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Quick Start Configuration Guide

Sara Levy
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Follow these essential post-installation steps to get VAST Cluster configured and ready to use.

Important

The following pre-requisites are assumed:

  • All VAST Cluster hardware components are fully installed in a rack, by VAST Data field personnel.

  • VAST Data field personnel have completed the installation by defining the cluster through the VAST Web UI. The cluster is a manageable entity comprising all installed components.

Step 1: Log Into the VAST Web UI

  1. Make sure your PC has network access to all of the VAST Cluster compute servers (CNodes).

  2. Browse to: https://<VMS_VIP>/, where <VMS_VIP> is the management VIP that you provided during installation. This is the IP used to connect to the VAST Cluster management server (VMS).

    The VAST Web UI opens.

  3. If this is your first time connecting to the VAST Web UI, click I agree to accept the VAST Data End User License Agreement. 

  4. Enter your Username and Password to log in.

    For first time login, use the factory default management user account credentials:

    • username: admin

    • password: 123456.

    Note

    VAST Cluster has one factory default management user account. You cannot delete the factory default management user account or reduce its permissions. After first time login, you can change the password and create additional management accounts. 

  5. Click Login.

    You're now logged into the VAST Web UI and you're viewing the Dashboard.

 

Step 2: Change Your Password

Important

For good security practice, we recommend you change your management password immediately.

  1. From the menu (click menu_button.png  at the top left of the page), select Security and then select the Managers tab.

  2. Identify the manager named admin, hover over the manager's row under the far right column until the Edit button ​(edit_button.png) appears and then click the button.  

  3. In the Password field, enter a new password.

  4. In the Retype Password field, enter the password again.

  5. Click Update. 

    Your new password is saved.

 

Step 3: Configure a Virtual IP (VIP) Pool

VIP pools are ranges of IP addresses that VAST Cluster can use for listening for data traffic.

VAST Data recommends a minimum of two VIPs per CNode. For optimal load balancing, we encourage four VIPs per CNode for clusters with one Cbox (four CNodes); and four or more VIPs per CNode for larger clusters.

To learn more about VIP pools, see Managing Virtual IP (VIP) Pools.

Configure one or more VIP pools to provide a recommended number of VIPs.

  1. From the menu (click menu_button.png) select Configuration and then select the Virtual IP Pools tab.

  2. Click add_button.png and complete the fields:

    Field

    Description

    Start IP (required)

    Enter the IP at the start of the range.

    End IP (required)

    Enter the IP at the end  of the range.

    Subnet CIDR (required)

    Specify the subnet in Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation.

    In CIDR notation, the subnet is expressed as the number of bits of each IP address that represent the subnet address. For example, the subnet mask 255.255.255.0 is expressed as 24 in CIDR notation.

    Gateway IP

    If your storage clients are on multiple subnets and you are routing your client storage traffic through a local gateway device, enter the gateway IP.

    Cluster

    Select the cluster you are configuring the IP pool for.

    VLAN (from VAST Cluster 2.2.0)

    If you want to tag the VIP pool with a specific VLAN on the data network, enter the VLAN number (0-4096). See also Tagging VIP Pools with VLANs.

    CNodes

    If you want to dedicate a specific group of CNodes to the VIP pool, open the drop-down and select all the CNodes you want to include in the group. The VIPs in this pool will only be distributed among the selected CNodes.

    If you do not specify any CNodes, the pool will be distributed among all active CNodes.

    Notice

    CNode groups are supported from VAST Cluster 1.2.3.

  3. Click Save.

    The virtual IP pool is saved. IP addresses from the pool are assigned automatically to the CNodes. You can view the assigned virtual IPs per CNode on the Virtual IPs tab.

 

Step 4: Configure Your Client-Side DNS Server

VAST Cluster compute load is designed to be distributed across all the compute servers (CNodes) in the cluster. This is achieved by configuring a 'round robin' load balancing configuration on your DNS server.

Perform the following configurations on your DNS server:

  • Set up a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) for the VAST Cluster for each VIP pool that you configure.

  • Map all the IPs in each virtual IP pool to one of the VAST Cluster FQDNs in a 'round robin' load balancing configuration.

 

Step 5: Complete Your Call Home Settings

The call home feature sends non sensitive data from your VAST Cluster to our central support server to enable us to provide proactive analysis and fast response on critical issues. 

The data we collect is sent by HTTPS to a VAST Data AWS S3 bucket that we maintain for this purpose.  For details, see the VAST Data Security Guidelines.

Follow these steps to:

  • Complete your call home settings. This is the only way we can ever know that the data we collect from your VAST Cluster is yours! 

  • Run our test to make sure that your VMS can send callhome bundles. If needed, set up firewall rules to allow the VMS to send callhome bundles.

  1. From the menu (click menu_button.png) , select Settings and then select the Call home tab.

  2. Complete the General Setup fields:

    Field

    Description

    Customer

    Your customer name. 

    Site

    The name of the site where the cluster is installed.

    Location

    The location of the site.

    Log Frequency

    The frequency with which system state data is sent to the support server. Disabling the setting stops system state data being sent.

    Bundle Frequency

    The frequency with which debug data is sent to the support server. Disabling the setting stops debug data being sent.

    Proxy Setup

    Enter proxy server details if you would like the data to be sent through your own proxy server.

    Verify SSL

    Enables SSL verification. Disable if, for example, you are sending the call home data through a proxy server that does not have an SSL certificate recognized by VAST Cluster. VAST Cluster recognizes SSL certificates from a large range of widely recognized certificate authorities (CAs). VAST Cluster may not recognize an SSL certificate signed by your own in-house CA.

    Prod mode

    Sets the production support server as the destination for callhome bundles. It's essential to enable this setting.

    Support Channel

    Enables VAST Data Support to run remote bundle collection commands on the cluster.

  3. Click Save. 

  4. Click Test Call Home. A test callhome bundle is sent.

  5. Check the test bundle is sent successfully:

    • Go to the Activities page (open the menu again and select Activities). Find a task named send_interactive_callhome. When the task is done, its status should change to Completed and its log should record Callhome bundle sent.

    • Contact Support and check that the test callhome message was received in our #support slack channel.

    If the callhome bundle is not sent successfully, you may need to set up firewall rules to allow the callhome bundle to be sent.

 

Your essential configuration is now complete.

 

Suggested Next Steps

 
 

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