Difference between revisions of "Ubuntu Server 10.04 to QuantaStor Upgrade Guide"

Revision as of 22:26, 5 July 2010

Installing the Quantastor storage system platform is a fairly straight forward process and can be summarized as follows:

1. Download and Install Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS with default options (~10 min)
2. Install Quantastor packages with the 'apt-get' utility (~5 min)
3. Login to QuantaStor Manager by connecting to your new QuantaStor system's IP address via any major web browser.
4. Click the 'License Manager' button and add the license key you received via e-mail.

Installation takes a total of about 15 to 30 minutes depending on the speed of your internet connection and your hardware. In the following sections we'll go over each of these steps in detail.

Minimum System Requirements

• Intel or AMD 64bit processor
• Minimum 1 GB RAM
  • The more RAM you add the better as all excess RAM is utilized as read cache.
• One (1) SATA, SAS, IDE, or USB flash drive for use as the QuantaStor boot drive
  • If you're installing to USB flash media, please see our special instructions.
• One or more SATA, SAS, SSD or IDE disk drives for use as data drives

Installing Ubuntu Server

The Ubuntu Server installation process is fairly straight forward but first you'll need to download the installation CD from ubuntu.com here:

• http://releases.ubuntu.com/lucid/ubuntu-10.04-server-amd64.iso

After you have downloaded the installaion ISO you'll need to burn it to a CD using your CD-ROM burning software. After you have your Ubuntu Server 10.04 x64 CD in hand, place the disk into your server's CD-ROM and install it to a hard disk or USB flash drive. Keep in mind that QuantaStor needs a dedicated disk for the OS so you will need one disk or USB flash drive for booting the system, and additional disks for data. The boot disk cannot be utilized by the system for creation storage pools.

Installing to USB Flash Media

NOTE: If you're installing to USB flash media, we highly recommend that you do *not* create a swap drive. USB media typically has wear leveling algorithms to extend the life of the media but swap partitions are very active and will reduce the life of the USB flash drive and cause problems for you.

Durring the installation you can take the default option for just about everything (just press Enter), but we recommend you deviate from the defaults in three spots:

a) When you are asked for the system's hostname, change the default 'ubuntu' to something

  more relevant like 'quantastor-server1'

b) When you're presented with the list of server roles, select/check the 'OpenSSL Server' package from the list

  so that you may remotely manage the box over SSH.  

c) Use a username of 'qadmin' for the default user account. This is not required, but whichever name and

  password you choose, be sure to write it down as you will need it in step 2.  We will refer to this 
  account as the 'qadmin' user account.

At this point you have a working/booting Ubuntu Server installation. Next we're going to convert it into a QuantaStor storage system.

(2) Installing Quantastor

First login with the 'qadmin' user account. Next you'll need change to superuser/root in order to install packages and configure the system. To do that type 'sudo -i' and enter your password for your 'qadmin' account again.

$ sudo -i

Next we need to tell the system where to find the QuantaStor packages. This command will create a file indicating to the system that additional packages can be found at http://packages.osnexus.com/packages.

$ echo "deb http://packages.osnexus.com/packages lucid main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/osnexus.list

Now we need to have the system gather information about those packages

$ apt-get update

Now we're ready to convert the system into a QuantaStor Storage System

$ apt-get install qstormanager

That's it. The install will take a couple of minutes and note that the beta packages are not yet signed so you may have to explictly answer "y" or "Y" to a question like "Are you sure you want to install these unsigned packages [y/n]?".

The installation process will also install Postfix on the system. Postfix allows the QuantaStor system to send you emails when system alerts occur.

   (2a) Notes on Postfix Configuration 
   ------------------------------------
   When you are presented with the 'Postfix Configuration' screen you'll want to setup 
   the system as a 'Satellite system'.  So press ENTER at the welcome page and then 
   choose 'Satellite system" from the list noted as 'General type of mail configuration:'.  

   Next you'll set the "System mail name:".  For this you can use the default that is 
   presented (press ENTER) or you can enter the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) that 
   this system has been or will be assigned in your network's DNS server configuration.

   Finally, you can specify the SMTP relay host if you have an SMTP server you want to 
   relay outgoing mail through.  If you don't know what it is or don't have one, delete 
   what ever address is there (make it blank) and then press ENTER.  

   At this point package installation will continue (you'll see a number of messages saying 
   "Setting up ...." and this will all complete within a couple of minutes.  
   --------------------------------------

3) Logging into QuantaStor Manager

You've done it! At this point you should be able to connect to the system via your web browser to begin managing the storage system. First you'll need to get the IP address of the system. To do that, login as 'qadmin' and run ifconfig.

$ ifconfig

This will return information on your network adapters including the IP address of the system. Enter the IP address of the system into your web browser and the QuantaStor login screen will appear. For example, if the IP address is 192.168.0.224 you'll enter the URL 'https://192.168.0.224' without the quotes into your web browser.

You will need to enter the default 'admin' account password to login, it is 'password' without the quotes.

4) Entering your license key

After you have logged in, the first think you'll need to do is enter your system license key block that you recieved via email. The License Manager can be accessed via the toolbar or via the 'About' button at the top right corner of the screen.

After you enter the license key block via the 'Add License' dialog, we highly recommend that you change the 'admin' account password by going to the 'Users' section under the 'Users & Clouds' tab. Simply select the 'admin' user, right-click and choose 'Set Password' from the pop-up menu or press the 'Set Password' button in the ribbon bar at the top of the screen.

If you have any questions or got stuck on any of the above steps feel free to contact us at support@osnexus.com.

Sincerely, The OS NEXUS Team