Deploying Storage

How to Deploy

To install Swarm Storage, you first enlist the chassis and then deploy them for management and orchestration. Swarm Platform supports any chassis that is equipped with IPMI 2.0 or newer.

Power on each chassis that will be a Swarm storage node. Each chassis will PXE boot from the Platform server, enlist itself with Platform, and shut itself down.
After enlistment completes, list the chassis that are available currently to run Swarm:
```
platform list nodes
```
The number of chassis returned will be the value to use in the next step for -n, unless you will be keeping some in reserve.

Deploy Swarm Storage to the chassis being managed by Platform:

platform deploy storage -v {#.#.# Version of Swarm Storage} -c {Path to cluster.cfg} -n {# Nodes To Deploy}

At this point, the Platform will power on each of the nodes twice. The first power on is commissioning, involving hardware interrogation and other tasks, which ends with a power off. The second power on is to boot Swarm Storage on the chassis.
Once Swarm is running, deploy Content Gateway, or, if not using Content Gateway, proceed to Deploying a Proxy.
```
platform deploy proxy -b {Path to Service Proxy Bundle zip}
```

Power Control with ESXi

With a VMware ESXi hypervisor, you may want to use local Storage VMs. These VMs will enlist, but their power type is not detected by MAAS. Therefore, commissioning and deployment requires the "Manual" power type (see next), and requires you to manually power on these VMs (shutdown works).

Using the native VMware power type is possible, but more complex: you must select it through the VMWare UI as well as the MAAS CLI, and you are also required to use a valid (not self-signed) SSL certificate on the hypervisor.

Using Manual Power Control

When a chassis is powered on for the first time, the Platform Server auto-detects which power mechanism to use when processing them for deployment. However, if a chassis has IPMI for power control of the chassis but you need Platform server to ignore IPMI, you must switch the deployment to manual power control (add the --manual flag to the platform deploy command) and then manually power on machines at the right time as they go through the lifecycle.

When using manual power control, you need to use CLI commands to know when to power on each chassis, so use the -y <system-id> flag, rather than -n <# of nodes>.

Run the deploy command for an individual chassis, using the --manual flag and the -y <system-id> flag.
To know when to turn the chassis on, use the --state Commissioning flag:
```
platform list nodes --state Commissioning
```
As soon as the chassis appears in the list, you can power on the chassis.
After you power on the chassis, it will go through commissioning and then power itself off.
To know when to power on the chassis for the final time (to deploy the Storage software), use the --state Deploying flag:
```
platform list nodes --state Deploying
```
As soon as the chassis appears in the list, you can power on the chassis for the final time.

Tip

You can also use the following CLI command to follow the chassis through its lifecycle stages.

platform list nodes -y <system-id> --short

Changing Network Bonding Mode

By default, the Platform server will boot all Storage chassis using the "balance-alb" bonding mode. You can modify the default bonding mode to use for future deployments by using the following command:

platform add bonding-mode --default-bonding-mode "<bonding-mode-to-use>"

Note

This setting is not retroactive. Changing the default bonding mode only applies to the chassis that are deployed after the default mode is set.

Use a mode for the Linux bonding driver that is tested and supported for Swarm:

active-backup	Active-backup
balance-alb	(Platform default) Adaptive load balancing
802.3ad	IEEE 802.3ad

Note

See Network Devices and Priority for details on bonding modes.

To use a different bonding mode when deploying an individual chassis, override the default value by using the --bondingMode flag:

platform deploy storage -v <#.#.# Version of Swarm Storage> -c <Path to cluster.cfg> -y <system-id> --bondingMode "<bonding-mode-to-use>"

To modify the bonding mode for a chassis that's already deployed, run the add kernelparam command:

platform add kernelparam -y <system-id> --kernel_params "castor_net=<bonding_mode>"

After the command completes, restart the chassis.

Configuring Subclusters

After all the chassis have been deployed and are running, you can assign chassis to subclusters.

To assign a chassis to a subcluster, use the assign command:

Add to subcluster

platform subcluster assign -y <system-id> --subcluster <subcluster-name>

Note

Assignment is not immediate. Allow time for every node on the chassis to be migrated to the new subcluster.

To review the subcluster assignments, use the list command:

List subclusters

platform subcluster list