Prepare to Install Actifio

Complete the following prerequisites before installing Actifio Sky Appliance and AGM.

Create External Access IP Addresses

Because Actifio must be able to communicate with ESXi hosts and VMs, we’re using the vSphere management VLAN to deploy the appliances. You can create separate VLANs with appropriate rules to achieve the same goal.

To deploy the appliances in vSphere VLAN, first create external access IP addresses for each Sky Appliance and AGM.

1. In the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Console, navigate to the VCN in which the ESXi hosts reside.
2. In the VLAN section, select the vSphere VLAN. In this example, we are using vSphere VLAN. You may create a separate VLAN with appropriate route tables and security lists.
3. Click Add External Access to create an IP address.
4. Because we don’t want any public IP provisioned for the VRA appliances, leave the default access type as Route Target Only. Then, enter a name and the next available private IP address in the VLAN that you want to create.
5. Click Add External Access to create the IP address.
6. If you’re deploying AGM in Oracle Cloud VMware Solution, follow the same process to create another external access IP address for AGM.

   Note:

   As you scale out your VMware SDDC solution, Oracle Cloud VMware Solution’s automatic allocation process creates IP addresses for the newer components in each of the VLANs. Although there are adequate IP addresses available in the VLAN for a maximum scale-out, we recommend planning your management IP addresses appropriately.

Use File Storage for NFS Datastore as a Backup Target

The Oracle Cloud Infrastructure File Storage service provides a durable, scalable, and secure network file system. You can connect to a File Storage file system from any bare metal, VM, or container instance in your virtual cloud network (VCN). This enables you to attach File Storage as an NFS datastore in your Oracle Cloud VMware Solution environment for backup and restore purposes only.

Note:

File Storage can be used as an NFS datastore within an Oracle Cloud VMware Solution environment only for backup and restore purposes. Oracle and VMware don’t support its use for any production workloads.

Create Resources in File Storage

We recommend creating a separate private subnet to deploy File Storage (file systems and mount targets).

Follow these steps to create a file system and mount target:

1. In the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Console, navigate to the VCN in which you want to deploy File Storage.
2. Create an empty security list (for example, FSS-SL) and an empty route table (for example, FSS-RT).
   • For the security list, add ingress rules for the VCN CIDR to TCP ports 111, 2048, 2049, and 2050 and UDP ports 111 and 2048.
   • You can leave the route table empty because we’re planning to use the file system inside the same VCN.
3. Create a new private subnet with the appropriate CIDR block and select the security list and route table from step 2.
4. In the Console navigation menu, select File Storage and then select File Systems.
5. Click Create File System and complete the details as described in the following steps.
6. In the File System Information section, click Edit Details to make appropriate changes.
   • Name: Provide a name or choose the default.
   • Availability Domain: Select the same availability domain as your Oracle Cloud VMware Solution cluster.
7. In the Export Information section, edit the Export Path value as required. This value must be unique for each file system in the mount target.
8. Edit the values under Mount Target Information to select the appropriate VCN and File Storage subnet.
9. Click Create. The File Storage service typically creates the file system and mount target within seconds. When completed, you have a mount target with an export path.
10. Select the export path to see the mount commands.

Mount File Storage as an NFS Datastore in vSphere

Follow these steps to mount an NFS datastore in vSphere.

1. Access the vSphere Client for your Oracle Cloud VMware Solution cluster.
2. Navigate to the Datastore section.
3. From the Actions menu, select Storage and then select New Datastore.
4. For the datastore type, select NFS.
5. Leave the NFS version as the default (NFS 3).
6. Provide the details of the NFS share. You can find these details in the Mount Target details or in the Export Path Mount Commands section in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Console.
7. On the Host accessibility page, select all the ESXi hosts.
8. Review all the settings and click Finish.
   The new Network File System datastore is shown in the list of datastores.

Use Object Storage for OnVault Storage

Actifio can push backups into Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage directly by using the OnVault feature. Currently, Actifio supports only Standard tier Object Storage because it requires fast and immediate retrieval capability. Because Actifio stores copies of data in object storage similar to any other storage medium, you can store incremental copies of data in the standard tier instead of storing full backups to the archive tier.

To perform backup and restore to Object Storage, create a standard tier bucket in the same region as your Oracle Cloud VMware Solution cluster.

Customer Secret Keys

To access Object Storage from Actifio, you must provide an access key and a secret key. To generate these credentials, follow these high-level steps.

1. In the Identity section of the Console, create a user:
   1. Open the navigation menu. Under Governance and Administration, go to Identity and click Users. A list of the users in your tenancy is displayed.
   2. Click Create User.
   3. Enter the following:
      • Name: A unique name or email address for the user. The name must be unique across all users in your tenancy and you cannot change this value later. The name must meet the following requirements: No spaces and comprised of only basic Latin letters (ASCII), numerals, hyphens, periods, underscores, +, and @.
      • Description: This value could be the user's full name, a nickname, or other descriptive information. You can change this value later.
      • Email: Enter an email address for the user. This email address is used for password recovery and must be unique in the tenancy. If the user forgets their password, they can click Forgot Password on the sign on page, and a temporary password is generated and sent to the email address provided here. The user or an administrator can also update the email address can also later.
      • Tags: Optionally, you can apply tags. If you have permissions to create a resource, you also have permissions to apply free-form tags to that resource. To apply a defined tag, you must have permissions to use the tag namespace. For more information about tagging, see Resource Tags. If you are not sure if you should apply tags, skip this option (you can apply tags later) or ask your administrator.
   4. Click Create.
2. Create a group for Object Storage access and add the user to it.
3. Create a policy to manage buckets and objects in the compartment.
4. To generate the access key and secret key, select the user and click Customer Secret Keys on the left side of the page.
5. Click Generate Secret Key.
6. Enter a name for the key and then click Generate Secret Key. The generated secret key is displayed.

   Note:

   The secret key is displayed only once. You must copy the key and save it in a secure place. After you close the dialog box, the key name is listed along with its associated access key.
7. Copy the access key. You use the access key and secret key when adding Object Storage in Actifio.