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Installing CTERA Portal Instances

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Use the following workflow to install CTERA Portal.

  1. Creating a Portal Instance using a CTERA Portal image obtainable from CTERA support.
  2. Configuring Network Settings.
  3. Optionally, if it is not set correctly, configure a default gateway.
  4. Additional Installation Instructions for Customers Without Internet Access.
  5. For the first server you install, follow the steps in Configuring the Primary Server.
  6. 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.
  7. Make sure that you replicate the database, as described in Configuring the CTERA Portal Database for Backup.
  8. Backup the server as described in Backing Up the CTERA Portal Servers and Storage.
Note

You can use block-storage-level snapshots for backup, but snapshots are periodical in nature, configured to run every few hours. Therefore, you cannot recover the metadata to any point-in-time, and can lose a significant amount of data on failure. Also, many storage systems do not support block-level snapshots and replication, or do not do so efficiently.

Creating a Portal Instance

You can install the CTERA Portal on HPE VM Essentials console. The installation requires the CTERA Portal qcow2 image, that you get from CTERA support and save to the client computer.

To install the CTERA Portal Server:

  1. Log in to the HPE VM Essentials console.
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    The console is displayed.
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  2. Click Library.
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  3. Click Virtual Images.
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  4. Click Add and select QCOW2 from the drop-down menu.
    The UPLOAD VIRTUAL IMAGE window is displayed.
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  5. Enter the following:
    NAME – A name for the portal.
    LABELS – Labels for the portal. Use a comma to separate the labels.
    OPERATING SYSTEM – Select CentOS 9 64-bit from the drop-down list.
    MINIMUM MEMORY – Set to 32GB.
  6. Click the Add File and upload the portal image you obtained from CTERA support.
    The image is uploaded.
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  7. Click Save changes.
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  8. Click Provisioning > Instances.
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  9. Click Add.
    The CREATE INSTANCE window is displayed.
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  10. Select HVM and click Next..
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  11. Enter a NAME for the portal VM to be created from the portal image and select the ENVIRONMENT you want for the VM.
  12. Click Next.
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  13. Enter the following:
    VOLUMES – 32 GB.
    NETWORKS – The network for the VM.
    IMAGE – The image for the portal from the drop-down list.
    HOST – The host for the VM from the drop-down list.
  14. Click Next.
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  15. Expand Backups and specify the BACKUP TYPE.
    If you don not specify No Backup, specify the backup details.
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  16. Click Next.
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  17. Review the instance options and click Complete.
    Provisioning for the VM sarts.
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  18. Wait until the VM is running.
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  19. Click the VM.
    The VM details are displayed.
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  20. Click Actions > Reconfigure.
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    The RECONFIGURE INSTANCE window is displayed.
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  21. Click the plus icon on the right side of the VOLUMES list.
    A new volume is added to the list.
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  22. Specify the size for the volume.
    The size is the amount of storage you will require for the edge filer. CTERA recommends storage of at least 1% of the expected global file system size or a minimum of 200GB.
  23. Click Reconfigure.
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  24. Click the Storage tab.
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  25. Make sure that the DATASTORE values for both the root and data-2 labels are the same.
  26. You must add a second NIC to each portal server you deploy. The second NIC does not need to be public.
  27. Select the VM and click ACTIONS > Console.
  28. To make sure that the script to create the data pool completed successfully, run docker images to check that the docker images are available, including zookeeper, which is the last docker to load to the data pool.
    Note

    If the script to create the data pool does not successfully run, it will start on every boot until it completes. The script has a timeout which means it will exit if the data pool is not created within the timeout after boot time. If the data pool is not created, dockers required by the portal are not loaded to the data pool.

    If all the dockers do not load you need to run the script /usr/bin/ctera_firstboot.sh

    Also, refer to Troubleshooting the Installation if the script does not complete successfully.

  29. For the primary and secondary servers, continue with Create the Archive Storage.
  30. You can assign a static IP, as described in configure network settings.
  31. Start CTERA Portal services, by running the following command: portal-manage.sh start
Note

Do not start the portal until both the sdconv and envoy dockers have been loaded to the data pool. You can check that these dockers have loaded in /var/log/ctera_firstboot.log or by running docker images

Create the Archive Storage

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

To create the archive pool:

  1. Log in to the HPE VM Essentials console.
  2. Click Provisioning > Instances and select the CTERA Portal VM.
  3. Click the VM.
    The VM details are displayed.
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  4. Click Actions > Reconfigure.
    The RECONFIGURE INSTANCE window is displayed.
  5. Click the plus icon on the right side of the VOLUMES list.
    A new volume is added to the list.
  6. Specify the size for the volume.
    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.

  7. Click Reconfigure.
  8. Click the Storage tab.
  9. Make sure that the DATASTORE values for both the root and data-2 labels are the same.
  10. Note the DEVICE value.
  11. Log in as root using the default password ctera321.
  12. Run lsblk or fdisk -l to verify the disk to use for the archive pool.
  13. 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.
    For example: portal-storage-util.sh create_db_archive_pool sdc
    This command creates both a logical volume and an LVM volume group using the specified device. Therefore, multiple devices can be specified if desired. For example: portal-storage-util.sh create_db_archive_pool sdc sdd sde

Troubleshooting the Installation

You can check on the progress of the docker loads in one of the following ways to ensure that all the dockers are loaded: The last docker to load is called zookeeper:

  • In /var/log/ctera_firstboot.log
  • By running docker images to check that the docker images are available.
  • By checking if /var/lib/ctera_firstboot_completed is present with the date and time when the installation was performed.

If all the dockers do not load you need to run the script /usr/bin/ctera_firstboot.sh

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