January 28, 2011 2011 Installing and Using Openfiler 2.3 with ESX Server Openfiler 2.3 as an iscsi SAN and NFS Share This documents covers the procedures for installing Openfiler 2.3 on bare metal or as a VM and then configuring it as an iscsi SAN and NFS Share for ESX Server VMsources Installing VMsources Openfiler 1 1/28/2011
January 28, 2011 INSTALLING OPENFILER 1. Insert Openfiler media into PC 4. English 5. Always choose automatically partition. You can edit the partitions later! 2. Test the media. 3. Next 6. You may see this message on brand-new drives VMsources Installing Openfiler 2
7. Remove ALL partitions. January 28, 2011 10. Enter the size 4000MB (4.0GB) to 600 MB (6.0GB) for the root partition and select Fixed Size. 8. Yes you will be erasing ALL DATA 11. The resulting partition table should show considerable Free space in which you can create Volumes. 9. You can see that the root partition ( / )is taking up the entire drive. On a bare-metal install of Openfiler with only one disk/lun you must edit the root partition to leave room for shared volumes. Select the root / partition > Choose Edit VMsources Installing Openfiler 3
12. NOTE (installations with more than one disk): If there are additional disks/luns available to the Openfiler installer (Anaconda) at the time of install, it may be necessary to specify the location of each partition so that they are all on one disk. In an ideal installation (or virtual machine), install the Openfiler operating system by itself on a smaller disk which will not be used for shares, then create shares on disks/luns which do not have an OS. 14. NOTE (installations with more than one disk): In the end, the smaller disk is exclusively used by Openfilers rpath (Fedora family) Linux Operating System and the remaining disk(s) / LUN(s) are available as shares 15. Now edit your network devices and give Openfiler and IP address in your segment. 13. NOTE (installations with more than one disk): Edit all the partitions on the disk(s)/lun(s) which are designated to become shares and specify only the smaller disk as allowable. VMsources Installing Openfiler 4
13. Assign the correct default Gateway and DNS. 18. When prompted, Reboot then wait for the splash screen. If you can see URL for the Web Administration GUI Openfiler may be accessed. 14. Set the time zone. 19. It is always advisable to update Openfiler before use. rpath uses the Conary update utility. Log in to the console and type: conary updateall 15. Assign a password for root access. 20. NOTE (for VMware virtual machine installations only): Install the VMware Tools by typing: conary update open-vm-tools 16. Start the installation. VMsources Installing Openfiler 5
CONFIGURE OPENFILER 1. Open a web browser to the address listed. Default username: openfiler and password: password 4. NOTE: it is not necessary or even desirable to allow extremely large as in the previous example. This example shows just one class C network with a 24-bit Netmask: 192.168.100.1 to 192.168.100.254 5. It is even, theoretically, possible to configure Openfiler to service just one host by setting a 32-bit Netmask: 6. Go to Volumes > Create New Physical Volume. 2. 3. Go to System > Network Access Configuration (at the bottom of the page) and allow a network(s) to access Openfiler. In this example we allow all networks from 192.168.0.1 to 192.68.255.254 (255 different Class C networks!) 7. Select your Block Device (physical/virtual disk) and click the link under Edit Disk.. VMsources Configure Openfiler 6
8. Create first an Extended Partition. 10. Now create a Volume Group and attach it to an available partition. A Volume Group is a management group from which you could present many volumes if you had the capacity. 9. Then create a Logical partition of type: Physical Volume VMsources Configure Openfiler 7
January 28, 2011 OPENFILER ISCSI VOLUME 1. You must now go to Services and Enable the iscsi target service. 4. Once you add the iscsi target it will appear below the add button as Select iscsi Target. You DO NOT need to add more iscsi targets, one will do. 5. Go to the tab LUN Mapping. 2. Select a volume group in which to create a volume and create a volume. NOTE: if you plan on creating an NFS Share in this Volume Group as well, DO NOT use all the available space for iscsi! 6. Change R/W Mode to write-back and Transfer mode to fileio, then map the LUN. This following step will allow the RAM installed in the Openfiler device to be used as read/write cache, considerably improving performance for iscsi volumes! 3. Go back to Volumes and select iscsi Targets from the menu at the right and choose Add. You may add more than one iscsi target to control access to Volumes but it is not necessary and will complicate matters. 7. Next select the tab Network ACL and change the network from Deny to Allow and click the Update button. VMsources Configure Openfiler 8
January 28, 2011 OPENFILER NFS SHARE The following steps count on there being an available Volume Group which has space remaining which can become an NFS Share. 4. A pop-up will allow you to name a specific folder to which you may assign permissions 1. Go to Services and click Enable for NFSv3 server 5. Now click-on the sub-folder 2. Go to Volumes > Add Volume and create a new volume with the format Ext3 (usually: ext3). Unlike with iscsi volumes (which do not require formatting) Ext3 volumes can take many minutes to complete formatting. Be patient! 6. Select Make Share 3. Go to Shares and click on the volume you created VMsources Configure Openfiler 9
7. You will need to scroll down to the bottom of this window than users. 9. At minimum, select NFS RW for the specific network you configured earlier. You may enable several types of share simultaneously. Click Update 8. Choose Public Guest Access and press Update. In this case we are controlling access through Networks rather VMsources Configure Openfiler 10
January 28, 2011 ESX CONFIGURATION 1. To use either NFS or iscsi on ESX, a vmkernel connection must be created 2. Select the ESX Server > Configuration Networking > Properties 3. Add 5. 6. 7. 4. VMsources ESX Configuration 11
CONFIGURE ESX ISCSI INITIATOR 1. You are done with setting up Openfiler 2.3, now set up your ESX Server to use the iscsi volume you have just created! 2. In VIC/VC choose the host/hosts to add shared storage, choose the Configuration tab and select Storage Adapters. Highlight the iscsi Software Adapter in the top-right window and click Properties in the bottom-right window. 5. 6. In the Dynamic Discovery window, choose Add. 7. Enter the address of your Openfiler installation. 3. Click Configure.. 4. Select Enabled. VMsources ESX Configuration 12
12. Now choose Storage > Add Storage 8. 9. And even if it doesn t appear, click close, then re-open this window to see updated list. 13. Disk/LUN 10. Now choose Rescan to discover iscsi volumes. 11. If successful, you will see your Openfiler listed in the Details section. 14. VMsources ESX Configuration 13
15. 16. Name your volume. This will be the name seen by all ESX servers attached to this volume 17. 18. 19. Your brand-new Datastore. VMsources ESX Configuration 14
January 28, 2011 NFS 1. Go To: ESX Server > Configuration > Storage > Add Storage: datastore may be named differently on other ESX servers 2. 3. Get the IP address of Openfiler and the exact path of the share 5. 6. NFS Shares mount very quickly, there is no formatting to be done! 4. Input the IP and path with no trailing slash. Name the datastore. This name is for this ESX Server only, this VMsources ESX Configuration 15