Acronis Storage 2.
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Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1 About Acronis Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Acronis Storage Deployment Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2. Planning Acronis Storage Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.
2.3 Planning Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2.3.1 General Network Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.3.2 Network Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.3.3 Per-Node Network Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.3.4 Network Interface Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CHAPTER 1 Introduction To support the growing demand for both high performance and high data availability, modern data centers need a fast, flexible storage solution. Existing solutions, however, are often difficult to manage and maintain, or not flexible enough (e.g., local RAID arrays), or too expensive (e.g., storage area networks). Acronis Storage is designed to solve these issues. It can run on commodity hardware, so no significant infrastructure investments are needed.
Chapter 1. Introduction 1. Plan the Acronis Storage infrastructure. 2. Install and configure Acronis Storage on each server in the planned infrastructure. 3. Create one or more clusters in Acronis Storage. 4. Set up data export for the cluster(s). 5. Populate the cluster(s) with user data.
CHAPTER 2 Planning Acronis Storage Infrastructure To plan your Acronis Storage infrastructure, you will need to decide on the hardware configuration of each server, plan the Acronis Storage networks, decide on the redundancy method (and mode) to use, and decide which data will be kept on which storage tier. Information in this chapter is meant to help you complete all of these tasks. 2.
Chapter 2. Planning Acronis Storage Infrastructure • S3 name service (NS) • S3 object service (OS) • Web CP • SSH • supplementary roles: • management, • SSD cache, • system Any server in the cluster can be assigned a combination of storage, metadata, and network roles. For example, a single server can be an S3 access point, an iSCSI access point, and a storage node at once. Each cluster also requires that a web-based management panel be installed on one (and only one) of the nodes.
2.1. Understanding Acronis Storage Architecture 2.1.3 Network Roles (Storage Access Points) Storage access points enable you to access data stored in Acronis Storage clusters via the standard iSCSI and S3 protocols and use the clusters as backend storage for Acronis Backup Cloud. To benefit from high availability, access points should be set up on multiple node.
Chapter 2. Planning Acronis Storage Infrastructure 2.2 Planning Node Hardware Configurations Acronis Storage works on top of commodity hardware, so you can create a cluster from regular servers, disks, and network cards. Still, to achieve the optimal performance, a number of requirements must be met and a number of recommendations should be followed. 2.2.
2.2. Planning Node Hardware Configurations 2.2.2.1 General Hardware Recommendations • At least five nodes are required for a production environment. This is to ensure that the cluster can survive failure of two nodes without data loss. • One of the strongest features of Acronis Storage is scalability. The bigger the cluster, the better Acronis Storage performs.
Chapter 2. Planning Acronis Storage Infrastructure commits, they should not be used with databases, and they may easily corrupt the file system in case of a power failure. For these reasons, use to enterprise-grade SSD drives that obey the flush rules (for more information, see http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/wal-reliability.html). Enterprise-grade SSD drives that operate correctly usually have the power loss protection property in their technical specification.
2.2. Planning Node Hardware Configurations 2.2.2.3 Network Hardware Recommendations • Use separate networks (and, ideally albeit optionally, separate network adapters) for internal and public traffic. Doing so will prevent public traffic from affecting cluster I/O performance and also prevent possible denial-of-service attacks from the outside. • Network latency dramatically reduces cluster performance. Use quality network equipment with low latency links. Do not use consumer-grade network switches.
Chapter 2. Planning Acronis Storage Infrastructure • The system disk must have at least 100 GBs of space. Software limitations: • The maintenance mode is not supported. Use SSH to shut down or reboot a node. • One node can be a part of only one cluster. • Only one S3 cluster can be created on top of a storage cluster. • Only predefined redundancy modes are available in the management panel. • Thin provisioning is always enabled for all data and cannot be configured otherwise.
2.2. Planning Node Hardware Configurations Even though five nodes are recommended even for the minimal configuration, you can start evaluating Acronis Storage with just one node and add more nodes later. At the very least, an Acronis Storage cluster must have one metadata service and one chunk service running. However, such a configuration will have two key limitations: 1. Just one MDS will be a single point of failure. If it fails, the entire cluster will stop working. 2.
Chapter 2. Planning Acronis Storage Infrastructure Nodes 1-5 (base) Disk No. Disk Type Disk Role(s) 1 HDD System 2 HDD MDS 3 HDD CS HDD CS Disk No. Disk Type Disk Role(s) 1 HDD System 2 HDD CS 3 HDD CS HDD CS ... N Nodes 6+ (extension) ... N 2.2.5.2 HDD + System SSD (No Cache) This configuration is good for creating capacity-oriented clusters. Nodes 1-5 (base) Disk No. Disk Type Disk Role(s) 1 SSD System, MDS 2 HDD CS 3 HDD CS HDD CS Disk No.
2.2. Planning Node Hardware Configurations Disk No. Disk Type Disk Role(s) 3 HDD CS HDD CS ... N 2.2.5.3 HDD + SSD This configuration is good for creating performance-oriented clusters. Nodes 1-5 (base) Disk No. Disk Type Disk Role(s) 1 HDD System 2 SSD MDS, cache 3 HDD CS HDD CS Disk No. Disk Type Disk Role(s) 1 HDD System 2 SSD Cache 3 HDD CS HDD CS ... N Nodes 6+ (extension) ... N 2.2.5.
Chapter 2. Planning Acronis Storage Infrastructure Disk No. Disk Type Disk Role(s) 3 SSD CS SSD CS Disk No. Disk Type Disk Role(s) 1 SSD System 2 SSD CS 3 SSD CS SSD CS ... N Nodes 6+ (extension) ... N 2.2.5.5 HDD + SSD (No Cache), 2 Tiers In this configuration example, tier 1 is for HDDs without cache and tier 2 is for SSDs. Tier 1 can store cold data (e.g., backups), tier 2 can store hot data (e.g., high-performance virtual machines). Nodes 1-5 (base) Disk No.
2.2. Planning Node Hardware Configurations 2.2.5.6 HDD + SSD, 3 Tiers In this configuration example, tier 1 is for HDDs without cache, tier 2 is for HDDs with cache, and tier 3 is for SSDs. Tier 1 can store cold data (e.g., backups), tier 2 can store regular virtual machines, and tier 3 can store high-performance virtual machines. Nodes 1-5 (base) Disk No. Disk Type Disk Role(s) Tier 1 HDD/SSD System 2 SSD MDS, T2 cache 3 HDD CS 1 4 HDD CS 2 5 SSD CS 3 HDD/SSD CS 1/2/3 Disk No.
Chapter 2. Planning Acronis Storage Infrastructure tions may be shown to have 5.45 TB of actual disk space in Acronis Storage. • Acronis Storage reserves 5% of disk space for emergency needs. Therefore, if you add a 6TB disk to a cluster, the available physical space should increase by about 5.2 TB. 2.3 Planning Network Acronis Storage uses two networks (e.g.
2.3. Planning Network 2.3.1 General Network Requirements • Make sure that time is synchronized on all nodes in the cluster via NTP. Doing so will make it easier for the support department to understand cluster logs. 2.3.2 Network Limitations • Nodes are added to clusters by their IP addresses, not FQDNs. Changing the IP address of a node in the cluster will remove that node from the cluster.
Chapter 2. Planning Acronis Storage Infrastructure • The management node must have a network interface for internal network traffic and a network interface for the public network traffic (e.g., to the datacenter or a public network) so the management panel can be accessed via a web browser. The following ports need to be open on a management node by default: 8888 for management panel access from the public network and 8889 for cluster node access from the internal network.
2.3. Planning Network • A node that runs one or more storage access point services must have a network interface for the internal network traffic and a network interface for the public network traffic. The figure below shows a sample network configuration for a node with an iSCSI access point. iSCSI access points use the TCP port 3260 for incoming connections from the public network.
Chapter 2. Planning Acronis Storage Infrastructure The next figure shows a sample network configuration for a node with an S3 storage access point. S3 access points use ports 443 (HTTPS) and 80 (HTTP) to listen for incoming connections from the public network.
2.3. Planning Network Note: In the scenario pictured above, the internal network is used for both the storage and S3 cluster traffic. The next figure shows a sample network configuration for a node with an Acronis Backup Gateway storage access point. Acronis Backup Gateway access points use port 44445 for incoming connections from both internal and public networks and ports 443 and 8443 for outgoing connections to the public network.
Chapter 2. Planning Acronis Storage Infrastructure 2.3.4 Network Interface Roles For an Acronis Storage cluster to function, network interfaces of cluster nodes must be assigned one or more roles described below. Assigning roles automatically configures the necessary firewall rules. • Internal. If one or more internal roles are assigned to a network interface, traffic on all ports is allowed to and from said interface. • Management.
2.3. Planning Network the network interface must be connected to the internal network. This role must be assigned to one network interface on each node running the S3 storage access point service. • ABGW private. The network interface will be used by the Acronis Backup gateway storage access point. To perform this role, the network interface must be connected to the internal network.
Chapter 2. Planning Acronis Storage Infrastructure In this network configuration: • The Acronis Storage internal network is a network that interconnects all servers in the cluster. It can be used for the management, storage (internal), and S3 (private) roles. Each of these roles can be moved to a separate dedicated internal network to ensure high performance under heavy workloads. This network cannot be accessed from the public network. All servers in the cluster are connected to this network.
2.4. Understanding Data Redundancy S3 and Acronis Backup Gateway storage access points, that is, for the S3 (public) and Acronis Backup Gateway roles. 2.4 Understanding Data Redundancy Acronis Storage protects every piece of data by making it redundant. It means that copies of each piece of data are stored across different storage nodes to ensure that the data is available even if some of the storage nodes are inaccessible.
Chapter 2. Planning Acronis Storage Infrastructure • creating S3 clusters, • configuring Acronis Backup Gateway storage access points. No matter what redundancy mode you choose, it is highly recommended is to be protected against a simultaneous failure of two nodes as that happens often in real-life scenarios. Note: All redundancy modes allow write operations when one storage node is inaccessible. If two storage nodes are inaccessible, write operations may be frozen until the cluster heals itself. 2.4.
2.4. Understanding Data Redundancy formance is affected by: • The number of available storage nodes. As replication runs in parallel, the more available replication sources and destinations there are, the faster it is. • Performance of storage node disks. • Network performance. All replicas are transferred between storage nodes over network. For example, 1 Gbps throughput can be a bottleneck (see Per-Node Network Requirements on page 17). • Distribution of data in the cluster.
Chapter 2. Planning Acronis Storage Infrastructure 2.4.3 No Redundancy Warning: Danger of data loss! Without redundancy, singular chunks are stored on storage nodes, one per node. If the node fails, the data may be lost. Having no redundancy is highly not recommended no matter the scenario, unless you only want to evaluate Acronis Storage on a single server.
2.5. Understanding Failure Domains 2.5 Understanding Failure Domains A failure domain is a set of services which can fail in a correlated manner. To provide high availability of data, Acronis Storage spreads data replicas evenly across failure domains, according to a replica placement policy. The following policies are available: • Host as a failure domain (default). If a single host running multiple CS services fails (e.g.
CHAPTER 3 Installing Acronis Storage After creating a plan of your Acronis Storage infrastructure, proceed to install Acronis Storage on each server included in the plan. Acronis Storage is installed in a similar way on all required servers. One exception is the first server where you must also install the management panel (only one is allowed per cluster). Note: On all nodes in the same cluster, time needs to be synchronized via NTP. Make sure the nodes can access the NTP server. 3.
3.2. Starting Acronis Storage Installation 3.1.1 Preparing for Installation from USB Storage Drives To install Acronis Storage from a USB storage drive, you will need a 2 GB or higher-capacity USB drive and the Acronis Storage distribution ISO image. Make a bootable USB drive by transferring the distribution image to it with dd. Important: Be careful to specify the correct drive to transfer the image to. For example, on Linux: # dd if=vz-iso-7.0.0-3391.
Chapter 3. Installing Acronis Storage 3.4 Selecting Destination Partition You need to choose on which server disk the operating system will be installed. This disk will have the system supplementary role and will not be used for data storage. To choose a system disk, open the INSTALLATION DESTINATION screen and select a device in the Device Selection section. Configure other options if required. 3.
3.5. Configuring Network 3. In the Choose a Connection Type window, select Ethernet from the in the drop-down list, and click Create.
Chapter 3. Installing Acronis Storage 4. In the Editing bond slave... window, select a network interface to bond from the Device drop-down list. 5. Configure other parameters if required. 6. Click Save. 7. Repeat steps 3 to 7 for each network interface you need to add to the bonded connection. 8. Configure other parameters if required.
3.6. Choosing Acronis Storage Components to Install 9. Click Save. The connection will appear in the list on the NETWORK & HOSTNAME screen. 3.6 Choosing Acronis Storage Components to Install To install Acronis Storage on a server, you need to choose a component to install on the Acronis Storage screen: The following options are available: • Management Panel. Install the web-based user interface for managing Acronis Storage clusters. • Storage.
Chapter 3. Installing Acronis Storage 3.6.1 Choosing the Components to Install on the First Server On the first server, you will need to install the management panel (with or without storage, as per your plan). Do the following on the Acronis Storage screen: 1. Choose Management Panel or Management Panel and Storage. 2. In the Management Panel network drop-down list, select a network interface that will provide access to the management panel. 3.
3.6. Choosing Acronis Storage Components to Install After completing the steps above, proceed to Finishing Acronis Storage Installation on page 40. 3.6.2 Choosing the Components to Install on the Second and Other Servers On the second and other servers, you will need to install the Storage component only. Such servers will run services related to data storage and will be added to the Acronis Storage infrastructure during installation.
Chapter 3. Installing Acronis Storage http://:8888. 2. In the management panel: • If you only installed the management component on the first server, you will see the welcome screen where a token will be shown (you can generate a new one if needed; generating a new token invalidates the old one). • If you installed both the Management and Storage components on the first server, you will see the NODES screen where the only node will be shown in the UNASSIGNED list.
3.6. Choosing Acronis Storage Components to Install Having obtained the token, do the following on the Acronis Storage screen: 1. Choose Storage.
Chapter 3. Installing Acronis Storage 2. In the Management node field, specify the IP address of the node with the management panel. 3. In the Token field, specify the acquired token. 4. Click Done and proceed to Finishing Acronis Storage Installation on page 40. 3.7 Finishing Acronis Storage Installation Having configured everything necessary on the INSTALLATION SUMMARY screen, click Begin Installation. While Acronis Storage is installing, create a password for the root account.
3.7. Finishing Acronis Storage Installation to Install on the Second and Other Servers on page 37. • If you installed the storage component on the last server, log in to the management panel and make sure that all the storage nodes are present in the UNASSIGNED list on the NODES screen. With the management panel ready and with all the nodes present in the UNASSIGNED list, you can start managing your Acronis Storage infrastructure as described in the Acronis Storage 2.0 Administrator’s Guide.
