How it Works
Dell
Loading...
DX Object Storage 5.0
Getting Started Manual
28 pgs545.5 Kb0

Dell DX6000, DX6004S, DX6012S, DX Object Storage 5.0 Getting Started Manual

DX Object Storage Getting Started Guide
Version 5.0
DX Object Storage Getting Started Guide: Version 5.0
Copyright © 2010 Caringo, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
No part of this document may be reproduced, transmitted, or transcribed without the written consent of Caringo, Inc.
Table of Contents
1. Welcome to DX Storage ...................................................................................................... 1
1.1. Components ............................................................................................................. 1
1.2. About this Document ................................................................................................. 1
1.2.1. Audience ....................................................................................................... 1
1.2.2. Scope ............................................................................................................ 1
2. Network Infrastructure and Recommendations ....................................................................... 2
2.1. About DX Storage in the Network .............................................................................. 2
2.1.1. Sample Networks ........................................................................................... 2
2.1.2. Layer 3 Switching and Routing ....................................................................... 4
2.1.3. Switching Hardware ........................................................................................ 4
2.1.4. Internet Deployments ...................................................................................... 6
2.2. Setting Up the Network for DX Storage ...................................................................... 6
2.2.1. Network Summary .......................................................................................... 7
2.2.2. Recommended Infrastructure .......................................................................... 7
2.3. Setting Up Network Services ..................................................................................... 7
2.3.1. Setting Up NTP for Time Synchronization ....................................................... 8
2.3.2. Setting Up DNS for Name Resolution .............................................................. 8
2.3.3. Preparing for Named Objects .......................................................................... 9
2.3.4. Setting Up SNMP for Monitoring ..................................................................... 9
2.3.5. Setting Up Network Load Balancing .............................................................. 10
2.4. Setting Up PXE Booting .......................................................................................... 10
2.4.1. Setting Up the DHCP Server for PXE Booting ................................................ 10
2.4.2. Configuring the TFTP Server ........................................................................ 11
2.5. Setting Up a Configuration File Server ..................................................................... 12
2.6. Network Devices and Priority ................................................................................... 13
2.7. Proxying the Admin Console .................................................................................... 14
2.8. IGMP Snooping Support .......................................................................................... 14
3. Hardware Considerations ................................................................................................... 15
3.1. Hardware Requirements and Recommendations ....................................................... 15
3.2. Hardware Setup ...................................................................................................... 15
3.3. About Memory Effects on Node Storage ................................................................... 15
3.4. Stream Size Guidance ............................................................................................ 16
3.5. Adaptive Power Conservation .................................................................................. 16
3.6. Proactive Power Conservation ................................................................................. 17
3.7. Local Area Replication Using Subclusters ................................................................. 17
4. Installing and Configuring DX Storage ................................................................................. 19
4.1. Licensing ................................................................................................................ 19
4.1.1. How Licensing Works ................................................................................... 19
4.1.2. About licenseFileURL ................................................................................... 20
4.1.3. About Licensed Capacity Monitoring .............................................................. 20
4.1.4. About Other Licensing Checks ...................................................................... 20
4.1.5. Sample License ............................................................................................ 21
4.2. Configuring DX Storage ........................................................................................... 21
4.2.1. Editing node.cfg ........................................................................................... 22
4.2.2. Storage Volume Configuration ....................................................................... 22
4.2.3. DHCP or Static Network ............................................................................... 23
4.2.4. Administration Password ............................................................................... 23
4.3. Booting DX Storage Nodes ...................................................................................... 23
4.4. Using Syslog ........................................................................................................... 24
5. Open Source Software ....................................................................................................... 25
Copyright © 2010 Caringo, Inc. All rights reserved iii
December 2010
Chapter 1. Welcome to DX Storage
DX Storage is a high-performance, massively scalable, self-managing, cost-effective, fixed content storage software that runs on clusters of standard x86 computer hardware. DX Storage provides the integrity of an archive with the performance of primary storage.
1.1. Components
The DX Storage infrastructure is made up of the following components.
1. Cluster of x86 computers/nodes with one or more physical volumes running DX Storage software
2. Client applications that access the cluster through HTTP
3. TCP/IP network connecting cluster nodes and clients
1.2. About this Document
1.2.1. Audience
This document is intended for people in the following roles.
1. Storage system administrators
2. Network administrators
3. Technical architects Throughout this document, the storage system administrator and network administrator roles will be
referred to as the administrator. The administrators are normally responsible for allocating storage, managing capacity, monitoring storage system health, replacing malfunctioning hardware, and adding additional capacity when needed. This document along with the application guide will be valuable to technical architects in designing scalable, highly redundant, cost effective application storage solutions.
1.2.2. Scope
This document covers the basic steps necessary to deploy and administer a DX Storage cluster. The reader is expected to be familiar with TCP/IP networking and have a basic knowledge of x86 hardware setup. For additional configuration details and in-depth administration information, see the DX Object Storage Administration Guide.
For information regarding DX Storage’s HTTP interface and application integration, see the DX Object Storage Application Guide.
Copyright © 2010 Caringo, Inc. All rights reserved 1
December 2010
Chapter 2. Network Infrastructure and Recommendations
The following sections in this chapter discuss how to configure your network for DX Storage clusters:
• Section 2.1, “About DX Storage in the Network”
• Section 2.2, “Setting Up the Network for DX Storage”
• Section 2.3, “Setting Up Network Services”
• Section 2.4, “Setting Up PXE Booting”
• Section 2.5, “Setting Up a Configuration File Server”
• Section 2.6, “Network Devices and Priority”
• Section 2.7, “Proxying the Admin Console”
• Section 2.8, “IGMP Snooping Support”
2.1. About DX Storage in the Network
The following topics in this section provide a high-level overview of setting up a DX Storage cluster in your network:
• Section 2.1.1, “Sample Networks”
• Section 2.1.2, “Layer 3 Switching and Routing”
• Section 2.1.3, “Switching Hardware”
• Section 2.1.4, “Internet Deployments”
2.1.1. Sample Networks
The following figure shows a basic network where the DX Storage cluster nodes, the clients, and the servers are all in the same subnet. While this is the easiest to setup and requires only basic hardware, it does not offer any traffic separation between the DX Storage nodes and the rest of the network.
Copyright © 2010 Caringo, Inc. All rights reserved 2
December 2010
The next figure shows a more sophisticated network topology that uses a router to separate traffic between the DX Storage nodes and the rest of the network.
Copyright © 2010 Caringo, Inc. All rights reserved 3
December 2010
2.1.2. Layer 3 Switching and Routing
A router or a layer 3 switch routes network packets between subnets. A router segregates network traffic by filtering packets based on the subnet to which they are addressed. This segregation is important so that DX Storage nodes have predicable network bandwidth for their use and so that their multicast and unicast traffic doesn’t interfere with computers on the rest of the network.
2.1.3. Switching Hardware
When selecting Ethernet switching hardware, consider that many client workstations have 100Mbps network interfaces and it might not be cost effective to connect these workstations to Gigabit ports. Additionally, the operating systems and applications running on these workstations might be unable to effectively utilize more than 100Mbps of bandwidth.
The following figure shows a network architecture where workstations, enterprise servers, and DX Storage nodes are isolated on appropriately sized switches.
Copyright © 2010 Caringo, Inc. All rights reserved 4
December 2010
With more sophisticated switching hardware, the network segments can be isolated as different Virtual LANs (VLANs) on the same device. Additionally, some enterprise-class switching hardware has routing capabilities.
You can also design the DX Storage subnet to use redundant switches in the event of a switch failure. The following figure shows an example of DX Storage nodes connected to multiple network switches. In the event any single component becomes unavailable, a redundant path is available so communication is uninterrupted.
When deploying DX Storage with multiple switches, the interconnection between the switches requires planning. To allow for full speed communications between active ports on different
Copyright © 2010 Caringo, Inc. All rights reserved 5
December 2010
switches, the network connection between switches must be faster than the individual ports. Contact your switch provider for information about proprietary software or use a mechanism such as link
aggregation.
2.1.4. Internet Deployments
Network security is one of the top considerations during the deployment of any service on the Internet or within an extensive enterprise WAN. In these types of deployments, put a firewall or filtering router in front of DX Storage to control the kind of traffic and requests that are allowed to reach the cluster nodes.
The preceding figure shows a firewall that allows requests on TCP/80. This is the default SCSP port, but it should be changed to match the scspport value set in the node or cluster configuration file for the DX Storage cluster if it is something other than 80.
If the firewall is sophisticated enough to examine Layer 7 (Application Layer), or the contents of the HTTP requests, further restrictions should be made to allow only GET, HEAD, POST, DELETE requests. If a cluster is exposed read-only to these external clients, the POST and DELETE requests can be blocked to prevent updates to the cluster. To prevent client access to the node status page, the firewall should deny “GET /” requests to the cluster nodes.
Administrators should block Internet access to the Admin Console port (default TCP/90) and to the SNMP port (UDP/161). In wide-area networks, further restrictions might be desirable to restrict access to these services to specific administrative networks or workstations.
Anytime critical devices such as firewalls are introduced into a network architecture, they should be deployed in redundant pairs to minimize the chance of failures that cut-off all client access.
2.2. Setting Up the Network for DX Storage
Client applications must be able to initiate TCP connections with all nodes in a DX Storage cluster using the designated access port, typically port 80. Internally, DX Storage nodes must be able to communicate with each other using UDP, TCP, and multicast.
The following topics in this section discuss how to set up a DX Storage cluster in a standard TCP/IP networking environment:
• Section 2.2.1, “Network Summary”
Copyright © 2010 Caringo, Inc. All rights reserved 6
December 2010
Loading...
+ 19 hidden pages
Buy Points How it Works FAQ Contact Us Questions and Suggestions Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Terms of Use