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Chapter 2 Deploying an Oracle Linux Storage Appliance Instance

This chapter describes how to deploy Oracle Linux Storage Appliance instances on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

This chapter provides instructions on launching an Oracle Linux Storage Appliance instance on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure from either the Oracle Cloud Marketplace or the embedded Marketplace, which is accessed from the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Console.

For more information about the Marketplace, visit https://www.oracle.com/linux/technologies/linux-storage-appliance.html.

2.1 Oracle Linux Storage Appliance Deployment Prerequisites

Note

If you have previously deployed the Oracle Linux Storage Appliance and are running an earlier version, you can upgrade to the latest package version for the appliance by using the appliance's web interface. Select the Update Appliance option, which is located on the Administration page.
The Oracle Linux Storage Appliance does not provide a way to upgrade from version 1 to version 2 of the Oracle Linux Storage Appliance or from an Oracle Linux version to an Oracle Autonomous Linux version of the appliance. Before you upgrade to the latest appliance version, refer to Chapter 6, Upgrading the Oracle Linux Storage Appliance Version for guidelines and caveats related to upgrading the appliance version.

For information about migrating to an Oracle Autonomous Linux version of the appliance, see Section 1.2, “Using the Oracle Linux Storage Appliance With Oracle Autonomous Linux” and Chapter 5, Migrating Appliance Instances.

Before you deploy Oracle Linux Storage Appliance instances, review the following information and perform all of the prerequisite tasks that are described:

Obtain an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure account.

For more information, go to https://www.oracle.com/index.html.

Configure ports for the Virtual Cloud Network.

To access the appliance and its services, you must add the required ports to the stateful ingress rules, which is located in the default security list for the Virtual Cloud Network (VCN). The appliance will then be associated with each of these ports, thereby allowing traffic on that port for the specified protocol, service, and function.

The following table lists each of the ports that you can configure.

Table 2.1 Ports to Associate With the Virtual Cloud Network

Service	Destination Port Range	Protocol Type	Function
`nfs-server`	`111`	TCP	NFS
`nfs-server`	`2049`	TCP	NFS
`mountd`	`111`	UDP	Autofs/Showmount
`httpd`	`443`	TCP	HTTPS
`statd`	`662`	TCP	NFS `statd`
`mountd`	`20048`	TCP	Autofs/Showmount
`lockd`	`32803`	TCP	NFS `lockd`
`sshd`	`22`	TCP	SSH
`smbd`	`135`	TCP	`smbd`
`smbd`	`139`	TCP	`smbd`
`smbd`	`445`	TCP	`smbd`
`nmbd`	`137`	UDP	`nmbd`
`nmbd`	`138`	UDP	`nmbd`

When adding the port configuration, use the following format:

Source: CIDR-range-of-your-VCN

IP Protocol: IP-protocol

Source Port Range: All

Destination Port Range: port-range

For example, if your VCN Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) range is 172.16.0.0/16, you would use the following port configuration:

Source: 172.16.0.0/16

IP Protocol: TCP

Source Port Range: All

Destination Port Range: 111

The port configuration in the previous example provides access to the appliance from any instance within your VCN. You can restrict access to a smaller set of instances by changing the source CIDR, as required. For more details, see https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/Network/Concepts/securitylists.htm.

Note that the source CIDR range for SSH should be 0.0.0.0/0 so that you can access SSH remotely. See Step 2g. of Section 2.3, “Configuring an Oracle Linux Storage Appliance Compute Instance” for instructions on accessing the web interface over SSH.

2.2 Launching an Oracle Linux Storage Appliance Compute Instance

You can launch an Oracle Linux Storage Appliance Compute instance either from the Oracle Cloud Marketplace or by using the embedded Marketplace, which is accessed from the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Console.

2.2.1 Launching an Oracle Linux Storage Appliance Instance by Using the Oracle Cloud Marketplace

To launch an an Oracle Linux Storage Appliance by using the Oracle Cloud Marketplace, follow these steps:

Go to the Oracle Cloud Marketplace.
Type Oracle Linux Storage Appliance in the search box.
Select the version of the image to deploy in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Follow the image deployment click-through instructions.

2.2.2 Launching an Oracle Linux Storage Appliance Instance by Using the Embedded Marketplace

To launch an Oracle Linux Storage Appliance instance by using the embedded Marketplace accessed from the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Console , follow these steps:

Login to the Console.
Open the navigation menu. Under Solutions and Platform, go to Marketplace and select Applications.
Type Oracle Linux Storage Appliance in the search box and press Enter.
Select the Oracle Linux Storage Appliance version.
To launch the instance:
1. Select the Version of the image and the Compartment in which you want to deploy the image.
2. Accept the Oracle Standard Terms and Restrictions.
3. Click Launch Instance.
The Create Compute Instance page automatically pre-populates with the Oracle Linux Storage Appliance image source and instance configuration details.
Follow the instructions in Section 2.3, “Configuring an Oracle Linux Storage Appliance Compute Instance” to configure the instance.

2.3 Configuring an Oracle Linux Storage Appliance Compute Instance

On the Create Compute Instance page, after completing the launch instructions by using either of the previously described methods, you can configure and create the instance as follows:

Enter a name for the instance. You can add or change the name later. The name does not need to be unique, because an Oracle Cloud Identifier (OCID) uniquely identifies the instance.
Select the compartment to create the instance in.
In the Configure placement and hardware section, select the Availability domain that you want to create the instance in.
If you imported the appliance image to a custom image, click Change Image Source, and select the image that you imported previously, which is located in the Custom Images section.

Note

If you launched the image by using the embedded Marketplace, the appliance image source should be automatically selected.
In the Shape section, click Change Shape and select a supported shape.

The Oracle Linux Storage Appliance can run on all Oracle Cloud Infrastructure shapes. When selecting a shape instance, note the following additional information:
- For Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute instances with NVMe disks attached, the storage pool is created automatically.
  
  Note
  
  When you create an Oracle Linux Storage Appliance instance on a Dense I/O shape or a Compute instance with attached NVMe devices, any block volumes that are attached to the instance are not available for share creation. Mixed NVMe and block volume support per instance is not available.
- For Oracle Cloud Infrastructure shape instances without NVMe disks attached, block volumes that are attached to the shape instance can be used as the storage pool.
  
  For this shape instance, you must create the block volumes and attach them to an instance. For instructions, see Adding a Block Volume in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure documentation.
  
  Note that attached block volumes are automatically mounted and attached. There is no need to mount them manually.
  
  After an initial login to the web interface for the Oracle Linux Storage appliance, you are presented with a list of available block volumes that you can use to create the appliance storage pool.
  
  Caution
  
  Block volume selection is only supported at creation time and cannot be modified afterwards. Also, detaching and reattaching block volumes while the appliance is running is not supported and will result in data corruption or loss.
In the Configure networking section, select the VCN that has its ports configured with the appropriate information.

Refer to Section 2.1, “Oracle Linux Storage Appliance Deployment Prerequisites”.
Define any remaining parameters for the instance as you normally would for any other instance.
When you are done configuring the instance, click Create.

The instance will deploy and start immediately.
Gain secure access to the web interface by using SSH to port forward, as follows:
1. On your local Linux or macOS client, run the following command:
```
# ssh -N -L 8443:127.0.0.1:443 opc@public_IP_of_the_storage_appliance
```
  Note that the command does not return.
2. Open a browser and point to https://localhost:8443, then accept the self-signed certificate to continue.
Note

If you are running at least Oracle Linux 7 Update 3, you will also need to perform an NFS client installation as part of the deployment. See Chapter 4, Accessing Appliance Shares Over the NFS and SMB Protocols.