View source for Scale-out Block Setup (ceph)

[[Category:admin_guide]]
Welcome to the Administrator's Guide to using QuantaStor's Scale-out SAN solution using Ceph.  QuantaStor Scale-out SAN is intended to provide a highly scalable Storage Area Network solution where the QuantaStor system is used to provision SAN block storage to iSCSI or Fiber-Channel clients sourced from a Ceph storage backend.  

This guide will provide details regarding Ceph technology as well as instructions on how to setup and configure a Scale-out SAN installation using QuantaStor.


= Introduction to Scale-out SAN (iSCSI/FC) Block Storage using Ceph =

QuantaStor with Ceph is a highly-available and elastic SDS platform that enables scaling object storage environments from a small 3x system configuration to hyper-scale.  Within a QuantaStor grid up to 20x individual Ceph clusters can be managed through a single system pane by logging into any system in the grid with any common web browser.  The Web UI's powerful configuration, monitoring and management features make it easy to setup large complex configurations easily without using a console or command line tools.  The following guide covers how to setup object storage, monitor, and maintain it.

This section will introduce the various component terminology and concepts regarding Ceph to enable confident creation and administration of a Scale-out SAN solution using QuantaStor and Ceph.

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= Setting up Scale-out SAN with Ceph =

This section will deal step through the process of setting up and deploying Scale-out SAN using Ceph on QuantaStor.  Before getting starting with setting up and deploying Scale-out SAN using Ceph, it is highly recommended that you familiarize yourself with the concepts in the above sections.  

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== Configure Front-end and Back-end Network Ports ==

Update the configuration of each network port using the '''Modify Network Port''' dialog to put it on either the front-end network or the back-end network.  The port names should be consistently configured across all system nodes such that all ethN ports are assigned IPs on the front-end or the back-end network but not a mix of both.

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== Create the Scale-out Storage Pools (Ceph Pools) ==

The Ceph Storage Pool represents the data container that RBD Scale-out Storage Volumes will be generated from.  By default, the creation of a new Ceph Storage Pool will select all OSDs that are available in the Ceph Cluster.  Once the Ceph Pool is created the Cluster health status will update to reflect the overall health of the cluster to include the health of the PGs associated with the new pool.

For the purpose of this guide, we will be specifically creating a ''Block Storage'' pool. To do so, make sure that you click on ''Create Block Storage Pool'' in the ''Block Storage'' category of the ribbon bar. 

'''Navigation:''' Scale-out Storage Configuration --> Scale-out Storage Pools --> Block Storage --> Create Block Storage Pool ''(toolbar)''

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* Ceph Cluster: Select the appropriate cluster if the Grid includes multiple Ceph Clusters
* Name: A descriptive name for administrative purposes
* Data Pool Layout: Use this to set your level of redundancy for the cluster.
** Options:
::: Replica-2 - Ceph will maintain two copies of the data across the cluster
::: Replica-3 - Ceph will maintain three copies of the data across the cluster
::: Erasure - QuantaStor Web Management App will automatically set data chunks (K) and coding chunks (M) based upon the number of members in the Ceph cluster.

== Provisioning Scale-out Storage Volumes (Ceph RBDs) ==

Provisioning iSCSI Storage Volumes from Ceph based Storage Pools is identical to the process used for ZFS based Storage Pools.  You can use the Create Storage Volume dialog from the main '''Storage Management''' tab and select the pool to provision from.  Note that the iSCSI initiator (VMware, Linux, Windows, etc) must be configured login to a QuantaStor network port (target port) IP address on each system associated with the Ceph Cluster that the RBD is a member of so that there are multiple paths to the storage.  If only a single system  connection is made there will be no automatic fail-over in the event of an outage.

To create a new storage volume for Scale-out storage, navigate to ''Storage Management''. From there click on ''Storage Volumes'', which will bring up the ''Storage Volume'' category in the ribbon bar. Click on ''Create''. The dialog for creating a storage volume will appear. In this dialog, it's important to make sure that the storage volume is going to be created from the correct pool. You can double check this in the ''Storage Pool'' field. After everything is filled out press ''OK'' and the new volume will be created.

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'''Navigation:''' Storage Management --> Storage Pools --> Storage Pool --> Create (toolbar)

= Management and Operation =

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