Deployment

Every deployment requires a portal cluster. Once the portal cluster has been deployed the completion of the deployment depends on the specific use case.

The portal cluster is the heart of the CTERA Intelligent Data Platform. CTERA Portal is a scalable software-defined solution that creates a unified data fabric for unstructured data. It consolidates information from edge to cloud, replacing dispersed legacy NAS with a single, centrally managed global file system. By providing users with seamless and secure data access from any device or location, the platform empowers IT with centralized control, enhanced security, and comprehensive data management capabilities. The entire system is managed through the CTERA Portal, a web-based, multi-tenant control plane.

CTERA Portal is compatible with cloud storage infrastructure from multiple vendors, including EMC, Wasabi, Scality, IBM COS, Hitachi HCP, and cloud storage providers such as AWS and Azure.

Examples
The ROBO use case requires deploying two or more edge filers, at least one per location.

The remote workforce use case requires deploying either CTERA Drive Share or CTERA Drive Connect on the remote workers computers with the additional option to deploy the CTERA Drive Mobile app on the users mobile phones.

The Portal Cluster Deployment

The minimum portal cluster comprises three servers or four servers with high availability:

• The primary database server. The primary server hosts the portal database which is stateful. The portal database holds all the global file system metadata.
• The secondary replication server. The secondary server hosts the replication database. It is a passive server that provides high availability for the portal database with streaming replication and can be failed over to in case of a disaster recovery scenario.
• An application server. CTERA recommends that a second application server is always deployed for high availability. The application server is stateless.

Application servers are also required for different functions, such as:

• A preview server to see file content of supported file types from the WebUI without downloading the file first.
• When requiring other functionality such as CTERA InsightAI or local quota enforcement.

Although you can deploy multiple application servers, there is only one primary server and one replication server in a portal cluster.

The number of application servers is also dependent on the users that will be access the portal directly. An application server can handle up to 10,000 clients. For the EFSS use case, one application server is required for every 10,000 CTERA Drive Share users or 1250 CTERA Drive Connect users. For the ROBO use case, one application server is required for every 100 edge filers, where each edge filer connection counts as one connection regardless of the number of users connected to that edge filer.

Additional Deployments for NAS Modernization or ROBO Use Cases

Users access the file system on the portal via an edge filer that connects to the portal, in the same way as they did with the legacy filesystem, with all permissions and rights maintained. The data that is commonly used is synced to one or more edge filers.

The number of edge filers that must be deployed depends on:

• The number of sites requiring local access.
• The number of users that will connect to each edge filer at each site.
• The amount of cached data from the portal that each edge filer will need to accommodate.

Basic NAS Modernization or ROBO Deployment Workflow

1. Make sure that you have the required ports open.
2. Make sue that you have the networks setup.
3. Deploy the primary, database, server.
4. Configure the primary server, for example, install the license and trusted certificate and setup the NTP server.
5. Deploy the secondary, replication, server.
6. Connect the secondary, replication, server to the primary, database, server.
7. Deploy two application servers.
8. Configure the Java Heap for the application servers.
9. Connect the application severs to the primary, database, server.
10. Configure the storage node.
11. Configure backup.
12. Deploy edge filers.
13. Migrate data from the legacy file system.
14. Configure the edge filers, for example, antivirus and ransomware protection.

Additional Deployments for EFSS and Remote Workforce Enablement Use Cases

Users access the files on the portal directly, in the same way as they did with the legacy filesystem, using either:

• CTERA Drive Connect that connects to the portal using WebDAV, with all permissions and rights maintained.
• CTERA Drive Share/Protect that connects to the portal using CTTP.

The number of CTERA Drive deployments is one per user.

Basic Enterprise File Sync and Share and Remote Workforce Deployment Workflow

1. Make sure that you have the required ports open.
2. Make sue that you have the networks setup.
3. Deploy the primary, database, server.
4. Configure the primary server, for example, install the license and trusted certificate and setup the NTP server.
5. Deploy the secondary, replication, server.
6. Connect the secondary, replication, server to the primary, database, server.
7. Deploy two application servers.
8. Configure the Java Heap for the application servers.
9. Connect the application severs to the primary, database, server.
10. Configure the storage node.
11. Configure backup.
12. Deploy endpoints.