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Cloud Manager 3.7
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Launching Cloud Volumes ONTAP in GCP

Contributors netapp-bcammett

You can launch a single node Cloud Volumes ONTAP system in GCP by creating a working environment.

Before you begin

  • You should have chose a configuration and obtained GCP networking information from your administrator. For details, see Planning your Cloud Volumes ONTAP configuration.

  • To deploy a BYOL system, you need the 20-digit serial number (license key) for each node.

Steps

  1. On the Working Environments page, click Create Cloud Volumes ONTAP and follow the prompts.

  2. Define Your Working Environment: Click Continue.

  3. Subscribe to Cloud Volumes ONTAP: If you're prompted, subscribe to Cloud Volumes ONTAP in the GCP Marketplace.

    The following video shows the subscription process:

  4. Details & Credentials: Select a project, specify a cluster name, optionally add labels, and then specify credentials.

    The following table describes fields for which you might need guidance:

    Field Description

    Google Cloud Project

    Select the project where you want Cloud Volumes ONTAP to reside. The default project is the project where Cloud Manager resides.

    If you don't see any additional projects in the drop-down list, then you haven't yet associated the Cloud Manager service account with other projects. Go to the Google Cloud console, open the IAM service, and select the project. Add the service account with the Cloud Manager role to that project. You'll need to repeat this step for each project.

    Note This is the service account that you set up for Cloud Manager, as described in step 4b on this page.

    Working Environment Name

    Cloud Manager uses the working environment name to name both the Cloud Volumes ONTAP system and the GCP VM instance. It also uses the name as the prefix for the predefined security group, if you select that option.

    Add Labels

    Labels are metadata for your GCP resources. Cloud Manager adds the labels to the Cloud Volumes ONTAP system and GCP resources associated with the system.

    You can add up to four labels from the user interface when creating a working environment, and then you can add more after its created. Note that the API does not limit you to four labels when creating a working environment.

    For information about labels, refer to Google Cloud Documentation: Labeling Resources.

    Credentials

    These are the credentials for the Cloud Volumes ONTAP cluster admin account. You can use these credentials to connect to Cloud Volumes ONTAP through System Manager or its CLI.

  5. Location & Connectivity: Select a location, choose a firewall policy, and select the checkbox to confirm network connectivity to Google Cloud storage for data tiering.

    If you want to tier cold data to a Google Cloud Storage bucket, the subnet in which Cloud Volumes ONTAP resides must be configured for Private Google Access. For instructions, refer to Google Cloud Documentation: Configuring Private Google Access.

  6. License & Support Site Account: Specify whether you want to use pay-as-you-go or BYOL, and then specify a NetApp Support Site account.

    To understand how licenses work, see Licensing.

    A NetApp Support Site Account is optional for pay-as-you-go, but required for BYOL systems. Learn how to add NetApp Support Site accounts.

  7. Preconfigured Packages: Select one of the packages to quickly deploy a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system, or click Create my own configuration.

    If you choose one of the packages, you only need to specify a volume and then review and approve the configuration.

  8. Licensing: Change the Cloud Volumes ONTAP version as needed, select a license, and select a virtual machine type.

    If your needs change after you launch the system, you can modify the license or virtual machine type later.

    Note If a newer Release Candidate, General Availability, or patch release is available for the selected version, then Cloud Manager updates the system to that version when creating the working environment. For example, the update occurs if you select Cloud Volumes ONTAP 9.5 RC1 and 9.5 GA is available. The update does not occur from one release to another—for example, from 9.4 to 9.5.

  9. Underlying Storage Resources: Choose settings for the initial aggregate: a disk type, a size for each disk, and whether data tiering should be enabled.

    The disk type is for the initial volume. You can choose a different disk type for subsequent volumes.

    The disk size is for all disks in the initial aggregate and for any additional aggregates that Cloud Manager creates when you use the simple provisioning option. You can create aggregates that use a different disk size by using the advanced allocation option.

    For help choosing a disk type and size, see Sizing your system in GCP.

  10. Write Speed & WORM: Choose Normal or High write speed, and activate write once, read many (WORM) storage, if desired.

    Learn more about write speed.

    Learn more about WORM storage.

  11. Create Volume: Enter details for the new volume or click Skip.

    You should skip this step if you want to use iSCSI. Cloud Manager enables you to create volumes for NFS and CIFS only.

    Some of the fields in this page are self-explanatory. The following table describes fields for which you might need guidance:

    Field Description

    Size

    The maximum size that you can enter largely depends on whether you enable thin provisioning, which enables you to create a volume that is bigger than the physical storage currently available to it.

    Access control (for NFS only)

    An export policy defines the clients in the subnet that can access the volume. By default, Cloud Manager enters a value that provides access to all instances in the subnet.

    Permissions and Users / Groups (for CIFS only)

    These fields enable you to control the level of access to a share for users and groups (also called access control lists or ACLs). You can specify local or domain Windows users or groups, or UNIX users or groups. If you specify a domain Windows user name, you must include the user's domain using the format domain\username.

    Snapshot Policy

    A Snapshot copy policy specifies the frequency and number of automatically created NetApp Snapshot copies. A NetApp Snapshot copy is a point-in-time file system image that has no performance impact and requires minimal storage. You can choose the default policy or none. You might choose none for transient data: for example, tempdb for Microsoft SQL Server.

    The following image shows the Volume page filled out for the CIFS protocol:

    Screen shot: Shows the Volume page filled out for a Cloud Volumes ONTAP instance.

  12. CIFS Setup: If you chose the CIFS protocol, set up a CIFS server.

    Field Description

    DNS Primary and Secondary IP Address

    The IP addresses of the DNS servers that provide name resolution for the CIFS server.
    The listed DNS servers must contain the service location records (SRV) needed to locate the Active Directory LDAP servers and domain controllers for the domain that the CIFS server will join.

    Active Directory Domain to join

    The FQDN of the Active Directory (AD) domain that you want the CIFS server to join.

    Credentials authorized to join the domain

    The name and password of a Windows account with sufficient privileges to add computers to the specified Organizational Unit (OU) within the AD domain.

    CIFS server NetBIOS name

    A CIFS server name that is unique in the AD domain.

    Organizational Unit

    The organizational unit within the AD domain to associate with the CIFS server. The default is CN=Computers.

    DNS Domain

    The DNS domain for the Cloud Volumes ONTAP storage virtual machine (SVM). In most cases, the domain is the same as the AD domain.

    NTP Server

    Select Use Active Directory Domain to configure an NTP server using the Active Directory DNS. If you need to configure an NTP server using a different address, then you should use the API. See the Cloud Manager API Developer Guide for details.

  13. Usage Profile, Disk Type, and Tiering Policy: Choose whether you want to enable storage efficiency features and change the tiering policy, if needed.

    For more information, see Understanding volume usage profiles and Data tiering overview.

  14. Google Cloud Platform Account for Data Tiering: Set up data tiering by providing interoperable storage access keys for a Google Cloud Platform account. Click Skip to disable data tiering.

    The keys enable Cloud Manager to set up a Cloud Storage bucket for data tiering. For more details, see Setting up and adding GCP accounts to Cloud Manager.

  15. Review & Approve: Review and confirm your selections.

    1. Review details about the configuration.

    2. Click More information to review details about support and the GCP resources that Cloud Manager will purchase.

    3. Select the I understand…​ check boxes.

    4. Click Go.

Result

Cloud Manager deploys the Cloud Volumes ONTAP system. You can track the progress in the timeline.

If you experience any issues deploying the Cloud Volumes ONTAP system, review the failure message. You can also select the working environment and click Re-create environment.

For additional help, go to NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Support.

After you finish

  • If you provisioned a CIFS share, give users or groups permissions to the files and folders and verify that those users can access the share and create a file.

  • If you want to apply quotas to volumes, use System Manager or the CLI.

    Quotas enable you to restrict or track the disk space and number of files used by a user, group, or qtree.