Lenovo Storage DX8200D series User guide

LenovoStorageDX8200D
SystemInstallationGuide
(AdditionalAppliancesinExistingServer
Group)

FirstEdition(December2016)
©CopyrightLenovo2016.
LIITEDANDRESTRICTEDRIGHTSNOTICE:IfdataorsoftwareisdeliveredpursuanttoaGeneralServices
Administration“GSA”contract,use,reproduction,ordisclosureissubjecttorestrictionssetforthinContractNo.
GS-35F-05925.

Page | 2 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
Table of contents
Intended Audience 3
Document Revision History 4
Recent changes made to this document 4
Physical Installation 5
System Setup 7
OverView 7
Stage One 7
Stage Two 7
Stage Three 8
Interrupting the Automated Deployment Process 8
Stage One (Initial Setup) 9
Accept the Operating System EULA 9
Starting the Deployment Utility 9
Stage Two (User Interview) 11
Accept the SANsymphony software EULA 11
Server Configuration 11
SANsymphony Software Setup 12
SANsymphony Networking Configuration 15
Deployment Summary 17
Planned Reboot 18
Stage Three (Software Installation and Configuration) 19
Post-Installation Steps 20
DataCore Management Console 20
Documentation 20
Account Passwords 20

Page | 3 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
Intended Audience
This document has been prepared by DataCore Software as a guide for the benefit of
DataCore Certified Installation Engineers (DCIE) who would deploy SANsymphony™
software in the field as an integral component of the Lenovo DX8200D family of devices.
This document covers only the first-time installation of a new device, into an existing
DataCore SANsymphony Server Group in which other DX8200D family appliances have
been previously deployed.
For disaster recovery restoration of a device which has been deployed previously, see the
separate document “Lenovo DX8200D Disaster Recovery Guide”.
The software and procedures described herein apply only to this specific use-case. If you
are deploying systems other than one from the Lenovo DX8200D family, then other
procedures will apply. If in doubt you should contact your reseller, or consult Lenovo
Technical Support.
Important
It is assumed that the upgrade will be performed by a competent person with requisite
training in the installation and administration of the current release of DataCore
SANsymphony™.

Page | 4 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
Document Revision History
Recent changes made to this document
First published (December 2016) –Release V1.0

Page | 5 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
Physical Installation
The DX8200D Appliance Family
Connecting your appliance
The DX8200D family of appliances are supplied with six Ethernet network interface ports
dedicated to ‘storage port roles’; two ‘Front-End’ ports, two ‘Mirror’ ports and two ‘Back-
End’ ports.
Front-End ports act only as iSCSI targets and are used to present Virtual Disks (LUNs /
VVols) to host servers. Mirror ports act simultaneously as both iSCSI initiator and target
ports and are used exclusively to provide synchronous replication of highly available
Virtual Disks (‘Mirrored Disks’). Back-End ports are iSCSI initiator ports, used to connect
external storage systems so that their resources can be managed by the DX8200D
appliance.
Remaining Ethernet network Interface ports are used to provide “Management” ports (out-
of-band communication between DX8200D appliances in highly available topologies) and
for regular Windows Server administration.
If your appliance is to operate correctly it is vital that the physical connection of the storage
ports is correct with respect to the DataCore topological design and the prevailing network
infrastructure. In adding additional appliance(s) into an existing DataCore Server Group,
the potential to create a highly available environment arising but only if the requisite
storage port connectivity is observed:

Page | 6 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
The Lenovo DX8200D family of appliances are also equipped with a second generation
Integrated Management Module (IMM), providing amongst other functionality; remote
KVM presence, remote power management and virtual media capabilities. It is strongly
recommended that the IMM port be connected.
Optionally, some DX8200D family appliances may be additional provisioned with Fibre
Channel (FC) interface ports.
Important: If your appliance has been supplied with factory installed FC interfaces, or if
the field installable FC upgrade kit has been applied prior to appliance deployment, it is
critical that these remain disconnected throughout the automated deployment process, or
deployment will fail. They may be connected once the appliance has been successfully
deployed into the Server Group.
All Ethernet ports must be connected prior to first starting the appliance and commencing
the automated deployment process.

Page | 7 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
System Setup
OverView
The DX8200D family of Lenovo virtualised io appliances are supplied with both
SANsymphony™storage virtualisation software and a factory-installed deployment utility
designed to automate the initial installation and setup of the software so that the system
may be brought into service quickly and with minimum administrative overhead.
The configuration utility is launched automatically upon first boot of the operating system
and orchestrates all the necessary aspects of the deployment of a new server appliance. It
is visible to the installer in the form of a PowerShell Session which may be seen to run
throughout the deployment.
The automated software installation process can be thought of in terms of approximately
three logical stages.
Stage One
During the initial ‘pre-flight’ phase, the deployment utility will verify that the appliance
hardware is properly installed and configured as expected; will validate aspects of the
operating system environment and make any necessary adjustments and will un-package
and prepare itself to perform the SANsymphony™software installation and configuration.
Stage Two
Stage two is characterised by the user interview stage, during which the installation
engineer / administrator will be presented with a GUI for the collection of the minimum set
of configuration parameters that the utility will require in order to be able to make a
successfully installation. The parameters required will vary depending on the installation
context but will necessarily include identity and authentication details for at least one
existing appliance that has been previously deployed into the target Server Group. You
should therefore ensure that these details are available prior to commencing the
deployment process. Once the necessary user input has been made, the deployment runs
to completion.

Page | 8 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
Stage Three
In the final stage of the deployment, the SANsymphony™software is installed and prepared
for first use in accordance with the settings provided by the installer in Stage Two. This
includes joining the new, incoming appliance with the existing Server Group and
subsequent synchronisation of the shared configuration database.
Interrupting the Automated Deployment Process
The three logical installation stages may be implemented by a varying number of actual
installation ‘phases’, each of which may be punctuated by one or more reboot cycles
depending upon the actions that are required of those phases. Since the deployment
process is designed to require as little user intervention as possible, reboots will be
performed automatically where required. At all times, the user has the ability to cancel a
requested reboot, if so desired but should this be done, the automation will not restart
automatically on the return from the reboot but must instead be resumed by the user,
requiring manual intervention.
The deployment utility makes use of checkpoints so that if the process is interrupted for
any reason (user action or otherwise), it can be resumed by logging into the server
appliance using the administrator account (in combination with the password credential
established during the second stage) and using the “Resume Installation” shortcut which is
found on the desktop.

Page | 9 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
Stage One (Initial Setup)
Initial setup begins once the operating system on the appliance has booted for the first
time. The first action is to finalise the factory-applied system image preparation (or
‘sysprep’).
Important: For the deployment automation to succeed, you must ensure that the cabling
and connectivity prerequisites have all been met, before starting the server appliance.
Accept the Operating System EULA
When the operating system first boots, the installer will be presented with the Microsoft
Licensing Terms for the underlying Windows 2012 operating system. You must accept the
EULA (click “I Accept”) in order to continue with the deployment. If this is done, an
automatic login will be performed, in the context of the local administrator account.
Starting the Deployment Utility
Under normal circumstances, the automated deployment utility can be expected to start
automatically, after the automated login is complete (there may be a pause of a few seconds
between the login and the commencement of the “DataCore ADK Sequencer” session).
If this does not happen, start it manually by double-clicking the “Start-Deployment” icon
located on the desktop.

Page | 10 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
The deployment utility is in operation when the “DataCore ADK Sequencer” window is
visible.

Page | 11 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
Stage Two (User Interview)
Stage Two commences with the display, by the automated deployment utility, of the user
interview GUI. The GUI captures and validates configuration parameters essential to a
successful deployment within the appropriate context.
Accept the SANsymphony software EULA
Initially, the configuration GUI will display the DataCore SANsymphony™ end user license
agreement. Check the checkbox “I have read and accept these terms and conditions” and
then click the “I accept” button to signify acceptance of this agreement and to continue
with the deployment. If you do not accept the agreement, the deployment utility will exit
and the appliance will remain un-configured.
Server Configuration
The Server Configuration page allows configuration of basic server identity and
regionalisation settings, which will be applied to the operating system during
reconfiguration in subsequent stages. The server host name, keyboard layout and regional
time zone may be configured.
Whilst not essential, it is preferable to set the time zone property to match that of the other
server(s) within the Server Group.
When input is complete, click “Next”

Page | 12 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
Important: Since subsequent pages will capture user credential information, it is essential
to match the selected keyboard configuration with the physical device in use, otherwise
passwords etc. may not be input as expected, leading to a failure of the device to deploy
correctly.
The Server Configuration page also permits the installer to import a pre-existing ‘answer
file’, which may have been created during the installation of another appliance or created
previously on this same appliance during an aborted/suspended deployment. (The
configuration details provided for this deployment may themselves be saved, upon arriving
at the final configuration page).
To import an existing configuration, use the “Import Config” button and use the resulting
open file dialog box to navigate to, and to select, the desired configuration file. If the
configuration file is valid, the user input fields of the GUI pages will become populated with
the saved values.
SANsymphony Software Setup
On this page of the user interview, identity and authentication settings specific to the
SANsymphony software are made.
Since this appliance is to be deployed as a new DataCore Server within an existing Server
Group, the “This server is the first server in a new SANsymphony Server Group”
checkbox should be left unchecked to signify this. This is the default setting for this
parameter.
It is necessary to specify the hostname of a DataCore Server within the existing Server
Group, which should be resolvable via DNS (DNS settings will be configured in a later step).

Page | 13 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
Also required are the passwords for the Administrator (local) and DcsAdmin user accounts
on that existing server. The input fields for these properties are prepopulated with the
default values for a new deployment. If these were changed during the deployment of the
first (and any subsequent) DataCore Server within the Server Group, these fields will need
to be updated to reflect the active values.
To change a default password, click the “Edit” button beside the password input box of
interest, which will cause the password input dialog box to be displayed for the respective
input field.
The password dialog input box allows a new password to be specified, confirmed and
validated against the server’s local security policy. If you should need to return to the
default password value, the “Default” button on the password input dialog will restore the
previous default setting if pressed.
When the required details have been supplied, click the “Next” button.
The deployment utility will now attempt to connect to and authenticate with, the named
existing DataCore Server, in order to verify the details just input. Specifically, tests will be

Page | 14 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
made to verify that; the existing hostname as supplied can be resolved to an IP address on
the network, that the resolved server has an active DataCore Executive Service which will
accept connections from a new DataCore server, that the local administrator account
password as supplied matches that of the existing DatCore server, that the DcsAdmin user
account password as supplied matches that of the existing DataCore Server.
Should verification fail, a message to that effect will be displayed and will indicate which
supplied parameter was found to be suspect. Under such circumstances, check that the
correct details have been supplied.
It is possible to bypass the connectivity check by clicking “Yes” at this dialog however this
is not recommended, since if the supplied details are incorrect, the automated deployment
of the new server will fail at a later stage. Clicking “No” will return the installer to the
SANsymphony™Software Setup page so that the details can be checked and, if necessary,
amended.

Page | 15 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
SANsymphony Networking Configuration
DataCore’s SANsymphony™ software uses the Ethernet network interfaces provisioned
within the appliance to fulfil requirements for iSCSI “storage” ports and the “management”
(control plane) ports. It is vital that the network interfaces being configured are correctly
connected to the physical infrastructure with respect to their intended traffic (Port) roles.
It is necessary for the installer to assign appropriate IP configuration details to all
interfaces as DHCP is not supported as a configuration mechanism for storage ports. The
installer should liaise with the appropriate DevOps networking authority to obtain the
correct interface details, including IP gateway address (“management” interface only) and
DNS server details. These details should be transferred to the corresponding fields within
the user interview GUI, in accordance with the overall storage system topology.
Note: Subnet mask values may be input either in dotted decimal (w.x.y.z) or network
number (e,g, /24) format.
Correct operation of the SANsymphony™software requires that all designated port roles
(target or “Front-End” ports ‘FE’, storage “Mirror” ports ‘MR’, initiator or “Back-End” ports
‘BE’, and the out-of-band “Management” port) must be placed on separate logical networks.
The GUI enforces this requirement and will display an error message if this constraint is
violated. The deployment cannot continue until such an error is corrected:

Page | 16 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
To configure DNS server settings, click the “Edit” button next to the DNS input field to open
the ‘Edit Server DNS Entries’ dialog. New entries are added by completing the text box and
clicking ‘Add’. An existing entry may be edited or removed by first selecting it within the
entry list and then clicking ‘Edit’ or ‘Delete’ buttons respectively. When the entries list is
configured as required, click “Apply” to persist the changes.
Whilst the Networking Configuration page provides controls for the assignment of VLAN
IDs to Network Ports this feature is currently not implement and the controls are
intentionally disabled.

Page | 17 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
When the input of all required network settings is complete, click “Next” to proceed to the
next page.
Deployment Summary
The final page of the user interview provides a summary of the responses previously given
and therefore the settings that will subsequently applied to this appliance instance by the
automated deployment utility once started.
If the settings are correct, clicking the ”Deploy Now”button will cause the GUI to close and
the automated deployment process to commence immediately.
If changes are required, the “Back” button (and the navigation buttons on subsequent
pages) allow the installer to move between previously completed pages, where these may
be applied as necessary.
A completed configuration may be saved for later recall, either as the basis of a template for
the deployment of additional appliances or may be retained for application to the same
appliance during disaster recovery procedures. To save the configuration settings as an
‘answer file’ which may be imported by the GUI at a later time, click the “Save Config”
button to open the Save File dialog.
Note: For security reasons, when a configuration file is saved using the “Save Config”
feature, any user supplied passwords will be removed and therefore will need to input
manually when the file is imported into another instance of the user interview GUI. This is
because configuration settings are saved as plain text.

Page | 18 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
Planned Reboot
Once the user interview GUI has exited, the automated deployment utility resumes and
prepares to deploy the appliance in accordance with the settings received from the
installer. Shortly into this process, the utility will signal one of a number of required
reboots:
Since the deployment process is designed to operate with minimal user intervention once
beyond the interview stage, all such reboots will occur automatically if not actively
prevented by the installer.
Note: Clicking “Ok” at the reboot warning dialog will NOT prevent a reboot but instead will
dismiss the message and expedite the reboot. To prevent the reboot from occurring, it is
necessary to close the “DataCore ADK Sequencer” window. If this is done, then it will be
necessary to resume the installation process manually on next login, by clicking on the
“Resume-Installation” shortcut which has been placed on the desktop.

Page | 19 Lenovo DX8200D Install Guide (Additional Appliance)
Stage Three (Software Installation and Configuration)
During stage three the SANsymphony™ software is installed and configured in line with the
settings provided during the user interview. One or more reboots will be performed
automatically. Upon each return from reboot the local administrator account will be used
to auto-login and the deployment utility will resume its activity.
The deployment is completed when the DataCore ADK Sequencer window displays the
“Installation Process Complete” dialog. At this point, the system is ready for use.