StarWind Virtual Storage Appliance v2.0 Installation Guide with VMware vsphere

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1 One Stop Virtualization Shop StarWind Virtual Storage Appliance v2.0 Installation Guide with VMware vsphere MAY 2018 TECHNICAL PAPER V2.0

2 Trademarks StarWind, StarWind Software and the StarWind and the StarWind Software logos are registered trademarks of StarWind Software. StarWind LSFS is a trademark of StarWind Software which may be registered in some jurisdictions. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners. Changes The material in this document is for information only and is subject to change without notice. While reasonable efforts have been made in the preparation of this document to assure its accuracy, StarWind Software assumes no liability resulting from errors or omissions in this document, or from the use of the information contained herein. StarWind Software reserves the right to make changes in the product design without reservation and without notification to its users. Technical Support and Services If you have questions about installing or using this software, check this and other documents first - you will find answers to most of your questions on the Technical Papers webpage or in StarWind Forum. If you need further assistance, please contact us. About StarWind StarWind is a pioneer in virtualization and a company that participated in the development of this technology from its earliest days. Now the company is among the leading vendors of software and hardware hyper-converged solutions. The company s core product is the years-proven StarWind Virtual SAN, which allows SMB and ROBO to benefit from costefficient hyperconverged IT infrastructure. Having earned a reputation of reliability, StarWind created a hardware product line and is actively tapping into hyperconverged and storage appliances market. In 2016, Gartner named StarWind Cool Vendor for Compute Platforms following the success and popularity of StarWind HyperConverged Appliance. StarWind partners with world-known companies: Microsoft, VMware, Veeam, Intel, Dell, Mellanox, Citrix, Western Digital, etc. Copyright StarWind Software Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of StarWind Software. TECHNICAL PAPER 2

3 Contents Introduction...4 Components...5 Virtual Machine requirements...5 Deployment quick steps...6 TECHNICAL PAPER 3

4 Introduction StarWind Virtual Storage Appliance is a pre-configured Linux-based virtual machine with StarWind Virtual SAN installed. It creates a VM-centric and high performing storage pool for VMware Cluster. It was designed to satisfy the growing portion of Linux users by eliminating licensing cost. This guide is intended for experienced system administrators and IT professionals who would like to install and use StarWind VSA as a shared storage back-end. It describes the deployment and configuration process of the StarWind Virtual Storage Appliance with VMware vsphere. A full set of up-to-date technical documentation can always be found here, or by pressing the Help button in the StarWind Management Console. For any technical inquiries please visit our online community, Frequently Asked Questions page, or use the support form to contact our technical support department. TECHNICAL PAPER 4

5 Components StarWind Virtual Storage Appliance Linux virtual machine that has StarWind Virtual SAN installed and configured. Virtual Machine requirements StarWind Virtual Storage Appliance VM requires to have at least 4 virtual processors with 2 GHz reserved, at least 4 GB of RAM, 3 NIC ports dedicated as separate vswitches for management, StarWind synchronization and iscsi traffic to ensure the proper functioning of VSA. TECHNICAL PAPER 5

6 Deployment quick steps 1. Download zip archieve that contains StarWind Web Management Appliance Extract virtual machine files 3. Deploy a virtual machine to the vsphere. Right click on the host and select Deploy OVF template from a drop down menu. 4. On the first step of the wizard, point to the location of the OVF template. Select VSA files and click next. TECHNICAL PAPER 6

7 5. Specify the name and location for the StarWind VSA VM. 6. Select a resource for the StarWind VSA VM. TECHNICAL PAPER 7

8 7. Review information about the VM. 8. Select storage for the VM. TECHNICAL PAPER 8

9 9. Select Networks for the VM. 10. Click finish and start the deployment process. By default, the StarWind VSA virtual machine will receive IP address automatically via DHCP. It is recommended to create a DHCP reservation and set a static IP address for this VM. In order to access StarWind VSA from the local network, the virtual machine must have access to the TECHNICAL PAPER 9

10 network. In case you do not have a DHCP server, you can connect to the VM using the VMware console and configure static IP address manually. 11. After the installation is completed, add a new virtual disk to the StarWind VSA VM. (Make sure it is Thick Provisioned Eager Zeroed) TECHNICAL PAPER 10

11 12. Next, open a web browser and enter the IP address of the VM, which it had received via DHCP (or had it assigned manually). Alternatively, you can log in to the VM via the VMware console and assign static IP address. TECHNICAL PAPER 11

12 13. Log in to StarWind Virtual Storage Appliance using the following default credentials: Username: root Password: root 14. After the successful login, on the left side bar, click Accounts. TECHNICAL PAPER 12

13 Choose a user and click Set Password. 15. On the left side bar, click Networking. Here, Management IP address of the StarWind VSA Virtual Machine, as well as IP addresses for iscsi and Synchronization networks can be configured. TECHNICAL PAPER 13

14 16. Connect to StarWind VSA using StarWind Management Console. In StarWind Management Console, click Add Server. Type the IP address of the StarWind VSA on the pop up window. Click Connect. TECHNICAL PAPER 14

15 17. Click on the URL on the appeared window. On the left side bar, click Storage. Find the Virtual Disk you have added. Hint: The disk you have added will not have any partitions and filesystem. Click Format. TECHNICAL PAPER 15

16 Create XFS partition. Mount point should be as following: /sw_storage/%yourdiskname% Click Format. 18. On the storage page of the disk, navigate to the Filesystem tab. Click Mount. 19. Connect to StarWind VSA from the StarWind Management Console. Click Yes. TECHNICAL PAPER 16

17 Choose the disk you have recently mounted. 20. Preconfiguration process is now finished. Additional information on how to work with StarWind devices can be found here: Information about StarWind VMware HyperConverged scenario can be found here: Node-Cluster-VMware-vSphere.pdf TECHNICAL PAPER 17

18 Conclusion StarWind Virtual Storage Appliance has been deployed and configured successfully. Now, you can create and connect the shared storage to your cluster and work with it. TECHNICAL PAPER 18

19 Contacts US Headquarters EMEA and APAC (UK) (Spain and Portugal) Customer Support Portal: Support Forum: Sales: General Information: StarWind Software, Inc. 35 Village Rd., Suite 100, Middleton, MA USA , StarWind Software Inc. All rights reserved. TECHNICAL PAPER 19