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Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance - 3.2 User Guide October 2011
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Page 1: Gluster 3.2 Virtual Storage Appliance User Guide

Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance - 3.2

User Guide

October 2011

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Table of Contents

1. About the Guide ............................................................................................... 4

1.1. Disclaimer ................................................................................................ 4

1.2. Audience for this Guide ................................................................................ 4

1.3. User Prerequisites ....................................................................................... 4

1.4. Documentation Terminology .......................................................................... 4

1.5. Conventions .............................................................................................. 5

1.6. Documentation Feedback .............................................................................. 5

2. Introducing Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance ........................................................... 6

3. Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance License ................................................................ 8

4. Preparing to Install Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance ................................................. 9

4.1. Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Installation Overview ........................................ 9

4.2. Checking Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Minimum Requirements .......................... 9

4.2.1. Checking Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Minimum Requirements for VMware ................................................................................................ 10

4.2.2. Checking Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Minimum Requirements for KVM... 11

4.2.3. Checking Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Minimum Requirements for Xen ... 12

5. Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance ........................................................ 13

5.1. Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware ................................... 13

5.1.1. Downloading and Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware . 13

5.1.2. Configuring Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware ......................... 15

5.1.3. Starting Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware ............................. 19

5.2. Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM ....................................... 20

5.2.1. Downloading and Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM ..... 20

5.2.2. Configuring Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM .............................. 23

5.2.3. Starting Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM .................................. 25

5.3. Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen ........................................ 26

5.3.1. Downloading and Installing Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen ........... 26

5.3.2. Launching Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance from Template ...................... 29

5.3.3. Configuring Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen .............................. 30

5.3.4. Starting Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen ................................... 31

6. Verifying Successful Deployment of Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance ............................ 32

7. Provisioning Storage on Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance ........................................... 33

8. Licensing Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance............................................................. 34

9. Upgrading Your Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance ..................................................... 35

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9.1. Upgrading Appliance from 3.1.3 Version to Higher Version .................................... 35

9.2. Swapping between Versions .......................................................................... 35

9.3. Security Patches and Periodic Updates ............................................................ 36

10. Installing Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Updates .................................................. 37

11. Managing Your Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance ...................................................... 38

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1. About the Guide

This document introduces Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance, describes the minimum hardware requirements, and shows how to install and configure the software in your environment.

1.1. Disclaimer

Gluster, Inc. has designated English as the official language for all of its product documentation and other documentation, as well as all our customer communications. All documentation prepared or delivered by Gluster will be written, interpreted and applied in English, and English is the official and controlling language for all our documents, agreements, instruments, notices, disclosures and communications, in any form, electronic or otherwise (collectively, the “Gluster Documents”).

Any customer, vendor, partner or other party who requires a translation of any of the Gluster Documents is responsible for preparing or obtaining such translation, including associated costs. However, regardless of any such translation, the English language version of any of the Gluster Documents prepared or delivered by Gluster shall control for any interpretation, enforcement, application or resolution.

1.2. Audience for this Guide

This guide is intended for Systems Administrators interested in installing Gluster Virtual Storage Software Appliance.

1.3. User Prerequisites

This document assumes that you are familiar with the Linux operating system, concepts of File System, and GlusterFS concepts.

1.4. Documentation Terminology

The terms defined here help you understand the concepts in this document.

Term Description

Brick Brick is the basic unit of storage, represented by an export directory on a server in the trusted storage pool.

Cluster A cluster is a group of linked computers, working together closely thus in many respects forming a single computer.

Namespace Namespace is an abstract container or environment created to hold a logical grouping of unique identifiers or symbols. Each Gluster volume exposes a single namespace as a POSIX mount point that contains every file in the cluster.

POSIX Portable Operating System Interface [for Unix] is the name of a family of related standards specified by the IEEE to define the application programming interface (API), along with shell and utilities interfaces for software compatible with variants of the Unix operating system. Gluster exports a fully POSIX compliant file system.

Volume A volume is a logical collection of bricks. Most of the gluster management operations happen on the volume.

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1.5. Conventions

The following table lists the formatting conventions that are used in this guide to make it easier for you to recognize and use specific types of information.

Convention Description Example

Courier Text Commands formatted as courier indicate shell commands.

gluster volume start volname

Italicized Text Within a command, italicized text represents variables, which must be substituted with specific values.

gluster volume start volname

Square Brackets Within a command, optional parameters are shown in square brackets.

gluster volume start volname

[force]

Curly Brackets Within a command, alternative parameters are grouped within curly brackets and separated by the vertical OR bar.

gluster volume { start | stop | delete } volname

1.6. Documentation Feedback

Gluster welcomes your comments and suggestions on the quality and usefulness of its documentation. If you find any errors or have any other suggestions, write to us at [email protected] for clarification. Provide the chapter, section, and page number, if available.

Gluster offers a range of resources related to Gluster software:

Discuss technical problems and solutions on the Discussion Forum (http://community.gluster.org)

Get hands-on step-by-step tutorials (http://www.gluster.com/community/documentation/index.php/Main_Page)

Reach Support (http://www.gluster.com/services/)

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2. Introducing Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance

The Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance enables you to rapidly deploy Gluster storage, running as a virtual machine on any one of the hosts like ESX or ESXi, XenServer or GNU/Linux in your environment. Using Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance, you can add and remove nodes as required to match the evolving needs of your organization.

Introducing Gluster

Gluster is an open source, scale-out file system capable of scaling to several petabytes and handling thousands of clients. Gluster assembles storage building blocks, aggregating disk and memory resources and managing data in a single global namespace. Gluster is based on a stackable user space design and can deliver exceptional performance for diverse workloads.

The Gluster modular architecture allows administrators to stack modules to match user requirements, as needed. For example, administrators can use Gluster to quickly configure a standalone server system and later expand the system as needs grow.

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Virtualized Cloud Environments

Gluster is designed for today's high-performance, virtualized cloud environments. Unlike traditional data centers, cloud environments require multi-tenancy along with the ability to grow or shrink resources on demand. Gluster incorporates cloud capabilities into the core architecture.

Every module in Gluster is treated as a volume. Gluster further adds an elastic volume manager (the glusterd daemon) and a console manager (the gluster command line interface). Using the console manager, administrators can dynamically expand, shrink, rebalance, and migrate volumes, among other operations. The command line interface additionally provides an interactive shell (with auto-completion) along with scripting capabilities suitable for automation.

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3. Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance License

The Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance End User License Agreement (EULA) is available at: http://www.gluster.com/eula/.

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4. Preparing to Install Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance

This chapter provides an overview of the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance installation process. It also describes how you can check against the minimum system requirements.

Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Installation Overview

Checking Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Minimum Requirements

4.1. Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Installation Overview

This section provides an overview of how to install Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance. Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance offers an easy-to-use installation scheme that streamlines the process of installing the software and configuring the basic settings. To install Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance, perform the following steps:

1. Check the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance License at http://www.gluster.com/eula/.

2. Verify that your system matches the minimum system requirements. For more information, refer to Section 4.2. "Checking Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Minimum Requirements".

3. Install, configure, and start Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance. For more information, refer to Chapter 5. "Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance".

4. License Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance. For more information, see Chapter 8. "Licensing Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance".

5. Begin managing your Gluster cluster. For more information, see Chapter 10. "Managing Your Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance".

4.2. Checking Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Minimum Requirements

Before you install Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance you must verify that your environment matches the minimum requirements described in this section.

Checking Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Minimum Requirements for VMware

Checking Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Minimum Requirements for KVM

Checking Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Minimum Requirements for Xen

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4.2.1. Checking Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Minimum Requirements for VMware

General Verification Verify the following:

DNS is properly configured for your environment

Centralized time servers are available (required in clustered environments)

Verification on Virtual Machines Verify the following:

The virtual machine is running HW v7

The virtual machine uses the default configuration settings, as supplied by Gluster (except as noted in this topic)

Guests are not set to "sync time with host"

The VMware Tools version of the appliance matches the ESX host (VMware Tools needs to be loaded in the guest by default)

The VMware Tools version of the appliance matches the ESX host (the appliance comes pre-installed with VMware tools for ESX 4.1)

Note: Running non-Gluster virtual machines on the same host or datastore as the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance may affect Gluster performance if resources are not properly allocated. When Using ESX Hosts Managed by VirtualCenter Verify the following:

VMware HCL hardware (Virtual Machine Hardware v7.0) is used, running ESX 4.1

ESX hosts are clustered, and any Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) rules are defined against these clusters

Remote storage allows vMotion/DRS of the appliances

Note: You cannot use a SQLExpress database with Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance. When Using Standalone ESX Hosts Verify the following:

All hardware is on the VMware HCL (Hardware Compatibility List)

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2GB RAM is configured for each virtual machine, plus 800MB for COS (up to 8GB or more is recommended for each virtual machine)

2 vCPUs and VMXNET3 network device is recommended

ESX hosts are capable of running 64-bit machines, and the ESX host operating system is set to 800MB (RAM)

Note: Nehalem procs in the ESX server is recommended to take advantage of appliance performance tuning.

4.2.2. Checking Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Minimum Requirements for KVM

Before you install Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM, you must verify that your environment matches the minimum requirements: General Verify the following:

DNS is properly configured for your environment

Centralized time servers are available (required in clustered environments)

Virtual Machines Verify the following:

GNU/Linux Operating Systems with Kernel v 2.6.20 or higher

The virtual machine uses the default configuration settings, as supplied by Gluster (except as noted in this topic)

Note: Running non-Gluster virtual machines on the same host or datastore as the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance may affect Gluster performance if resources are not properly allocated. When Using GNU/Linux Host Managed by Virtual Machine Manager Verify the following:

AMD64 (AKA X86-64) GNU/Linux on Intel-VT or AMD-V supported processors

2GB RAM is configured for each virtual machine, plus 800MB for COS (up to 8GB or more is recommended for each virtual machine)

2 vCPUs and VirtIO network device is recommended

VirtIO storage device is recommended

The following packages must be installed:

Qemu 0.12.5 or higher

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Libvirt 0.8.3 or higher

Virtinst 0.500.6 or higher

Virt-Manager 0.8.4 or higher

Note: You cannot use a SQLExpress database with Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance.

4.2.3. Checking Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Minimum Requirements for Xen

Before installing Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen, verify that your environment matches the minimum requirements: General Verify the following:

DNS is properly configured for your environment

Centralized time servers are available (required in clustered environments)

Virtual Machines Verify the following:

The virtual machine uses the default configuration settings, as supplied by Gluster (except as noted in this topic)

Note: Running non-Gluster virtual machines on the same host or datastore as the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance may affect Gluster performance if resources are not properly allocated. When Using XenServer Hosts Managed by Citrix XenCenter® Verify the following:

XenServer 5.5 or higher

Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance may work with lower versions but has not been tested.

All hardware is on the Xen HCL(Hardware Compatibility List)

2GB RAM is configured for each virtual machine, plus 800MB for COS (up to 8GB or more is recommended for each virtual machine)

2 vCPUs is recommended

XenServer hosts are capable of running 64-bit machines Note: You cannot use a SQLExpress database with Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance.

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5. Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance

This section describes how to install, configure, and start Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance in your environment.

Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware

Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM

Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen

5.1. Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware

This section describes how to install, configure, and start Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware in your environment.

Downloading and Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware

Configuring Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware

Starting Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware

5.1.1. Downloading and Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware

To install the virtual storage appliance, perform the following steps:

1. Download the VMware Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance from the following location at https://store.gluster.com/788/catalog/category.5837/language.en/currency.USD/?id=v3XNw3616z

The Gluster-Virtual-Storage-Appliance--3-2-0.ova file will be downloaded.

2. Launch the VMware vSphere Client. The logon dialog appears.

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3. Logon to the client. The VMware vSphere Client main screen appears.

4. Connect vSphere Client to an ESX, ESXi, or Virtual Center host, as appropriate.

5. Choose File > Deploy OVF Template. The Deploy OVF Template wizard launches.

6. Browse and select the downloaded file and click Next.

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7. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the wizard.

After you complete the wizard, the appliance is downloaded and added to the ESX host virtual machine inventory.

5.1.2. Configuring Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware

This section describes how to configure Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware to attach additional virtual disks to the appliance.

Note: When using ESX 4.1, you can optionally use high-performance VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) storage adapters for greater throughput and lower CPU utilization. For more information, refer to Configuring disks to use VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapters.

To configure the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance, perform the following steps.

1. Using VMware VirtualCenter, right-click the appliance, and choose Edit Settings from the menu. The Virtual Machine Properties dialog appears.

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2. In the Hardware tab, click Add. The Add Hardware dialog appears.

3. Select Hard Disk, and click Next. The Select a Disk screen appears.

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4. Select Create a new virtual disk, and click Next. The Create a Disk screen appears.

5. Specify the disk capacity, select Specify a datastore, and click Browse. The Browse for Datastore dialog appears.

6. Select a datastore, click OK, and click Next.

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Gluster highly recommends separating the OS disk from the brick disks. The Advanced Options screen appears.

7. Click Next. The Ready to Complete screen appears.

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8. Review the summary, and click Finish. The Virtual Machine Properties screen appears with the new virtual disk appearing in the list.

Note: For increased performance, use the vmkfstools command on the ESX host to convert the disk

to eagerzeroedthick.

5.1.3. Starting Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware

This section describes how to start Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware. To start the virtual storage appliance, perform the following steps.

Using VMware VirtualCenter, right-click the appliance, and choose Power On from the menu.

The virtual storage appliance powers on.

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Note: The default user name and password are root and syst3m, respectively. It is recommended that you change this password after logging on.

5.2. Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM

This section describes how to install, configure, and start Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM in your environment.

Downloading and Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM

Configuring Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM

Starting Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM

5.2.1. Downloading and Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM

To download and install the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM, perform the following steps.

1. Download the KVM Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance from the following location: https://store.gluster.com/788/catalog/category.5837/language.en/currency.USD/?id=v3XNw3616z

2. Extract the downloaded files to the server. The following files will be available:

Gluster.virt-image.xml

Gluster-Virtual-Storage-Appliance--3-2-0.img

README.txt

3. You can use virt-image tool or Virtual Machine Manager application for installation. To install KVM Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance using virt-image tool, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to the directory where the files are extracted by running the following command:

# cd Gluster/

2. Install the virtual machine using the following command:

# virt-image –-graphics vnc Gluster.virt-image.xml

3. View the status of the virtual machine using the following command:

# virsh list –all

or

4. You can use Virtual Machine Manager application for installation:

1. Launch Virtual Machine Manager application.

2. Click Create a new virtual machine. The New KM dialog appears.

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4. Specify a name for the KVM, select the OS installation type as Import existing disk image, and click Forward.

5. Browse the select the downloaded Gluster-Virtual-Storage-Appliance--3-2-0.img file, choose OS type as Linux, choose version as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 or later, and click Forward.

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6. Specify the memory as 2048MB and 2 as number of CPUs, and click Forward.

7. The summary screen is displayed. Click Finish to complete the installation and the new VM will be started.

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Note: For remote installation, copy the Gluster-Virtual-Storage-Appliance--3-2-0.img file into

/var/lib/libvirt/images/ directory of the remove server.

5.2.2. Configuring Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM

This section describes how to configure Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM to attach additional virtual disks to the appliance. To configure the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance, perform the following steps.

1. Using Virtual Machine Manager, select the appliance, and click Open on the menu. The Virtual Machine dialog appears.

2. Click Show Virtual hardware details button.

3. Click Add Hardware. The Adding Virtual Hardware dialog appears.

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4. Select Storage and click Foward. The Storage screen appears.

5. Specify the disk capacity, select Device type as Virtio Disk.

6. Click Forward. The Finish Adding Virtual Hardware dialog appears.

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7. Review the summary, and click Finish. The Virtual Machine new virtual disk appears in the list.

5.2.3. Starting Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM

This section describes how to start Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM. To start the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for KVM, perform the following step.

Using KVM Virtual Machine Manager, double-click the appliance, and select Power on the virtual machine from the menu.

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The virtual storage appliance powers on.

5.3. Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen

This section describes how to install, configure, and start Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen in your environment.

Downloading and Installing Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen

Launching Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance from Template

Configuring Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen

Starting Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen

5.3.1. Downloading and Installing Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen

This section describes how to install Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen. To install the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance, perform the following steps.

1. Download the Xen Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance from the following location: https://store.gluster.com/788/catalog/category.5837/language.en/currency.USD/?id=v3XNw3616z

2. Extract the downloaded file to the server. The following file will be available:

Gluster-Virtual-Storage-Appliance--3-2-0-Template.xva

3. Launch the Citrix XenCenter. The XenCenter main screen appears.

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4. Select the Xen Server from the list. The Connect to Server dialog may appear, if the Remember Password option is not selected.

5. Provide login credentials and click Connect. The XenCenter main screen appears.

6. Choose File > Import. The Import wizard launches.

7. Browse and select the Gluster XVA and click Next.

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8. Follow the on-screen instructions and in Select a home server for the new VM screen, select the home server and click Next.

9. In Configure virtual network interfaces for the new VM screen, select the network and click Next.

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10. Click Finish in Complete the import screen to complete the wizard.

After you complete the wizard, the appliance is downloaded and added to the XenServer host virtual machine inventory as Gluster-Virtual-Storage-Appliance-3-2-0-Template.

5.3.2. Launching Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance from Template

This section describes how to launch a new virtual machine from the imported Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Template.

To quickly launch a new virtual machine from the imported Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Template

Using XenCenter, right-click the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Template and select Instant VM from Template.

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A new virtual machine is added and started. The new virtual machine will be listed in the XenCenter inventory.

Note: You can right-click the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Template and select New VM from Template to add a new VM and customize it.

5.3.3. Configuring Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen

This section describes how to configure Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen to attach additional virtual disks to the appliance. To configure the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance, perform the following steps.

1. On XenCenter, select the appliance, VM details are displayed.

2. In the Storage tab, click Add to add storage devices. The Add Virtual Disk screen appears.

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3. Specify the disk name, size, and select the location, and click Add. The new disks are added and can be viewed in Storage tab.

5.3.4. Starting Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen

This section describes how to start Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen. To start the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for Xen, perform the following step.

Using XenCenter, select the appliance, and choose Start from the menu.

The Gluster virtual storage appliance starts.

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6. Verifying Successful Deployment of Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance

This section describes how to verify that you have successfully deployed Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware.

To verify successful deployment, perform the following steps.

1. Logon to the virtual machine using the following credentials:

Username : root

Password : syst3m

2. Enter the following command:

/etc/init.d/glusterd status

3. Verify that the command indicates that the glusterd daemon is running.

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7. Provisioning Storage on Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance

You can provision storage on Gluster Virtual Storage Appliances, as required.

To provision additional storage:

Run the following command on a Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance instance:

# gluster-provision-block [-t FSTYPE] Device

where Device represents the name of the new block device attached to the virtual server and -t FSTYPE represents the type of the file system. The command formats and mounts the block storage device under /export using ext4.

For more information on -t FSTYPE option, run # gluster-provision-block -h command.

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8. Licensing Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance

The Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance is available on a 30-day trial basis and on monthly or annual subscription basis. If you have downloaded 30-day trial basis, during these first 30 days, you need to configure your storage environment, generate a license request, submit the request to Gluster, and install the returned license in your environment To license Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance, perform the following steps.

1. Install, start, and configure your Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance in your storage environment.

2. For more information, refer to Chapter 5. "Installing the Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance".

3. Peer probe the servers in your storage environment.

4. For more information, refer to gluster Command.

5. Generate the license request using the following command:

# gluster-lic-request

This command creates a license request (with file name license.req) in the current working directory. The license request represents the number of servers configured in your environment.

If gluster-lic-request command fails on the server whose license has expired, run yum

update command to install updated license manager and then generate license request.

Note: The gluster-lic-request command requires SSH access to all storage servers in your environment.

6. Navigate to http://supportservices.gluster.com and upload the license.req file.

7. Gluster returns a validated and signed license file (with file name license.asc)

8. Copy the license.asc file to the server and run the following command:

# gluster-lic-install license.asc

If gluster-lic-install license.asc command fails on the server whose license has

expired, run yum update command to install updated license manager and then install the license.

9. Verify that your license was installed successfully. You can use the following command to display information about your current license:

# gluster-lic-info

The command shows details about the current license, including the number of nodes, expiry date, and so on.

Note: You need to regenerate the license request each time you add new nodes to the trusted pool

using the gluster peer probe SERVER command.

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9. Upgrading Your Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance

This section describes how to upgrade your virtual storage appliance to higher version, switch between versions, and install latest security patches and upgrades.

9.1. Upgrading Appliance from 3.1.3 Version to Higher Version

To upgrade from GlusterFS v3.1.3 to higher version, perform the following steps.

1. Run the following command to clear yum caches:

# yum clean all

2. Upgrade the currently installed version of Gluster using the following command:

# yum update -y

Complete!

3. Upgrade to higher version using the following command:

# gluster-app-migrate <version>

Complete!

Note: If the version number is not specified, then it automatically upgrades to latest version.

4. Restart glusterd using the following command:

# service glusterd start

Congratulations! You have successfully upgraded from Gluster v3.1.x to higher version. Note: This procedure has to be performed on all the servers in your Gluster cluster which are running on v3.1.3.

9.2. Swapping between Versions

You can switch between different GlusterFS versions using repo-switch command. For example, you can switch from version 3.1 to 3.1.3 and then again switch to version 3.1.2.

To switch between versions

1. Switch to different version using the following command: # gluster-repo-switch <version>

Complete!

Note: If you are downgrading from 3.2.x to 3.1.x version, then the new features are enabled in the default volume files (i.e. new translators). So after the downgrade, old versions fail to understand the new options or translators and fail to start.

Work Around: Before starting downgrade procedure, run the following commands:

# gluster volume reset <VOLNAME> force

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# gluster volume geo-replication stop MASTER SLAVE

Now you can downgrade to 3.1.x.

Run any parameter changing operations on the volume. For example, operations like #

gluster volume set <VOL> read-ahead off and # gluster volume set <VOL> read-ahead on.

2. Restart glusterd using the following command: # service glusterd start

Note: This procedure has to be performed on each instance.

9.3. Security Patches and Periodic Updates

Gluster strongly recommends you to update your Gluster Virtual Appliance on a regular basis with the latest security patches and upgrades. This will ensure that your computer is up-to-date with security updates and upgrades.

To install updates periodically

1. Verify that the base-3.2.repo file exists in /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory. If it does not exist, you can download the file at http://bits.gluster.com/pub/gluster/base/ .

Note: Downloading base-3.2-repo file is a one-time effort.

2. Run the following command to clear yum caches: # yum clean all

3. Install the periodic updates using the following command: # yum update

4. Restart glusterd using the following command: # service glusterd start

Note: This procedure has to be performed on each instance.

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10. Installing Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance Updates

Gluster strongly recommends you update your Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance on a regular basis with the latest security patches and upgrades. This will ensure that your computer is up-to-date with security updates and upgrades.

To install updates

5. (Older version) Download the base-3.2-repo file from http://bits.gluster.com/pub/gluster/base/ to /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory. Note: Downloading base-3.2-repo file is a one-time effort.

6. Run the following command to retrieve and install the updates:

# yum update

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11. Managing Your Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance

After installing and starting Gluster Software Storage Appliance, refer to Gluster Filesystem Administration Guide for complete information to administer your Gluster Cluster.

The Administration Guide is available at: http://www.gluster.com/community/documentation/index.php/Gluster_3.2_Filesystem_Administration_Guide.