Dell ME4 User Manual
Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series vSphere
Client Plug-in
User's Guide
Apr il 202 1
Rev . A 02
Notes, cautions, and warnings
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid
the problem.
WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death.
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Contents
Chapter 1: Getting started with the ME4 Series vSphere Client Plug-in.........................................4
Software and hardware prerequisites............................................................................................................................ 4
Chapter 2: Install and register the plug-in..................................................................................... 5
Installation prerequisites.................................................................................................................................................... 5
Install the plug-in................................................................................................................................................................. 6
Start and stop the system service.................................................................................................................................. 6
Upgrade the plug-in............................................................................................................................................................ 7
Uninstall the plug-in............................................................................................................................................................ 7
Clean up after uninstalling the plug-in...................................................................................................................... 7
Run commands in silent mode.......................................................................................................................................... 8
Access the plug-in...............................................................................................................................................................9
Chapter 3: Use the plug-in to discover the storage system.......................................................... 10
Discover the storage system.......................................................................................................................................... 10
Change the saved credentials for the storage system............................................................................................. 10
Remove a storage system from inventory...................................................................................................................10
Configure role-based access control............................................................................................................................. 11
View the assigned permissions.................................................................................................................................. 11
Chapter 4: Manage datastores..................................................................................................... 12
Create a datastore.............................................................................................................................................................12
Create a datastore on a new volume...................................................................................................................... 12
Create a datastore on an existing volume..............................................................................................................13
Viewing host-to-volume mappings................................................................................................................................ 13
Manage snapshots............................................................................................................................................................. 13
Take a snapshot............................................................................................................................................................13
Remove a snapshot..................................................................................................................................................... 14
Clone a datastore............................................................................................................................................................... 14
Mount a datastore....................................................................................................................................................... 14
Unmount a datastore.................................................................................................................................................. 15
Chapter 5: Common administrative tasks.....................................................................................16
View events and alerts..................................................................................................................................................... 16
View help..............................................................................................................................................................................16
Verify vCenter services are running.............................................................................................................................. 16
Chapter 6: Troubleshooting......................................................................................................... 17
Chapter 7: ME4 Series vSphere Client Plug-in Release Notes.......................................................18
Contents 3
1
Getting started with the ME4 Series vSphere
Client Plug-in
The ME4 Series vSphere Client Plug-in is a browser-based tool that integrates with the VMware vSphere 6.5 Web Client,
providing an alternative interface that lets you monitor and manage a Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series storage system.
Topics:
• Software and hardware prerequisites
Software and hardware prerequisites
The following table lists the software and hardware prerequisites for installing the plug-in. Portions of the plug-in run in the web
browser and on the vCenter server, but the plug-in software itself must be installed and run on a GNU/Linux host.
Table 1. Software and hardware prerequisites
Software Provider or Distribution Version
ESXi VMware 6.5
vCenter Server VMware 6.5 U1
ME4 Series Storage System
firmware
Mozilla Firefox Mozilla 58.0.2 (64 bit)
Google Chrome Google 65.0.3325.146 (64 bit)
Microsoft Internet Explorer Microsoft 11.0.9600.17416
Java Runtime Enviornment Oracle 1.8
Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Dell EMC G275
CentOS 7
Ubuntu 18.04
Debian 9
4 Getting started with the ME4 Series vSphere Client Plug-in
Install and register the plug-in
This chapter describes installation prerequisites and procedures to install, upgrade, uninstall, repair, and access the plug-in.
The plug-in registration process requires the following vCenter Server information:
● vCenter Server IP/hostname
● Username of a local administrator account on the vCenter server
● Password of the vCenter administrator account
NOTE: You must install and register the plug-in with administrator rights.
Topics:
• Installation prerequisites
• Install the plug-in
• Start and stop the system service
• Upgrade the plug-in
Uninstall the plug-in
•
• Run commands in silent mode
• Access the plug-in
2
Installation prerequisites
Perform the following one-time procedure before the first-time the plugin is installed on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Cent OS
system:
1. Install JDK v1.8 using the following command:
sudo yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel
NOTE: If you do not have more than one version of Java installed on the host, perform the following steps.
a. Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable:
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk
b. Update the PATH variable value by using the following command:
export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
c. Edit the /etc/profile file using any text editor and add the following two lines:
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk
export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
You must provide the exact path of the JDK for JAVA_HOME for your environment. The path shown above is
NOTE:
just an example.
2. Install the Zip and Unzip utilities:
sudo yum install unzip
Install and register the plug-in 5
3. Install the lsof utility as follows:
sudu yum install lsof
On a Debian 9 or Ubuntu 18.04 server, run the following command:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install open jdk-8-jre-headless zip unzip lsof
Install the plug-in
To install the plug-in and register the system with the VMware vSphere Web Client, perform the following operations while
logged in as the root user:
1. Extract the installation zip file into any convenient, empty folder. For example:
/opt/vCenter-Client-Plugin
This folder can be deleted afterwards or retained for reference in case you need to perform any maintenance operation later
on.
mkdir /opt/vCenter-Client-Plugin
cd /opt/vCenter-Client-Plugin
2. Unzip the installation zip file into the empty folder using the following command:
unzip me4-vSphere-Client-Plugin-version.zip
3. Run the shell script from the extracted zip:
bash vSphere-Client-Plugin-installer.sh -i -u vcenter-admin -vc vcenter-ip
For example:
bash vSphere-Client-Plugin-installer.sh -i –u Administrator@vsphere.local -vc
192.168.42.126
4. When prompted, enter the vCenter server administrator password.
After the password is authenticated and the plug-in is installed and registered, a message indicates that setup is complete.
5. The installation script attempts to modify the host's firewall to accept connections on TCP port 18080 (unless overridden
by specifying a different port number). The script invokes firewall-cmd(1) to do this, but if your host uses a different
firewall management system, you will need to manually open port 18080. If no other tools are being used to manage the
firewall, open the port with the iptables(1) command:
iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 18080 -j ACCEPT
This command must also be placed in /etc/rc.d/rc.local (Red Hat) or /etc/rc.local (Debian) or another script
that is run at boot time.
You must log in to the vCenter Server vSphere client to view the plug-in. For additional details about how to invoke the
installation script, see Run commands in silent mode on page 8.
Start and stop the system service
The systemd functionality lets you start and stop the plug-in backend service with a single command.
● To stop the backend service, run the following command:
systemctl stop StoragePluginService
6
Install and register the plug-in
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