6 Deploying Using GlusterFS Storage

Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager has been integrated with GlusterFS, an open source scale-out distributed filesystem, to provide a hyperconverged solution where both compute and storage are provided from the same hosts. Gluster volumes residing on the hosts are used as storage domains in the Manager to store the virtual machine images. In this scenario, the Manager is run as a self-hosted engine within a virtual machine on these hosts; although, you can deploy GlusterFS within a standalone environment.

For instructions on creating a GlusterFS storage domain, refer to the My Oracle Support (MOS) article How to Create Glusterfs Storage Domain (Doc ID 2679824.1).

Note:

If you are deploying a self-hosted engine as hyperconverged infrastructure with GlusterFS storage, you must deploy GlusterFS before you deploy the self-hosted engine. For more information about using GlusterFS, including prerequisites, see the Oracle Linux GlusterFS documentation.

Deploying GlusterFS Storage Using Cockpit

To deploy GlusterFS using the Cockpit web interface, complete the following steps.

Important:

You must have at least three (3) KVM hosts. If you want more than three KVM hosts, they must be added in factors of three.

1. Ensure that on all KVM hosts you have installed the following packages:

   • cockpit-ovirt-dashboard to provide a UI for installation

   • vdsm-gluster to manage gluster services

   • ovirt-host on the KVM host used for cockpit deployment

2. Go to Compute, and then click Hosts.

3. Under the Name column, click the host to be used as the designated server.

4. Click Host Console.

5. Enter your login credentials (the user name and password of the root account.).

6. Go to Virtualization and then click Hosted Engine.

7. Click Redeploy under Hosted Engine Setup.

8. Click Start under Hyperconverged.

9. On the Hosts screen, enter 3 (or more) KVM hosts that are in the data center to be used for GlusterFS, with the main designated KVM host entered first and click Next when finished.

10. On the FQDNs screen, enter the FQDN (or IP address) for the hosts to be managed by the Hosted Engine and click Next when finished.

    Note:

    The FQDN of the designated server is input during the Hosted Engine deployment process and is not asked for here.

11. Click Next on the Packages screen.

12. On the Volumes screen, create the minimum storage domains that are required: engine or data. Click Next when finished.

    For example:

    engine

    • Name: engine

    • Volume Type: Replicate (default)

    • Arbiter: Ensure the check box is selected.

    • Brick Dirs: /gluster_bricks/engine/engine (default)

    data

    • Name: data

    • Volume Type: Replicate (default)

    • Arbiter: Ensure the check box is selected.

    • Brick Dirs: /gluster_bricks/data/data (default)

13. On the Brick Locations screen, specify the brick locations for your volumes and click Next when finished.

    For this step, you specify the brick locations for your volumes (engine, data, export, and iso).

14. Review the screen and click Deploy.

    • If you are using an internal disk as the Gluster disk, no edits are required and you can simply click Deploy to continue with the deployment.

    • If you are using an external iSCSI ZFS external drive as the Gluster disk, click Edit to edit the gdeployConfig.conf file and specify the block device on each server that is being used for storage. Click Save and then click Deploy to continue with the deployment.

    This process takes some time to complete, as the gdeploy tool installs required packages and configures Gluster volumes and their underlying storage.

    A message display on the screen when the deployment completes successfully.

Creating a GlusterFS Storage Domain Using the Manager

To add a GlusterFS storage volume as a storage domain:

1. Go to Storage and then click Domains.

2. On the Storage Domains pane, click the New Domain button.

3. For the Name field, enter a name for the data domain.

4. From the Data Center drop-down list, select the data center where the GlusterFS volume is deployed. By default, the Default option is selected in the drop-down list.

5. From the Domain Function drop-down list, select the domain function. By default, the Data option is selected in the drop-down list.

   For this step, leave Data as the domain function because a data domain is being created in this example.

6. From the Storage Type drop-down list, select GlusterFS.

7. For the Host to Use drop-down list, select the host for which to attach the data domain.

8. When GlusterFS is selected for the Storage Type, the New Domain dialog box updates to display additional configuration fields associated with GlusterFS storage domains.

9. Ensure the Use managed gluster volume check box is not selected.

10. From the Gluster drop-down list, select the path to which domain function you are creating.

11. For the Mount Options option, specify additional mount options in a comma-separated list, as you would using the mount -o command.

12. (Optional) Configure the advanced parameters.

13. Click OK to mount the volume as a storage domain.

    You can click Tasks to monitor the various processing steps that are completed to add the GlusterFS storage domain to the data center.