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Installation Guide

Preparing hardware and installing Syneto Storage

NOTE: Do not connect data disks yet! You will later connect them one by one – this step is described later on.

1. Prepare hardware

Before starting to install make sure the following hardware components are properly installed and connected:

  • Motherboard
  • CPU/Cooler
  • RAM Memory
  • Network interface cards
  • System disk(s)

Next connect your installation media (DVD or USB). Booting from that media will start installing SynetoStorage Operating System (based on illumos and openindi) and management interface.

2. Choose to install SynetoStorage by pressing <enter>

3. Press F2 to start SynetoStorage OS Installation

4. Choose to partition the disk with only one partition for SynetoStorage

5. Set hostname and basic network configuration

Automatically connection configuration will activate DHCP on every network interface.

None will not configure any network interface, and you will have to configure it manually once the system is started.

6. Proceed to select the Region, Time Zone and Date and Time for your installation 

7. Set super user (“root”) password, and create a system administration user (“admin”)

Creating the user called ‘admin’ is mandatory and required for proper installation. Do not choose a different name here.

8. Review installation, Install and Reboot storage

 

First setup of Syneto Storage

1. Determine IP address to configure SynetoStorage

If “Automatic” network configuration was chosen and a DHCP server is present on the network, SynetoStorage will show the IP address acquired:

If network configuration was chosen as “None” or if there is no DHCP server present on the network, you will have to log in and configure an IP address:

2. [Optional] If the default IP address does not work for you, you may change it using the command line interface:

 

Installing and mapping data disks

1. Log in to the web configuration interface

Point your browser to the acquired or configured IP address: https://192.168.1.99 (change the IP address if you chose to set a different one from the command line interface):

2. Map root pool disk(s)

Go to ‘Disk pools’ menu and click the unmapped disk, type ‘onbd’ (i.e. On-Board) for the controller name, select disk type, complete row and column position(1:1) and map it as the first disk.

The controller name, type, row and column act as personal notes and won’t impact the system. They are used to correctly identify a specific disk when it fails.

3. [Optional] Mirror root pool disks

First determine disk that you need to add to root pool from web interface:

In the example above it is called c1t2d0. Mirroring for now is done from the CLI only as it is a one-shot operation done by the installation person, so you have to connect using putty, ssh or use the video console to run this command:

[Config:synetostorage]$ disk mirror_rpool c1t2d0
 ### Configuring c1t0d0 to be a mirror of c1t0d0 and c1t2d0.
Preparing new disk: OK.
Mirroring partition scheme from c1t0d0 to c1t2d0: OK.
Attaching c1t2d0 to rpool: OK.
Installing boot loader to c1t2d0: OK.
Configuring boot loader: OK.
Done. Please wait for resilver to complete before rebooting.
  pool: rpool
 state: ONLINE
status: One or more devices is currently being resilvered.  The pool will
        continue to function, possibly in a degraded state.
action: Wait for the resilver to complete.
 scrub: resilver in progress for 0h0m, 1.23% done, 0h8m to go
config:

        NAME          STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        rpool         ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0    ONLINE       0     0     0
            c1t0d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c1t2d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0  60.4M resilvered

errors: No known data errors
[Config:storage]$ _

The resilvering of the second root pool disk will continue in the background, so you can continue with the next steps. Before rebooting or shutting down the storage, check that it has finished resilvering by running “disk mirror_rpool status” from CLI.

4. [Repeat until all data disks are connected] Insert and map data disk

Physically connect next disk and click the refresh disks icon:

The newly connected disk will now show as unmapped:

Now click on the unmapped disk icon to bring up the mapping popup:

The controller name is a string of letters and numbers. Some good controller names are HBA0 or HBA1. Please make sure to select the right controller name especially on machines with more than 2 controllers where the user might need to set up controller failure safeguards. Row and column represent row and column where the disk is placed on the chassis. If the machine has disks on both front and back, the rows on the back must come last.

 

[Optional] Restoring network configuration to default settings

After installing and mapping disks, you must restore the network configuration to the default settings. This means having the following settings:

  • FQDN: storage
  • IP: 192.168.0.224/24
  • Gateway: none
  • DNS: none

You can achieve this from the video console terminal, since changing them from the web interface will not be possible unless the machine already has the default IP address and the machine with the web browser is directly connected to the storage.

Restoring default configuration is done by running a single command while logged in on the physical console:

[Config:synetostorage]$ restore defaults 
Warning: This will erase all your data! Continue? [yes/no] yes
 * Removing all scsi shares: OK
 * Removing all scsi targets, initiators, target groups and initiator groups: OK
 * Removing all logical units: OK
 * Removing all backup schedulers: OK
 * Removing all machines allowed to store backups: OK
 * Removing all folders and virtual disks: OK
 * Removing all diskpools: OK
 * Cleaning all disks: OK
 * Removing all licenses: OK
 * Joining default workgroup: OK
 * Removing DNS servers and search domain: OK
 * Setting default hostname: OK
 * Removing default gateway and static routes: OK
 * Removing all VLAN interfaces: OK
 * Removing all aggregates: OK
 * Restoring default configuration on all physical network interfaces: OK
 * Restarting caching mechanism: OK
[Config:synetostorage]$

Restoring defaults while logged in remotely (using ssh) will not:

  • Remove all VLAN interfaces
  • Removing all aggregate interfaces
  • Restore default configuration on all physical network interfaces

 

[Optional] Apply OEM branding

If you are a Syneto OEM partner that has a branding support, you may choose to apply branding to your fresh install.

Once you applied a certain brand on the fresh install, it will be kept during software upgrades.

To apply a brand you will have to run these commands:

[Config:synetostorage]$ unsupported shell
*******************************************************************************
*** WARNING!
*** Using this shell in an inappropriate manner may void your warranty!
*** Use with extreme caution!
*******************************************************************************

Syneto Storage  SunOS 5.11      ss_151a1_1      February 2012
root@synetostorage:~# apply-brand syneto
root@synetostorage:~#

The apply-brand command will not output anything if successful. You will see output only when brand cannot be applied.