Pinnacle Systems MediaCentral Platform Services - 2.4 Installation Manual

MediaCentral® Platform Services

Installation and Configuration Guide Version 2.4

Important Information

This document provides instructions to install and configure Avid MediaCentral Platform Services (MCS) v2.4. For a complete list of qualified products, see the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services ReadMe.

For the latest information on the MediaCentral Platform Services, see the documentation available from the MediaCentral Platform Services are occasionally issued after initial release.

For information on upgrading to MCS 2.4 from an earlier release, see the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services Upgrading Guide, available on the MediaCentral Platform Services Avid Knowledge Base.

For information on configuring Media | Index, see the Avid Media | Index Configuration Guide, which is currently available internally only.

page of the Avid Knowledge Base. Updates

page of the

For information on installing Media | Distribute, see the Media |Distribute Installation and Configuration Guide available on the MediaCentral Platform Services Knowledge Base.

Note: Throughout this document, “Avid MediaCentral Platform Services” will be referred to as “MCS”. “Red Hat Enterprise Linux” will be referred to as “RHEL”.

Note: The RHEL deployment used in an MCS environment is a command-line based operating system. The installation process will require the editing of various system files. Although multiple text editors exist, the tool used throughout this document is “vi”. If needed, a short introduction to vi is included in the

Note: When working in Linux, this guide assumes the user is logged in as the “root” user. Perform all commands and server configuration as the “root” user.

MediaCentral Platform Services Concepts and Clustering Guide.

page of the Avid

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Revision History

Date Revised

Changes Made

• Added restart of “avid-acs-ctrl-core” to Multi-Zone

•

MediaCentral 2.4.0 First Publication

November 20, 2015

October 29, 2015

September 24, 2015

configuration process.

• Minor update to Configuring Unicast Cluster

Communication.

Simplified Setting Gluster Volume Ownership process

• Expanded options for Modifying application.properties

• Other minor updates

• GlusterFS is now included with MCS. Updates made to

the installation and configuration process

• Added information regarding Desktop Notifications

feature

• Updated guidelines for MCDS installation location

• Updated installation instructions for Multi-Zone

configurations

• Updated installation instructions for the Closed

Captioning Service

• Updated Verifying the hosts File Contents

. Virtual

Cluster name and IP now required in the local hosts file

• Appendix E: Avid MediaCentral | UX Desktop

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Contents

Important Information ....................................................................................................................... 1

Revision History .................................................................................................................................. 2

ART I: INSTALLATION PREREQUISITES .......................................................................................................... 11

Chapter Overview .................................................................................................................................... 12

Before You Begin ...................................................................................................................................... 13

Network Interface Cards and Network Connections ............................................................................... 14

Accessing the MCS Server(s) .................................................................................................................... 15

Copying Software to the MCS Server ................................................................................................... 15

Obtaining the Software ............................................................................................................................ 16

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) .......................................................................................................... 16

RHEL Security Updates ......................................................................................................................... 16

MCS Installation Packages .................................................................................................................... 17

GlusterFS .............................................................................................................................................. 18

Storage Controller Driver for the HP ProLiant Gen9 Server ................................................................. 18

Updating MediaCentral UX Licenses ........................................................................................................ 19

Interplay Production Licensing ............................................................................................................. 19

iNEWS Licensing ................................................................................................................................... 20

Creating User Accounts ............................................................................................................................ 20

Interplay Production User .................................................................................................................... 20

Avid ISIS User ........................................................................................................................................ 21

Avid iNEWS User ................................................................................................................................... 22

Interplay MAM User ............................................................................................................................. 22

Media Composer Cloud User ............................................................................................................... 22

Adjusting Interplay Production Settings .................................................................................................. 23

Adding the MediaCentral UX Version to Avid iNEWS .............................................................................. 24

Installing the MediaCentral Distribution Service ..................................................................................... 25

Creating the MCS Installation USB Drive ................................................................................................. 26

Preparing the Installation Drive for the HP ProLiant Gen9 .................................................................. 26

Preparing the Installation Drive for HP Gen8 and Dell Servers ............................................................ 29

ART II: BIOS & RAID CONFIGURATION ....................................................................................................... 31

Chapter Overview .................................................................................................................................... 32

Changing BIOS Settings ............................................................................................................................ 33

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Configuring the BIOS on the HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 ........................................................................ 33

Configuring the BIOS on the HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 ...................................................................... 38

Configuring the BIOS on the Dell PowerEdge R620 / R630 .................................................................. 39

Configuring the Onboard RAID ................................................................................................................ 41

HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 RAID Configuration ...................................................................................... 41

Configuring the HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 RAID 1 ............................................................................. 42

Configuring the HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 RAID 5 ............................................................................. 44

HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 RAID Configuration .................................................................................... 45

Configuring the HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 RAID 1 ........................................................................... 45

Configuring the HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 RAID 5 ........................................................................... 48

Dell PowerEdge R620 / R630 RAID Configuration ................................................................................ 50

Verifying the PowerEdge Dell R620 / 630 RAID Configuration:........................................................ 50

ART III: SOFTWARE INSTALLATION AND PREPARATION .................................................................................. 53

Chapter Overview .................................................................................................................................... 54

Installing RHEL and the MCS Software ..................................................................................................... 55

Special Instructions for Dell Servers ........................................................................................................ 56

MCS Software Deployment ...................................................................................................................... 60

Booting RHEL for the First Time ............................................................................................................... 63

Booting from the System Drive ............................................................................................................ 63

Changing the root Password ................................................................................................................ 64

Network Configuration ............................................................................................................................ 65

Verify DNS ............................................................................................................................................ 65

Identifying NIC Interfaces and Connecting the Network Cable ........................................................... 66

(HP Only) Verifying the NIC Interface Name ........................................................................................ 67

(HP Only) Swapping NIC Interface Names ............................................................................................ 67

(HP Only) Removing the MAC Address Hardware References ............................................................. 69

Configuring the Hostname and Static Network Route ......................................................................... 70

Verifying the hosts File Contents .......................................................................................................... 72

Verifying the Contents of resolv.conf and nsswitch.conf .................................................................... 73

Ensuring the NIC Interface Comes Up at System Startup .................................................................... 74

Verifying Hostname, Network and DNS Connectivity .......................................................................... 75

Configure Date and Time Settings ........................................................................................................... 76

Setting the Time Zone .......................................................................................................................... 76

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Synching the System Clock ................................................................................................................... 77

Creating the File Cache on the RAID ........................................................................................................ 79

Partitioning the RAID ............................................................................................................................ 79

Creating the Logical Volume, Filesystem and Mounting the Cache ..................................................... 80

Enable / Disable 3G and Edge Streams .................................................................................................... 83

Copying Software to the MCS Server ....................................................................................................... 84

Security Updates ...................................................................................................................................... 84

Install Software Patches ........................................................................................................................... 84

ART IV: CONFIGURING MCS ...................................................................................................................... 85

Chapter Overview .................................................................................................................................... 86

Configuring MCS for MediaCentral UX and Media Composer Cloud....................................................... 88

Updating the MediaCentral UX Configuration ......................................................................................... 88

Logging into MediaCentral UX ................................................................................................................. 89

Changing the Administrator Password .................................................................................................... 92

Creating a Second Administrator User .................................................................................................... 93

Configuring System Settings .................................................................................................................... 93

General Settings ................................................................................................................................... 94

iNEWS Settings ..................................................................................................................................... 94

Interplay Production Settings ............................................................................................................... 95

Messages & Sharing ............................................................................................................................. 96

Playback Service Settings ..................................................................................................................... 96

Player Settings ...................................................................................................................................... 99

Verifying the System Settings ................................................................................................................ 100

Verifying the iNEWS Connection ........................................................................................................ 100

Verifying the Interplay Production and ISIS Connections .................................................................. 100

Configuring Send To Playback Settings .................................................................................................. 101

Importing Domain Users ........................................................................................................................ 103

Creating Local Users and Assigning Roles .............................................................................................. 105

Continuing the Installation .................................................................................................................... 106

Configuring MCS for Interplay MAM ..................................................................................................... 107

Configuring the MediaCentral User Interface .................................................................................... 107

Creating the MAM System User ......................................................................................................... 108

Configuring the MCS Player ................................................................................................................ 109

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Continuing the Installation .................................................................................................................... 109

ART V: CLUSTERING ................................................................................................................................. 110

Chapter Overview .................................................................................................................................. 111

Cluster Overview .................................................................................................................................... 112

Configuring the Player System Setting ................................................................................................... 113

Configuring DRBD ................................................................................................................................... 114

Starting the Cluster Services on the Master Node ................................................................................. 117

Adding Nodes to the Cluster .................................................................................................................. 120

Replicating the File Caches using GlusterFS ........................................................................................... 121

Starting GlusterFS ............................................................................................................................... 121

Creating the Trusted Storage Pool ..................................................................................................... 121

Configuring the GlusterFS Volumes ................................................................................................... 122

Setting Gluster Volume Ownership .................................................................................................... 124

Making the RHEL Cache Directories ................................................................................................... 125

Changing Ownership and Mounting the GlusterFS Volumes ............................................................. 126

Testing the Cache ............................................................................................................................... 127

Ensuring Gluster is On at Boot ........................................................................................................... 128

ART VI: VERIFYING THE INSTALLATION ....................................................................................................... 129

Chapter Overview .................................................................................................................................. 130

Testing the Basics ................................................................................................................................... 131

Testing the Cluster Email Service ........................................................................................................... 132

Testing Cluster Failover .......................................................................................................................... 133

Verifying ACS Bus Functionality ............................................................................................................. 136

Verifying the Status of RabbitMQ .......................................................................................................... 136

Validating the FQDN for External Access ............................................................................................... 137

Backing up the MCS System Settings and the MCS Database ............................................................... 139

ART VII: INSTALLING THE CLOSED CAPTIONING SERVICE.............................................................................. 143

Chapter Overview .................................................................................................................................. 144

Preparing the Software Package ............................................................................................................ 145

Installing the Closed Captioning Service on a Single Server .................................................................. 145

Installing the Closed Captioning Service in a Cluster ............................................................................. 146

Verifying Prerequisites ....................................................................................................................... 146

Identifying the Master, Slave and Load-Balancing Nodes .................................................................. 146

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Taking the Cluster Offline ................................................................................................................... 147

Installing the Closed Captioning Service Software ............................................................................. 147

Bringing the Cluster Online ................................................................................................................ 148

Checking on the Cluster Status ........................................................................................................... 148

Uninstalling the Closed Captioning Service ........................................................................................... 149

ART VIII: INSTALLING THE MAM CONNECTOR ........................................................................................... 151

Chapter Overview .................................................................................................................................. 152

Preparing the Software Package ............................................................................................................ 153

Installing the MAM Connector on a Single Server ................................................................................. 153

Installing the MAM Connector in a Cluster ............................................................................................ 154

Before You Begin ................................................................................................................................ 154

Take the Cluster Offline ...................................................................................................................... 154

Install the MAM Connector Software ................................................................................................ 154

Bring the Cluster Back Online ............................................................................................................. 155

Uninstalling the MAM Connector .......................................................................................................... 156

Configuring the MAM Connector ........................................................................................................... 157

ART IX: MULTI-ZONE CONFIGURATION ..................................................................................................... 158

Chapter Overview .................................................................................................................................. 159

Multi-Zone Overview ............................................................................................................................. 160

Verifying the RSA Key Folder ................................................................................................................. 160

Creating and Installing the RSA Keys ..................................................................................................... 161

Verifying Access to the Slave Zone ........................................................................................................ 163

Creating the Master Zone and Initiating Multi-Zone ............................................................................. 164

Adding Slave Zone(s) to the Multi-Zone Environment .......................................................................... 166

Validating Multi-Zone Functionality ...................................................................................................... 168

Dismantling a Multi-Zone Environment ................................................................................................. 169

Making Changes to a Multi-Zone Configuration .................................................................................... 171

Troubleshooting the Multi-Zone Setup ................................................................................................. 172

Failed to Resolve Zone URL ............................................................................................................ 172

Bus Error ......................................................................................................................................... 172

Errors in Zone Configuration .......................................................................................................... 173

Errors During Setup ........................................................................................................................ 173

PPENDICES ............................................................................................................................................. 174

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Appendix A: Overview ............................................................................................................................ 175

Enabling the Player Demonstration Web Page ...................................................................................... 176

Copying Software to the MCS Server ..................................................................................................... 177

Copying Software Using WinSCP ........................................................................................................ 177

Copying Software Using a USB Drive .................................................................................................. 178

Installing MCS on Non-HP / Dell Hardware for Interplay MAM ............................................................ 180

Non-HP / Dell Installation Notes ........................................................................................................ 181

Working with the Dell RAID Controller .................................................................................................. 183

Creating the RAIDs ............................................................................................................................. 183

Deleting the RAIDs .............................................................................................................................. 184

HP DL360p Gen8 Card Placement .......................................................................................................... 184

Connecting to non-ISIS Proxy Storage ................................................................................................ 184

Connecting to ISIS Proxy Storage ....................................................................................................... 185

Contents of the MCS Installation Package ............................................................................................. 186

Enabling Trusted Certificates ................................................................................................................. 187

Determining the Installed MCS Version ................................................................................................. 187

Using SNMP Monitoring on the MCPS Server........................................................................................ 187

Log Cycling ............................................................................................................................................. 188

Retrieving MCS Logs ............................................................................................................................... 188

Verifying Cache Directory Permissions .................................................................................................. 189

Monitoring the AAF Generator Service ................................................................................................. 190

Monitoring Services and Resources ....................................................................................................... 191

Modifying application.properties .......................................................................................................... 192

Configuration Changes ....................................................................................................................... 192

Backing up and Restoring the MCS Database ........................................................................................ 194

Verifying the ISIS Mount ........................................................................................................................ 196

Reconfiguring the ISIS Connection(s) ..................................................................................................... 197

Unicast Support in Clustering ................................................................................................................ 198

Configuring Unicast Cluster Communication.................................................................................. 199

Reconfiguring MediaCentral Settings in a Cluster ................................................................................. 200

Shutting Down or Rebooting a MediaCentral Cluster ........................................................................... 200

Identifying the Master, Slave and Load-Balancing Nodes ..................................................................... 201

Monitoring MCS High-Availability .......................................................................................................... 202

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Monitoring Load Balancing .................................................................................................................... 203

Changing the Cluster Administrator Email Address ............................................................................... 205

Taking a Cluster Node Off-Line Temporarily .......................................................................................... 206

Permanently Removing a Node from a Cluster ..................................................................................... 206

Adding a New Node to a Cluster ............................................................................................................ 207

Port Requirements ................................................................................................................................. 209

Appendix B: Configuring Port Bonding for Interplay MAM ................................................................... 210

Verifying the Ethernet Ports ............................................................................................................... 210

Configuring the Ports ......................................................................................................................... 210

Appendix C: Configuring iNEWS for Integration with MediaCentral ..................................................... 213

Verifying MediaCentral Licenses on iNEWS ....................................................................................... 213

Editing SYSTEM.CLIENT.VERSIONS ..................................................................................................... 214

Editing SYSTEM.CLIENT.WINDOWS .................................................................................................... 215

Appendix D: The Avid MediaCentral UX Mobile Application ................................................................. 217

Before You Begin ................................................................................................................................ 217

iNEWS Configuration for Mobile Integration ......................................................................................... 218

Editing SYSTEM.CLIENT.VERSIONS ..................................................................................................... 218

Editing the iNEWS Configuration File ................................................................................................. 219

Installing Avid Central on an iOS Device ................................................................................................ 221

Installing Avid Central on an Android Device ......................................................................................... 221

Appendix E: Avid MediaCentral | UX Desktop ....................................................................................... 222

Understanding the Desktop Application ............................................................................................ 222

System Requirements ........................................................................................................................ 222

Installing Adobe Flash Player.............................................................................................................. 223

Installing MediaCentral UX Desktop .................................................................................................. 224

Single Client Installation ..................................................................................................................... 224

Installing the Client Software ......................................................................................................... 224

Editing the Configuration File ......................................................................................................... 224

Domain Group Deployment ............................................................................................................... 225

Configuring the Installation Script .................................................................................................. 225

Running the Installation Script ....................................................................................................... 226

Enabling MediaCentral MOS Plug-ins ................................................................................................. 227

Installing Plug-Ins ............................................................................................................................ 227

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Enabling MOS.................................................................................................................................. 227

Recording Voice-over Audio ............................................................................................................... 227

Launching and Working with MediaCentral UX Desktop ................................................................... 228

Launching the Application .............................................................................................................. 228

Working with the Menu System ..................................................................................................... 229

Accessing Additional MCS Systems ................................................................................................ 229

Selecting a Deep Link ...................................................................................................................... 229

Uninstalling MediaCentral UX Desktop .............................................................................................. 230

Troubleshooting ................................................................................................................................. 230

Error Messages: .............................................................................................................................. 230

Clearing the Local Cache ................................................................................................................. 231

Appendix F: Enabling MOS Active-X Plug-Ins ......................................................................................... 232

Enabling MediaCentral MOS Plug-Ins in Chrome ............................................................................... 232

Setting Up Your Browser ................................................................................................................ 232

Enabling MOS.................................................................................................................................. 232

Installing Plug-Ins ............................................................................................................................ 233

Uninstalling the Chrome Extension ................................................................................................ 233

Enabling MediaCentral MOS Plug-Ins in Internet Explorer ................................................................ 233

Sample ActiveX Object in the Preferences File ............................................................................... 234

Copyright and Disclaimer ....................................................................................................................... 236

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

PART I: INSTALLATION PREREQUISITES

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Chapter Overview

Before You Begin

varies

A quick check to make sure you have everything in place for an efficient and

Network Interface Cards and Network Connections

15 min

Network connection information for various deployment options.

Accessing the MCS Server(s)

1 min

Understanding how to connect to the MCS server(s).

Obtaining the Software

varies

Where to find all the software necessary for the installation.

Updating MediaCentral UX Licenses

15 min

Licensing requirements for Interplay Production and iNEWS.

Creating User Accounts

10 min

Convers the creation of user accounts required by MCS.

Adjusting Interplay Production Settings

5 min

Information on adjusting settings required by MCS.

Adding the MediaCentral UX Version to Avid iNEWS

5 min

Enables MediaCentral UX user to connect to iNEWS.

Installing the MediaCentral Distribution Service

10 min

Required for certain Interplay Production workflows.

Creating the MCS Installation USB Drive

45 min

In this procedure, you create the USB drive you will use to install the MCS

The purpose of this chapter is to guide the preparation of all materials needed for the MCS installation and to pre-configure all connected systems for integration with MCS.

The following table describes the topics covered in this chapter.

Step Task Time Est.

successful installation.

software.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Before You Begin

A successful MCS installation begins with careful planning. Ensuring that you have identified all prerequisites to the installation is very important. Examples:

 Networking: IP addresses, hostnames, domain name, DNS, NTP, SNMP, etc.  Cluster-specific information: Additional IP addresses, e-mail address  Users: Identifying users, user groups, and passwords (both local and domain users)  Host Solutions: Identify what systems will connect to MCS. Once identified, it is also

important to verify that these systems are available and operating normally. Examples:

For Interplay | Production deployments, the following systems could also be required:

o Interplay | Production Services Automation and Interplay | Consolidate (Required for

certain Interplay | Delivery workflows. Media | Index is required for this functionality.)

o Interplay | Transcode (Required for Send To Playback workflows) o Interplay | STP Encode (Required for Send To Playback of Long GOP media formats) o Interplay | Transfer (Required for Send To Playback to 3

party playback solutions)

To assist in ensuring you have all the information you need prior to beginning the installation, Avid provides a “Pre-Flight Checklist” available on the MediaCentral Services page

of the Avid Knowledge Base. Completing the Pre-Flight information will avoid delays during the installation process.

While the installation procedures for MediaCentral UX, Media Composer Cloud and Interplay MAM are very similar, the configuration steps are different. Any configuration differences between MediaCentral UX and Media Composer Cloud will be identified in this document. For differences in the Interplay MAM configuration process, refer to the Interplay | MAM Installation Manual.

MCS is available in single server and cluster configurations. A cluster is a group of MCS servers that provide redundancy, load balancing, and scale. Each server in a cluster is called a “node”. During the cluster configuration, one server is identified as the Master node. If you have multiple MCS servers in a rack, the Master node is usually the top-most server in the rack.

If you are configuring a cluster, configure Part I through Part III concurrently on all cluster nodes. Part IV of this installation document must be completed on the Master node only, unless otherwise instructed.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Network Interface Cards and Network Connections

Avid supports the onboard 1 Gb NIC for each of the HP DL360 Gen8 / Gen9 and Dell R620/R630 servers. However, certain workflows require the increased bandwidth of an add-in 10 Gb card.

For example, a 10 Gb connection is required for any MCS deployment that will use 100+ Mbps video formats (e.g., AVC-I 100, DVCPro 100, DNxHD 145). 10 Gb connections may be desired for additional bandwidth / playback streams.

The HP DL360p Gen8 supports additional 1 Gb network adapters. See

HP DL360p Gen8 Card

Placement in Appendix A for more information.

For more information on determining 1 Gb or 10 Gb connections as well as information on supported adapters, see the MediaCentral Platform Services Hardware Guide located on the

MediaCentral Services page

of the Avid Knowledge Base.

The Zone in which the network connection is made must also be considered.

 Zone 1: Connected to ISIS VLAN(s) through a 1 Gb or 10 Gb port (direct connect). On an

ISIS 7500, this is a direct connection to an ISS switch. On an ISIS 5500, this is a direct connection to the back of the ISIS 5500 chassis.

 Zone 2: Connected to ISIS VLAN(s) through a 1 Gb or 10 Gb port on an Avid qualified

layer-2 switch (non-routed)

 Zone 3: Connected to an Avid qualified layer-3 switch (routed) with known Quality of

Service (QoS); traffic routed to ISIS (one hop) and (if applicable) load-balanced across ISIS VLANs (approximately a 60/40 ratio)

For more information on networking in an Avid environment, see “Network Requirements for ISIS and Interplay PAM and MAM” located at:

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/compatibility/en244197

MediaCentral UX and Media Composer Cloud

In this workflow MCS decodes the source media format on ISIS and streams images and sound to the c

. This workflow requires MCS to

connect to an Avid ISIS system.

ents

Zone 1, Zone 2 or Zone 3 (recommended) connections are supported.

Interplay MAM

In this workflow MCS provides playback of video assets registered as browse proxies by Interplay MAM. The connection required depends on where the browse proxies are stored.

For non-ISIS storage, the network connection is at the user’s discretion as long as it is a 1 Gb connection or better.

For ISIS storage, Zone 1, Zone 2 or Zone 3 (recommended) connections are supported.

Avid iNEWS

iNEWS-only deployments do not require an ISIS connection. The network connection is at the user’s discretion as long as it is a 1 Gb connection or better.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Accessing the MCS Server(s)

Copying Software to the MCS Server

The initial configuration of the MCS server(s) must be completed using a directly connected monitor and keyboard to the server, or through a KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) device.

Note: Some KVMs present virtual USB devices to the operating system. These devices might be assigned a device name (sda, sdb) by RHEL during the installation, which results in a failed installation. Disable this option on your KVM if applicable.

Once the initial configuration is complete, Avid recommends connecting to MCS indirectly through SSH (Secure Shell). SSH is preferable for the following reasons:

 Allows for an expandable view of the RHEL interface (adjustable window size)  Allows for multiple sessions to the host server or to multiple servers  Allows for simplified copy/paste of commands between SSH windows  Allows for logging of all session output

On Windows, PuTTY.exe is an example of a SSH client:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

At the appropriate point in the installation procedure, you will be given the option to switch from a direct connection to an indirect connection.

At various times during the upgrade, you will need to copy software to the MCS server. This task can be performed using one of two methods:

 Using a Windows system and a SFTP tool such as WinSCP  Connecting a USB drive directly to the server

While the SFTP method may be preferred for ease of access, the USB method may be required for some operations such as backing up MCS files during a system upgrade.

See Copying Software to the MCS Server

in Appendix A for details on each of these methods.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Obtaining the Software

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

RHEL Security Updates

Multiple software packages are required to properly install and configure MCS. These include:

 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)  RHEL Security Updates  MCS Installation Packages

 MediaCentral Platform Services  (if applicable) MediaCentral Platform Services Updates  (if applicable) MediaCentral UX Closed Captioning Service  (if applicable) MediaCentral Distribution Service (MCDS)  (if applicable) Interplay MAM Connector  (if applicable) Media Composer Cloud plugin

 (if applicable) Media Distribute  GlusterFS  (if applicable) Storage Controller Driver ISO for the HP ProLiant Gen9 Server

Due to licensing restrictions, Avid is unable to redistribute the RHEL installation media. The RHEL installation image (.iso) file can be located at: http://www.redhat.com/en

Note: At the time of this document’s publication, the RHEL 6.5 ISOs were available by choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from the Red Hat Product Downloads page. Specify Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (product variant), 6.5 (version) and x86_64 (architecture). Download the Binary DVD (

Important: MCS requires RHEL 6.5. Do not install any OS updates or patches unless specifically directed to do so by Avid.

rhel-server-6.5-x86_64-dvd.iso).

Red Hat has issued various security advisories for RHEL 6.5. Avid has tested and supports the installation of specific patches for RHEL. For instructions and software download links, see the “Security Updates” section in the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services ReadMe located on the

MediaCentral Services page

of the Avid Knowledge Base.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

MCS Installation Packages

The MCS software packages are available from the Avid Download Center.

Note: If you have not already created an Avid.com user account, you will need to do so now. This Master Account enables you to sync your Avid Video Download and Avid Video Community accounts as well as gain access to the Avid Support Center.

After you have logged into the Download Center, download the following:

 Avid MediaCentral Platform Services

This is the primary MCS installer package. All MCS installations will require this software.

 (if applicable) Avid MediaCentral Platform Services Updates

Avid will often release updates to MCS providing fixes and new features. Consult the ReadMe for your version of software for patch availability and specific installation instructions.

 (if applicable) Avid MediaCentral UX Closed Captioning Service

Introduced with MCS v2.3, this service adds functionality to MediaCentral UX that enables new closed captioning workflows.

 (if applicable) MediaCentral Distribution Service (MCDS)

MCDS is a service that resides on a Windows system that coordinates jobs with Avid Production Services for send-to-playback operations. If your installation will include a STP workflow, download this software.

 (if applicable) Interplay MAM Connector

The MAM Connector enables Interplay MAM workflows within MediaCentral UX. If your installation includes MAM integration, download this software.

 (If applicable) Media Composer Cloud plugin

The Media Composer Cloud software is a plugin for the Media Composer editor that enables remote editing capabilities. If your installation includes a Cloud workflow, download this software.

 (If applicable) Media Distribute

Media Distribute links production with distribution to web, mobile, and social media outlets by orchestrating workflow and automating file preparation and transcoding. Media Distribute is not publicly available on the Avid Download Center at this time. If your installation includes a Distribute workflow, contact your Avid representative for this software.

Note: If any of these packages are not available through the Download Center, contact your Avid representative to obtain the necessary software.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

GlusterFS

Storage Controller Driver for the HP ProLiant Gen9 Server

GlusterFS is an open source software package that MCS uses to automate replication of the dedicated media cache volumes (e.g. RAID 5) across all MCS servers in the cluster. Doing so increases the speed at which clients can access the media on multiple cluster nodes.

MediaCentral Platform Services v2.4.0 automatically installs the GlusterFS software as part of the install (or upgrade) process. If you are deploying a clustered system, a separate download and installation of the Gluster software is no longer required. If you are deploying a single server configuration, the Gluster software is still installed on the server, but it is not activated or configured.

By default the HP ProLiant Gen9 server storage controller does not support RHEL 6.5. Manually download the following RHEL driver update disk (.iso) to enable RHEL 6.5 support:

dd-hpsa-18216-x86_64.iso

The driver update disk is available directly from Red Hat, but driver details and a link to the correct page can be found at the “HP Servers Support & Certification Matrices” “technical exceptions” web page:

http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/supportmatrix/exceptions/rhel_excepti ons.aspx

Note: This procedure applies to the HP ProLiant Gen9 server only.

To download the driver disk:

1. Open a web browser and navigate to the “HP Servers Support & Certification Matrices”

“technical exceptions” web page:

http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/supportmatrix/exceptions/rhel_exc eptions.aspx

2. Locate the link to Red Hat by searching for the words “DL360 Gen9” using the browser’s

“find on this page” feature.

3. Click on the RHEL6.5 x86_64 link.

You are redirected to the Red Hat web site.

4. Log in to your Red Hat Network account.

5. On the “Download Red Hat Enterprise Linux” page, locate the driver update disk (.iso):

dd-hpsa-18216-x86_64.iso

6. Click the “Download Now” button and save the ISO file to your computer.

You will use this driver update disk ISO file later when you create the MCS Installation USB drive.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Updating MediaCentral UX Licenses

Interplay Production Licensing

Depending upon your deployment, one or more connected systems may need licenses installed or updated to allow for integration with MCS.

 If connecting to Interplay Production, MediaCentral UX users will consume Interplay Client

licenses.

 If connecting to iNEWS, MediaCentral UX users will consume iNEWS Client licenses.  If connecting to Interplay Production and iNEWS, MediaCentral UX users will consume both

Interplay and iNEWS Client licenses.

If you will be connecting to an Interplay Production system, MediaCentral UX will validate client licenses against the Interplay Engine. Additional client licenses might have been included with the purchase of MCS. These licenses will need to be added to the Interplay Engine.

Note: Interplay Production v3.3 introduced a software licensing option (no dongle). The following process is correct for the original dongle licensing process. For software licensing procedures, see the Interplay | Production Software Installation and Configuration Guide.

1. Launch the Interplay Administrator on the Interplay Engine. This can be found at:

Start>Avid>Avid Interplay Access Utilities>Avid Interplay Administrator.

2. Log in using Interplay Production’s Administrator credentials.

3. From the main menu, select Server>Licenses.

4. Click the Import License button.

5. Navigate to the location of the license file (often provided on a USB drive).

6. Select the license file and click Open.

You should receive a message indicating that the license was successfully activated.

7. Log out and close the Interplay Administrator application.

For additional information on the Interplay Administrator, see the Interplay | Engine and Interplay | Archive Engine Administration Guide.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

iNEWS Licensing

Creating User Accounts

Interplay Production User

If you will be connecting to an iNEWS system, MediaCentral UX will validate client licenses against the iNEWS server(s). Additional client licenses might have been included with the purchase of MCS. These licenses will need to be added to iNEWS.

See Appendix C: Configuring iNEWS for Integration with MediaCentral

This section will cover the creation of user accounts for use with:

 Interplay Production  Avid ISIS  iNEWS  Interplay MAM  Media Composer Cloud

Create any user accounts applicable to your installation.

When integrating with Interplay Production, MediaCentral UX requires credentials to access the Interplay Production database. This user should have Read/Write privileges to the entire database (at minimum). For consistency purposes, this user and password should be the same as the user you create on the Avid ISIS system.

for more information.

Decide upon the name and password for this user now. Suggested user name: MCSAdmin

1. Launch the Interplay Administrator on the Interplay Engine. This can be found at:

Start>Avid>Avid Interplay Access Utilities>Avid Interplay Administrator.

2. Log in using Interplay Production’s Administrator credentials.

3. From the main menu, select User Management>User Management.

4. If multiple User Groups are created, highlight the User Group on the left under which you

want to create your new user. Example: Administrators

5. Click the Create User button at the top of the window.

6. Enter a name and password.

7. Verify that the MediaCentral UX Admin user has at least Read/Write access to the entire

database. Administrator-level access is not required, but recommended.

8. Click Apply.

9. Close the Interplay Administrator.

For additional information on users creation in Interplay Production, see the Interplay | Engine and Interplay | Archive Engine Administration Guide.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Avid ISIS User

When integrating with Interplay Production, MediaCentral UX requires credentials to access the media on the ISIS system to enable playback and allow for the creation of voice-over media. For consistency purposes, this user and password should be the same as the user you create on the Interplay Production system.

Decide upon the name and password for this user now. Suggested user name: MCSAdmin

1. Launch the ISIS Management Console page by opening a web browser and navigating to one

of the following:

 ISIS 5500: http://System Director hostname  ISIS 7500: https://System Director hostname:5015

Note: In a failover configuration, use the virtual System Director hostname. Alternatively, the IP address of the System Director (or virtual System Director) can also be used.

2. Log in using the ISIS Administrator credentials.

3. From the main menu, select System>Users.

4. Click the New button to create a new user.

5. Give the user a name and password.

6. Under Workspace Access, assign privileges to all indexed workspaces. At minimum, the user

needs Read access to all workspaces indexed by the Interplay Media Indexer and Read/Write access to the workspace where voice-overs will be recorded (workspace defined in the Interplay Administrator> Interplay Application Settings).

7. Click Apply to create the user account.

8. Close the ISIS Management Console.

Note: If you are connecting to multiple ISIS systems, ensure the same user/password is created on each ISIS.

For additional information on users creation in Interplay Production, see the Avid | ISIS Administration Guide.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Avid iNEWS User

Interplay MAM User

Media Composer Cloud User

When integrating with iNEWS, the MCS Administrator requires access to the iNEWS database. This can be accomplished by creating a custom user account (superuser rights not required) or by associating the Administrator with an existing iNEWS account.

Decide upon the name and password for this user now. Suggested user name: MCSAdmin

For instructions on creating a custom iNEWS user account for MediaCentral UX, see the Avid iNEWS Setup and Configuration Guide.

If you are integrating with MCS as a player for an Interplay MAM system, a specialized user must be created within the MCS user database.

Decide upon the name of this custom user now. Suggested user name: MAMuser

For details on creating this user, see Configuring MCS for Interplay MAM on page 107

When installing Interplay MAM, a special user account is created on the MAM system. This user is identified as: “Service-Ics” with password “Avid123”. If you will be installing the MAM Connector software for MediaCentral UX, this “Service-Ics” is used in the System Settings.

For details on configuring the MAM Connector System Settings, see

Connector on page 157.

For more information on this user and setting, see the Avid MediaCentral | UX Administration Guide.

Configuring the MAM

When integrating with Media Composer Cloud, a custom, matching user account needs to be added to the Interplay Administrator (Application Database Settings) and to the MediaCentral UX System Settings (ICPS>Player tab).

When added to the MediaCentral UX System Settings, this account is automatically added as an MCS user and assigned a special “Playback-Only Client” user role. This will appear in the Users Layout under Users>Unassigned>Playback-Only.

Rules regarding the specialized user account:

 This must be a unique user created solely for this purpose. Do not use the same user

you created to log into Interplay Production and Avid ISIS.

 Do not use an account that already exists as a Central User. It must be a new user.  This user should not be created as an Interplay Production or an ISIS user.  Remember that MCS runs on Linux. Both passwords and user accounts are case

sensitive.

Decide upon the name of this custom user now. Suggested user name: cloud

For more information on this user, see the Media Composer | Cloud Installation and Configuration Guide.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Adjusting Interplay Production Settings

When integrating with Interplay Production, MCS will check with the Interplay Engine for various settings. This section is particularly important for sites requiring STP workflows or integrations with Media Composer Cloud.

1. Launch the Interplay Administrator on the Interplay Engine. This can be found at:

Start>Avid>Avid Interplay Access Utilities>Avid Interplay Administrator

2. Log in using Interplay Production’s Administrator credentials.

3. From the main menu, select Application Settings>Application Database Settings. Adjust the

following:

a. Format – Video Format: This setting determines the default video format for

sequences created in MediaCentral UX. Select a specific video format from the

menu or leave the default selection, “Any”. If you select Any, MediaCentral UX

determines the video format by using the format of the first clip that the user adds

to the sequence.

b. Audio – General Settings: Ensure a Media Creation Workspace is selected. c. Interplay Common Playback Service (Cloud workflow only):

i. Hostname: Enter the hostname of the MCS server. In the case of a cluster,

enter the virtual MCS hostname.

ii. Username / Password: Specify a custom user and password that can be used

to communicate with MediaCentral UX. This same user / password will be entered in the MediaCentral UX System Settings under the ICPS>Player tab. This must be a unique user created solely for this purpose.

d. ICS Settings – Messaging URL: This setting enables a messaging workflow between

MCS and Media Composer. Enter the hostname of the MCS server in the form of a

URL. In the case of a cluster, enter the virtual MCS hostname.

e. Interplay Sphere (Cloud workflow only): The proxy setting used with Media

Composer Cloud is shown here for legacy purposes only. The proxy settings were

moved to “Application Settings>Media Composer | Cloud Settings” in Interplay

Production v3.1.

4. Click Apply.

5. If you are integrating with Media Composer Cloud, you should also configure the Application

Settings>Media Composer | Cloud Settings. See the Media Composer | Cloud Installation and Configuration Guide for additional details.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Adding the MediaCentral UX Version to Avid iNEWS

6. From the main menu, select Site Settings>Interplay Transfer Settings. MediaCentral will poll

this setting for configured Transfer Engines and AirSpeed servers when creating STP profiles.

7. Click Apply.

Before connecting MediaCentral UX to iNEWS, the MediaCentral UX Client version must be added to the iNEWS SYSTEM.CLIENT.VERSIONS file.

Refer to the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services ReadMe for the correct version number for your installation.

See Appendix C: Configuring iNEWS for Integration with MediaCentral adding the version number to iNEWS.

for instructions on

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Installing the MediaCentral Distribution Service

The MediaCentral Distribution Service (MCDS) is a lightweight required for Send to Playback (STP) operations. It analyzes the STP request and determines if additional actions are required before sending the media to the playback device (AirSpeed, Transfer Engine, other). An Interplay Transcode provider is required for STP operations requiring audio mixdowns (stereo audio tracks) or video mixdowns (sequences with dissolves). An Interplay STP Encode provider is required when using Long GOP media.

MCDS is not used if you are sending an asset directly to Transcode or Delivery. MCDS is not used in iNEWS-only configurations.

The following guidelines apply to installing MCDS:

 Supported on Windows 7 64-bit and Windows Server 2012.

o If you are running Windows Server 2012, you must install the Windows Desktop

Experience feature. For more information and installation procedures, see the Interplay | Production Dell and HP Server Support guide at:

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/readme/Avid-Interplay-Production-V3-3-xDocumentation

o If you are running Windows 7 N, Windows Media Player must be manually installed. For

more information on “N” versions of Windows, see:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/what-is-windows-7-n-edition

 Requires a minimum of 512MB of RAM and approximately 380MB of hard drive space on the

host server.

 Ensure that all enabled network adapters on both the system hosting the MCDS and the Interplay

Production Services Engine are fully routable to each other.

 Can be installed on a server hosting other services or applications, such as the Interplay

Production Services Engine, Interplay Transcode Provider, Interplay Transfer Engine, etc.

 Must be installed on a system that has the ISIS Client software installed.  Must not be installed on an Interplay Production Engine or Interplay Archive Engine.  As of Interplay Production 3.2, MCDS should not be installed on a Media Indexer server as the

two systems risk sharing network port 8443.

For redundancy purposes, MCDS can be installed on two systems. Installing a second instance of MCDS does not provide load-balancing functionality. You will configure MediaCentral UX to find the installed instance(s) of MCDS later in this document.

In MediaCentral UX 1.x, the MCDS service used port 8080 for normal http communication. In MediaCentral UX v2.0 / MCDS v3.1, the port changed to 8890. This change allows MCDS to be installed on the same server as the Production Services Engine (if desired). Port 8443 is used for http security protocol.

Versions of MCDS prior to v3.3 required the Interplay Service Framework (32 or 64bit) software to be installed on the system hosting MCDS. As of v3.3, this is no longer a requirement.

MCDS v3.3 cannot be installed on an Interplay Production Transcode provider or STP Encode provider. This limitation has been resolved for MCDS v3.4.

For additional information on MCDS version compatibility, see the Avid Knowledge Base:

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/compatibility/Avid-Video-Compatibility-Charts

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Creating the MCS Installation USB Drive

Preparing the Installation Drive for the HP ProLiant Gen9

Installing the MediaCentral Distribution Service:

1. Launch the MCDS installer on your desired system(s).

2. Proceed through the installation and accept the defaults.

You may be asked to install prerequisite requirements such as Microsoft Visual C++.

3. Once installed, use Windows Computer Management to verify that the service is “Started”

and the Startup Type is configured as “Automatic”.

The MCS installation is initiated from a bootable USB drive that contains the OS (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) and the MCS software. For this procedure you require the following items:

 A Windows-based computer  The MCS installation package (MediaCentral_Services_<version>_Linux.zip)  RHEL installation image (.iso) file  A 16GB or larger USB drive

Note: Avid has been informed of problems using USB drives from some vendors. If the server does not boot from the USB drive, or fails to complete the boot, try using a drive from another vendor or a drive with a larger capacity (32GB).

This procedure uses an application called “ISO to USB” to create a bootable USB drive containing the required RHEL operating system and MCS files. Do not simply drag and drop installation files onto the USB drive as this will not create the correct file structure needed to successfully install MCS.

Note: Since “ISO to USB” creates a bootable drive, Avid recommends only connecting the USB drive you plan to use to the Windows system. If you have more than one USB drive inserted, make sure you choose the right one when performing this procedure.

The procedure for creating the MCS installation drive on a ProLiant Gen9 server differs from that of other installations. Make sure you follow the customized instructions for your server type.

This section contains three procedures:

 Preparing the MCS Installation USB Drive  Copying the Storage Controller Driver to the USB Drive

Preparing the MCS Installation USB Drive:

1. Log into a Windows system.

2. Connect the USB drive to the Windows system and give it a few moments to be

recognized.

3. Use Windows Disk Management to format the USB drive as a FAT32 volume.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

RAID 1 and RAID 5

sda

sdb

sdc

RAID 1 only

sda

sdb

4. Extract the contents of the MediaCentral_Services_<version>_Linux.zip file to the

desktop (or your preferred destination directory).

5. Open the newly created MediaCentral_Services_<version>_Linux folder.

6. Double-click iso2usb.exe to launch the application.

7. Choose the Diskimage radio button then navigate to the RHEL image (.iso) file (named

rhel-server-6.5-x86_64-dvd.iso or similar).

Note: Make sure the RHEL image (.iso) file is accessible locally (preferable) or over the network from your computer.

8. In the “Additional Files” field, navigate to the MediaCentral_Services_<version>_Linux

folder and click the “Select Folder” button.

9. Use the table below to verify that the Hard Disk Name and USB Device Name fields are

correct for your deployment.

RAID Configuration RAID 1

(“Hard Disk Name”)

RAID 5 USB

(“USB Device Name”)

For example, for a system deploying both RAID 1 and RAID 5 volumes, enter the following values in the dialog:

• Hard Disk Name: sda

• USB Device Name: sdc

Important: For those familiar with earlier HP servers, the HP ProLiant Gen9 server identifies the RAID 1, RAID 5, and the USB drive with different device names.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

10. Verify the USB Drive letter or use the pull-down menu to select a new drive letter.

11. Click OK in the main dialog.

12. A process begins to copy the RHEL image (.iso) file and the MCS installation files to the

USB drive.

This process takes 10-20 minutes. Once complete, the USB drive has everything it needs to complete the RHEL and MCS installation.

Note: Copying the RHEL image (.iso) file to the USB drive is a one-time process. To install MCS on more than one server, or to re-install MCS, you do not need to repeat these steps.

13. Click Exit to close the application.

Copying the Storage Controller Driver to the USB Drive:

1. If you have not already obtained the RAID controller drive, see

Storage Controller Driver

for the HP ProLiant Gen9 Server for location and download instructions.

2. With the Installation USB drive still plugged in to the Windows laptop or desktop, copy

the RAID controller driver ISO to the root directory on the drive:

dd-hpsa-18216-x86_64.iso

3. Rename the ISO:

• Old Name: dd-hpsa-18216-x86_64.iso

• New Name: z_dd-hpsa-18216-x86_64.iso

Renaming the driver ISO is essential, since the installation script attempts to mount the first ISO it finds as the RHEL ISO. If you do not rename it, the installation will fail.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Preparing the Installation Drive for HP Gen8 and Dell Servers

Follow this procedure only if you are installing MCS software components on supported HP Gen8 or Dell servers.

Preparing the MCS Installation USB Drive:

1. Log into a Windows system.

2. Connect the USB drive to the Windows system and give it a few moments to be

recognized.

3. Use Windows Disk Management to format the USB drive as a FAT32 volume.

4. Extract the contents of the MediaCentral_Services_<version>_Linux.zip file to the

desktop (or your preferred destination directory).

5. Open the newly created MediaCentral_Services_<version>_Linux folder.

6. Double-click iso2usb.exe to launch the application.

7. Choose the Diskimage radio button then navigate to the RHEL image (.iso) file (named

rhel-server-6.5-x86_64-dvd.iso or similar).

Note: Make sure the RHEL image (.iso) file is accessible locally (preferable) or over the network from your computer.

8. In the “Additional Files” field navigate to the MediaCentral_Services_<version>_Linux

folder and click the “Select Folder” button.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

9. Verify the Hard Disk Name and USB Device Name fields are as follows:

• Hard Disk Name: sdb

• USB Device Name: sda

Note: If the drive names are not configured properly in the kickstart file, you could

encounter errors in the deployment process. Example: “Error Partitioning: Could not

allocate requested partitions: not enough free space on disks.”

10. Verify the USB Drive letter or use the pull-down menu to select a new drive letter

11. Click OK in the main dialog.

12. A process begins to copy the RHEL image (.iso) file and the MCS installation files to the

USB drive.

This process takes 10-20 minutes. Once complete, the USB drive has everything it needs to complete the RHEL and MCS installation.

Note: Copying the RHEL image (.iso) file to the USB drive is a one-time process. To install MCS on more than one server, or to re-install MCS, you do not need to repeat these steps.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

PART II: BIOS & RAID CONFIGURATION

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Chapter Overview

Changing BIOS Settings

15 min

Each of the supported server types require adjustments to the system BIOS.

Configuring the Onboard RAID

varies

Each of the supported server types features different methods for creating

The purpose of this chapter is to prepare the server hardware for the installation of RHEL and MCS.

The following table describes the topics covered in this chapter.

Step Task Time Est.

This section covers:

• HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9

• HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8

• Dell PowerEdge R620 / R630

and working with the onboard RAID controllers. This section covers:

• HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9

• HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8

• Dell PowerEdge R620 / R630

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Changing BIOS Settings

Configuring the BIOS on the HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9

This section provides information on the BIOS settings for the following Avid qualified servers:

• Configuring the BIOS on the HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9

• Configuring the BIOS on the HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8

• Configuring the BIOS on the Dell PowerEdge R620 / R630

Servers are frequently shipped with BIOS settings configured for a power-saving mode. MCS makes intensive use of the server’s CPUs and memory, especially when under heavy load. Configuring the server to operate at maximum performance will ensure operational efficiency.

To ensure the smooth installation of RHEL and MCS, the system clock must be set within the BIOS. When configuring an MCS cluster, setting the system clocks accurately is particularly important.

1. Power up the server.

2. When the console displays the option to enter the “System Utilities” menu, press F9. The

BIOS responds by highlighting the F9 button at the bottom of the screen.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

3. Select System Configuration and press Enter.

4. Select BIOS/Platform Configuration (RBSU) and press Enter.

5. Select Boot Options and press Enter.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

6. Select Boot Mode and press Enter.

You may see a warning message (shown below) indicating that Boot Mode changes will require a reboot. Press Enter to accept this warning.

7. A smaller selection box will appear. Select Legacy BIOS Mode and press Enter.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

8. Press ESC to navigate back to the BIOS/Platform Configuration (RBSU) screen.

9. Select Power Management and press Enter.

10. Press Enter to select HP Power Profile.

11. A smaller selection box will appear. Select Maximum Performance and press Enter.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

12. Press ESC to navigate back to the BIOS/Platform Configuration (RBSU) screen.

13. Select Date and Time and press Enter.

14. Set the date (mm-dd-yyyy) and time (hh:mm:ss).

15. Press ESC to navigate back to the BIOS/Platform Configuration (RBSU) screen.

16. Press F10 to save.

17. Press ESC to navigate back to the System Configuration screen.

If prompted, select “Y” to save changes and exit.

18. Press ESC to navigate back to the System Utilities screen.

19. Select Reboot the System and press Enter.

The server reboots with new options.

Proceed to Configuring the Onboard RAID on page 41

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Configuring the BIOS on the HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8

1. Power up the server.

2. When the console displays the option to enter the “System Utilities” menu, press F9. The

BIOS responds by highlighting the F9 button at the bottom of the screen.

The ROM-Based Setup Utility appears after a few moments.

3. Select Power Management Options and press Enter.

Power Management options are displayed.

4. Choose HP Power Profile.

Power Profile options are displayed.

5. Choose Maximum Performance.

You are returned to the Power Management options menu.

6. Press Esc to return to main menu.

7. Select Date and Time and press Enter.

Date and Time options are displayed.

Set the date (mm-dd-yyyy) and time (hh:mm:ss).

8. Press Enter to save the changes and return to the Setup Utility menu.

9. Exit the Setup utility. Press Esc and F10 to save.

The server reboots with new options.

Proceed to Configuring the Onboard RAID on page 41

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Configuring the BIOS on the Dell PowerEdge R620 / R630

This process includes steps to ensure your MCS Installation USB drive is first in the boot order. Prior to beginning this process, ensure your MCS Installation drive is available.

For instructions on creating the boot drive, see

Preparing the Installation Drive for HP Gen8

and Dell Servers on page 29.

1. Connect your MCS Installation USB drive to one of the Dell’s USB ports.

2. Power up the server.

3. Press F2 to enter the BIOS.

4. Select System BIOS

5. Select System Profile Settings.

6. Select the Performance profile from the pull-down menu and click Back.

Note: There are three “Performance” profiles. Once of them specifically says “Performance” and not “Performance Per Watt.”

7. Select System BIOS Settings

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

8. Select Boot Settings

9. Select BIOS Boot Settings

10. Select Hard-Disk Drive Sequence

11. In the Change Order window, use the + or – keys to move the USB boot drive to the top of

the list and click OK.

12. Click Back to exit the page and to exit the System BIOS Settings page.

13. Select Miscellaneous Settings

14. Change the System Time and System Date by highlighting the appropriate field and pressing

Enter.

15. A window will appear with pull-down menu options. Click OK when done.

16. You are asked to confirm the changes.

A “Success” dialog indicates the settings were saved.

17. Click Back and Finish to return to the main System Setup screen.

Note: When ordering a Dell server, an ”Internal SD Card Port” is an optional component. This device will appear to Linux as a media device and it will automatically be assigned a device name. This can interfere with the RHEL / MCS deployment. If you have an ”Internal SD Card Port”, temporarily disable it in the BIOS: System BIOS > Integrated Devices > Internal SD Card Port > Off. The device can be re-enabled once you have completed the MCS installation.

Proceed to Configuring the Onboard RAID on page 41

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Configuring the Onboard RAID

HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 RAID Configuration

This section provides information on the RAID configuration for the following Avid qualified servers:

• HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 RAID Configuration

• HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 RAID Configuration

• Dell PowerEdge R620 / R630 RAID Configuration

RAID 1: All MCS implementations require a RAID 1 (mirror) for the system (OS) drive. This RAID provides redundancy in the event of HD failure.

RAID 5: Certain deployments also require additional disks configured as a RAID 5 (data striping with parity blocks) for caching file data. This RAID provides redundancy and increased performance.

See the MediaCentral Platform Services Concepts and Clustering Guide for more information on RAID configurations.

In this step you configure two of the HD drives in the server enclosure as a RAID Level 1 – a mirrored RAID – where the RHEL and MCS software will be installed. This is done using the Option ROM Configuration for Arrays utility, in the HP server’s BIOS.

If applicable, configure the remaining HD drives in the server enclosure as a RAID Level 5. In a RAID 5 data is automatically distributed across all the disks in the RAID for increased performance and redundancy. This is done using the Option ROM Configuration for Arrays utility, in the HP server’s BIOS.

Note: If the list of available disks does not appear as expected, it may be that a RAID has already been created. Deleting a RAID destroys all the data it contains, so verify it is safe to do so first.

Note: This document provides instructions for creating a media cache volume as a RAID 5 using multiple disks in the server enclosure. However, other configurations are possible, including two drives in a RAID 1 configuration, or a single drive. For details, see the MediaCentral Platform Services Hardware Guide.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Configuring the HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 RAID 1

Note: The RAID configuration process will immediately transition into the Red Hat / MCS installation. It is recommended that you connect your MCS Installation USB drive to the server at this time.

1. Reboot the server and press F10 to select Intelligent Provisioning.

2. Select Perform Maintenance.

3. Select HP Smart Storage Administrator (SSA)

4. At the “Welcome to HP Smart Storage Administrator” screen, select Smart Array P840

from left side menu.

5. Select Create Array under “Actions”.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

6. Select both 500GB Drives then select Create Array.

7. Verify the following are selected: RAID 1, 256 KiB / 256 KiB Stripe Size, 32 Sectors,

Maximum Size, Caching Enabled.

8. Click Create Logical Drive.

9. You will receive a message indicating the “Logical Drive was successfully created.” Click

Finish to complete the RAID 1 creation process.

Note: Do not press the Escape key to exit, since this reboots the server.

If applicable, proceed to Configuring the HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 RAID 5 on page 44

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Configuring the HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 RAID 5

This process assumes you are continuing from the RAID 1 creation process.

1. Select Create Array under “Actions”.

2. Select all eight 450GB Drives then select Create Array.

3. Verify the following are selected: RAID 5, 256 KiB / 1.7 MiB Stripe Size, 32 Sectors,

Maximum Size, Caching Enabled.

4. Click Create Logical Drive.

5. You will receive a message indicating the “Logical Drive was successfully created.” Click

Finish to complete the RAID 5 creation process.

6. Click the “X” (top right) to exit. Confirm the exit by clicking “OK” when prompted.

7. Click the “Power” button (top right) to exit. Select “Reboot” when prompted.

Proceed to Installing RHEL and the MCS Software on page 55

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 RAID Configuration

Configuring the HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 RAID 1

If applicable, configure the remaining HD drives in the server enclosure as a RAID Level 5. In a RAID 5, data is automatically distributed across all the disks in the RAID for increased performance and redundancy. This is done using the Option ROM Configuration for Arrays utility, in the HP server’s BIOS.

Note: The RAID configuration process will immediately transition into the Red Hat / MCS installation. It is recommended that you connect your MCS Installation USB drive to the server at this time.

1. Reboot the server and press any key (spacebar recommended) when prompted to

display the HP ProLiant “Option ROM” messages.

Note: Do not press F9 or F11. Press any key other than F9 or F11 (spacebar recommended).

Detailed messages now appear as the server boots up.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

2. As soon as you see the prompt to “Press <F8> to run the Option ROM Configuration for

Arrays Utility”, press F8.

Note: The prompt to press F8 can flash by quite quickly. If you miss it, reboot and try again.

3. From the Main Menu, select Create Logical Drive.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

4. Select the following two HD drives in “Available Physical Drives”:

• Box 1, Bay 1

• Box 1, Bay 2

5. Deselect all the other available HD drives (if any).

6. Ensure RAID 1 is selected in the “RAID Configurations” section.

Note: In older firmware versions, the choice presented may be RAID 1+0. Since you

are only using two HD drives, this is identical to a RAID 1.

7. Ensure Disable (4GB maximum) is selected in the “Maximum Boot partition” section.

8. Ensure nothing is selected in the “Parity Group Count” section.

9. Ensure nothing is selected in the “Spare” section.

10. Press Enter to create the logical drive.

A message appears summarizing the RAID 1 setup.

11. Press F8 to save the configuration.

A message appears confirming the configuration has been saved.

12. Press Enter to finalize the RAID 1 setup.

Note: Do not press the Escape key to exit, since this reboots the server.

If applicable, proceed to Configuring the HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 RAID 5 on page 48

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Configuring the HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 RAID 5

This process assumes you are continuing from the RAID 1 creation process.

1. From the Main Menu, select Create Logical Drive.

2. Select the drives to be included in the RAID 5 in the “Available Physical Drives” section.

• Box 1 Bays 3-8 (typical configuration)

3. Ensure RAID 5 is selected in the “RAID Configurations” section.

4. Ensure Disable (4GB maximum) is selected in the “Maximum Boot partition” section.

5. Ensure nothing is selected in the “Parity Group Count” section.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

6. Ensure nothing is selected in the “Spare” section.

7. Press Enter to create the logical drive.

A message appears summarizing the RAID 5 setup.

8. Press F8 to save the configuration.

A message appears confirming the configuration has been saved.

9. Press Enter to finalize the RAID 5.

10. Press ESC to reboot the system.

Proceed to Installing RHEL and the MCS Software on page 55

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Dell PowerEdge R620 / R630 RAID Configuration

Verifying the PowerEdge Dell R620 / 630 RAID Configuration:

The Dell R620 / R630 servers ship with preconfigured RAID 1 and RAID 5 arrays. In this step you verify the RAID configuration through the BIOS. Later you will use RHEL to ensure the RAID arrays are cleared of existing data.

Two of the HD drives in the server are configured as a RAID Level 1 – a mirrored RAID – where the RHEL and MCS software will be installed.

If applicable, the remaining drives in the server enclosure will be configured as a RAID Level 5. In a RAID 5 data is automatically distributed across all the disks in the RAID for increased performance and redundancy.

Note: The RAID configuration process will immediately transition into the Red Hat / MCS installation. If you do not already have the MCS Installation USB drive connected, connect it to the server at this time.

1. (if necessary) Reboot the server and press F2 to enter the BIOS.

2. From the main System Setup screen, select Device Settings.

3. From the Device Settings menu, select Integrated RAID Controller Configuration Utility.

4. From the Configuration Options menu, select Virtual Disk Management.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

5. From the Virtual Disk Management menu, select View Disk Properties.

This window lists the configured RAID Groups on the server. You should see both a RAID 1 set and a RAID 5 set.

Note: If the preconfigured RAID arrays do not exist, see

Controller in Appendix A for information on creating the RAID.

Working with the Dell RAID

6. From the Configuration Options menu, select Controller Management.

7. From the Controller Management menu, select Change Controller Properties.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

8. Ensure the Set Bootable Device pull-down menu is configured for Virtual Disk 0: RAID 1

9. Return to the main System Setup screen.

10. Click Finish to reboot the system.

Proceed to Installing RHEL and the MCS Software on page 55

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

PART III: SOFTWARE INSTAL LATION AND PREPARATION

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Chapter Overview

Installing RHEL and the MCS Software

5 min Provides some introductory information on the installation process.

Special Instructions for Dell Servers

10 min

Covers the deletion of any existing partitions on the Dell RAID arrays prior to

MCS Software Deployment

30 min

Covers the actual installation of RHEL and MCS.

4 Booting RHEL for the First Time

5 min

Covers keyboard layout configuration and a process for changing the default

Network Configuration

30 min Guides you through the configuration of all network-related settings.

Configure Date and Time Settings

15 min Configuration of Date, Time, Time Zone and NTP settings.

7 Creating the File Cache on the RAID

15 min If a RAID 5 array is used, this step finalizes the creation of the RAID 5.

8 Enable / Disable 3G and Edge Streams

2 min Instructions for enabling / disabling 3G and Edge streams.

9 Copying Software to the MCS Server

varies

While RHEL and MCS software is installed by the MCS Installation USB drive,

Security Updates

15 min

Information regarding Security Updates for RHEL.

Install Software Patches

15 min A reminder to install available software patches.

The purpose of this chapter is to assist you with the installation and configuration of the system software.

The following table describes the topics covered in this chapter.

Step Task Time Est.

the installation of RHEL and MCS.

‘root’ user password.

additional software might be required.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Installing RHEL and the MCS Software

This process will step you through the installation and configuration of an MCS server.

Caution: If you are in the process of upgrading from an earlier version of MCS — called ICS in earlier releases — it is a fresh install, and will overwrite your current ICS settings and databases.

Before proceeding with the upgrade, back up your current settings:

 Database: The ICS settings and database using the backup script (system-backup.sh)

provided. See

 SSL Private Key(s): If you deployment makes use of CA-signed certificates, back up

private(s), regardless of the upgrade path.

 Corosync Configuration File: If you configured ICS 1.4.x for unicast, you made changes to

the corosync configuration (corosync.conf) file. The installation script overwrites this file. To preserve your changes, back up the file before beginning the upgrade, and restore it after.

Note: For workflow details on upgrading to MCS 2.4 from an earlier release, see the MCS 2.4 Upgrading Guide, available from the Avid Knowledge Base

Backing up the MCS System Settings on page 139.

MCS 2.4 web page.

How to proceed:

 If you are installing MCS on a Dell server, additional steps are required during the server

imaging process. Proceed to Special Instructions for Dell Servers on page 56

(the next

page).

 If you are installing MCS on an HP server, proceed directly to MCS Software

Deployment on page 60.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Special Instructions for Dell Servers

Dell servers are generally shipped with preconfigured RAID 1 and RAID 5 arrays. These RAID sets include partitions that can interfere with the kickstart assisted software deployment. The partitions must be deleted prior to starting the installation.

Deleting and recreating the RAID sets using the DELL BIOS utility does not erase data, nor does it delete existing partitions. That is, deleting a RAID does not delete the partition table — unless you initialize the disk at the same time. However, initializing the disk is a slow process.

In this procedure, you boot from the MCS Installation USB Drive and launch a RHEL “rescue” session in order to examine the current system partitions and delete them.

If you are installing MCS on an HP server, proceed to MCS Software Deployment on page 60

1. Boot from the MCS Installation USB drive.

2. At the RHEL Welcome screen, select “Rescue Installed System”.

3. When prompted choose the language and keyboard.

4. Choose “Hard drive” as the rescue method. For the purposes of booting from a RHEL image,

the USB drive is considered a hard drive.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

5. Select the “/dev/sda1” partition (the USB drive). Leave the “Directory holding image” field

blank.

6. Select No in the Setup Networking window; as networking is not needed at this time.

7. Select “Skip” in the Rescue window.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

8. At the next screen, choose “shell Start shell” and select Ok.

9. At the system prompt, use the RHEL fdisk utility to examine the current partitions:

fdisk -cul

This command will display the available disks and partitions on the system. Use Shift-Pg Up and Shift-Pg Down to view the entire output, since scroll bars will not be present in the rescue shell.

In this case “sda” should be the USB boot drive, “sdb” should be the RAID 1 volume and “sdc” should be the RAID 5 volume.

The following example shows information for “sdb” with three partitions (sdb1, sdb2, sdb3):

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500074307584 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60797 cylinders, total 97670732 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0xc755f5b0

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 2048 1026047 512000 83 Linux /dev/sdb2 1026048 42051583 20512768 8e Linux LVM /dev/sdb3 42051584 976707583 467328000 8e Linux LVM

Additional entries for the filesystem (sdb4, sdb5) could be possible. Example:

Disk /dev/sdb: 598.9 GB, 598879502336 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 72809 cylinders, total 11696828 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x930a8a0e

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 2048 1026047 512000 83 Linux /dev/sdb2 1026048 2050047 512000 83 Linux /dev/sdb3 2050048 43075583 20512768 8e Linux LVM /dev/sdb4 43075584 1169686527 563305472 5 Extended /dev/sdb5 43077632 1169686527 563304448 8e Linux LVM

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

You will need to delete the any partitions on the RAID 1 volume and the RAID 5 volume (if applicable). This process will assume “sdb” is the RAID 1 and “sdc” is the RAID 5.

10. Use the RHEL fdisk utility to select the sdb volume:

fdisk /dev/sdb

11. Type: p to print the current filesystem partition table. This will show you a similar output

as the fdisk –cul command you used earlier.

12. Type: d to begin deleting the partitions.

13. You will be prompted to specify the partition to delete. Example: 1

Partition number (1-4): 1

14. Repeat the above two steps to delete the remaining “sdb” partitions.

15. Once complete, type p to print the partition table again. An empty partition table should

look like the following:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

16. Type: w to write the changes to the partition table and exit the utility.

17. If you have a RAID 5 volume, repeat this process by specifying the RAID 5 “sdc” partition:

fdisk /dev/sdc

18. Repeat the above steps and type w to write the changes to the partition table and exit the

utility.

19. Verify that the partitions on sdb and sdc (if applicable) were successfully removed using the

RHEL fdisk utility:

fdisk -cul

20. Reboot the server by selecting CTRL-ALT-DEL. You will again boot from the USB Installation

drive. The correct partitions and filesystems will be created automatically during the installation. Proceed to MCS Software Deployment on page 60

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

MCS Software Deployment

This process will install both RHEL and MCS from the MCS Installation USB drive.

1. Ensure the MCS Installation USB drive is connected to the server and reboot if necessary

Note: For HP installs, an error message may appear: "[Firmware Bug]: the BIOS has corrupted hw-PMU resources". This error can be ignored.

2. Wait for the RHEL Welcome screen to appear.

Note: It has been reported that under some circumstances the installation bypasses the RHEL Welcome screen. This will not affect the install process. The correct installation choice is always selected by default.

3. If you are installing on an HP ProLiant Gen9 server, install the RHEL driver to enable

RHEL support for the storage controller before proceeding:

a. Press the Esc key to open the RHEL boot shell.

b. At the boot shell, type the following:

linux dd

c. In the dialog that appears, confirm that you have a driver disk.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

d. The installer may prompt you to specify the location of the update. Select the

device name indicating the MCS Installation USB drive (e.g sda). Similarly specify the partition on the device (e.g. sda1).

e. Select the driver and select OK:

z_dd-hpsa-18216-x86_64.iso

f. When prompted for more drivers, select No.

The driver is updated, and the installation process continues as described below.

4. Select “Install Red Hat with ICS” to install a new MCS and press Enter.

Note: If you are upgrading your system, do not use the “Upgrade” option. For upgrading instructions, see the ”MCS 2.4 Upgrading Guide”.

The RHEL and MCS packages are installed—this takes about 20 minutes.

Note: Regarding the following error message:

Unable to download kickstart file

If you see this message, it could indicate that the partition where the installation program expects to find the kickstart file (sda) is already in use. The most likely cause is a KVM with “virtual media” capability reserving the sda partition to facilitate the mapping of removable drives to the attached server.

To resolve the issue, disable the virtual media capability. Alternately, unplug the KVM and connect to the server directly using an external monitor and USB keyboard.

5. If you just created the RAIDs a warning screen appears indicating a device (i.e. the

RAIDs) needs to be reinitialized. This is normal. Select Re-Initialize All.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

6. The RHEL installation proceeds.

When you see the “Post-Installation” message, it indicates the MCS installation scripts are being executed.

7. When the installation process is complete, you are prompted to reboot. DO NOT

REBOOT before removing the MCS Installation USB drive.

If you reboot without removing the USB drive the server will reboot from the USB drive again and re-launch the installer.

Note: If you pressed Enter by mistake, remove the USB drive as quickly as possible (before the system boots up again). If this is not possible, you need to perform the installation again.

8. Once the MCS Installation USB drive is removed, press Enter to reboot the server.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Booting RHEL for the First Time

Booting from the System Drive

Like many operating systems, when you boot RHEL for the first time, you will be asked to provide some basic information. A RHEL “first boot” causes the RHEL Configuration screen to appear, providing access to system set-up menus.

Note: The first boot set-up menu can be accessed at any time by typing “setup” (without quotes) at the Linux command prompt.

Note: Some MCS software components depend on the language for RHEL being set to English. This is done automatically by the MCS installation scripts. Do not change the input language afterwards.

1. From the Choose a Tool menu, arrow down to select “Keyboard Configuration” and

press Enter.

2. In the Keyboard Selection menu, use the arrows to select the appropriate language for

your keyboard.

Note: Selecting a language for the keyboard is different from the language selected for RHEL. While selecting a different language for the keyboard is supported, the RHEL language must remain as English.

3. Press the Tab key to focus on the OK button and press Enter.

4. Press the Tab key to focus on the Quit button and press Enter.

The first boot set-up menu can be accessed at any time by typing “setup” (without quotes) at the Linux command prompt.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Changing the

root

Password

The RHEL installation script configures a default password for the root user (the Linux user with administrator privileges). For security reasons, it is strongly suggested that you change the password for the root user at the earliest opportunity.

To change the root password:

1. Log in a the Linux prompt

Default user name: root

Default password: Avid123

2. While logged in as the root user type the Linux change password command:

passwd

3. Follow the prompts to change the password.

If you do not enter a strong password, RedHat will warn you that the password is bad. This could be because you have entered a password based on a word in the dictionary. While this warning can be ignored, Avid suggests using strong passwords.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Network Configuration

Verify DNS

MCS servers support both static and dynamic (DHCP) IP addressing. Static addressing is the Avid recommended method for any MCS server and is a requirement for any MCS cluster deployment.

Normally, on a server with multiple network interfaces (i.e. Ethernet connectors), each interface has its own IP address. However, MCS servers in Interplay MAM can benefit from port bonding (a.k.a. teaming), in which several network interfaces appear as a single IP address. Port bonding is supported in MCS for MAM deployments only. For more information, see

Configuring Port Bonding for Interplay MAM.

Under the Linux operating system, every physical network connector, called an interface in Linux, has a name. By default, when installing RHEL, the installer scans the NIC cards in the machine and labels the interfaces it finds, in the order it finds them.

 HP Servers: Each interface in an HP server is labeled “ethx”, where ‘x’ is an incremental

number starting with zero. Example: eth0, eth1, eth2 and so on. This naming convention is true for both onboard and add-in (PCIe) network adapters.

 Dell Onboard: The Dell onboard interfaces are similar to the HP in that each interface is

labeled as “emx”, where ‘x’ is an incremental number starting with one. Example: em1, em2, em3 and so on. This naming convention only applies to the onboard 1 Gb interfaces.

Appendix B:

 Dell PCIe Slots: The PCIe slots in a Dell are labeled as “p1p1” (slot 1) and “p2p1” (slot 2). If

you are using a 10 Gb network adapter in the Dell, it will be assigned one of these labels; depending upon where you added the card (either slot is acceptable).

Note: This installation guide will use “eth0 as the default example for many commands. If you are using a Dell server, make sure to substitute “eth0”with the correct interface name for your deployment. In general on a Dell, these should be “em1” or “p1p1”.

Note: To obtain a list of the NICs installed in your system, enter the following in a Linux command prompt: lspci | grep net

The Avid MCS implementation on RHEL is not configured to automatically register in DNS. Work with your onsite IT Department to manually enter each MCS server in both Forward and Reverse DNS.

If you will be configuring an MCS cluster, the cluster’s virtual IP and hostname should also be entered in DNS.

From a Windows system, the “nslookup” command can be used in a command prompt to check the DNS records directly.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Identifying NIC Interfaces and Connecting the Network Cable

RHEL provides a simple means for visually identifying the NIC ports on a server, whether they are active or not. The ethtool command can be used to cause ports to blink for a pre-determined amount of time.

To visually identify a NIC Interface:

1. Use the Linux ethtool command, identify your primary network interface by causing it to

blink for 60 seconds:

ethtool --identify <interface name> 60

Where <interface name> is the name of the interface you want to identify.

• For HP servers, this is: eth0

• For Dell servers using a 1 Gb connection, this is: em1

• For Dell servers using a 10 Gb connection, this is: p1p1 or p2p1

Example:

ethtool -–identify eth0 60

Note the use of the double-dash in the identify command. In Linux, a single- or doubledash distinguishes options from arguments. A double-dash often precedes a word (i.e. human readable) option.

2. Connect your network cable at this time.

a. If you are on a Dell server, connect your network cable to the interface that

flashed for “em1”, “p1p1” or “p2p1”.

Skip to Ensuring the NIC Interface Comes Up at System Startup on page 74

b. If you are on an HP server and will be connecting through a 1 Gb connection to a

supported onboard NIC, connect your network cable to the interface that flashed for “eth0”.

Skip to Ensuring the NIC Interface Comes Up at System Startup on page 74

c. If you are on an HP server and will be connecting through 10 Gb connection,

connect the fibre cable to the PCIe card.

Proceed to (HP Only) Verifying the NIC Interface Name on page 67

d. If you are on an HP server and will be connecting through a 1 Gb connection to

an add-in 1 Gb NIC, “eth0” may or may not have flashed on that card. If the above command made “eth0” flash on the add-in card, connect your cable to the port that flashed. If the above command made “eth0” flash on the onboard adapter, connect the network cable to the first port (far left) of the add-in card and repeat the identify command to determine the name of the port you are connected to (you will need this information in the following step).

Proceed to (HP Only) Verifying the NIC Interface Name on page 67

3. If needed, repeat the above to identify additional ports.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

(HP Only) Verifying the NIC Interface Name

(HP Only) Swapping NIC Interface Names

In an HP server, Avid assumes that interface “eth0” will be used. Since all interfaces in an HP server are named “ethx”, additional steps need to be taken to ensure “eth0” is used.

To verify the NIC interface name:

1. Enter the RHEL Configuration screens by typing the following at the command prompt:

setup

2. From the Choose a Tool menu, select Network Configuration. Press Enter.

3. From the Network Configuration menu, select Device Configuration. Press Enter.

A list of NIC cards contained in the server enclosure appears.

4. Make note of the name associated with your interface. If necessary, use the arrow keys

to move up and down the list.

In the above example, a 10 Gb card has been placed in the server. It is currently assigned “eth4”, but we will want to change that to “eth0”.

5. Note the name assigned to the interface of interest (e.g. eth0, eth1, ethn).

6. Perform the actions required at each menu (Cancel, Quit, Exit, etc.) to return to the

Linux prompt.

If your interface of interest was not already named “eth0”, you will need to rename it. You will also rename the NIC interface currently using the name “eth0”.

1. Edit the network script where persistent names are assigned to network interfaces:

vi /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

Note: A server with just one installed NIC card does not have a 70-persistent-net.rules file by

default. If the file is missing for any reason, it can be created using the following command: udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=net

The output may look similar to the following. Note that in the example below, the 10Gb Myricom card has been assigned “eth4”. In this scenario, you will want to swap the names for “eth0” and “eth4” so that the desired Myricom board is renamed “eth0”.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

# PCI device 0x14e4:0x1657 (tg3) SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*",

ATTR{address}=="ac:16:2d:74:1b:58", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth0"

# PCI device 0x14e4:0x1657 (tg3) SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*",

ATTR{address}=="ac:16:2d:74:1b:59", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth1"

# PCI device 0x14e4:0x1657 (tg3) SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*",

ATTR{address}=="ac:16:2d:74:1b:5a", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth2"

# PCI device 0x14e4:0x1657 (tg3) SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*",

ATTR{address}=="ac:16:2d:74:1b:5b", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth3"

# PCI device 0x14c1:0x0008 (myri10ge) SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*",

ATTR{address}=="00:60:dd:45:14:50", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth4"

2. Locate the lines corresponding to the NIC card you want to name eth0 and the one

already using the name.

Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to navigate the file.

3. Press the A key to append to the end of the line:

NAME="eth0"

4. Change NAME="ethX" (e.g. eth1, eth2, etc.) to the following:

NAME="eth0"

5. Locate the line corresponding to the NIC card that was already using the name eth0 and

rename it:

NAME="ethX"

where “X” is the number you removed in step 5 (e.g. eth1, eth2, etc.); that is, swap the names.

6. Save and exit the vi session. Press <ESC> and type:

:wq

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

(HP Only) Removing the MAC Address Hardware References

In addition to renaming the NIC interface, you will also need to remove the hardware references – generally known as MAC addresses – from the affected NIC interface configuration files.

For each card where you renamed a NIC interface, edit the corresponding interface configuration file and remove the hardware identifier. Otherwise, Linux will override the changes you made earlier and reassign the old interface names the next time it boots (or you restart the Linux network services).

1. Using the Linux text editor, vi, open the interface configuration file for one of the

renamed interfaces (e.g. ifcfg-eth0):

vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

In Linux, each NIC interface has its own configuration file.

2. Locate the line containing the hardware identifier. It has the following form:

HWADDR = 00:00:00:00:00:00

3. Position the cursor on the HWADDR line and press “dd” to remove it. That is tap the

lower case letter D twice.

4. Save and exit the vi session. Press <ESC> and type:

:wq

5. Repeat the above steps for the other NIC interface you renamed (e.g. ethX).

6. Once you have finished removing the hardware references for both the renamed NIC

interfaces, reboot the server to restart the network services and make the effects permanent:

reboot

The MAC addresses will refresh automatically after the reboot.

7. Once the system has rebooted, log back into RHEL.

Note: Changing the contents of the /etc/udev/rules.d file requires a reboot rather than simply restarting network service.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Configuring the Hostname and Static Network Route

This process will assume the configuration of a static IP address is desired.

1. Enter the RHEL Configuration screens by typing the following at the command prompt:

setup

2. From the Choose a Tool menu, select Network Configuration. Press Enter.

3. From the Network Configuration menu, select Device Configuration. Press Enter.

A list of NIC cards contained in the server enclosure appears.

4. Use the arrow keys to locate the primary interface (eth0, em1 or p1p1). Press Enter to

view its details.

Note: If you configured port bonding for an Interplay MAM integration, your primary interface may be called “bond0”. For more information on port bonding, see Appendix B.

5. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is the default option. Arrow down to the

“Use DHCP” line and press the spacebar to deselect it.

6. Enter the following information:

 Static IP address  Netmask (Subnet)

Note: All MCS servers in a cluster must be in the same subnet.

 Default gateway IP  Primary DNS server  Secondary DNS server (if applicable)

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

7. Arrow or Tab down to the OK button and press Enter.

You are returned to the list of NIC cards in the enclosure.

8. Select Save and press Enter.

9. From the Choose a Tool menu, select DNS Configuration. Press Enter.

10. Enter the following information for the DNS Configuration:

 Enter the hostname

This should be entered as the short hostname only (e.g. wavd-mcs01) and not the

fully qualified domain name (FQDN) (e.g. wavd-mcs01-wavd.com).

Note: Hostnames should comply with “RFC 952” standards. Hostnames can be up to

24 characters, but Avid recommends keeping it under 15 characters. Hostnames

can contain numbers, but never begin a hostname with a number. The only “special

character” allowed in a hostname is a dash “ - “. Underscores are not allowed.

 Primary DNS server  Secondary DNS server (if applicable)  Tertiary DNS server (if applicable)  DNS search path

11. Select Save & Quit. Press Enter.

12. Select Quit. Press Enter.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Verifying the

hosts

File Contents

The hosts file is used by the operating system to map hostnames to IP addresses. It allows network transactions on the computer to resolve the right targets on the network when the instructions carry a “people-friendly” hostname (e.g. wavd-mcs01) rather than an IP address (e.g. 192.XXX.XXX.XXX). Querying and waiting for a response from a DNS server can be slow due to network latency. The hosts file assists in quickly resolving hostnames to IPs which is

particularly important for clustered configurations.

By default the hosts file on a computer resolves the machine’s own IP address to localhost. In this step, you verify the content of the hosts file, and remove any extra entries, if present. In addition, since the active hosts file can be reset to its default configuration when a server fails or is rebooted you also verify the system default hosts file.

1. Using the following command, open the active hosts (/etc/hosts) file for editing:

vi /etc/hosts

It should look similar to the following:

127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4 ::1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6

In this example, the default IP address of 127.0.0.1 is mapped to various forms of localhost, for both ipv4 and ipv6 systems.

In some cases, the entries include an explicit call-out of the computer’s own host name (e.g. wavd-mcs01):

127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4 wavd-mcs01 ::1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6 wavd-mcs01

Note: In a cluster the explicit call-out of the computer’s own host name is particularly problematic. If this entry remains unaltered, another node querying "wavd-mcs01" for its IP address would receive "127.0.0.1" in response. The querying node would send messages to itself instead of to the real "wavd-mcs01", and clustering would not function normally.

2. If the computer’s own host name is present (e.g. wavd-mcs01), remove it:

127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4 ::1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6

3. If you will be configuring an MCS cluster, you will want to add the IP addresses, FQDN

and hostnames of each of the cluster nodes and the virtual cluster.

For a four node cluster, for example, you would add five lines similar to the following:

127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4 ::1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6

192.168.10.50 wavd-mcs.wavd.com wavd-mcs

192.168.10.51 wavd-mcs01.wavd.com wavd-mcs01

192.168.10.52 wavd-mcs02.wavd.com wavd-mcs02

192.168.10.53 wavd-mcs03.wavd.com wavd-mcs03

192.168.10.54 wavd-mcs04.wavd.com wavd-mcs04

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Verifying the Contents of resolv.conf and nsswitch.conf

Note: It is a good idea to declare the nodes in the hosts file in order of latency, ascending. Run a ping command to each node and add the lines to the file in order of the ping return. For example, if node-2 returns a ping after 30ms and node-3 after 20ms, put in the line for node-3 before node-2.

4. Save and exit the vi session. Press <ESC> and type:

:wq

5. If you made changes, verify that the system default hosts file reflects the changes.

cat /etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/default/hosts

If necessary, “vi” can be used to edit the file to match the changes you made to toe master hosts file.

Verifying the resolv.conf file:

The resolv.conf file contains your DNS and domain information.

1. Verify the DNS Server information has been stored in the RHEL resolver configuration

(resolv.conf) file:

cat /etc/resolv.conf

The DNS servers and DNS search path should be present in the file.

Using the vi editor, one or more additional search domains can be entered if necessary. The search list is limited to six domains with a total of 256 characters. The file should look something like:

nameserver <IP address of server1> (Primary DNS server)

nameserver <IP address of server2> (Secondary DNS server)

search domain1.com domain2.com (multiple domain names separated by a

single space or tab can be entered)

2. Delete any backup resolver configuration (resolv.conf.save) file that might have been

automatically created by the OS:

rm /etc/resolv.conf.save

Note: Due to a caveat in Linux, if you do not delete the resolv.conf.save file, when you reboot, Linux overwrites the changes you just made.

Verifying the nsswitch.conf file:

Avid adjusts the nsswitch.conf file to instruct RHEL to prefer the local hosts file over DNS. In cluster configurations, this ensures that there is no latency when attempting to discover the cluster nodes.

1. Type:

cat /etc/nsswitch.conf | grep hosts

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Ensuring the NIC Interface Comes Up at System Startup

The system outputs the lines containing the string “hosts”, similar to the following:

#hosts: db files nisplus nis dns hosts: files dns

In the second line, ensure the word “files” comes before the word “dns”.

2. If “files” does not appear before “dns”, use the vi editor to reverse the priority order.

In this step you verify that the primary network interface is set to come up when the system boots.

1. Using the Linux text editor, vi, open the interface configuration file for eth0 for editing:

vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

Note: If you are on a Dell server, remember to substitute “em1”, “p1p1” for “eth0”.

2. When you open the file for editing, it should look something like this:

DEVICE=eth0 HWADDR=00:60:dd:45:15:11 TYPE=Ethernet UUID= ONBOOT=yes NM_CONTROLLED=no DHCP_HOSTNAME=’$HOSTNAME’ BOOTPROTO=none IPADDR=192.169.10.51 NETMASK=255.255.255.0 DNS1=192.169.10.10 DNS2=192.169.10.20 GATEWAY=192.168.10.1 USERCTL=no IPV6INIT=no

3. Ensure that the ONBOOT entry is set to “yes”. If it is not, the interface will not be active

after rebooting the server.

4. Save and exit the vi session. Press <ESC> and type:

:wq

5. Reboot the MCS server:

reboot

Note: You are asked to reboot at this time to ensure that all networking changes are active and the system comes up as expected. If you do not reboot, some of the steps in the next procedure will fail.

6. Once the system has rebooted, log back into RHEL.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Verifying Hostname, Network and DNS Connectivity

Before continuing, take a moment to verify that the server’s hostname responds as expected and that network connectivity is now established.

To verify the hostname:

1. Verify the short hostname. In the RHEL command prompt, type:

hostname

The short hostname (e.g. wavd-mcs01) should be print to the screen.

2. Verify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN). In the RHEL command prompt, type:

hostname -f

The fully qualified hostname (e.g. wavd-mcs01.wavd.com) should be print to the screen.

If you do not receive the expected output, verify your hosts file and the resolv.conf file.

To verify network connectivity:

1. Use the ping command to verify connectivity to your network gateway address.

ping –c 4 <Gateway IP address>

“ping” is the command. “-c 4” is the count of how many times the ping command is issued. If you do not specify a count, ping will continue forever. In that event, press CTRL-C to stop the ping. Example:

[root@wavd-mcs01 ~]# ping -c 4 192.168.10.1 PING 192.168.10.1 (192.168.10.1) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from 192.168.10.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.362 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.10.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=0.330 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.10.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=0.302 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.10.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=0.804 ms

2. Now use the ping command to test the connection to host servers in your network.

Examples of host servers could be: Interplay Production Engines, ISIS servers, iNEWS servers, etc. This will not only test connection to the host server, but also verifies DNS.

ping –c 4 <hostname>

3. Verify the same test, this time by pinging the host servers by IP address.

Note: Now that you have configured and verified the connection to the network, you can now switch to using an indirect method for configuring the server. For more information refer back to

Accessing the MCS Server(s) on page 15.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Configure Date and Time Settings

Setting the Time Zone

Ensuring that the date, time and time zone are correct on each MCS server is critical to a successful implementation. This process will walk you through configuring the above values as well as setting a Network Time Protocol (NTP) source for continued time synchronization.

If you do not have an NTP server already configured, see your local IT Department about creating one prior to continuing with this process. Maintaining time synchronization between MCS servers and host systems (ISIS, Interplay Production, etc) is critical. Maintaining time synchronization between nodes in an MCS cluster configuration is particularly critical.

1. The installation script sets the default location to “America/New_York”. Verify this by

viewing the contents of the Linux “clock” file.

cat /etc/sysconfig/clock

If the US/Eastern time zone is appropriate for your installation, skip this process. Otherwise, continue…

2. List the contents of the directory containing RHEL time zone information:

ls /usr/share/zoneinfo

A list of time zone regions is presented. For example:

US time zones are located in: /usr/share/zoneinfo/US (standard US time zones)

European time zones are located in: /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe

And so on...

3. List the contents of the directory that are specific to your location. Example:

ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/US

4. Make note of the time zone name that relates to your installation.

5. Edit the clock file to reflect the correct time zone for your installation.

vi /etc/sysconfig/clock

Example: Replace zone="America/New_York" with zone="US/Pacific"

6. Save and exit the vi session. Press <ESC> and type: :wq

7. Create the symbolic link RHEL needs to make use of the new time zone information:

ln –sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/<yourzone> /etc/localtime

In the above command, <yourzone> is the path you entered in the clock file (e.g. US/Pacific).

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Synching the System Clock

Note: Creating a symbolic link is more robust than copying. For example, the files in

/usr/share/zoneinfo contain daylight saving time (DST) information. A symbolic link allows your system to automatically accommodate changes to DST practices that might arise in the future. Such changes would be propagated through RHEL updates to the /usr/share/zoneinfo files.

8. Verify the settings using the date command:

date

The local time and time zone should now be shown.

In this step you set the Network Time Protocol (NTP) daemon to automatically synchronize the system clock with an NTP time server every 30 minutes. This is done by creating a job for the Linux cron utility. The cron job runs the NTP daemon, ntpd.

Note: Setting up ntpd to run as a service at startup is also a possibility. However, some consider it a security risk to run ntpd in “continuous” mode. The technique shown here keeps the system clock synchronized while minimizing exposure to risk by causing ntpd to exit after it fetches the correct time.

Note: The use of the iburst option within the cron job is not recommended. It produces very rapid time shifts and can lead to synchronization problems.

1. Verify the current date and time with the date command. Type: date

2. This process will verify connectivity to the NTP server. Change the date and time so that the

clock is 10 minutes behind the correct time of day.

date MMDDHHmmYYYY

Note: If you set the clock more than 1000ms (~17min) off from your NTP server, the time may not update.

3. Check the status of the ntpd service. Type:

If the service is running, stop the service. Type:

service ntpd status

service ntpd stop

4. Verify that the NTP server of interest is reachable by querying it:

ntpdate -q <ntp_server_address>

Example output:

server 192.168.10.25, stratum 3, offset 468.746036, delay 0.02585 1 Jan 13:05:00 ntpdate[7554]: step time server 192.168.10.25 offset

468.746036 sec

5. Edit the NTP configuration (ntp.conf) file:

vi /etc/ntp.conf

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

6. Scroll down to the section of the file that details the NTP servers and place a ‘#’ symbol in

front of any existing NTP servers to comment them out. For example:

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

7. Update the file with the NTP information for your configuration. Updated example:

# server 0.rhel.pool.ntp.org # server 1.rhel.pool.ntp.org # server 2.rhel.pool.ntp.org server 192.168.10.25 server 192.168.10.26

Save and exit the vi session. Press <ESC> and type: :wq

9. Set up a cron job by creating a new file containing instructions for cron:

vi /etc/cron.d/ntpd

10. Add a line with the instructions for cron:

0,30 * * * * root /usr/sbin/ntpd -q -u ntp:ntp

The command above instructs cron to:

• Run the cron job every 30 minutes as root.

“0,30” is a comma-separated list (i.e. run at 0 minutes and 30 minutes). “*” is a

special list indicating every value in the list (i.e. every hour, every day of the month,

every month, every day of week).

• The job is /usr/sbin/ntpd

• The -q switch tells ntpd to exit after it sets the system clock

• The -u switch tells Linux to run the job as user ntp, in user group ntp

The general form of the cron command is the following:

# Minute Hour Day of Month Month Day of Week # (0-59) (0-23) (1-31) (1-12 or Jan-Dec) (0-6 or Sun-Sat)

11. Save and exit the vi session. Press <ESC> and type: :wq

12. Once again, verify the current date and time. It should be 10 minutes behind the correct

clock.

date

13. Update the system clock now by querying the NTP server with the NTP daemon:

/usr/sbin/ntpd -q -u ntp:ntp

The system responds with a message similar to the following:

ntpd: time set +570.677029s

14. Verify the updated date and time:

date

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Creating the File Cache on the RAID

Partitioning the RAID

If your configuration does not include a RAID 5, continue to one of the following (as appropriate for your installation):

• Configuring MCS for MediaCentral UX and Media Composer Cloud

• Configuring MCS for Interplay MAM

In an earlier step you might have created a RAID 5 for the cache using the “arrays” utility built-in to the server’s BIOS. In this step you will partition the RAID, create a logical volume for the RAID and mount the MCS cache on it.

In this procedure you partition the RAID and write the new partition table entry to disk using the GNU parted disk partitioning utility.

The enclosure contains two devices of interest, the system disk (/dev/sda) and the RAID (/dev/sdb). Partitioning the system disk was performed automatically by the RHEL installer. You only need to partition the RAID, as indicated in this section.

Note: Starting with RHEL 6.3, Red Hat creates a GPT volume when the MCS installation scripts initialize the cache volume during OS installation. GPT volumes must be handled using the GNU parted utility (rather than the Linux fdisk utility).

To partition the RAID:

1. Use the GNU parted utility to ensure the RAID 5 HD device exists:

parted –l

Note: Note the command take a lower-case “L” (not a numerical “one”).

Note: The Linux “fdisk -l” command can also be used to list the devices. However, it

returns the following warning:

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.

2. Find the free space on the /dev/sdb device:

parted /dev/sdb p free

Information similar to the following is displayed:

Model: HP LOGICAL VOLUME (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 2500GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags

17.4kB 2500GB 2500GB Free Space

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Creating the Logical Volume, Filesystem and Mounting the Cache

3. Create a primary partition on the RAID 5 using all the available space (2500 GB in the

sample output provided above):

parted -a optimal /dev/sdb mkpart primary ext2 0% 2500GB

The system might respond with the following message:

Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab

The message can be ignored. You will update fstab when you create the logical volume and mount the cache for the new partition.

4. Set sdb partition one to type logical volume, and its state to on.

parted /dev/sdb set 1 lvm on

5. Run the parted utility again to list your changes:

parted -l

Model: HP LOGICAL VOLUME (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 2500GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags 1 17.4kB 2500GB 2500GB primary lvm

Notice in the above output the partition now has a partition number, is the primary partition, and has a logical volume flag. You create the filesystem in the next step.

In this procedure you work with the newly partitioned RAID 5 using the Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM). The hierarchy of volumes in Linux is as follows: physical volume, volume group and logical volume.

To create the logical volume and mount the cache:

1. Create the physical volume:

pvcreate --metadatasize=64k /dev/sdb1

Note the name of the physical volume (/dev/sdb1) takes a 1 (one).

LVM feedback indicates the successful creation of the physical volume.

2. Create a volume group, vg_ics_cache, containing the physical volume /dev/sdb1:

vgcreate -s 256k -M 2 vg_ics_cache /dev/sdb1

LVM feedback indicates the successful creation of the volume group.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

3. Before creating the logical volume, obtain a value for the volume group’s physical

extents:

vgdisplay vg_ics_cache

A list of properties for the volume groups appear, including the physical extents (Free PE). Physical extents are the chunks of disk space that make up a logical volume.

Sample output is shown below:

--- Volume group -- VG Name vg_ics_cache System ID Format lvm2 Metadata Areas 1 Metadata Sequence No 2 VG Access read/write VG Status resizable MAX LV 0 Cur LV 1 Open LV 1 Max PV 0 Cur PV 1 Act PV 1 VG Size 1.09 TiB PE Size 256.00 KiB Total PE 4578332 Alloc PE / Size 0 / 0 Free PE / Size 4578332 / 1.09 TiB VG UUID cyWpGZ-s3PG-8UqH-4TBl-rvBA-33oJ-3uZt0u

Use the “Free PE” value to create a logical volume occupying the entire volume group (below).

4. Create the logical volume, lv_ics_cache, containing the volume group vg_ics_cache:

lvcreate -l <Free_PEs> -r 1024 -n lv_ics_cache vg_ics_cache

In the above command, replace <Free_PEs> with the value obtained in the previous step. This is the number before the slash in the “Free PE” line. No unit is needed.

For example:

lvcreate -l 4578332 -r 1024 -n lv_ics_cache vg_ics_cache

Note the first switch in lvcreate is lower case “L”.

LVM feedback indicates the successful creation of the logical volume. Note that Linux may override the sector size you specified. That is OK.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

5. Create a filesystem on the logical volume (i.e. format it):

mkfs.ext4 /dev/vg_ics_cache/lv_ics_cache

Note in the above command you specify logical volume by its Linux block device name (/dev/<volume_group>/<logical_volume>).

As in other operating systems, formatting in RHEL is a slow operation. Please be patient.

Feedback similar to the following indicates success:

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 38 mounts or 180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

6. Edit the filesystem table:

vi /etc/fstab

7. Add an entry at the end of the file:

/dev/mapper/vg_ics_cache-lv_ics_cache /cache ext4 rw 0 0

This automates the mapping of the logical volume to a filesystem directory (/cache in this case).

8. Save and exit the vi session. Press <ESC> and type:

:wq

9. Mount the volume:

mount /dev/mapper/vg_ics_cache-lv_ics_cache /cache

Alternately, since you added an entry to fstab, you ought to be able to mount the cache as follows:

mount /cache

Note: If you receive an error indicating the mount point /cache does not exist, create the cache manually and issue the mount command again:

mkdir /cache mount /dev/mapper/vg_ics_cache-lv_ics_cache /cache

10. Verify that /cache has been mounted correctly:

df –h

The following information is displayed about the cache: size, used, available, user % and mount point (mounted on), similar to the following:

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/mapper/vg_ics_cache-lv_ics_cache 29G 585M 27G 3% /cache

11. Verify that /cache has the correct ownership and read-write-exec settings:

ls -la /cache

Information is displayed about the cache ownership, similar to the following:

drwxr-xr-x 5 maxmin maxmin 4096 Oct 16 10:02 .

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Enable / Disable 3G and Edge Streams

12. If the ownership is of /cache is not set to user maxmin, change its ownership:

chown maxmin:maxmin /cache

13. If the /cache directory does not have its read-write-exec settings are not rwx for owner,

group, other, change the permissions:

chmod 0777 /cache

14. Create the following two cache directories:

mkdir /cache/download mkdir /cache/fl_cache

15. Change their ownership to user maxmin:

chown maxmin:maxmin /cache/download chown maxmin:maxmin /cache/fl_cache

16. Change their permissions:

chmod -R 02777 /cache/download chmod -R 02777 /cache/fl_cache

17. Verify that /cache and its subdirectories now have the correct ownership, read-write-

exec settings, and setgid special permission:

ls -la /cache

Updated information is displayed, which ought to be similar to the following:

drwxrwxrwx 5 maxmin maxmin 4096 Mar 22 10:04 .

Note: User maxmin owns the MCS process that writes to the cache. Avid processes will

create subdirectories in /cache, on an as-needed basis. If you are deploying a cluster, you will revisit caching later in the installation to replicate the cluster contents using GlusterFS.

By default, MCS servers encode assets in three different media streams (Wi-Fi, 3G, and Edge) for playback on mobile devices. If your facility intends to connect mobile devices through Wi-Fi only, it is recommended that you disable the 3G and Edge streams, to improve the encoding capacity of the MCS server. If your facility does not intend to connect any mobile devices to the MediaCentral system, this file does not require editing. Mobile media formats are only created if a device running the MediaCentral UX Mobile application connects and attempts to play media.

To Disable 3G and or Edge Streams:

1. Log in as root and edit the following file using a text editor (such as vi):

/usr/maxt/maxedit/share/MPEGPresets/MPEG2TS.mpegpreset

2. In each of the [Edge] and [3G] areas, set the active parameter to active=0.

3. Save and close the file.

To re-enable 3G or Edge, edit the file and reset the “active” value to 1.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Copying Software to the MCS Server

Security Updates

Install Software Patches

Now that the basic RHEL installation is complete, you might need to copy additional software to the MCS server. Common software includes:

 RHEL Security Patches  MCS Software Updates  Closed Captioning Service installer  MAM Connector

For information on how to copy software to an MCS server, see

Server on page 177.

Once you have installed the operating system, please take a moment to resolve any outstanding RHEL security vulnerabilities. For information and links to KB articles with instructions, see the “Security Updates” section in the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services ReadMe.

Avid releases patches for MCS on a regular basis to assist in addressing customer issues and feature requests. Refer to the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services ReadMe for information on current patches and install any available patches at this time.

Copying Software to the MCS

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

PART IV: CONFIGURING MCS

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Chapter Overview

Configuring MCS for MediaCentral UX and Media Composer Cloud

Updating the MediaCentral UX Configuration

2 min

Covers use of the Configurator Tool.

Logging into MediaCentral UX

5 min

Changing the Administrator Password

2 min

For security it is recommended you change the administrator password.

Creating a Second Administrator User

5 min

Helps to ensure you do not get locked out of the interface.

Configuring System Settings

varies

Covers the configuration of the MediaCentral System Settings.

Verifying the System Settings

varies

A process for testing the configured settings.

Configuring Send To Playback Settings

5 min

Configure settings for STP workflows.

Importing Domain Users

5 min

Covers the process of importing Windows Domain Users.

Creating Local Users and Assigning Roles

varies

Information on creating local users and role assignments.

Continuing the Installation

1 min

Suggestions for additional steps to continue your installation.

This chapter is divided into two main sections. Proceed to the section appropriate for your installation:

- Configuring MCS for MediaCentral UX and Media Composer Cloud

o This section includes information on multiple workflows such as iNEWS, Interplay

Production, Media Composer Could, Send To Playback, etc. Read and apply the sections appropriate for your installation.

- Configuring MCS for Interplay MAM

The following table describes the topics covered in this chapter.

Step Task Time Est.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Configuring MCS for Interplay MAM

1 Configuring MCS for Interplay MAM

10 min

Configure MCS to mount the filesystems on which Interplay MAM

Step Task Time Est.

browse proxies reside.

Configure Interplay MAM to use the MCS server or server cluster

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Configuring MCS for MediaCentral UX and Media Composer Cloud

Updating the MediaCentral UX Configuration

MCPS

iNEWS

Interplay

Media

MediaCentral & Media Standard MediaCentral

OFF

Interplay Production Only

OFF

Now that you have installed and configured the operating system, you are ready to configure the software and settings specific to MediaCentral.

As a reminder, if you are running a cluster, complete this section on the master node only (unless instructed otherwise). Settings will be replicated to the other nodes during the cluster configuration process.

By default, the MediaCentral UX user interface contains functionality for all the MCS solutions it supports. Functions that are not required for your installation should be removed. If you are configuring a cluster, this step only needs to be completed on the master and slave nodes, but it is good practice to run the configurator on all nodes. This step can be completed on all nodes concurrently.

1. Start the configurator by typing the following at the Linux prompt:

/opt/avid/avid-interplay-central/configurator

The configuration UI appears.

Note:

Media Distribute (not shown) appears in the Configurator UI only if it has been

installed on the system (through a separate installer).

2. Select the appropriate application profile settings.

The following table outlines typical settings by deployment type:

Settings

Production

Distribute

ON ON ON ON

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

MCPS

iNEWS

Interplay

Media

Media Composer Cloud

OFF

Interplay MAM

OFF

iNEWS Only

OFF

Logging into MediaCentral UX

Settings

Production

Distribute

For example, for an iNEWS-only deployment without video playback, you would enable iNEWS and disable MCPS Settings and Interplay Production.

Note what each selection controls:

• MCPS Settings: Toggles the MCPS group in the System Settings layout. This

group provides access to the Load Balancer, Playback Services and Player settings details pages.

• iNEWS: Toggles the iNEWS settings group.

• Interplay Production: Toggles the Interplay Production settings group.

• Media Distribute: Toggles the Interplay Media Distribute layout.

3. Use the Up and Down arrow keys to move between the options, Left and Right arrow

keys to move between OK and Cancel, SPACEBAR to toggle the asterisks, and press Enter to confirm.

• Asterisk = enabled

• No Asterisk = disabled

Now when you access MediaCentral UX, the UI will be correctly configured for your deployment.

MCS servers are configured using the MediaCentral UX System Settings. This process is completed through the use of a web browser such as Google Chrome.

Note: If you are configuring a cluster, you configure the MediaCentral UX System Settings once on the master node only. Do not configure these settings on slave or load balancing nodes. The other nodes inherit settings from the master through the clustering mechanisms. Complete all remaining sections of this chapter on the Master node only.

1. Launch a supported web browser or use the MediaCentral UX Desktop application to

access MediaCentral UX.

Supported browsers include: Google Chrome or Safari (on Mac OS).

2. Enter the URL of the MCS server in the address bar:

• https://<hostname> where <hostname> is the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN),

the short host name, or the IP address of the MCS server.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

The MediaCentral UX sign-in screen appears.

In place of the sign-in screen, you might see a warning indicating the connection is not private. The warning relates to SSL certificates.

For the purposes of installing and configuring MediaCentral UX, ignore the warning:

- Click Advanced and then the Proceed to <MediaCentral URL> (unsafe) link.

In older versions of Chrome (previous to release 37), the following warning is shown instead:

In the above case, click Proceed Anyway.

Note: For information on configuring a trusted certificate, see the following article on the Avid Knowledge Base:

Certificates-for-server-to-browser-connections.

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/how_to/SSL-

3. Enter the Administrator user and password to access MediaCentral UX:

• User name: Administrator

• Default Password: Avid123

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

4. The first time any user signs in, the Avid Software License Agreement is presented. Click

the Accept License Agreement button to proceed.

5. Enter your account information. When you sign in to MediaCentral for the first time you

are prompted to enter your user credentials for iNEWS, Interplay Production, or both. Sign in options depend on the features selected in the MediaCentral UX Configurator.

If you created custom iNEWS and Interplay Production credentials (e.g. MCSAdmin), enter that information at this time. Otherwise, leave the defaults (Administrator / Avid123).

Note: If the security settings for one of these systems is inaccurate, you will see a warning message that states that the application is unable to authorize the sign-in name or password. This will be the case for any iNEWS credentials entered, since you have not yet specified the iNEWS server to be used. If you receive a warning, click the link provided and verify your security settings.

6. Click the “Continue to MediaCentral UX” button.

7. If you are accessing MediaCentral UX through Chrome or Safari, you might be asked if

you want to “Send notifications”. This is related to the Desktop Notifications feature introduced in MCS v2.4. Select either the Allow or Block option when presented with this message.

If desired, this feature can be disabled. See Modifying application.properties

for

instructions.

See the Avid MediaCentral | UX User’s Guide for information on the Desktop Notifications feature.

8. If you are using accessing MediaCentral UX through Chrome and you enabled iNEWS in

the MediaCentral Configurator tool, the first time you sign in to MediaCentral a dialog box asks if you want to use MOS plug-ins.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Changing the Administrator Password

Selecting “Yes” will enable the “MOS enabled” checkbox in the user settings and prompt you to install the container needed for Active X controls.

Selecting “No” will not enable the MOS checkbox or prompt you to install any additional software. The MOS checkbox can be enabled manually in the user’s settings at any time.

MOS plug-ins require additional software as described in “

Active-X Plug-Ins” on page 232.

Note: Active X controls and MOS plug-ins are not supported in the Safari browser or in Chrome v45 or higher.

For security reasons, it is strongly suggested that you change the password for the Administrator

1. While logged in as the Administrator, select Users from the Layout selector.

2. Expand the list of Administrators in the User Tree and locate the Administrator user.

Appendix F: Enabling MOS

3. Double-click on the Administrator account. Details will appear on the right.

4. Click the Change Password button in the Details pane, and enter a new password for the

Administrator user.

Note: MediaCentral v2.1 introduced strong password enforcement. This feature was made optional in v2.2; however the default is to have strong passwords enabled. See the Avid MediaCentral | UX Administration Guide for more information on this feature and a process for “Turning Off Secure Password Requirements” if desired.

5. Click OK update the password information.

A message appears indicating that the password was successfully changed.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Creating a Second Administrator User

Configuring System Settings

In the event that you are locked out of MediaCentral for any reason, it is wise to create a second Administrator-level user.

1. While in the Users Layout, highlight the Administrators group in the User Tree.

2. Click the Create User button under the User Tree tab.

3. In the Details pane, assign a User Name.

4. Enter a Password and confirm the password.

5. Deselect the checkbox for “User must change password at next sign-in.”

6. Click the Save button in the bottom-right corner of the window.

The user account is created.

Much of the configuration of MediaCentral is completed through the System Settings. Proceed through the following sections and configure settings applicable to your configuration. For more information, see the Avid MediaCentral | UX Administration Guide.

To access the System Settings, select “System Settings” from the Layout selector in the top-right corner of the interface. This layout will only appear if you are logged in as a user with Administrator rights.

Media Distribute settings are shown in the above example; however these settings will only appear if Media Distribute has been installed on the system. For more information see the Media Distribute Installation and Configuration Guide.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

General Settings

iNEWS Settings

This section configures general settings related to the overall operation of MediaCentral.

1. In the Settings pane, select General.

2. System ID: Every MCS system can be identified with a System ID provided by Avid at

point of sale. This ID can be used to access Avid Customer Care for systems with valid support contracts.

Once entered, the System ID is stored in the ACS bus. The System ID is displayed when you invoke the ics_version command from Linux or when you select Home>About within the MediaCentral user interface.

Note: If you cannot locate your System ID, contact your Avid representative.

3. Search Pane:

value of this field is

Specify t he maximum number of assets to be displayed in a search. The default

50.

4. Session Timeout: Specify the number of minutes of inactivity before the user’s session

is disconnected. The range of this value is between 10 minutes and 1440 minutes (24 hours). The default value of this field is 30 minutes. As of MediaCentral v2.1.0, this feature can be enabled or disabled.

5. Time Zone: Use the pull-down menu to select a default time zone for the local

MediaCentral system. This information is used to properly display assets when doing searches outside of the local system. Examples:

- US/Eastern

- Europe/London

- Asia/Hong_Kong

6. Date Format: Use the pull-down menu to select a default date format for the local

MediaCentral system. This information is used to properly display assets when doing searches outside of the local system. Options:

- DD.MM.YYYY hh:mm:ss

- DD/MM/YYYY hh:mm:ss

- YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss

- MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss

7. Click Apply to save your changes.

This section configures settings related to Avid iNEWS. ICS 1.0 – 1.4 supported connection to only one iNEWS system. iNEWS Community support was added in ICS 1.5 with up to 24 members. ICS 1.8 increased possible community members to 50.

1. In the Settings pane, select iNEWS.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Interplay Production Settings

2. System ID: Enter the System ID for your iNEWS system. This information can be found

on the iNEWS server(s) in the /site/system file. If your iNEWS system consists of multiple servers for load balancing and failover, using the System ID ensures that MediaCentral connects to iNEWS properly. iNEWS servers will often include a –a or –b suffix in their hostname. Do not include these suffixes. Ensure that all MediaCentral servers can resolve the hostnames and IP addresses of all iNEWS servers through DNS.

3. Timing: This value specifies how the iNEWS timing field is updated when you associate a

sequence with a story.

4. Tape ID: When you associate a sequence with a story, this iNEWS field name is

associated with the sequence’s Tape-ID field.

Example iNEWS field: video-id

5. Pagination: The maximum number of items listed in the Queue/Story pane or the

Project/Story pane. To view more items beyond the number displayed, click the Show More Results button. The range is 5 to 255 items. The default value of this field is 50.

6. Click Apply to save your changes.

This section configures settings related to Interplay Production. Avid supports connecting MediaCentral to only one Interplay Production system per MCS installation.

1. In the Settings pane, select Interplay | Production.

2. Interplay | Production Server: Enter the (short) hostname or virtual hostname of the

Interplay Production Engine. An IP address is also acceptable here. Do not use a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) in this field.

3. MCDS Service URL: Enter the URL of the server or servers hosting the MediaCentral

Distribution Service. You can enter a hostname or IP address for the server. The standard port number used by this service is 8443. If you have installed multiple copies of MCDS, list each URL separated by a comma and a space. Multiple instances of MCDS provide failover capability, but not load balancing.

Example: https://wavd-tc01:8443

4. Location for Script Sequence: a. In the Path field, specify a folder in the Interplay Production database where

script sequences will be stored. The correct path format does not include a leading slash.

Example: Projects/iNEWS or iNEWS/Scripts

b. Select whether you want sub-folders in the parent folder to be created by

Queue name, Date, or Story name.

5. Assets Pane: Sets the max number of Interplay assets to display at one time. This value

can range between 5 and 1000. The default value for this field is 50.

6. Click Apply to save your changes.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Messages & Sharing

Playback Service Settings

These settings enable messages delivered through the messaging service to be forwarded to user’s individual email accounts. These settings have nothing to do with emails sent from the MCS cluster or other Linux processes. Only messages created in the Messaging Pane are forwarded.

1. In the Settings pane, select Messages & Sharing.

2. Message Archiving: Configure the number of days to retain active messages. Messages

older than this will be archived. The default value of this field is 7.

Note: For instructions on retrieving archived messages, s

Administration Guide.

3. Email forwarding: If email forwarding is desired, enable the checkbox for this option.

Consult with your in-house IT Department for this information.

a. SMTP server hostname: Enter an SMTP server hostname.

Example: webmail.wavd.com

b. Port: Enter a communication port. The default port is 25. c. User name: Enter a username in the form of an e-mail address.

Example: admin@wavd.com

d. Password: Enter the password for the associated user account. e. Use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer): Select this checkbox if required by IT. f. Ignore TLS (Transport Layer Security): Select this checkbox if required by IT.

4. Once you have configured the email forwarding fields, verify functionality by entering a

recipient email and clicking Validate.

Note: If the e-mail is not received, verify with your IT Department that ICMP traffic is allowed through appropriate firewalls and network switches.

ee the Avid MediaCentral | UX

5. Click Apply to save your changes.

This section configures settings related to Interplay Central Playback Services (ICPS). ICPS is a set of services that run on the MCS servers that are responsible for the compression and playback of video and audio media.

1. In the Settings pane, select ICPS> Playback Service.

2. Player Settings: The “Save Failed AAF” feature automatically saves AAF files that do not

parse properly to a dedicated folder (/cache/aaf_to_investigate) on the MCS server. This feature can assist in troubleshooting efforts and should only be enabled upon request from Avid Customer Care.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

3. Interplay Workgroup Properties a. User / Password: MediaCentral requires a dedicated user to access the

Interplay Production database. Enter that user and password.

Suggested User Name: MCSAdmin

b. Connect to HAG: Check this box to connect to an Interplay Production Media

Indexer High Availability Group (HAG). The HAG must already be configured in Interplay Production.

MediaCentral connects to the primary node of the HAG only. It does not

Note:

participate in HAG redundancy.

c. MI Host: If you did not select the Connect to HAG checkbox, enter the (short)

hostname of the Interplay Media Indexer to connect to a specific Media Indexer. An IP address can also be used in this field. Do not use a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) in this field.

Note:

Checking the Connect to HAG box grays-out the MI Host field.

d. Workgroup Name: Enter the name of the Interplay Production Workgroup

(Framework). The Workgroup Name is case sensitive.

e. Lookup Servers: Enter the (short) hostname of the server hosting the Interplay

Production Framework Lookup Service. If there are multiple Lookup Servers, enter each hostname separated by a comma. Do not use a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) in this field.

f. Enable Dynamic Relink: If working in a multi-resolution environment,

environments with Interplay Capture or environments with Interplay Archive using partial restore workflows, enable this checkbox.

4. General ISIS Settings a. Enable Remote Host: If you are connected to Avid ISIS through a Zone1 or

Zone2 network connection, leave this box unchecked. If you are connecting through Zone3 (preferred configuration for ISIS 7500), enable this checkbox.

Note: For a refresher on ISIS Zone definitions, see

Network Connections on page 14.

b. Use Network Device: If you have multiple network interfaces configured and

enabled on the MCS server, enter the name of the interface used to connect to Avid ISIS. Multiple interfaces can be entered, separated by a comma. This field can be left blank if the MCS server has only one active network connection.

Examples: eth0 or em1

c. Ignore Network Device: If you have multiple network interfaces configured and

enabled on the MCS server, enter the name of the interface that will not be used to connect to Avid ISIS. Multiple interfaces can be entered, separated by a comma. This field can be left blank if the MCS server has only one active network connection.

Network Interface Cards and

Examples: eth1 or em2

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

d. Connection Mode: Select the type of connection used to connect to Avid ISIS.

Options: 1GB Connection or 10GB Connection

5. Storage Locations. This section provides settings enabling MCS to connect to Avid ISIS

shared storage.

a. Click the plus ‘+’ button to add a Storage Location. b. A “New File System” box will appear. Give the Storage Location a nickname and

click OK.

Examples: “WAVD ISIS 7500” or “Production ISIS”

c. Click OK. Additional fields will appear below the Storage Locations. d. Virtual Host Name: Enter the virtual hostname of the ISIS. Every ISIS system has

a virtual hostname, regardless of it being a single or failover configuration. The Virtual Host Name must be entered in all lower-case.

e. User / Password: MediaCentral requires a dedicated user to access the ISIS

storage system. Enter that user and password.

Suggested User Name: MCSAdmin

Note: If you are connecting to multiple ISIS systems, ensure the same user/password is created on each ISIS.

f. System Directors: If you are connecting through Zone3 to ISIS, enter the IP

address(es) of the System Director(s). Do not add the virtual IP addresses. Each IP address should be separated by a semicolon (no spaces).

g. Repeat these steps if configuring more than one ISIS connection.

6. Click Apply to save your changes. As the settings apply, MediaCentral will attempt to

connect to the ISIS system(s) you have specified.

If the connection is made successfully, the Status field should change from “Disconnected” to “Connected”.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Player Settings

This section configures settings related to the MediaCentral Player. The MCPS Player communicates directly with the MCS server to obtain media for playback, using the credentials of the logged-in user for validation.

1. In the Settings pane, select ICPS> Player.

2. Server: Enter the (short) hostname, IP address or Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)

of the MCS server. The FQDN is the preferred value and is required for workflows involving the MediaCentral mobile app.

Example: wavd-mcs01.wavd.com

Note: If you are in the process of setting up the first server in a cluster, enter the FQDN of the server you are working on (node1 of the cluster). Later in the process, you will update this field with the virtual cluster hostname.

3. Media Composer | Cloud User: If your configuration consists of a Media Composer

Cloud workflow, enter the user name and password for the Cloud user.

Suggested User name: cloud

If your workflow does not include Media Composer Cloud, these fields can be left blank.

As a reminder, the Cloud user is a custom account that is added here and in the Interplay (Production) Administrator. This must be a unique user created solely for this purpose. This user should not be created as an Interplay Production or an ISIS user.

Note: If the credentials do not match, the Media Composer Cloud console will present a “Sphere XKAsset Error: 6” indicating an invalid username and password.

If you need to delete the Cloud user, you are advised to delete the user from the System Settings>Player layout, rather than in the Users Pane.

4. Variable Speed Playback: If desired, adjust the values used when JKL shuttling. For

more information on this feature, see the MediaCentral UX Administration Guide.

5. Image Quality Settings: If desired, the playback image quality can be adjusted to provide

higher image quality to the user. For more information on this feature, see the MediaCentral UX Administration Guide.

This section also controls the ability for users to export .mp4 files from the Media pane. This option is not enabled for all users by default to allow system administrators the ability to control who can export potentially sensitive data.

Note: Adjusting the Image Quality Settings affects overall performance of the MediaCentral system. This could result in additional hardware requirements such as expanding from a single node server to a cluster or adding additional nodes to an existing cluster.

6. Click Apply to save your changes.

MCS 2.4 Installation and Configuration Guide

Verifying the System Settings

Verifying the iNEWS Connection

Verifying the Interplay Production and ISIS Connections

Now that you have configured the base system settings for connecting to iNEWS, Interplay Production and Avid ISIS (as applicable); perform some initial testing. Prior to testing, sign out of MediaCentral and sign back in again. This ensures the user has access to the updated System Settings.

1. Select Log from the Layout menu in the top-right corner of the interface.

Note: If you receive an error message indicating “This version if Interplay Central is not authorized to connect to the configured iNEWS Server.”, verify that the correct iNEWS Client version has been entered into the iNEWS “SYSTEM.CLIENT.VERSIONS” story. For more information, see

The Log layout will appear which consists of multiple default Panes. The Launch pane (shown on left) lists available iNEWS and Interplay Production workgroups.

Adding the MediaCentral UX Version to Avid iNEWS.

2. Double-click one of the iNEWS systems to verify the connection. If the connection is

successful, a list of iNEWS assets should appear in the Assets Pane (shown on right).

1. Select Log from the Layout menu in the top-right corner of the interface.

The Log layout will appear which consists of multiple default Panes. The Launch pane (shown on left) lists available Interplay Production and iNEWS workgroups.

100

Pinnacle Systems MediaCentral Platform Services - 2.4 Installation Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Important Information

Revision History

PART I: INSTALLATION PREREQUISITES

Chapter Overview

Before You Begin

Network Interface Cards and Network Connections

Accessing the MCS Server(s)

Copying Software to the MCS Server

Obtaining the Software

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

RHEL Security Updates

MCS Installation Packages

GlusterFS

Storage Controller Driver for the HP ProLiant Gen9 Server

Updating MediaCentral UX Licenses

Interplay Production Licensing

iNEWS Licensing

Creating User Accounts

Interplay Production User

Avid ISIS User

Avid iNEWS User

Interplay MAM User

Media Composer Cloud User

Adjusting Interplay Production Settings

Adding the MediaCentral UX Version to Avid iNEWS

Installing the MediaCentral Distribution Service

Creating the MCS Installation USB Drive

Preparing the Installation Drive for the HP ProLiant Gen9

Preparing the Installation Drive for HP Gen8 and Dell Servers

PART II: BIOS & RAID CONFIGURATION

Chapter Overview

Changing BIOS Settings

Configuring the BIOS on the HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9

Configuring the BIOS on the HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8

Configuring the BIOS on the Dell PowerEdge R620 / R630

Configuring the Onboard RAID

HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 RAID Configuration

Configuring the HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 RAID 1

Configuring the HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 RAID 5

HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 RAID Configuration

Configuring the HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 RAID 1

Configuring the HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 RAID 5

Dell PowerEdge R620 / R630 RAID Configuration

Verifying the PowerEdge Dell R620 / 630 RAID Configuration:

PART III: SOFTWARE INSTAL LATION AND PREPARATION

Chapter Overview

Installing RHEL and the MCS Software

Special Instructions for Dell Servers

MCS Software Deployment

Booting RHEL for the First Time

Booting from the System Drive

Changing the root Password

Network Configuration

Verify DNS

Identifying NIC Interfaces and Connecting the Network Cable

(HP Only) Verifying the NIC Interface Name

(HP Only) Swapping NIC Interface Names

(HP Only) Removing the MAC Address Hardware References

Configuring the Hostname and Static Network Route

Verifying the hosts File Contents

Verifying the Contents of resolv.conf and nsswitch.conf

Ensuring the NIC Interface Comes Up at System Startup

Verifying Hostname, Network and DNS Connectivity

Configure Date and Time Settings

Setting the Time Zone

Synching the System Clock

Creating the File Cache on the RAID

Partitioning the RAID

Creating the Logical Volume, Filesystem and Mounting the Cache

Enable / Disable 3G and Edge Streams

Copying Software to the MCS Server

Security Updates

Install Software Patches

PART IV: CONFIGURING MCS

Chapter Overview

Configuring MCS for MediaCentral UX and Media Composer Cloud

Changing the

root

Password

Verifying the

hosts

File Contents