Dell DX6000 User manual

Dell DX Object Storage
Platform
User’s Guide
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Notes, Cautions, and Warnings
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of
your computer.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data if
instructions are not followed.
WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal
injury, or death.
____________________
Information in this publication is subject to change without notice.
© 2010 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction of these materials in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc.
is strictly forbidden.
Trademarks used in this text: Dell™, the DELL logo, PowerEdge™,and OpenManage™ are
trademarks of Dell Inc. Red Hat Enterprise Linux®and Enterprise Linux®are registered trademarks
of Red Hat, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this publication to refer to either the entities claiming
the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and
trade names other than its own.
October 2010 Rev. A01
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Contents 3
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 DX Object Storage Platform Overview . . . 9
Network Topologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Local Cluster Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Subcluster Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Remote Cluster Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Application Access to DX Object
Storage Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Communicating With a Local Cluster. . . . . . . . 19
Communicating With a Remote Cluster . . . . . . 19
3 Setting Up the DX Object
Storage Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Installing the Initial Cluster or Redundant
Cluster Services Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Configuring the DX Object Storage Platform . . . . . . 21
Adding Additional DX Storage Nodes. . . . . . . . . . 22
Installing the System in a Rack . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Cabling the Appliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Turning On the DX Storage Node. . . . . . . . . . 23
Enabling Capacity in DX Cluster
Services Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
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4Contents
Adding Network Adapter to DX
Storage Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Adding Network Adapters to DX Cluster
Services Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4 Updating the Dell DX Object
Storage Platform Software . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Checking Software Version Compatibility . . . . . . . 26
Using the DX Object Storage Platform
Compatibility Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Troubleshooting the Compatibility Manager . . . . 27
Updating the DX Cluster Services Node Software . . . 28
Updating the DX Storage Node Software . . . . . . . . 28
Receiving System Software Update
Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Updating OpenManage Server Administrator . . . 29
5 Disaster Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Recovery Solution Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Recovering From Disk Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Single Disk Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Two Disk Failure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Detecting and Monitoring Disk Failures . . . . . . . . 33
Reinstalling the Operating System. . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Configuring and Managing RAID . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Recovering the Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
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Contents 5
Configuring the Partitions During
Operating System Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Reinstalling the DX Cluster Services
Node Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Setting Up and Configuring the Network . . . . . . 37
Connecting the DX Cluster Services Node to the
Private and Public Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Connecting the DX Storage Nodes to the
Private Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Creating a Local YUM Repository on the
DX6000 System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Installing Dell DX Compatibility Manager . . . . . . . 40
Installing Dell OpenManage
Server Administrator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Installing DX Cluster Services Node Software . . . . . 41
Configuring the DX Cluster Services
Node Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Restoring the Cluster Configurations . . . . . . . . . . 42
Bringing Up the DX Storage Cluster. . . . . . . . . . . 42
6 Additional References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Software Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Hardware Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Systems Management Documents . . . . . . . . . . . 45
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6Contents
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Introduction 7
1
Introduction
The Dell DX Object Storage Platform provides a simple and cost effective
pool of storage for less active or fixed content. The object storage platform
allows you to:
• Expand the capacity to meet rapidly changing needs without disrupting
services.
• Set policies for file retention and replication.
• Distribute information to multiple geographic locations.
• Integrate through an HTTP based interface.
The DX Object Storage Platform includes the following hardware and
software:
•DellDX6 a00 Cluster Services Node.
• Two or more Dell DX6
axy S Object Storage Nodes.
• A preinstalled operating system and Dell OpenManage software on the DX
Cluster Services Node.
• Dell DX Object Storage Platform software.
The Dell DX solution components are uniquely identified with the following
naming conventions:
•StorageNode(SN)—DX6 axy S (where a is a variable depicting the
generation, and
xy is a variable depicting the number of drives (12 for the
DX6012S platform), and
S is a fixed alphanumeric character that indicates
a storage node).
• Cluster Services Node (CSN)—DX6
a00 (the “ a ” is a variable depicting
generation).
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8Introduction
Table 1-1 lists the terms used in this document to refer to various
components of the DX Object Storage Platform.
Table 1-1. Terms Used in the Document
Component Description
DX Object Storage Cluster DX6a00S system and two or more DX6axyS
systems
DX Cluster Services Node,
Cluster Services Node or CSN
DX6a00 system
DX Object Storage Node, DX
Storage Node or SN
DX6axyS system
DX Content Router Software component on the DX6a00 system
DX Object Storage Software Software component on the DX6axyS system
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DX Object Storage Platform Overview 9
2
DX Object Storage Platform
Overview
Network Topologies
The Dell DX Object Storage Platform network consists of one or more DX
Storage Clusters connected by DX Content Router services. There are many
possible network topologies depending on the storage network goals. All
networks share the following features:
• One or two DX Cluster Services Nodes that provide services to the storage
cluster.
• Two or more DX Storage Nodes that provide data storage services.
• Ethernet switches to enable required services within a storage cluster
(private network) and access to the storage nodes from outside the cluster
(public network).
• Services such as Domain Name System (DNS) and Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol (DHCP).
NOTE: DX Storage Cluster requires a dedicated internal network to ensure that the
storage cluster traffic is protected from unauthorized access. The dedicated
network also ensures that the external or corporate network is isolated from both
the PXE boot server and cluster multicast traffic.
All network services required by the cluster are present in the DX Cluster
Services Node
software bundle and preinstalled on the Cluster Services Node .
The DX Storage Cluster is automatically configured with defaults for all
network parameters that should be sufficient for most simple configurations.
All network parameters can be set manually to support more complex
configurations. For detailed information about setting network parameters,
see the DX Object Storage Getting Started Guide, and the DX Object Storage
Advanced Administration Guide at support.dell.com/manuals.
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10 DX Object Storage Platform Overview
Network switch configuration depends on both the network topology and the
customer environment. To ensure proper functioning with default network
parameters and to maximize cluster performance, it is recommended that you
follow the best practices listed below, while configuring both the private and
public networks switches.
• Disable link aggregation configuration as the DX Object Storage Nodes
bond the system NIC ports in balanced-alb modes.
• Disable jumbo frames.
• Disable spanning tree protocol, if the switches are not being trunked.
• Disable Flow Control.
NOTE: If switches are trunked, enable spanning tree protocol and port fast on the
data intensive ports.
Contact Dell to customize the network configurations to meet the solution
needs. For more information about configuring the network for the Dell DX
Object Storage Platform, see "Network Topology" in the DX Object Storage
Advanced Administration Guide at support.dell.com/manuals.
Local Cluster Configuration
A basic Dell DX Storage Cluster consists of at least one DX Cluster Services
Node
and at least two DX Storage Nodes , along with the necessary Ethernet
infrastructure to connect them. See Figure 2-1.
Within a cluster,
DX Storage Nodes communicate with each other through
User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and IP multicast. All nodes within a cluster
must be on the same IP subnet. The
DX Cluster Services Node also
participates in UDP and multicast communication and must be located
within the same subnet.
The Layer 3 switch (IP router) used to create the storage cluster subnet must:
• Restrict UDP and multicast network to the cluster subnet
• Pass TCP (HTTP) traffic to and from the DX Cluster Services Node and
DX Storage Nodes
NOTE: You do not require a load-balancer in front of the storage cluster. The
applications communicate directly with the DX Object Storage Platform through
HTTP.
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