2.2 XD10076 Openfiler Virtual Shared Storage

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xtravirt.com August 2007 | 1

Openfiler Virtual SharedStorage(Guide to installing VMware® ESX3 on Workstation 6 - Part 3)This follow-on paper to the previous guide for installing ESX3 in a VMprovides a fully documented walk through to installing and configuringan iSCSI Openfiler software target in a VM for use in a ‘VI3 in a Box’infrastructure.

BY PAUL DAVEY




Table of Contents Table of Contents ...............................................................................................2 1 Prerequis ites ...............................................................................................3 1.1

Obtaining Openfiler ....................................................................................3

1.2 Obtaining the ESX iSCSI Host Patch ..............................................................3 2 Introduct ion ................................................................................................4 3 Creating the Openfiler Guest VM..................................................................5 4 Install ing Openfi ler ...................................................................................12 5 Adding the Storage Volume to Openfi ler....................................................17 6 Conf igur ing OpenFi ler................................................................................21 7 Configuring VirtualCenter for iSCSI ...........................................................26 8 Creat ing a Team ........................................................................................35




1 Prerequisites This paper assumes the following are in place prior to starting:

• This guide assumes you’ve followed the Xtravirt “ESX 3 on Workstation 6”

whitepaper. If you haven’t got your ESX VMs up and running yet, follow part one

of the guide first. You can find it at the following page:

http://www.xtravirt.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=75&func=fil

einfo&id=11

• It is also assumed you have your ESX VM’s registered with a Virtual Centre[VC]

server, and that they are licensed with ESX Standard or Enterprise Edition. We

have tested virtual ESX hosts with version 3.0.1 and 3.0.2.

• To run this configuration requires a minimum of 2GB of RAM and a dual core

CPU that supports Intel-VT or AMD-V. Recommended RAM 3GB.

• ESX iSCSI host patch ESX-6657345.tgz from VMware.com. The patch must be

installed to ESX 3.0.1 hosts (if not installed already) prior to connecting to the

iSCSI target.

1.1 Obtaining Openfiler

The latest version of Openfiler can be found in the downloads section of the

www.openfiler.com website. The downloaded distribution that was used when producing

this guide was labelled as Openfiler 2.2 x86 (respin 2) and dated 2007-02-27. The

download was 350MB in size.

1.2 Obtaining the ESX iSCSI Host Patch

The ESX-6657345 patch can be obtained from VMware.com. At the time of writing the

direct link to the patch on VMware’s website is

http://www.vmware.com/support/vi3/doc/esx-6657345-patch.html. The patch is

required to fix an issue surrounding the reserve\release command used by the iSCSI

initiator.

NOTE: This guide does not include information on how to install an ESX host; this

is covered in one of our previous white papers:

http://www.xtravirt.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=75&func=fil

einfo&id=11




2 Introduction This paper offers step-by-step instruction to configure an iSCSI Openfiler Server in a VM

under Workstation 6 for use with VMware ESX3 Server VMs running under the same

instance of Workstation – the aim being to demonstrate Virtual Infrastructure 3

Enterprise features with only a single physical machine to run all of the requiredcomponents. An alternative to installation is a virtual appliance containing Openfiler

already installed is also available for download from the openfiler website

http://www.openfiler.com. Note: you may require additional configuration as this

document only describes an installation from .iso.

As an addition to the previous paper, if you do not have a physical VC server available it

is perfectly possible to install a VC server in a VM on the same Workstation. We tested

using a Windows XP SP2 VM with 512MB of RAM, running VC 2.0.1 & 2.0.2 using an

MSDE database and a License Server. Doing this also allows you to create a Team in

Workstation that is an entire ‘VI3 in a box’ solution ideal for demonstrating features such

as VMotion, DRS and HA.

NOTE: Throughout this paper the non-routable range of 192.168.10.0/24 is used,

your ESX VMs must have a Service Console and VMkernel Port Group in this

range that can ping your iSCSI Server VM. You do not have to use the suggested

range (and can use real IPs if you wish) but your ESX VMs and the iSCSI Server

VM must be on the same subnet.




3 Creating the Openfiler Guest VM First create a new VM, select Custom configuration.

In VMware Workstation, start the process of creating a new virtual machine. Click Next

in the dialog box.

Select the Custom option and click Next.




In the Hardware Compatibility dialog and select Workstation 6. Then click Next.

Choose Linux and Red Hat Linux in the dialog box and then click Next to continue.

Enter a name for the virtual machine and the location of where you would like to store it.

Then click Next.




In the Processor Configuration dialog, select One processor and click Next.

Select 256MB of memory for the virtual machine. This is the required amount of memory for Openfiler to install and work correctly.

Select Use bridged networking and click Next.




Select the LSI Logic SCSI adaptor and then click Next to continue.

Choose Create a new virtual disk and then click Next.

Select SCSI as the disk type and click Next.




Specify 2.0 as the disk size (in GB’s). This storage space will be used to install Openfiler

only. Additional storage will be added later on to use as the presented iSCSI storage.

Select Allocate all disk space now and click Next.

Specify a name for the disk file and then click Finish.

Once the new virtual disk creation process is complete, you will be presented with the

Virtual machine created successfully dialog. Click Close.




The new VM will be listed in the VMware Workstation sidebar, with the VM’s details in the

pane to the right as shown below.

Select Edit virtual machine settings. The Virtual Machine Settings dialog will be

displayed. Remove all of the un-required devices. Your Hardware list should be the same

as below once you have removed the un-required devices (i.e. USB, Audio)




Select CD-ROM and choose the Use ISO Image option. Click Browse and browse to

the openfiler iso file that you have already downloaded. Once selected, click OK to close

the dialog.

Your VM is now correctly configured for the installation of Openfiler.




4 Installing Openfiler In this section we will install Openfiler to the new VM that we have just created. Select

the Openfiler VM and click the Start button. The VM will power on. The Openfiler ISO will

boot. When you see the screen below, press the Enter key to start the graphical

installation process.

The installation will start and the environment will load. In the ‘CD Found’ dialog box,

select the option to Skip the media check (use <TAB> to select).




Select the keyboard layout that you require. Our keyboard was United Kingdom.

Accept the default option to Automatically Partition and then click Next to proceed.

Select the option to Keep all partitions and use existing free space. There aren’t

any partitions on the disk as we just created a new blank one, so this option has no

effect. Click Next.




The default partitioning is displayed. Click Next to continue.

Click the Edit button and configure a static IP address and the network mask for your

openfiler instance.

Enter a hostname, gateway and primary DNS address where required and then click

Next.




Select your location by clicking the map or by using the scroll box. Then click Next.

Select UTC as appropriate.

Enter a password for the Root user account. The click Next.

Click Next to start the installation of Openfiler.




Once Openfiler has installed, click the Reboot button.

Once Openfiler has rebooted you will see the login screen.




5 Adding the Storage Volume to Openfiler In this section we will add an additional disk to your Openfiler installation. This disk will

be used as the shared storage and is the storage that we will present to our ESX host(s).

Login to Openfiler at the console, using the username root and the password that you

specified during setup.

At the prompt, type halt and hit Enter. This will shutdown the openfiler server, allowing

us to power off the VM without risking any corruption to it.

Once openfiler has shutdown its services you will see System Halted. You can now

safely power off the VM.




In the command pane, select Edit virtual machine settings.

Click Add .

Select Hard Disk and then click Next.




Select the option to Create a new virtual disk then click Next.

Select SCSI as the virtual disk type, then click Next.

Enter the disk size that you want to create. Remember that this is the disk that be

presented as your iSCSI storage to your host(s). For better performance select the

option Allocate all disk space now . Then click Next.




Enter a name for the hard disk and if you want to store it separately to the virtual

machine, browse to a new path. Then click Next.

Power on the Openfiler VM.

If prompted with the dialog below that the new disk was not configured using an LSI

logic SCSI adaptor select Yes to convert the bus logic adaptor to the LSI logic type.

Confirm that the VM starts correctly and that you see the login screen before continuing.




6 Configuring OpenFiler Using your web browser navigate to https://<ip_address_you_specified>:446

We used Internet Explorer 7. If prompted as below, select the option to Continue to

this website (not recommended).

Scroll through the terms and conditions box, then click the I have read and herebyaccept the license terms button.

In the username and password box, enter the default username, openfiler and the

default password of password . Then click Login.




Click on the Services link. The Services Enable\Disable page appears. Enable the iSCSI

Target by clicking Enable next to it.

Click on Volumes then click on Physical Storage Mgmt. Click / dev/ sdb.

In the Create a partition in / dev/ sdb section, accept the defaults and click the

Create button.




The newly created partition is displayed.

Click Volume Group Mgmt. Enter a volume group name, tick the box to select the

storage and then click on the Add Volume Group button.

In the Create a new volume group section on the same web page, click the click the

Create new physical volumes link.




Select Create New Volume from the Menu. Enter a volume name, volume description,

selected all available space by moving the slider and select iSCSI for the filesystem

type. Click Create.

Click the Edit link under the properties heading near the bottom of the screen.

Enter a username and password for CHAP authentication in the relevant boxes. In our

example we used openfiler for both the username and the password. Click Change.




Click the Local Networks link at the bottom of the page.

Enter a name for reference, the network and subnet mask for your network. We are

using a 192.168.0.0 network and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 as shown in the

screenshot. Then click Update.

Click Volumes and then List of Existing Volumes. Click Edit under the Properties

heading.

Change the Access from Deny to Allow then click Apply.




7 Configuring VirtualCenter for iSCSI Login to the VI Client. Highlight your ESX host server, select the Configuration tab and

select Networking. Click Properties.

Click Add.

Select VMKernel and click Next.




Enter a network label. In our example we used Storage. Then enter an IP address for

the adaptor, along with subnet address. Then click Next.

Click Finish.

When prompted, select Yes .




Enter your default gateway address and then click Ok .

Click on Storage Adaptors. Highlight the iSCSI Software Adaptor and click Properties.




Click the Configure button.

Check the Enabled box to enable the iSCSI adaptor. Click Ok . This will also

automatically enable the correct firewall ports within the ESX host.

Click the CHAP Authentication tab and click Configure.




Enter the credentials that you configured on the Openfiler box for CHAP authentication.

Previously, we configured openfiler as the username and password. Click Ok to

continue.

Click the Dynamic Discovery tab. Click the Add button.

Enter the IP address of the iSCSI server. In this case, that is the Openfiler server.

Leave the port number as default (3260). Click Ok to continue.

NOTE: The Dynamic Discovery dialog isn’t very dynamic in itself. You have to

close the dialog window and re-open it to see your target appear in the dialog.

Click the Close button. You have now configured the ESX host to see the Openfiler iSCSI

target.




We are now going to scan for new storage devices and volumes. On the Configuration

tab, in the Storage Adaptors section, highlight the iSCSI adaptor and click Rescan.

In the Rescan dialog, only the top option needs to be selected as there are no VMFS

created as yet. Click Ok.

The VI Client will scan for new storage. This process may take a while. Once complete,

the Openfiler storage should be found and be displayed.




Click the Storage (SCSI, SAN and NFS) link. Click the Add Storage link in the upper

right hand corner.

In the Add Storage dialog, select the storage type as Disk/ LUN and click Next.

The Add Storage dialog will show you the Openfiler iSCSI storage. Ensure that it is

highlighted and click Next.






Click Finish.

The storage will now be available for use. To connect another ESX server to the same

shared storage, simply follow the same instructions from the beginning of this chapter.




8 Creating a Team Now we can create a team which allows us to automatically sequence the startup of a

group of VM’s. This means an entire VI3 and Storage infrastructure in box can be

started and suspended with a single click. This chapter was written for a previous white

paper for installing the IET iSCSI shared storage VM but the same principles apply.

Click File -> New -> Team. Give your Team a name and location.

Select Yes to add VMs to your team and click Next.

Select No to adding a LAN segment and click Next.




Using the Add button select to add Existing Virtual Machines. Browse to and add your

ESX VM’s, VC VM and IET Server VM to the team and then click Next.

Click OK then click Edit team settings.

Click the Virtual Machines tab, and using the arrows order the VMs as follows. Change

the delay for your IET VM to 60 s to allow the IET Server to complete its boot before the

ESX VM’s.



Using this team you can power on, off or suspend the entire ‘VI3 in a Box’ infrastructure

with a single command.

This concludes part 3 of the Xtravirt “VMware ESX3 on Workstation 6” Series white

papers. We hope you found this guide useful – comments/suggestions welcome by email

at [email protected]

Paul

www.xtravirt.com

2.2 XD10076 Openfiler Virtual Shared Storage

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