StorSimple Appliance Quick Start Guide for Software Version 1.2.1 Models 1010, 5010 and 7010 April, 2011 761-0001-0002 Rev A 2011 StorSimple, Inc.
Table of Contents Welcome... 3 Power and Cabling... 4 1U Appliances (Model 1010)...4 2U Appliances (Models 5010, 7010)...4 Initial Configuration... 4 Accessing the Management GUI...6 Using the Setup Wizard...7 Configuring Cloud Accounts... 14 Configuring Volume Access Groups... 17 Configuring Volumes... 18 Accessing Volumes... 20 Taking Snapshots, Cloud Snaps, and Cloud Clones... 21 Contacting Technical Support... 21 Accessing Product Documentation and Software... 21
P a g e 3 Welcome Thank you for purchasing a StorSimple appliance model 1010, 5010, or 7010. This quick start guide will walk you through the steps necessary to initially configure your appliance and reach technical support should you encounter any issues. It is recommended that you complete the following before using this guide: Review and complete the pre-installation checklist. This will help you identify information that will be needed during the initial configuration of your appliance For 2U appliance models (5010, 7010): Review the safety guide to ensure that you handle the appliance hardware in the safest possible manner. Your safety is our prime concern. Review the hardware replacement guide and follow the steps in the Rack Installation Guide to safely mount the appliance in the rack. Review the monitoring indicators guide and familiarize yourself with the LEDs and other components that notify you if there are any hardware issues. For 1U appliance models (1010), simply mount the unit in a rack. Only front posts are required You should have received the following items in the packaging: StorSimple appliance Power Cords Crossover Ethernet Cable Serial Console Cable Rack Mount Kit (for appliance models 5010, 7010) Documentation Quick Start Guide (All models) Safety Guide (5010, 7010) Rack Installation Guide (5010, 7010) Monitoring Indicators Guide (5010, 7010) If you did not receive any of the items listed above, please contact support using the information found at the end of this document.
P a g e 4 Power and Cabling 1U Appliances (Model 1010) Ensure that your appliance is mounted in a rack. Connect the supplied power cable to a power source, and connect the other end to the power outlet on the back of the appliance. The power connection can be found on the left side of the appliance. 2U Appliances (Models 5010, 7010) Ensure that the power switches on each of the power supplies are in the OFF position. Connect each of the power supplies to the rack power distribution units as shown below using the supplied power cords. After both are connected, flip both switches to the ON position. Initial Configuration Connect all of your appliance network interfaces to the LAN, and connect your laptop to the LAN. For appliance models 5010 and 7010, be sure to connect identical interfaces on each controller, i.e. if you use MGMT and DATA1, be sure that both MGMT and DATA1 on both controllers are connected. See the diagram below to locate the MGMT and DATA1 ports.
P a g e 5 Connect your laptop to the appliance serial console using a serial cable. For appliance models 5010 and 7010, use the supplied serial cable to connect to the serial port, identified by the wrench icon. Open your terminal emulation software using the following settings: 115.2Kbps, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, and no parity bits. Press ENTER a few times until the StorSimple (? for help) > prompt appears. At the prompt, type setup to configure the MGMT interface. This will show the current configuration of the management interface. Enable the interface by typing yes. Now supply the IP address, subnet mask, and gateway address. Verify the configuration summary presented to you.
P a g e 6 Make a note of the URL presented in this screen for the next steps in configuration. Accessing the Management GUI Access to the appliance management GUI requires a browser that supports Silverlight. Open your browser using either Firefox (3.5 or later) or Internet Explorer (v7 or later) to this URL to access the appliance management GUI: http://<ip_address_of_mgmt_interface> Login using the default username of admin and the default password of password. After you have supplied these values, click the Login button. It is a best practice to change the password of your admin account after your first login; please refer to the appliance web user interface documentation for the steps on how to do so.
P a g e 7 Using the Setup Wizard Upon successfully authenticating, your appliance will guide you through a setup wizard. It is recommended that you open up the Quick Start Guide by clicking the link present in the page so as to quickly enable you to setup your appliance. The setup wizard will allow you to either configure the system from the ground up or restore from a previously saved configuration backup. Click the Next button to proceed to the first step. The first step in the setup wizard process is to determine whether you want to apply a new configuration, or restore the configuration using a configuration backup taken from another
P a g e 8 device. If you wish to restore the configuration, choose the configuration backup file you wish to restore from, and click Restore Configuration. This will populate the remainder of values in the setup wizard, and also re-create additional configuration items including cloud storage service accounts, volume access groups, and other items. Note Configuration restore can only be done on a system that has no configuration applied. If you complete the setup wizard without using the restore configuration function, you will not be able to use it later. Note The Import Configuration option is now available under the Manage drawer. This feature will allow the user to import configuration elements (those not configured via Setup Wizard) from a known configuration. To learn more about this feature, please refer to the StorSimple Web User Interface User Guide. To continue with configuration, click the Next button. On this step, specify a name for your appliance. This name is not used in name resolution, but rather is used when generating printer-friendly versions of reports from within the GUI. After you have specified an appliance name, click Next.
P a g e 9 The next step is to configure the network interfaces. Refer to the diagram showing the back of the appliance in section Initial Configuration or the labels on the back of the appliance, to identify the interfaces. To edit an interface s configuration, click the edit icon on the far left of the row, which will allow you to edit the Enabled, Address, Mask, and Gateway fields. The user has to configure one management and can configure up to three data network interfaces. For each interface, configure: Interface state (enabled or disabled) When checked, an interface is enabled. The appliance will attempt to use this interface. It is recommended that only those interfaces that are connected to the network and used be enabled. Disable any interfaces you are not using Interface IP address Specify the IP address that should be used by this interface Interface subnet mask Specify the subnet mask that should be used by this interface Interface default gateway Specify the default gateway that should be used by this interface when attempting to communicate with nodes that are not within the same
P a g e 10 IP address space (subnet). The default gateway must be in the same address space (subnet) as the interface IP address as determined by the subnet mask Note To ensure proper operation, verify the interface speed and duplex on the switch that each appliance interface is connected to. Switch interfaces should either negotiate to or be configured for Gigabit Ethernet (1000Mbps) and full-duplex. Interfaces operating at slower speeds or in half-duplex will result in performance issues. Note If you wish to isolate iscsi traffic from cloud storage traffic, connect DATA interfaces to your iscsi network with no default gateway, and other DATA interfaces to your public network with Internet access with a correct default gateway. Note It is recommended that you enable portfast on each of the switch ports that your appliance will be connecting to. This will ensure that network connectivity can be established quickly in the event of a failover, which will minimize disruptions and downtime. For more information on portfast on Cisco networking devices, please see: http://www.cisco.com/en/us/products/hw/switches/ps700/products_tech_note09186a00800b1500.shtml. Use the green checkmark at the left of the row to apply the interface configuration, or the delete icon to cancel the changes.
P a g e 11 Specify a primary and secondary DNS server using their IP addresses. Secondary DNS servers are not required, but are highly recommended. DNS servers are required, because they are used when your appliance attempts to communicate with your cloud storage service providers. Your appliance will automatically attempt to validate connectivity to your DNS servers using ping. If your DNS servers do not respond to ping, or if ping is being blocked on your network, uncheck the box next to Verify DNS Servers. When you are finished, click the Next button. Select your time zone using the drop-down list, and specify up to two NTP servers. When specifying multiple NTP servers, specify one on each line, each separated by pressing the
P a g e 12 Enter or Return key. NTP servers are required, as your appliance must synchronize time with your cloud storage service providers. Ensure that your network allows NTP traffic to pass from your data center to the Internet. If this is not possible, specify an internal NTP server, such as a Microsoft Windows Server domain controller. When finished, click Next. On the summary screen, your appliance shows you the configuration that has been applied. To go back and make changes, use the Back button. Otherwise, use the Finish button.
P a g e 13 It is a best practice after use of the setup wizard to visit the diagnostics page using the Examine system diagnostics found in the Common Tasks section near the bottom of the homepage. On the diagnostics page, your appliance will notify you if there are any configuration elements that could prohibit proper system operation. Check under the Status column for
P a g e 14 the presence of a warning indicator or a failed indicator. For such elements, click the details icon to determine what configuration element requires attention. Configuring Cloud Accounts Configuring cloud accounts requires that you have already created an account with your cloud storage service provider. The cloud storage accounts will provide you with the access material necessary to continue configuration of your appliance. To configure a cloud account, hover over 'Configure' and click Cloud Accounts. Click Create Cloud Account to add a cloud account.
P a g e 15 On this page, under the General tab, you can specify the following: Name - Provide a name for your cloud account. Provider - Select the provider from the dropdown list. Access Key and Secret Key Enter the credentials. Depending on the specific cloud provider selected, a different set of fields may be presented to the user. Enable Monitoring - It is recommended that you click the Enable Monitoring checkbox for each cloud account to allow you to filter cloud-specific monitoring charts down to individual clouds. Note that your appliance supports monitoring a maximum of 32 objects, where an object is either a cloud account or a volume. Enable Rate Limiting - If you wish to limit the amount of WAN bandwidth that is consumed by your appliance when communicating with this cloud, click this checkbox. Max Throughput - Supply a value between 1 and 1000 in this field (applicable in case Rate Limiting is enabled)
P a g e 16 Next click the Security tab, and specify Data-at-rest Encryption By default, this field is enabled. Data-at-rest Encryption Key - If enabled, supply an encryption key. Supply the key data from a key generated using your key management system or a passphrase. Remember to keep this information in a safe place. Note The encryption keys cannot be changed once the cloud account is created. To verify your cloud account, click the General tab and click Verify to make sure that your cloud account is accessible. Successful verification will produce the word Verified next to the access key and secret key field. Otherwise, verification has failed, and either the credentials are incorrect or the appliance cannot reach the cloud provider. Only if the verification succeeds, you can click the Save button to save your cloud account.
P a g e 17 Repeat the process to create additional cloud accounts as needed. Configuring Volume Access Groups Next, hover over Configure, click Security, and then click Volume Access Groups. On this page you will define the servers that will be accessing volumes provided by your appliance. A volume access group includes parameters to define one or more servers, and a volume can have one or more volume access groups assigned to it. A volume access group is comprised of CHAP credentials (optional, not discussed in this document), IP addresses, and IQNs. All parameters of the volume access group member definition must match what is supplied by the initiator attempting to connect to a volume in order for access to be permitted. To create a volume access group, perform the following steps: 1. Click the Add New Group button, 2. Type a name for the group in the Name field, 3. Select the CHAP user (or select Any User to not enforce CHAP authentication). 4. If you wish to enforce authorization based on an IP address, supply one. 5. If you wish to enforce authorization based on an IQN, supply one. If you do not supply an IP address or an IQN, these values will not be considered when authorizing an initiator attempting to connect to a volume that this volume access group is assigned to. 6. When you have finished supplying parameters for your volume access group, click the green checkmark next to the group name to save it.
P a g e 18 7. Repeat this process for each of the servers in your environment that will be consuming storage volumes from this appliance. Note At least one of the fields, CHAP, IP and IQV should be specified for the box to behave correctly in the presence of multiple access groups. Configuring Volumes Next, hover over 'Configure' and click Volumes. Click Create Volume to configure a volume to be used by one of your servers.
P a g e 19 On the General tab, specify the following: Name - Type a name. Type - Specify the application that will be using the volume from the dropdown list. Cloud Account - Choose the cloud account to be used for this volume from the drop-down list. Access Type - Specify Read-Write for the volume access type. Capacity - Specify the capacity of the volume. The maximum allowable value is 102,400 GB. Online - Ensure Online is checked. The volumes need to be taken offline should you wish to delete a volume group or an associated volume. Enable Monitoring - Click the checkbox next to Enable Monitoring if you wish to have reports that show data only from statistics collected against this individual volume as described above in the cloud accounts section. Next, click the Security tab. Perform the following steps: 1. Click the Add new record button
P a g e 20 2. Specify the volume access group to allow access to the volume. 3. Leave the Preferred LUN at No Preference, unless you need to explicitly set the LUN value used by the volume (this value will be used unless there is a conflict with another volume). 4. Click the green checkmark next to the volume access group that you selected, 5. Finally click the Save button to complete the volume creation. Accessing Volumes If using Windows, your volumes should now be accessible to your servers using the Microsoft iscsi initiator, by supplying one of the interface IP addresses as the target portal or discovery IP address. Once you have connected with iscsi, open the Disk Management snap-in to initialize your volumes. Next, configure them to use the NTFS file system with a 64KB allocation unit size, supply a drive letter, and perform a quick format. If you are using VMware, access your server using vsphere client. Navigate to Configuration>Storage to add storage. In the wizard, set the Disk/LUN types as default; supply the iscsi device, and review the disk layout. Provide a unique datastore name and adjust values and capacity as needed. For more information on using the Microsoft iscsi initiator, see the section titled Connecting to an iscsi target device at the following URL: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee338480(ws.10).aspx iscsi connectivity can be verified on the appliance by using the Connected Initiators page found under Manage in the management GUI once you have connected your server to the appliance using the iscsi initiator, as shown below.
P a g e 21 Taking Snapshots, Cloud Snaps, and Cloud Clones Snapshots, Cloud Snaps, and Cloud Clones are used to provide point-in-time protection of volumes, off-site backup copies, and improve recoverability while minimizing restore times. These features are managed either through an MMC snap-in installed on your Windows Server machines called StorSimple Data Protection (which can be downloaded from the support FTP site using the link below) or through the Data Protection feature embedded in the Management UI. Contacting Technical Support Should you encounter any issues with your StorSimple appliance, please do not hesitate to contact StorSimple Technical Support at: Telephone: 1-855-2STORSIMPLE (1-855-278-6774) Email: support@storsimple.com Accessing Product Documentation and Software Please contact technical support to create your account and to receive your credentials to access the documentation at: ftp://ftp.storsimple.com. This will allow you access to product documentation, release notes, software upgrades, and software packages including the StorSimple SharePoint Database Optimizer (SSDO), the
P a g e 22 StorSimple Data Recover Console (SDRC) for SharePoint and Exchange and the StorSimple Data Protection for managing Snapshots, Cloud Snaps, and Cloud Clones.