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Table of Contents
1. Introducing Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware ............................................... 3 2. Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware License .................................................... 5 3. Preparing to Install Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware...................................... 6 3.1. 3.2. 4.1. 4.2. 4.3. 4.4. 4.5. 4.6. Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware Installation Overview ......................... 6 Checking Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware Minimum Requirements ........... 6 Installing the Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware ............................................. 8 Configuring Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware.....................................11 Starting Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware .........................................17 Verifying Successful Deployment ...................................................................17 Provisioning Storage ..................................................................................18 Licensing Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware .......................................18
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Introducing Gluster Gluster is an open source, scale-out file system capable of scaling to several petabytes and handling thousands of clients. Gluster assembles storage building blocks, aggregating disk and memory resources and managing data in a single global namespace. Gluster is based on a stackable user space design and can deliver exceptional performance for diverse workloads. The Gluster modular architecture allows administrators to stack modules to match user requirements, as needed. For example, administrators can use Gluster to quickly configure a standalone server system and later expand the system as needs grow.
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Virtualized Cloud Environments Gluster is designed for today's high-performance, virtualized cloud environments. Unlike traditional data centers, cloud environments require multi-tenancy along with the ability to grow or shrink resources on demand. Gluster incorporates cloud capabilities into the core architecture. Every module in Gluster is treated as a volume. Gluster further adds an elastic volume manager (the glusterd daemon) and a console manager (the gluster command line interface). Using the console manager, administrators can dynamically expand, shrink, rebalance, and migrate volumes, among other operations. The command line interface additionally provides an interactive shell (with autocompletion) along with scripting capabilities suitable for automation. About this Guide This document introduces Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware, describes the minimum hardware requirements, and shows how to install and configure the software in your environment.
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3.2. Checking Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware Minimum Requirements
Before installing Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware, verify that your environment matches the minimum requirements described in this section. General Verify the following: DNS is properly configured for your environment Centralized time servers are available (required in clustered environments)
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Virtual Machines Verify the following: The virtual machine is running HW v7 The virtual machine uses the default configuration settings, as supplied by Gluster (except as noted in this topic) Guests are not set to "sync time with host" The VMware Tools version of the appliance matches the ESX host (VMware Tools needs to be loaded in the guest by default) The VMware Tools version of the appliance matches the ESX host (the appliance comes preinstalled with VMware tools for ESX 4.1) Note: Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance is not supported if other, non-Gluster, virtual machines are running on the same host or datastore. When Using ESX Hosts Managed by VirtualCenter Verify the following: VMware HCL hardware (Virtual Machine Hardware v7.0) is used, running ESX 4.1 ESX hosts are clustered, and any Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) rules are defined against these clusters Remote storage allows vMotion/DRS of the appliances Note You cannot use a SQLExpress database with Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance. When Using Standalone ESX Hosts Verify the following: All hardware is on the VMware HCL (Hardware Compatibility List) 2GB RAM is configured for each virtual machine, plus 800MB for COS (up to 8GB or more is recommended for each virtual machine) ESX hosts are capable of running 64-bit machines, and the ESX host operating system is set to 800MB (RAM) Note: Nehalem procs in the ESX server is recommended to take advantage of appliance performance tuning.
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2. Logon to the client. The VMware vSphere Client main screen appears. 3. Connect vSphere Client to an ESX, ESXi, or Virtual Center host, as appropriate.
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4. Choose File > Deploy OVF Template. The Deploy OVF Template wizard launches.
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5. Copy the download URL you received when you licensed Gluster Virtual Storage Appliance for VMware, paste the URL into the Source field, and click Next.
After you complete the wizard, the appliance is downloaded and added to the ESX host virtual machine inventory.
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2. In the Hardware tab, click Add. The Add Hardware dialog appears.
3. Select Hard Disk, and click Next. The Select a Disk screen appears.
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4. Select Create a new virtual disk, and click Next. The Create a Disk screen appears.
5. Specify the disk capacity, select Specify a datastore, and click Browse. The Browse for Datastore dialog appears.
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6. Select a datastore, click OK, and click Next. Gluster highly recommends separating the OS disk from the brick disks. The Advanced Options screen appears.
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8. Review the summary, and click Finish. The Virtual Machine Properties screen appears with the new virtual disk appearing in the list.
Note: For increased performance, use the vmkfstools command on the ESX host to convert the disk to eagerzeroedthick.
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