your host network using the best practices provided.

    You should complete the steps to configure your host network to ensure a successful installation of SolidFire eSDS.
Complete additional requirements

  • Install One Collect, which will be used by NetApp Support for host log collection. You can install One Collect from here. You need a NetApp account to access the download. You can also find the One Collect Installation Guide and Release Notes at the same location.

    You must download and install One Collect in order to receive an optimal support experience.

  • Install the management node for log collection and to enable NetApp Support access for troubleshooting. For information about management node and installation steps, see here.

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