In my previous post, we set up our base OS images.  In this post, we will walk through what it takes to get a ScaleIO SDS array up and running on Ubuntu 14.04.

First things first, lets make sure we have a supported version of the kernel on our Ubuntu machine.  go out to ftp://QNzgdxXix:Aw3wFAwAq3@ftp.emc.com/Ubuntu/2.0.5014.0/  to ensure there is a directory for your kernel version.  I’m running 4.2.0-30, you can check your version by running:

$ uname -r

The FTP site provides the SDC kernel driver for Ubuntu, so it’s important that the hosts you want to use to consume the ScaleIO storage are at one of the supported kernel versions.

Download ScaleIO

ScaleIO is available for free in a community supported version, that is exactly the same as the “for Production use” version.  You can grab it from https://www.emc.com/products-solutions/trial-software-download/scaleio.htm

The version currently available is 2.0.0.0 as of this blog post.

Once downloaded, unzip the file somewhere.  I just downloaded it into my “Downloads” folder on my Windows desktop.  Go into the ScaleIO_2.0.0.0_Gateway_for_Linux_Download folder and, using something like WinSCP, copy the emc-scaleio-gateway_2.0-5014.0_amd64.deb file to the host you intend to use as your gateway (I just copied it into the home directory of my user account.

Now we log in to the host we’ll be using as our Gateway server.  From the CLI, execute the following command:

$ sudo GATEWAY_ADMIN_PASSWORD= dpkg -i emc-scaleio-gateway_2.0-5014.0_amd64.deb

I have another process utilizing port 80, so I needed to change the default ports that the Gateway listens on.  To do that, you will need to edit the following fields in the gateway config which can be found at /opt/emc/scaleio/gateway/conf/catalina.properties

http.port=443

ssl.port=80

While we’re editing files, we should also edit the following fields in the /opt/emc/scaleio/gateway/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/classes/gatewayUser.properties file:

sdc.kernel.repo.SCINI_REPO_ADDRESS=ftp://QNzgdxXix:Aw3wFAwAq3@ftp.emc.com

sdc.kernel.repo.SCINI_REPO_MODULE_SIGCHECK=0

These edits will allow us to download the SDC kernel drivers for our kernel during the deployment of the SDC.

Now we need to restart the gateway.

$ sudo service scaleio-gateway restart

At this point you can log into your ScaleIO gateway using your web browser http://<your_gateway>:<your_port> and login with the username “admin” and the password you set when installing the gateway.

Once logged in, we need to upload the installation tar files from the ScaleIO_2.0.0_UBUNTU_14.04_Download folder that was contained in the zip file.

At this point we need to create our deployment csv.  You can get details on all the fields in the csv from the ScaleIO deployment guide that is included with the download.  I am using a separate storage network (Infiniband) from my management network, so my csv looks like this (TablePress makes it look pretty, but it should be a plain .csv file):

Domain	Username	Password	Operating System	Is MDM/TB	MDM Mgmt IP	MDM IPs	MDM Name	perfProfileForMDM	Is SDS	SDS Name	SDS All IPs	SDS-SDS Only IPs	SDS-SDC Only IPs	Protection Domain	Fault Set	SDS Device List	StoragePool List	SDS Device Names	RFCache	RFCache Device List	RFCache Pool List	perfProfileForSDS	Is SDC	perfProfileForSDC	SDC Name
	root	password	linux	Master	10.0.0.11	10.1.1.11	MDM1	Default	No														Yes		SDC5
	root	password	linux	Slave	10.0.0.12	10.1.1.12	MDM2	Default	Yes	SDS1	10.1.1.12			domain1	fs1	/dev/sdb	pool1						Yes		SDC1
	root	password	linux	Slave	10.0.0.13	10.1.1.13	MDM3	Default	Yes	SDS2	10.1.1.13			domain1	fs2	/dev/sdb	pool1						Yes		SDC2
	root	password	linux	TB	10.0.0.14	10.1.1.14	TB1	Default	Yes	SDS3	10.1.1.14			domain1	fs3	/dev/sdb	pool1						Yes		SDC3
	root	password	linux	TB	10.0.0.15	10.1.1.14	TB2	Default	Yes	SDS4	10.1.1.15			domain1	fs4	/dev/sdb	pool1						Yes		SDC4

Now, from the Install tab, we can upload our .csv, select new installation, and click “Upload Installation csv”.  Next you will walk through each phase of the installation.

If you’ve not fat-fingered anything, each step should be a succes and you should end up with a topology that looks like this:

If you have done the appropriate pre-work, and ensured you are running a supported kernel on all your SDCs, ScaleIO really is the easiest storage array to deploy.  In 5 minutes from the time you install the gateway you will have an operable SDS array that, depending on the backing storage you use, can be as performant as anything on the market.

To manage the ScaleIO cluster, you can either use the CLI, or install the management GUI.  On Windows, ensure you are running the 64-bit version of the JRE, the web based installer only installs the 32-bit version, just an FYI.

In Part3, we will begin to deploy OpenStack Mitaka on Ubuntu.