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Automating grid node deployment in VMware vSphere

Contributors netapp-lhalbert
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You can automate the deployment of StorageGRID grid nodes in VMware vSphere.

What you'll need

  • You have access to a Linux/Unix system with Bash 3.2 or later.

  • You have VMware OVF Tool 4.1 installed and correctly configured.

  • You know the username and password required to access VMware vSphere using the OVF Tool.

  • You know the virtual infrastructure (VI) URL for the location in vSphere where you want to deploy the StorageGRID virtual machines. This URL will typically be a vApp, or Resource Pool. For example: vi://vcenter.example.com/vi/sgws

    Note You can use the VMware ovftool utility to determine this value (see the ovftool documentation for details).
    Note If you are deploying to a vApp, the virtual machines will not start automatically the first time, and you must power them on manually.

  • You have collected all the required information for the configuration file. See Collecting information about your deployment environment for information.

  • You have access to the following files from the VMware installation archive for StorageGRID:

Filename Description

NetApp-SG-version-SHA.vmdk

The virtual machine disk file that is used as a template for creating grid node virtual machines.

Note: This file must be in the same folder as the .ovf and .mf files.

vsphere-primary-admin.ovf

vsphere-primary-admin.mf

The Open Virtualization Format template file (.ovf) and manifest file (.mf) for deploying the primary Admin Node.

vsphere-non-primary-admin.ovf

vsphere-non-primary-admin.mf

The template file (.ovf) and manifest file (.mf) for deploying non-primary Admin Nodes.

vsphere-archive.ovf

vsphere-archive.mf

The template file (.ovf) and manifest file (.mf) for deploying Archive Nodes.

vsphere-gateway.ovf

vsphere-gateway.mf

The template file (.ovf) and manifest file (.mf) for deploying Gateway Nodes.

vsphere-storage.ovf

vsphere-storage.mf

The template file (.ovf) and manifest file (.mf) for deploying virtual machine-based Storage Nodes.

deploy-vsphere-ovftool.sh

The Bash shell script used to automate the deployment of virtual grid nodes.

deploy-vsphere-ovftool-sample.ini

The sample configuration file for use with the deploy-vsphere-ovftool.sh script.