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Preparing the network switch layer for hosting of Swarm storage, with emphasis on how multicast traffic will be handled in the storage cluster subnet (see notes on Swarm port & protocol requirements as outlined in Setting Up the Swarm Network )
Setting up appropriate routing and firewall rules for the service
Configuring the necessary DNS zones to handle both external and internal name mapping requirements
Configuring the load balancer layer with necessary server pool configuration for the Gateway servers
Configuring the load balancer with the necessary SSL/TLS certificates for SSL/TLS service termination and offload
Note that Gateway itself cannot handle SSL/TLS connection requests, which is why offload must be done at the load balancer layer
Environment Validation
Before installing the Swarm components, it’s strongly recommended at this stage to perform a validation of networking and systems in place. This work can include, but is not limited to:
Testing network connectivity between the various components and noting the results (e.g., iperf2 / iperf3 testing for networking between all the component relationships)
Testing disk I/O characteristics on the storage servers, Elasticsearch servers, and Gateway servers (e.g., using ‘fio’ or similar tools to profile raw disk performance and file system performance where appropriate)
Having this information in hand before the installation of the Swarm stack will help set expectations for expected performance in the overall cluster. It also is useful for identifying unforeseen bottlenecks in the infrastructure and third party component layouts. In our experience, many of the issues reported related to poor Swarm performance can have roots in environment issues, so it’s wise to test for this up front before the software stack and services are in place.
Swarm Server & Service Installation
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