Customizing the System Using the SoftNAS Console
SoftNAS appliances provide a Console for managing key settings in VMware vSphere.
- Log into vSphere Client.
- On the Home Page, double click the Host and Clusters option under the Inventory section.
- All Hosts and Clusters will be displayed.
- Right click on the SoftNAS VM and select Open Console option.
- The console of the selected VM will be displayed.
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| Check the status of VM on the console. If it is off, power it on. Right click on the SoftNAS VM and select the Power On option. |
The Console with the new configuration screen will be displayed.
The Console has 3 options:
- Customize System - To Customize the system, press the F2 function key on the keyboard.
- Run Desktop - To run the desktop, press the F8 function key on the keyboard.
- Shutdown/Restart - To shutdown or restart the system, press the F12 key on the keyboard.
- Enter an authorized login name and password for the logged in VM. If the defaults have not been changed, use the login id as ‘root’ in the Login text entry box. Enter the root password as Pass4W0rd in the Password text entry box (change the root password using the console). Press the Enter key on the keyboard to log in.
- The System Customization screen will be displayed. The System Customization screen allows configuration of all the core components of the network (VMware vSphere platforms only).
The screen has the following options:
- Configure Password
- Configure Management Network
- Restart Management Network
- Test Management Network
- Network Restore Options
- Configure Date and Time
- Use the Up/Down arrows on your keyboard to navigate between the options.
Changing the Password
- In the System Customization Console, navigate to the Configure Password option.
- Press Enter.
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| The Configure Root and SoftNAS Password screen will be displayed. Setting the password for the “root” and “softnas” login names will prevent unauthorized access to this host. |
- Enter the old (or default) password in the Old Password field.
- Enter the new password in the New Password field.
- Confirm the password by re-entering it in the Confirm Password field.
- Press Enter.
The password will be reset.
Configuring the Management Network
- On the System Customization Console, navigate to the Configure Management Network option.
- Press Enter.
The Configure Management Network screen will be displayed.
From here, we can configure the following options:
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| To view or modify this host’s management network settings in detail, select the required option and press the Enter key on the keyboard. Configure the selected adapter’s IP Address and DNS settings. |
- On the Network Adapters option, press the Enter key on the keyboard.
The network adapter screen will be displayed with the available interfaces.
Check the Mac Address and Status of the device.
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| Press the Esc key on the keyboard. The Configure Management Network screen will be displayed. |
- Navigate to the IP Configuration option. Press Enter.
The IP Configuration dialog will be displayed.
- Select the network adapter for configuration. Press Enter key on the keyboard.
- The configuration options for the selected adapter will be displayed.
This adapter can obtain network settings automatically on a network including a DHCP server. If it does not, configure the right options.
- Scroll down to static IP address and network configuration.
To select it, press the Spacebar key on the keyboard.
- Set the static IP address. For simplicity’s sake you can lock in the DHCP assigned IP address.
- Configure the subnet mask address.
Enter the default gateway.
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| Press the Enter key on the keyboard to accept the changes. |
- Back on the Configure Management Network screen, note the DNS Configuration option.
Press Enter.
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| This host can only obtain DNS settings automatically if it also obtains its IP configuration automatically. As we set our instance to a static IP in the previous step(as per best practice), we will need to supply the appropriate DNS information. |
- Configure the required settings.
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When using short, unqualified names, DNS queries will attempt to locate the specified host by appending the suffixes listed here in the order shown until a match is found or the list is exhausted. If no suffixes are specified here, a default suffix list is derived from the local domain name. DNS queries will attempt to locate hosts by appending the suffixes specified here to short, unqualified names. |
- Enter the proper suffix in the Suffixes field. Use spaces or commas to separate multiple entries. Press Enter.
Restarting the Management Network
After making changes to your Management Network, it is always best practice to restart the network. This step is often required to restore networking or renew a DHCP lease.
- To restart the management network, on the System Configuration screen, select the Restart Management Network option.
- Press Enter on your keyboard.
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| Restarting the management network will result in a brief network outage that may temporarily affect running virtual machines. |
Testing the Management Network
On the System Configuration screen, select the Test Management Network option.
To perform a brief network test, press the Enter key on the keyboard.| Info |
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| By default, this test will attempt to ping the configured default gateway, ping the configured primary and alternate DNS servers, and resolve the configured hostname. |
Updating VMware Tools
As with any VM, it is important to ensure VMware Tools are current and operating correctly. SoftNAS ships with the latest version of VMware Tools already installed, but it is a recommended best practice to ensure the VMware Tools are installed and compatible.
The SoftNAS product makes use of the vmxnet 3 network driver to support 10 GbE virtual NICs, support which is provided by drivers that come with VMware Tools. These drivers are compatible across all ESXI 5.x versions.
To update VMware Tools on Linux, follow VMware's instructions here. Log in as root (use the default password "Pass4W0rd" if the administrator has not yet changed the root password). To log in, open up a console window on VMware and press F8 in the SoftNAS Console, log in with the root password, then log into the SoftNAS Desktop and launch a command shell, then follow the VMware Tools installation and update instructions.
As shown below, after pressing F8, enter the root password.
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| We recommend automatic kernel rebuilds (the last question during VMware Tools installs), so that VMware Tools remains compatible with future kernel updates. |
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| Once connected to your instance, there are several common configuration steps which may or may not be required, depending on your use case. Some of the below configurations should already be configured from the VMware console (notably password and network settings), however, you should at least be familiar with how to make changes in SoftNAS StorageCenter itself, should changes be required later. The Getting Started Checklist provides a guide to these tasks. |
Deploying Your HA Controller VM
- Log into your vSphere client with the appropriate credentials.
- Select the same ESXi host upon which you deployed the first two virtual machines (if there is more than one to choose from).
- Click File, and Deploy OVF Template.
- Click Browse to go to the location of your OVF file, and select it.
- Click Next, then Next again on OVF Template Details.
- Type a name, select the same location as your previous VM, and click Next.
- Select the Host or Cluster you deployed on previously, and click Next.
- Select the same Resource Pool. Click Next.
- Select your destination storage. Click Next.
- Select a Disk Format, mirroring the first VM. Click Next.
- Select a network for your VM. If creating an HA environment, be sure to select the same network as other instances.
- Click Finish.
- Your HA controller SoftNAS instance will deploy after a short interval.
- Configure your instance with a static IP address.
Configure Network Settings and Hostname
For your VMware instance, network settings are taken care of via configuration in the vSphere Client. The second interface is leveraged automatically when configuring high availability through SnapReplicate™ and Snap HA™
If adding additional network interfaces, or changing IP addresses, routing and gateways, hostnames or host addresses, this can be done by navigating to Settings > Network Settings under the Storage Administration pane.
Set Administrator Passwords
The default password is Pass4W0rd. This should be changed in a production environment. For this reason, you are prompted to change your password on initial login.
- Click the Change Password for 'softnas' user link from the prompt.
OR - From the Storage Administration pane, under Settings, select Change Passwords. This can be used to change passwords at anytime.
- If you use the initial prompt, you will automatically be taken to change the default SoftNAS account password.
- If you use Change Password under Settings, however, you will be prompted to select the account's you wish to change.
- Buurst recommends changing the default password for both the softnas and root users.
- Provide the new password.
- If handing the instance to a new administrator, check the box to Force user to change password at next login. This will allow the new SoftNAS admin to select his own password.
- Click Change.
Apply Software Updates
To update your SoftNAS Instance, navigate to Settings > Software Updates under the Storage Administration pane.
If an update is available, the latest version will be displayed in the Select version drop down.
Click Apply Update Now to begin the update. To ensure customers are aware that downtime may occur. A confirmation prompt will appear. Click Yes to begin the upgrade. Be sure not to shut down the Virtual Machine or interrupt the upgrade process.
Click Finish when prompted. This will trigger a reboot, requiring you to log back into your instance.
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Buurst recommends reading the linked Release Notes. The Release Notes may contain information not only about the features and fixes, but also about whether the update will require downtime, allowing you to plan accordingly. This is not particularly relevant for a POC deployment, but important in a production scenario. |
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Updating your software to obtain the latest features, security improvements and bug fixes is always recommended. Buurst takes this recommendation a step further, and has tied the latest updates to their No Downtime Guarantee. This ensures our clients are receiving the best version of our product and support to match. |
- If you need to apply a license (you can obtain a license by registering here).
- To access the License Administration page, navigate to Settings > Licensing in the Storage Administration pane.
- Enter the license key in the Enter New License Key text box.
- Enter the license owner in the Registered License Owner text box.
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| Your license will be sent to your registration email, and can also be found by logging into the Buurst portal. |
Add Storage Devices
- Back on the vSphere Client, navigate to your primary instance.
- From the Summary tab click Edit Settings.
- In the Virtual Machine Properties click the Add... button.
- Select Hard Disk.
- Click the Next button.
- Select Create a new virtual disk.
- Click the Next button.
- Enter your Disk Capacity into the Disk Size text box.
Select your Disk Provisioning type.
Note Thin Provisioning is recommended if space is at a premium in your environment.
Thick Provisioning VMware datastores provides increased write performance, and should be preferred over thin-provisioning of VMDKs when optimal performance is required.
Select your Location.
Note By default, Store with the virtual machine will be selected, which simply means that the VMDK will be stored in the same datastore used by the virtual machine itself.
Alternatively, you can select a different datastore, by clicking the radio button labelled Specify a datastore or datastore cluster. One reason to do this might be that one datastore offers better performance than another – for example, one might be comprised of SSD storage, while the other consists of magnetic drives. For this POC example, we will stick with the default.
If any advanced options need to be adjusted, do so on this page.
Note As stated on the Advanced Options page, these will rarely need to be changed. The effects of these changes are explained alongside each option.
- Once done, click the Next button.
- A summary of your selections will be presented. Review and verify the selections you have made.
- Once done, click the Finish button.
Partition Storage Devices
- Partitioning disks is an important and necessary step. To be certain that disks have been partitioned, check the column labelled Device Usage in the Available Devices pane.
- If the entry under Device Usage reads Available to Assign, partitioning is not required.
- If the entry under Device Usage reads Needs Partition, click the Partition All button to quickly partition any unpartitioned disks.
- Alternatively, select the disk requiring a partition, and click Create Partition.
Create Storage Pool
- Navigate to Storage > Storage Pools from the Storage Administration pane.
- Click Create.
- Provide a name for the pool in the Pool Name text box.
- Select the RAID Level using the drop-down. Since this is a VMware deployment, you should select No Raid, JBOD.
- Select the number of disks required for your RAID selection by selecting the checkbox next to the disks you wish to use.
- If you want to overwrite any pre-existing pools, select the Forced Creation (overwrites any older pools on disks you select) checkbox.
- If you want to apply LUKS encryption, select the LUKS Encryption checkbox and supply the necessary information.
If you wish to alter Sync Mode, select the appropriate option from the drop-down.
Note Altering the Sync Mode setting can affect performance. This is an advanced setting that should not be altered without a valid reason. See Working with Storage Pools for more information.
- Once configurations are complete, click the Create button.
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Be sure to make note of the selections made when creating your storage pools, as you will repeat this process on the second instance. |
Create Volumes and LUNs
- Navigate to Storage > Volumes and LUNs
- Click Create.
- Provide a name for your volume in the Volume Name text box.
- Choose the storage pool you want to put the volume in by either typing the name of the pool into the Storage Pool text box or clicking the Storage Pool... button and selecting the pool.
- Choose the appropriate volume type. You can choose to share the volume via a variety of volume types which include NFS, CIFS, and iSCSI LUN.
Select the desired storage provisioning option. Buurst recommends Thin Provision for most standard use cases.
Note - Thin-provisioning allows a volume to acquire storage from its Storage Pool on an as-needed basis, as new data is written to the volume. Thin-provisioning enables many volumes to share a storage pool without an upper limit being placed on the volume itself (the only upper limit to the volume's size is available space in the pool).
- Thick-provisioning reduces the amount of space available in the Storage Pool by reserving this space for use by a specific volume. When a thick-provisioned volume reaches its maximum volume size, no more data can be written and a volume full error will be returned for writes to a full volume.
- Thin-provisioning allows a volume to acquire storage from its Storage Pool on an as-needed basis, as new data is written to the volume. Thin-provisioning enables many volumes to share a storage pool without an upper limit being placed on the volume itself (the only upper limit to the volume's size is available space in the pool).
Select any storage optimization options you wish to apply by clicking the appropriate checkbox.
Note This will affect the volume's performance characteristics!
- Once configuration is complete, click the Create button.
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Snapshot schedules for a volume can also be applied here. More information can be found at the following links: |
Set up your Notification E-mail
To ensure that you and Buurst Support have adequate information to troubleshoot your instance should an issue arise, it is important that you provide a means of communication. An email address must be supplied in which support reports and logs can be sent at scheduled intervals or to notify of specific problems.
Navigate to Settings > Administrator from the Storage Administration pane.
- Select the Monitoring tab.
- Enter your email into the Notification Email text box.
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