SCS’s CLI (command-line interface) is installed by default on the SCS server and supports common administrative tasks.

Getting Help

Every command within the CLI offers help. Some examples:

• scsctl help

• scsctl init dhcp help

• scsctl repo component add help

Listing Components

List the components registered with SCS:

The result list displays active components (including the version that has been marked as active) as well as inactive components (in which no version has been marked as active).

Listing Groups

List the groups for a component:

Instance Management

Listing Instances

List the instances within a given group of a component:

List the nodes in the Swarm Storage cluster (-d is used to refer to the default group rather than referring to it by name):

Assuming an Old Instance Identity

Any time an instance identity changes (typically when a storage node has a change to its networking cards), it will appear to SCS as an entirely new instance, even if nothing really substantial has changed. Also, the former identity still exists in SCS, but will never be used (including any instance-specific setting or template overrides). There is a way to tell SCS to associate the former identity with the new instance ID, clearing out the old identity in the process.

Defining the Storage Cluster

The storage component within SCS only allows a single group/cluster to be defined for that site. The name of that cluster is governed by the name assigned to its group within SCS.

Create the Cluster

To create a group for Swarm Storage:

Assigning a Storage Node to a Subcluster

Each node forms a de-facto subcluster if no explicit subcluster assignments are made in Swarm Storage configuration. The Swarm Storage component (storage) provides the node.subcluster setting as a free-form name that may be assigned to one or more nodes.

The storage process looks at all names assigned to the different nodes and forms them into groups, which can then be used to determine how object replica distribution and protection are handled. The nodes may be grouped using subclusters in any way needed to achieve the desired replica/fail-over paradigm.

Update the subcluster for a storage node:

Updating a Cluster Setting

Update a cluster setting for Swarm Storage:

Some specific examples:

Updating a Storage Node Setting

Update a cluster setting for Swarm Storage:

Some specific examples:

Resetting a Setting

Removing a setting override means that the value for the setting is inherited from a higher scope. Removing an instance-level override means that the value for the setting is obtained from either the group (if a group-level override has been set) or component level. Removing a group-level override has no influence on any existing instance-level overrides that may exist within that group.

Instance Level

Reset an instance-level override:

Group Level

Reset a group-level override:

Updating Network Settings

Shared network settings, such as DNS information and NTP time sources, may be updated as the need arises.

DNS Servers

Update the list of DNS servers (specified as comma- or space-delimited list):

This also requires that the DHCP server be updated so the setting can be made available to booting Storage nodes.

NTP Servers

Update the list of NTP servers (specified as comma- or space-delimited list):

This also requires that the DHCP server be updated so the setting can be made available to booting Storage nodes.

Swarm (Internal) Network MTU

Network MTU for the entire Swarm storage cluster is governed by the MTU set on the internal network interface of SCS. This value is put into DHCP configuration during the init dhcp process, and served to all storage nodes on boot.

1. Update the MTU on the internal network interface.

2. List the interface details on the SCS to ensure that the change is correct.

3. Re-initialize DHCP to apply to changes to any future booting storage nodes:

Swarm (Internal) Network Gateway

The network gateway for the entire Swarm storage cluster is governed by a setting available in SCS as of version 1.5. The setting is provided by the network_boot component, and is called network.gateway. By default, this setting points to the IP address of the internal network interface of SCS, but may be overridden by normal means using the CLI. This value is put into DHCP configuration during the init dhcp process, and served to all storage nodes on boot.

1. Update the network.gateway setting.

2. Re-initialize DHCP to apply to changes to any future booting storage nodes:

Updating Network Bonding Mode in Swarm Storage

This list of supported network bonding modes can be found at https://perifery.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/public/pages/2443808659.

Update the Setting

Update the bonding mode setting in SCS:

Confirm the new setting value:

Apply the Setting to the PXE Boot System

Restart the SCS services to apply this setting:

Once all services have fully come back online (may take 2-3 minutes), storage nodes will receive the new bonding mode the next time they boot up.

Support for kernel.sysctlFileUrl

When a blob/static_file named SYSCTL is present for a node, a URL will be injected into node.cfg for kernel.sysctlFileUrl.

If a different URL is used, then this blob must NOT be present. A different URL provided for the kernel.sysctlFileUrl is allowed in the storage component.

Updating Trusted Root Certificates

When communicating with remote servers that use TLS, custom trusted root (CA) certificates may be specified. These certificates must be PEM-formatted, with all newlines replaced with a literal \n. For example:

…would become:

Once the certificate string is properly formatted (denoted as CERT_STRING in the example below), apply it to SCS:

Updating Client-Facing IP Address

Best practice for SCS is to use a static IP address for the interface that will be receiving client requests. If that IP address changes, SCS may have issues starting up under certain circumstances. To resolve this, run the following commands on the SCS server:

scsctl init config_update --external-interface {interface name} (to obtain a list of interfaces, use ip addr show)

scsctl init wizard --build-platform-pod

scsctl init config_update --finalize

Administrative Credentials

The SCS server maintains an administrator user that has full rights within the Swarm site. This user also serves as the administrative user within the Swarm Storage management API. Credentials may be updated at any time, and updates are pushed to the Storage cluster to guarantee the two use the same credentials.

Setting the Administrative User Name

Update the administrative user name:

Setting the Administrative Password

Update the administrative password:

Updating CLI Credentials

The CLI requires knowing the administrative credentials to perform operations against the SCS server. To set these credentials:

The CLI then securely prompts for the administrative password and proceeds with authentication.

Upgrading Swarm Storage

Obtain the component bundle for the desired version from DataCore Downloads to upgrade the Swarm Storage software of a running cluster. Transfer the bundle to the SCS server and run the following commands to register it with SCS.

Replace new-version with the version being installed:

Navigate to the Storage directory and tun the following:

Verify the the new version is present in the list of available versions:

It has been successfully registered if the new version is in the list. It is not used for booting nodes and the current active version is used. Mark it as active to complete the upgrade:

Verify activation if desired:

Removing an Installed Version of Swarm Storage

The following version texts are examples only. Verify the list of installed versions, and note which version is currently marked as active.

To mark another version as active:

Verify activation if desired:

Remove the desired version, using the entire version string:

Verify removal if desired:

Backing Up SCS

SCS allows a full backup of all components, configurations, settings overrides, and binaries for support and maintenance purposes. The CLI must be logged in since this backup includes values for settings marked as “secure”.

Full Backup

Obtain a full backup of all data:

Lightweight Backup

Obtain a “lightweight” backup that excludes repo data (binaries, etc.):

Backup Restore

Perform backup restore of all data: