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    Installing CTERA Portal Instances
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    Contents

    Installing CTERA Portal Instances

    • 4 Minutes to read
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    Article summary

    Use the following workflow to install CTERA Portal.

    1. Creating a Portal Instance. The image is obtainable from CTERA support.
    2. Configuring Network Settings.
    3. Optionally, 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

    Note

    For the primary database server and secondary, replication, server, the portal instance is created with a fixed size data pool. If you require a larger data pool, which should be approximately 1% of the expected global file system size, you can extend the data pool as described in Hyper-V Specific Management.

    To create a CTERA Portal Server in Hyper-V:

    1. Open the Hyper-V Manager.
    2. Right-click the hypervisor and click Import Virtual Machine....
      image.png
      The Import Virtual Machine wizard opens, displaying the Locate Folder window.
      image.png
    3. Click Browse and browse to the CTERA Portal image folder.
    4. Click Next.
      The Select Virtual Machine window is displayed.
      image.png
    5. Click Next.
      The Choose Import Type window is displayed.
      image.png
    6. Select the Copy the virtual machine (create a new unique ID) option and click Next.
      The Choose Folders for Virtual Machine Files window is displayed.
      image.png
    7. Specify where to store the CTERA Portal virtual machine.
    8. Click Next.
      The Choose Folders to Store Virtual Hard Disks window is displayed.
      image.png
    9. Specify where to store the CTERA Portal data pool disk and click Next.
      The Completing Import Wizard window is displayed.
      image.png
    10. Click Finish.
    11. For the primary CTERA Portal database server and the secondary, replication, server, right-click the virtual machine and click Settings.
      image.png
      1. Select Hard Drive under SCSI Controller in the Hardware list for a new hard drive.
        image.png
      2. Click New.
        The New Virtual Hard Disk Wizard is displayed.
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      3. Click Next and make sure the VHDX disk format is selected.
      4. Click Next and make sure the Dynamically expanding disk type is selected.
      5. Click Next and specify the size for the new disk.
      6. Enter a size for the new hard disk.
        Note

        The minimum archive pool should be 200GB but it should be sized around 2% of the expected global file system size.

      7. Click Apply and the OK.
    12. Right-click the virtual machine and click Start.
      The virtual machine starts up and on the first start up a script is run to create a data pool from the data disk and then to load portal dockers on to this data pool. Loading the dockers can take a few minutes.
    13. Right-click the virtual machine and click Connect to open the machine console.
    14. Log in as root.
      The default password is ctera321
      You are prompted to change the password on your first login.
    15. For the primary database server and the secondary, replication, servers, continue with Creating the Storage.
    16. 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

    Creating the Storage

    You need a data pool on every server. The data pool disk is created automatically when you first start the virtual machine and dockers loaded on to it.

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

    To log in to the CTERA Portal server:

    • Right-click the virtual machine and click Connect to open the machine console.
      The default password is ctera321

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

    To create the archive pool:

    1. Connect to the virtual machine.
    2. Run fdisk -l to identify the disk to use for the archive pool.
    3. 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 /var/log/ctera_firstboot.log to ensure that all the dockers are loaded: The last docker to load is called zookeeper.

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

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