Red Hat Storage 2.0

Installation Guide

Installing Red Hat Storage 2.0

Edition 1

Anjana Suparna Sriram

Red Hat Engineering Content Services

[e-mail]

Divya Muntimadugu

Red Hat Engineering Content Services

[e-mail]

Red Hat Storage 2.0 Installation Guide

1

Legal Notice

Copyright © 2012 Red Hat Inc.

The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons
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. In accordance with CC-BY-SA, if you distribute this

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Red Hat, as the licensor of this document, waives the right to enforce, and agrees not to assert, Section
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2

Legal Notice

Abstract

This guide describes the prerequisites and provides step-by-instructions to install Red Hat Storage
using different methods.

Red Hat Storage 2.0 Installation Guide

3

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Audience
2. License
3. Document Conventions

3.1. Typographic Conventions
3.2. Pull-quote Conventions
3.3. Notes and Warnings

4. Getting Help and Giving Feedback

4.1. Do You Need Help?
4.2. We Need Feedback!

1. Introduction

2. Obtaining Red Hat Storage

2.1. Obtaining Red Hat Storage Server for On-Premise
2.2. Obtaining Red Hat Storage Server for Public Cloud

3. Planning Red Hat Storage Installation

3.1. Prerequisites

3.1.1. Network Time Protocol Setup

3.2. Is Your Hardware Compatible?

4. Installing Red Hat Storage

4.1. Installing from an .ISO Image
4.2. Booting from a PXE Server

5. Registering to Red Hat Network (RHN)

6. Setting up Software Updates

6.1. Updating Red Hat Storage

7. Managing glusterd Service

7.1. Starting and Stopping glusterd Manually

8. Using the Gluster Command Line Interface

A. Revision History

4

Table of Contents

Preface

Red Hat Storage is scale-out network attached storage (NAS) for private cloud or datacenter, public
cloud, and hybrid cloud environments. It is software-only, open source, and designed to meet
unstructured data storage requirements.

This installation guide describes the Red Hat Storage installation process, describes the minimum
requirements, and provides step-by-step instructions to install the software and manage your storage
environment.

1. Audience

This guide is intended for anyone responsible for installing Red Hat Storage. This guide assumes that
you are familiar with the Linux operating system, concepts of file system, and GlusterFS concepts.

2. License

The Red Hat Storage End User License Agreement (EULA) is available at

http://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhel_rha_eula.html

.

3. Document Conventions

This manual uses several conventions to highlight certain words and phrases and draw attention to
specific pieces of information.

In PDF and paper editions, this manual uses typefaces drawn from the

Liberation Fonts

set. The

Liberation Fonts set is also used in HTML editions if the set is installed on your system. If not, alternative
but equivalent typefaces are displayed. Note: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and later includes the
Liberation Fonts set by default.

3.1. Typographic Conventions

Four typographic conventions are used to call attention to specific words and phrases. These
conventions, and the circumstances they apply to, are as follows.

Mono-spaced Bold

Used to highlight system input, including shell commands, file names and paths. Also used to highlight
keycaps and key combinations. For example:

To see the contents of the file my_next_bestselling_novel in your current working
directory, enter the cat my_next_bestselling_novel command at the shell prompt
and press Enter to execute the command.

The above includes a file name, a shell command and a keycap, all presented in mono-spaced bold and
all distinguishable thanks to context.

Key combinations can be distinguished from keycaps by the plus sign that connects each part of a key
combination. For example:

Press Enter to execute the command.

Press Ctrl+Alt+F2 to switch to a virtual terminal.

The first paragraph highlights the particular keycap to press. The second highlights two key

Red Hat Storage 2.0 Installation Guide

5

combinations (each a set of three keycaps with each set pressed simultaneously).

If source code is discussed, class names, methods, functions, variable names and returned values
mentioned within a paragraph will be presented as above, in mono-spaced bold. For example:

File-related classes include filesystem for file systems, file for files, and dir for
directories. Each class has its own associated set of permissions.

Proportional Bold

This denotes words or phrases encountered on a system, including application names; dialog box text;
labeled buttons; check-box and radio button labels; menu titles and sub-menu titles. For example:

Choose System → Preferences → Mouse from the main menu bar to launch Mouse
Preferences. In the Buttons tab, click the Left-handed mouse check box and click
Close to switch the primary mouse button from the left to the right (making the mouse
suitable for use in the left hand).

To insert a special character into a gedit file, choose Applications → Accessories →
Character Map from the main menu bar. Next, choose Search → Find… from the
Character Map menu bar, type the name of the character in the Search field and click
Next. The character you sought will be highlighted in the Character T able. Double-click
this highlighted character to place it in the Text to copy field and then click the Copy
button. Now switch back to your document and choose Edit → Paste from the gedit menu
bar.

The above text includes application names; system-wide menu names and items; application-specific
menu names; and buttons and text found within a GUI interface, all presented in proportional bold and all
distinguishable by context.

Mono-spaced Bold Italic or Proportional Bold Italic

Whether mono-spaced bold or proportional bold, the addition of italics indicates replaceable or variable
text. Italics denotes text you do not input literally or displayed text that changes depending on
circumstance. For example:

To connect to a remote machine using ssh, type ssh [e-mail] at a shell
prompt. If the remote machine is example.com and your username on that machine is
john, type ssh [e-mail].

The mount -o remount file-system command remounts the named file system. For
example, to remount the /home file system, the command is mount -o remount /home.

To see the version of a currently installed package, use the rpm -q package command. It
will return a result as follows: package-version-release.

Note the words in bold italics above — username, domain.name, file-system, package, version and
release. Each word is a placeholder, either for text you enter when issuing a command or for text
displayed by the system.

Aside from standard usage for presenting the title of a work, italics denotes the first use of a new and
important term. For example:

Publican is a DocBook publishing system.

3.2. Pull-quote Conventions

Terminal output and source code listings are set off visually from the surrounding text.

6

Preface

Output sent to a terminal is set in mono-spaced roman and presented thus:

books Desktop documentation drafts mss photos stuff svn
books_tests Desktop1 downloads images notes scripts svgs

Source-code listings are also set in mono-spaced roman but add syntax highlighting as follows:

package org.

jboss

.

book

.

jca

.

ex1

;

import

javax.naming.InitialContext;

public

class

ExClient

{

public

static

void

main

(String args[])

throws

Exception

{
InitialContext iniCtx =

new

InitialContext();

Object ref = iniCtx.

lookup

(

"EchoBean"

);

EchoHome home = (EchoHome) ref;
Echo echo = home.

create

();

System.

out

.

println

(

"Created Echo"

);

System.

out

.

println

(

"Echo.echo('Hello') = "

+ echo.

echo

(

"Hello"

));

}
}

3.3. Notes and Warnings

Finally, we use three visual styles to draw attention to information that might otherwise be overlooked.

Note

Notes are tips, shortcuts or alternative approaches to the task at hand. Ignoring a note should
have no negative consequences, but you might miss out on a trick that makes your life easier.

Important

Important boxes detail things that are easily missed: configuration changes that only apply to the
current session, or services that need restarting before an update will apply. Ignoring a box
labeled 'Important' will not cause data loss but may cause irritation and frustration.

Warning

Warnings should not be ignored. Ignoring warnings will most likely cause data loss.

4. Getting Help and Giving Feedback

4 .1. Do You Need Help?

If you experience difficulty with a procedure described in this documentation, visit the Red Hat Customer

Red Hat Storage 2.0 Installation Guide

7

Portal at

http://access.redhat.com

. Through the customer portal, you can:

search or browse through a knowledgebase of technical support articles about Red Hat products.
submit a support case to Red Hat Global Support Services (GSS).
access other product documentation.

Red Hat also hosts a large number of electronic mailing lists for discussion of Red Hat software and
technology. You can find a list of publicly available mailing lists at

https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo

.

Click on the name of any mailing list to subscribe to that list or to access the list archives.

4 .2. We Need Feedback!

If you find a typographical error in this manual, or if you have thought of a way to make this manual
better, we would love to hear from you! Please submit a report in Bugzilla:

http://bugzilla.redhat.com/

against the product Red Hat Storage.

When submitting a bug report, be sure to mention the manual's identifier: doc-Installation_Guide

If you have a suggestion for improving the documentation, try to be as specific as possible when
describing it. If you have found an error, please include the section number and some of the surrounding
text so we can find it easily.

8

Preface

Chapter 1. Introduction

Red Hat Storage is software only, scale-out storage that provides flexible and affordable unstructured
data storage for the enterprise. Red Hat Storage 2.0 provides new opportunities to unify data storage
and infrastructure, increase performance, and improve availability and manageability in order to meet a
broader set of an organization’s storage challenges and needs.

GlusterFS, a key building block of Red Hat Storage, is based on a stackable user space design and can
deliver exceptional performance for diverse workloads. GlusterFS aggregates various storage servers
over network interconnects into one large parallel network file system. The POSIX compatible GlusterFS
servers, which use XFS file system format to store data on disks, can be accessed using industry
standard access protocols including NFS and CIFS.

Red Hat Storage can be deployed in the private cloud or datacenter using Red Hat Storage Server for
On-premise. Red Hat Storage can be installed on commodity servers and storage hardware resulting in
a powerful, massively scalable, and highly available NAS environment. Additionally, Red Hat Storage can
be deployed in the public cloud using Red Hat Storage Server for Public Cloud, for example, within the
Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. It delivers all the features and functionality possible in a private
cloud or datacenter to the public cloud by providing massively scalable and high available NAS in the
cloud.

Red Hat Storage Server for On-Premise

Red Hat Storage Server for On-Premise enables enterprises to treat physical storage as a virtualized,
scalable, and centrally managed pool of storage by using commodity server and storage hardware.

Red Hat Storage Server for Public Cloud

Red Hat Storage Server for Public Cloud packages GlusterFS as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) for
deploying scalable NAS in the AWS public cloud. This powerful storage server provides a highly
available, scalable, virtualized, and centrally managed pool of storage for Amazon users.

Red Hat Storage 2.0 Installation Guide

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Chapter 2. Obtaining Red Hat Storage

This chapter provides information on how you can obtain Red Hat Storage software.

2.1. Obtaining Red Hat Storage Server for On-Premise

If you have a Red Hat subscription, you can download ISO image files of the Red Hat Storage Server for
On-Premise installation DVD from the Software & Download Center that is part of the Red Hat customer
portal. If you do not already have a subscription, either purchase one or obtain a free evaluation
subscription from the Software & Download Center at

https://access.redhat.com/downloads

.

If you have a subscription or evaluation subscription, follow these steps to obtain the Red Hat Storage
.ISO image files:

1. Visit the customer portal at

https://access.redhat.com/login

and enter your Login and Password.

2. Click Downloads to visit the Software & Download Center.
3. In the Red Hat Storage Server area, click the Download your software link to obtain the latest

version of the software.

2.2. Obtaining Red Hat Storage Server for Public Cloud

Red Hat Storage Server for Public Cloud is a pre-integrated, pre-verified and ready to run Amazon
Machine Image (AMI) that provides a fully POSIX compatible highly available scale-out NAS and object
storage solution for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud infrastructure.

For more information on obtaining access to AMI, see

https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/145693

.

10

Chapter 2. Obtaining Red Hat Storage

Chapter 3. Planning Red Hat Storage Installation

This chapter outlines the hardware and software requirements for installing the Red Hat Storage. The
requirements outlined herein are based on the minimum requirements for successful installation,
configuration, and operation of a Red Hat Storage Server environment.

3.1. Prerequisites

Ensure that your environment meets the following requirements.

File System Requirements

XFS - It is mandatory that the back-end file system be formatted using XFS for GlusterFS bricks. It
supports metadata journaling, which facilitates quicker crash recovery. The XFS file system can also be
defragmented and expanded while mounted and active.

Note

If you are an existing Gluster Storage Software Appliance customer and use ext3 or ext4 as your
back-end file systems, Red Hat will assist you to upgrade to a supported Red Hat Storage with
XFS back-end file system.

Logical Volume Manager

You must format GlusterFS bricks using XFS on Logical Volume Manager.

Network Time Configuration

Ensure to synchronize time on all Red Hat Storage servers. You are recommended to set up NTP
(Network Time Protocol) daemon to sync time.

3.1.1. Network Time Protocol Setup

You can also synchronize the system clock with a remote server over the Network Time Protocol (NTP).
To synchronize the time at boot time automatically, set the ntpd daemon to synchronize the time.

1. Open the NTP configuration file /etc/ntp.conf in a text editor such as vi or nano.

# nano /etc/ntp.conf

2. Now add or edit the list of public NTP servers. If you are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, the file

should already contain the following lines, but feel free to change or expand these according to
your needs:

server 0.rhel.pool.ntp.org
server 1.rhel.pool.ntp.org
server 2.rhel.pool.ntp.org

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Speed up initial synchronization

To speed the initial synchronization up, add the iburst directive at the end of each server
line:

server 0.rhel.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 1.rhel.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 2.rhel.pool.ntp.org iburst

3. Once you have the list of servers complete, in the same file, set the proper permissions, giving the

unrestricted access to localhost only:

restrict default kod nomodify notrap nopeer noquery
restrict -6 default kod nomodify notrap nopeer noquery
restrict 127.0.0.1
restrict -6 ::1

4. Save all changes, exit the editor, and restart the NTP daemon:

# service ntpd restart

5. Make sure that ntpd daemon is started at boot time:

# chkconfig ntpd on

You can use the ntpdate command for the one-time synchronization of NTP. For more information
about this feature, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Deployment Guide.

3.2. Is Your Hardware Compatible?

Hardware compatibility is particularly important if you have an older system or a system that you built
yourself. However, hardware specifications change almost daily, so it is hard to guarantee that your
hardware will be 100% compatible.

The most recent list of supported hardware can be found at:

https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/66206

12

Chapter 3. Planning Red Hat Storage Installation

Chapter 4. Installing Red Hat Storage

Red Hat Storage can be installed in a data center using Red Hat Storage Server On-Premise.

This chapter describes the two different methods for installing Red Hat Storage Server. You can install
Red Hat Storage Server using an .iso image or boot using a PXE server. In addition, you can define
how you wish to partition the storage.

For information on launching Red Hat Storage Server for Public Cloud, see Red Hat Storage
Administration Guide.

4.1. Installing from an .ISO Image

To install Red Hat Storage Server from the .iso image:

1. Download an .iso image file of the Red Hat Storage Server as described in

Chapter 2, Obtaining

Red Hat Storage

.

The installation process launches automatically when you boot your system.

Press Enter to begin the installation process.

2. Set the Root Password screen displays.

Setting up a root account and password is one of the most important steps during your installation
as you will use this account's credentials to install packages, upgrade RPMs, and perform most
system maintenance.
You cannot proceed to the next stage of the installation process without entering a root password.

Note

The root user (also known as the superuser) has complete access to the entire system;
for this reason, logging in as the root user is best done only to perform system
maintenance or administration.

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Set Root Password screen prompts you to set a root password for your system. You must set
the root password in order to proceed.
Enter the root password into the Root Password field. Red Hat Storage Software Appliance
displays the characters as asterisks for security. Type the same password into the Confirm field
to ensure it is set correctly. After you set the root password, select Next to proceed.

3. The Partitioning Type screen displays.

Choose the type of partition you wish for your system. You can choose Create Custom Layout
option to partition storage devices manually and create customized layouts.
If you do not feel comfortable with partitioning your system, choose one of the first four options
that allow you to perform an automated installation without having to partition your storage devices
yourself. Depending on the option that you choose, you can still control what data (if any) is
removed from the system. Your options are:

Use All Space
Replace Existing Linux System(s)
Shrink Current System
Use Free Space
Create Custom Layout

Choose your preferred partitioning method by clicking the radio button to the left of its description
in the dialog box.

14

Chapter 4. Installing Red Hat Storage

Click Next once you have made your selections to proceed.

4. The Package Installation screen displays.

Red Hat Storage Server reports the installation progress on the screen as it writes the selected
packages to your system.

5. On successful completion the Complete Status screen displays.

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6. Click Reboot to reboot the server.

Congratulations! Your Red Hat Storage Server installation is now complete.

4.2. Booting from a PXE Server

To boot using a PXE server, you need a properly configured server, and a network interface in your
computer that supports PXE.

Configure the computer to boot from the network interface. This option is in the BIOS, and may be
labeled Network Boot or Boot Services. Once you properly configure PXE booting, the computer
can boot the Red Hat Storage Server installation system without any other media.

To boot a computer from a PXE server:

1. Ensure that the network cable is attached. The link indicator light on the network socket should be

lit, even if the computer is not switched on.

2. Switch on the computer.
3. A menu screen appears. Press the number key that corresponds to the desired option.

If your PC does not boot from the netboot server, ensure that the BIOS is configured to boot first from
the correct network interface. Some BIOS systems specify the network interface as a possible boot
device, but do not support the PXE standard. Refer to your hardware documentation for more
information.

16

Chapter 4. Installing Red Hat Storage

Chapter 5. Registering to Red Hat Network (RHN)

After you have successfully installed Red Hat Storage, you must register with RHN to receive software
updates.

To register with RHN:

1. In your terminal, run the following command:

# rhn_register
To complete registration successfully you will need to supply your Red Hat Network username
and password. Follow the onscreen prompts to complete registration of the system.

2. After you enter your login credentials, the following screen displays.

Figure 5.1. RHN Registration Screen

Important

Choose Limited Updates for "RHEL EUS Server (v. 6.2.z for 64 bit x86_64)", while
registering to RHN. For more information on how you can register and receive Red Hat
Storage updates, see

https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/147493

.

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Chapter 6. Setting up Software Updates

Red Hat strongly recommends you update your Red Hat Storage software regularly with the latest
security patches and upgrades. Associate your system with a content server to update existing content
or to install new content. This ensures that your system is up-to-date with security updates and
upgrades.

If you wish to install software updates periodically, use the following command:

# yum update

6.1. Updating Red Hat Storage

To keep your Red Hat Storage system up-to-date, associate the system with the RHN or your locally-
managed content service. This ensures your system automatically stays up-to-date with security
patches and bug fixes.

Note

Asynchronous errata update releases of Red Hat Storage includes all fixes that were released
asynchronously since the last release as a cumulative update.

To manually update the system, run the following command:

# yum update

The update process automatically restarts the glusterd management deamon. The glusterfs server
processes, glusterfsd is not restarted by default since restarting this daemon affects the active read
and write operations.

After all the nodes in the cluster are updated, the volume must be restarted for the changes to be
applied. Red Hat recommends that you restart the system when there are no active read and write
operations running on the cluster.

To restart the volume, run the following commands:

# gluster volume stop VOLNAME
# gluster volume start VOLNAME

For example, to start VOLNAME volume:

# gluster volume start VOLNAME
Starting VOLNAME has been successful

For example, to stop VOLNAME volume:

# gluster volume stop VOLNAME
Stopping ...

18

Chapter 6. Setting up Software Updates

Chapter 7. Managing glusterd Service

After installing Red Hat Storage, glusterd service is started automatically on all the servers in your
trusted storage pool. You can also manually start and stop glusterd service.

Red Hat Storage allows you to dynamically change the configuration of GlusterFS volumes without
having to restart servers or remount volumes on clients. You can perform this type of elastic volume
management using the GlusterFS daemon called glusterd.

Using the gluster command line, logical storage volumes are decoupled from physical hardware,
allowing you to grow, shrink, and migrate storage volumes without any application downtime. As you add
storage, the volumes are rebalanced across the cluster making it always available online regardless of
changes to the underlying hardware.

7.1. Starting and Stopping glusterd Manually

This section describes how to start and stop glusterd service manually.

To start glusterd manually, enter the following command:

# /etc/init.d/glusterd start

or

#service glusterd start

To stop glusterd manually, enter the following command:

# /etc/init.d/glusterd stop

or

#service glusterd stop

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Chapter 8. Using the Gluster Command Line Interface

The Gluster CLI is a command line utility that simplifies configuration and management of your storage
environment. The Gluster CLI is similar to the LVM (Logical Volume Manager) CLI or ZFS CLI, but across
multiple storage servers. You can use the Gluster CLI online, while volumes are mounted and active. Red
Hat Storage automatically synchronizes volume configuration information across all servers.

Using the Gluster CLI, you can create new volumes, start volumes, and stop volumes. You can also add
bricks to volumes, remove bricks from existing volumes, as well as change translator settings, among
other operations.

You can also use the commands to create scripts for automation, as well as use the commands as an
API to allow integration with third-party applications.

Note

If you suffix --mode=script to any command on the CLI, the specified action is executed
automatically without any prompts for confirmation.

Running the Gluster CLI

You can run the Gluster CLI on any Red Hat Storage server either by invoking the commands or by
running the Gluster CLI in an interactive mode. You can also use the gluster command remotely using
SSH.

To run commands directly:
# gluster peer command
For example:
# gluster peer status
To run the Gluster CLI in interactive mode
# gluster
You can execute gluster commands from the CLI prompt:
gluster> command
For example:

To view the status of the peer server:
# gluster
gluster> peer status
Displays the status of the peer.
To view the gluster help:
# gluster
gluster> help
Displays the list of gluster commands and options.

20

Chapter 8. Using the Gluster Command Line Interface

Revision History

Revision 1-16

Mon Oct 01 2012

Anjana Suparna Sriram

Bug fixes and updated the guide with instructions on how to update Red Hat Storage.

Revision 1-13

Tue Sep 04 2012

Anjana Suparna Sriram

Bug fixes.

Revision 1-1

Tue Jun 26 2012

Divya Muntimadugu

Version for 2.0 GA release.

Revision 1-0

Thu Jun 21 2012

Anjana Suparna Sriram

Draft

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