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.
  
  

• 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.

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.

  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.

  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.
  

  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.

1. Provide a name for the pool in the Pool Name text box.
   
   
2. Select the RAID Level using the drop-down. Since this is a VMware deployment, you should select No Raid, JBOD.
   
   
3. Select the number of disks required for your RAID selection by selecting the checkbox next to the disks you wish to use.
   
   
4. If you want to overwrite any pre-existing pools, select the Forced Creation (overwrites any older pools on disks you select) checkbox.
   
   
5. If you want to apply LUKS encryption, select the LUKS Encryption checkbox and supply the necessary information.
   
   

6. If you wish to alter Sync Mode, select the appropriate option from the drop-down.

   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.

7. Once configurations are complete, click the Create button.

Create Volumes and LUNs

• Navigate to Storage > Volumes and LUNs
  
  
• Click Create.

1. Provide a name for your volume in the Volume Name text box.
   
   
2. 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.
   
   
3. 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.
   
   

4. Select the desired storage provisioning option.  Buurst recommends Thin Provision for most standard use cases.

   • 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.

5. Select any storage optimization options you wish to apply by clicking the appropriate checkbox.

   This will affect the volume's performance characteristics!

6. Once configuration is complete, click the Create button.

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.