N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, Installation Guide

Appendix A Installation Main Menu Description

This appendix provides a summary about the following N1 Provisioning Install menu items.

N1 Provisioning Server Install Main Menu

  1.  IP Address of external DNS server to forward unknown queries:
  2.  Image Copy Subnet:
  3.  Number of Sun Blades to be managed:
  4.  Database software: Postgres
      4.1.   Infrastructure Database parameters ->
      4.2.   Control Center Application Server and Database parameters ->  
  5.  Datacenter DNS Domain Name for this N1 Provisioning Server:
  6.  Resource Layer VLANs: <list>
  7.  Resource Layer Subnets:
  8.  Sun Blade System Chassis Information for discovery ->
  9.  Flash snapshot permission:  
 10.  Directory where images will be stored:

1. IP Address of external DNS server to forward unknown queries:

If you need this function, then enter the IP Address of the external DNS Server to which unknown DNS queries are forwarded. Otherwise, press Enter if you do not require queries to be forwarded.

2. Image Copy Subnet:

This is the subnet in which resource layer servers will be configured during disk copy operations. The Image Subnet resides on a Secure VLAN (image VLAN) and enables a secure copy operation.

3. Number of Sun Blades to be managed:

Total number of server blades. Add the number of server blades installed in each B1600 Blade System Chassis.

Note –

If the image server does not contain adequate disk space for the listed number of server blades, a message similar to the following message appears.

Space needed: 68000 MB, Space available: 16567 MB. You may not
have enough space to support future snapshot images for all your
blades. Do you wish to continue anyway? [y/N] y

4. Database software: Postgres

This menu selection enables you to specify which database software you want to use: Postgres, the default, or Oracle. If you choose Postgres, the Postgres database is installed for you during the N1 Provisioning Server installation process. If you choose Oracle, you must install the Oracle database before you install the N1 Provisioning Server software as described by Installing the N1 Provisioning Server Database.

4.1 Infrastructure Database parameters ->

This menu enables you to enter information relating to the Infrastructure Database. This information includes the directories where the database will be created and the directory where the database software is installed.

If you chose Oracle as your database, the following menu items appear.
1. The directory where Oracle is installed:
  
  The directory where Oracle has been installed on this machine, for example /opt/oracle/OraHome1. Database creation will fail if the correct information is not provided for this item.
2. Database Data Directory: /oracle_data1
  
  The directory where the infrastructure database data files are created. You can create this directory and mount secondary disks, external disks, or NFS file systems onto this directory if you want. This directory is created by the install program if the directory does not exist. /oracle_data1 is a sample directory name supplied by default. You can change this value.
3. Database Log Directory 1: /oracle_data2
  
  The directory where the infrastructure database primary log files are created. You can create this directory and mount secondary disks/external disks/NFS file systems onto this directory if you want. This directory will be created by the install program if the directory does not exist. /oracle_data2 is a sample directory name supplied by default. You can change this value.
4. Database Log Directory 2: /oracle_data3
  
  The directory where the infrastructure database primary log files are created. You can create this directory and mount secondary disks/external disks/NFS file systems onto this directory if you want. This directory will be created by the install program if the directory does not exist. /oracle_data2 is a sample directory name supplied by default. You can change this value.
Note –
The Oracle data and log directories must be empty or installation will fail.
If you chose Postgres as your database, the following menu items appear.
1. Database Data Directory:
  
  The directory where the Postgres database is to be installed on this machine, for example /postgres_data. Database creation will fail if the correct information is not provided for this item.
2. Database Log Directory 1:
  
  The directory where the infrastructure database primary log files are created. You can create this directory and mount secondary disks/external disks/NFS file systems onto this directory if you want. This directory will be created by the install program if the directory does not exist. /postgres_log is a sample directory name supplied by default. You can change this value.

4.2 Control Center Application Server and Database parameters ->

This menu enables you to enter information related to the control center application server and the database. Information includes administrator user and password, database user and password, and mail notification details.

1. Admin Server user name:

This name is the name of the user account who is going to manage the Sun ONE Application Server.
2. Admin Server password:

This password is the password for the Sun One administration user account. The password must be at least 8 characters in length.
If you chose Oracle as your database, the following menu items are displayed.
- 3. Oracle database administrator user:
  
  This is the database administrator user name that is used to administer and maintain the control center database.
- 4. Oracle database administrator password:
  
  This is the password for the database administrator user account. The password must be at least 8 characters in length.
- 5. Oracle database user:
  
  This user name is the user name that is used to create and access the control center database.
- 6. Oracle database password:
  
  This is the password for the control center database user account. The password must be at least 8 characters in length.
If you chose Postgres as your database, the following menu items are displayed.
- 3. Database user:
  
  This user name is the user name that is used to create and access the control center database.
- 4. Database password:
  
  This is the password for the control center database user account. The password must be at least 8 characters in length.
The last item in the Control Center Application Server and Database parameters menu is Enable Email Notification: no. In the Oracle submenu, this is item 7. In the Postgres submenu, this is item 5.

This parameter is used to decide whether email notifications will be sent by the control center. The default is set to no.

If you choose yes, the following Mail Notification menu items are displayed, where x is 7 if you have chosen Oracle as your database, and 5 if you have chosen Postgres as your database.
- x.1 Mail From:
  
  This email address is the email address from which the email notifications will be sent.
- x.2 Mail To:
  
  This email address is the email address to which the email notifications will be sent.
- x.3 SMTP host name:
  
  This host name is the SMTP host name from which the email notifications will be sent.

5. Datacenter DNS domain name for this N1 Provisioning Server:

This name is the Fully Qualified DNS domain name that is assigned to this Provisioning Server.

6. Resource Layer VLANs:

This list is the list of resource layer VLANS that will be added in the infrastructure database. VLANs for farms will be allocated from this list. Each item in the list must be a range of numbers. For example, `11-15' is a valid entry for this list.

Note –

Resource layer VLANS 1, 2, 4, 8, and 9 are already used by N1 Provisioning Server software. 10 is the minimum value allowed. 255 is the maximum value allowed.

By default, this list is set to 10-255.

7. Resource Layer Subnets:

This list is the list of resource layer subnets that will be added to the database. Subnets for farms will be allocated from this list. Each item in the list must be a subnet address followed by an `i' or `e' to indicate if this address is an internal subnet address or external subnet address. For example `10.10.0.0/24/i' and `220.240.255.0/24/e' are valid entries for this list.

The exact subnets that you enter depend on you site's particular network configuration.

Internal subnets are used to create IP address namespaces for I-Fabric N1 Provisioning Servers which do not require network connectivity outside the corporate network by using an external router such as the Internet. Internal subnets are defined based on internal corporate IT conventions to prevent namespace collisions between various private subnets. You need to check with your administrator to determine what internal subnet addresses are available for use with your I-Fabric. Then, enter these subnets as internal subnets during installation.

Note –

Internal subnet is required. Any subnet that is entered in this list must not be the same as the Image copy subnet.

External subnets are typically assigned by an outside entity to a corporate IT network when cpu devices require connectivity outside the corporate network such as the Internet. If your I-Fabric is connected to an external router, and you want the cpu devices in a farm to access the Internet, you need to ask your administrator what external subnet address are available for your I-Fabric. Then, enter the subnet as external subnets during installation.

8. Blade System Chassis Information for discovery ->

This menu requests information about the Blade System Chassis in your I-Fabric. The Blade System Chassis System Controller and Switches must be configured in your I-Fabric network. The Blade System Chassis System Controller and Switches must be accessible from this provisioning server machine by using telnet. The user name and password must be configured to be the same for all Blade System Chassis System Controllers and Switches.

The following menu items are displayed when you choose 8. Blade System Chassis Information for discovery.

Blade System Chassis IP Addresses and Switch Network Configuration:

These addresses are the IP Addresses for all the Blade System Chassis in your I-Fabric. Each IP Address must be accessible from this machine to be considered valid. You will also need to provide the network configuration data for the switches on each Blade System Chassis. The install program will use this data to configure the switches in each Blade System Chassis.

Blade System Chassis IP Addresses and Switch Network Configuration
sc_ip switch_ip default_gw netmask ------------------------------------------------------------- <empty list> <empty list> <empty list> <empty list>
These addresses are the IP Addresses of the Blade System Chassis in your I-Fabric. Each Blade System Chassis SC IP Address must be accompanied by network configuration data for the switch on that Blade System Chassis. The install program uses the Blade System Chassis SC IP Address to connect to the Blade System Chassis. The install program uses the remaining information for configuring the switch on that Blade System Chassis.

Note –
The install program will destroy any existing configuration and replace the configuration with the supplied information.
Choose an operation to perform on the list. a - add item d - delete item i - insert item x - exit [a|d|i|x]
Blade System Chassis switch and system controller (SSC) user login and password:

This name is the user name that is used by telnet and SNMP to access the blade system chassis SSCs.

Caution –
All blade system chassis SSCs must have the same user name and password to access, else installation will fail.

Note –
The install program will destroy any existing configuration and replace the configuration with the supplied information.
Blade System Chassis switch and system controller Password:

Caution –
All blade system chassis SSCs must have the same user name and password to access, else installation will fail.

This is the password that is be used by telnet and SNMP to access the blade system chassis SSCs.

Note –
The install program will destroy any existing configuration and replace the configuration with the supplied information.

9. Flash snapshot permission:

This menu item is used to choose whether to enable or disable flash snapshot permission for operating system images.

10. Directory where images will be stored:

This is the directory in which operating system images are stored. The default is /images.

If you intend to use a filesystem other than /images, you must mount the filesystem on /images on the image server machine, and make the /images available over the network using network file system (NFS) mounting. The filesystem must have at least 6 gigabytes of free space,