Installing CTERA Portal Instances

Use the following workflow to install CTERA Portal.

1. Creating a Portal Instance using a CTERA Portal image obtainable from CTERA support.
2. Logging In to the Server to Create the Storage.
3. Configuring Network Settings.
4. Optionally, configure a default gateway
5. Additional Installation Instructions for Customers Without Internet Access.
6. For the first server you install, follow the steps in Configuring the Primary Server.
7. For any additional servers beside the primary server, install the server as described below and configure it as an additional server, as described in Installing and Configuring Additional CTERA Portal Servers.
8. Make sure that you replicate the database, as described in Configuring the CTERA Portal Database for Backup.
9. Backup the server as described in Backing Up the CTERA Portal Servers and Storage.

Creating a Portal Instance

You can install the CTERA Portal on KVM via the OpenStack console or another console. The following instructions describe how to install a CTERA Portal directly in KVM.

To install the CTERA Portal Server:

1. Log in to the KVM machine.
2. Copy the KVM image file, Portal_Image_<version>.qcow2 to a folder on the KVM machine where version is the CTERA Portal version.
3. In the folder where you copied the KVM image file, create the data disk for the portal server using the following command: qemu-img create -f qcow2 data.qcow2 <diskSize> where diskSize is the size of the data disk, based on the server requirements. For details, see Requirements.
4. Change the permissions for the data disk using the following command: chmod 777
5. For the primary CTERA Portal database server and the secondary, replication, server, add a second disk to use as the archive pool using the following command: qemu-img create -f qcow2 archive.qcow2 <diskSize> where diskSize is the size of the data disk, based on the server requirements.
   Note

   The minimum archive pool should be 200GB but it should be sized around 2% of the expected global file system size. For more details, see Requirements.

6. Change the permissions for the archive disk using the following command: chmod 777
7. For the primary CTERA Portal database server and the secondary, replication, server, create the portal server using the following command:
   For a 8.1.x portal server running on CentOS 7, virt-install --name <name> --vcpus <cpus> --memory <memory> --disk path=Portal_Image_<version>.qcow2 --disk path=data.qcow2 --disk path=archive.qcow2 --network bridge=br0 --os-variant centos7.0 --import --noautoconsole
   For a 8.1.x portal server running on CentOS 9, from 8.1.1417.19, virt-install --name <name> --vcpus <cpus> --memory <memory> --disk path=Portal_Image_<version>.qcow2 --disk path=data.qcow2 --disk path=archive.qcow2 --network bridge=br0 --os-variant centos-stream9 --import --noautoconsole
   where:
   name is the name assigned to the portal server VM.
   cpu is the number of vCPUs as specified in Requirements.
   memory is the memory requirement in MB as specified in Requirements.
   version is the CTERA Portal version.
   
   The server is created and started up.
8. For all other servers, create the portal server using the following command:
   For a 8.1.x portal server running on CentOS 7, virt-install --name <name> --vcpus <cpus> --memory <memory> --disk path=Portal_Image_<version>.qcow2 --disk path=data.qcow2 --network bridge=br0 --os-variant centos7.0 --import --noautoconsole
   For a 8.1.x portal server running on CentOS 9, from 8.1.1417.19, virt-install --name <name> --vcpus <cpus> --memory <memory> --disk path=Portal_Image_<version>.qcow2 --disk path=data.qcow2 --network bridge=br0 --os-variant centos-stream9 --import --noautoconsole
   where:
   name is the name assigned to the portal server VM.
   cpu is the number of vCPUs as specified in Requirements.
   memory is the memory requirement in MB as specified in Requirements.
   version is the CTERA Portal version.
   
   The server is created and started up.
9. Continue with Logging in to the Server to Create the Storage.

Logging in to the Server to Create the Storage

You need to create a data pool on every server and on the primary database server, and when PostgreSQL streaming replication is required, also on the secondary, replication, server, an archive pool. See Using PostgreSQL Streaming Replication for details about PostgreSQL streaming replication.

Access the new portal machine, using SSH.

To log in to the portal server:

• Log in as the root.
  The default password is ctera321

You are prompted to change the password on your first login.

To create the data and archive pools:

1. Log in as the root user using SSH.
2. Run fdisk -l to identify the disks to use for the data and archive pools.
3. Run the following command to create the data pool: portal-storage-util.sh create_storage Device
   where Device is the Device name of the disk to use for the data pool.
4. Run the following command to create the archive pool: portal-storage-util.sh create_db_archive_pool Device
   Where Device is the Device name of the disk to use for the archive pool.
5. Start CTERA Portal services, by running the following command: portal-manage.sh start