Contents

About CAS·· 2

Features and functionalities· 2

Components· 2

Preparing for installation· 3

Server compatibility with CAS· 3

Server requirements· 3

Management server 3

Virtualization server 4

Required information· 4

Planning networks and storage· 1

Planning networks· 1

Restrictions and guidelines· 1

Typical networking schemes· 1

Planning server networks· 3

Planning storage networks· 4

Planning local disks· 6

Installing CAS·· 7

Pre-installation configuration· 7

Performing installation tasks· 9

Installation task list 9

Starting the installation· 9

Configuring network parameters· 12

Selecting the system disk· 14

Partitioning the disk· 14

Setting the date, time, and time zone· 18

Selecting the components to install 19

Finishing the installation· 19

Changing network parameters after installation of CAS· 21

Setting the system time for each server 22

Configuring link aggregation for the management network· 23

Configuring dynamic link aggregation· 23

Configuring static link aggregation· 24

Accessing CAS·· 26

Accessing CVM·· 26

Accessing CIC· 26

Accessing SSV· 26

FAQs· 27

Appendix Building a bootable USB drive· 28

Using Linux DD mode to build a USB bootable flash drive· 28

Using Rufus to build a USB bootable flash drive· 28

 

 

About CAS

H3C Cloud Automation System (CAS) is a resources management platform for constructing a cloud computing infrastructure. It provides industry-leading virtualization management solutions for the cloud computing infrastructure in the data center, and implements centralized management and control over cloud computing. It offers a unified user-friendly management interface for all hosts and virtual machines (VMs) in the data center, not only improving management efficiency and simplifying routine work, but also reducing IT maintenance complexity and management costs.

Features and functionalities

CAS is the software suite for constructing H3Cloud solutions. It delivers the following features and functionalities:

·     Server infrastructure consolidation

·     Centralized and unified management on computing, network, and storage resources

·     High availability and dynamic resource scheduling features to ensure data center service continuity

·     Rapid migration and backup of VMs

·     Multi-tenant isolation

·     User self-service portal

·     Cloud business workflows

·     Open API interfaces to ensure interoperability between clouds

Components

CAS contains the following components:

·     Cloud Virtualization Kernel—CVK is the kernel that runs between the network infrastructure and the customer operating system. It helps eliminate the difference between the underlying heterogeneous hardware and the dependence of the operating system on the hardware devices and drivers. CVK enhances the performance of CAS in hardware compatibility, high reliability, availability, scalability, and performance optimization.

·     Cloud Virtualization Manager—CVM provides virtualization management on computing, network, and storage resources in the data center as well as automated services for upper layer applications. CVM provides the following services:

¡     Virtual computing, networks, and storage

¡     High availability

¡     Dynamic resource scheduling (DRS)

¡     VM backup and disaster recovery

¡     VM template management

¡     Cluster file system

¡     Virtual switch (vSwitch) policies

Preparing for installation

Server compatibility with CAS

H3C CAS is a hardware-assisted virtualization system. To run H3C CAS, the server must support the Intel-VT or AMD-V technology. ARM servers must support ARM VHE. For server compatibility with H3C CAS, see Hardware and Software Compatibility with H3C CAS.

Server requirements

Management server

 

A management server in the data center performs centralized management on hosts. You must install the CAS CVK and CVM components on the management server.

Table 1 describes the hardware requirements for a management server. If you are not to assign the management server to a host pool or create and run VMs on the management server, the hardware requirements for the server are as shown in Table 1, and the CPUs on the sever are not required to support virtualization. If you are to assign the management server to a host pool and create and run VMs on the management server, the hardware requirements for the server are as shown in Table 2.

Table 1 Management server hardware requirements

 

Virtualization server

A virtualization server is a physical host that has VMs running on it. You only need to install CAS component CVK on the virtualization server. Table 2 describes the recommended hardware requirements for a virtualization server.

Table 2 Virtualization server hardware requirements

 

Required information

Before installing CAS, collect the following information:

·     Server name

·     Management network interface and its IP address

·     Whether to install CVM

·     Root password

·     Disk partitioning method

Planning networks and storage

Planning networks

Restrictions and guidelines

·     As a best practice to avoid single point of failures, configure NIC bonding.

·     When IP SAN storage is used, configure two management NICs, two storage NICs, and two service NICs for a server. When FC SAN storage is used, configure two management NICs and two service NICs for a server.

·     When FC SAN storage is used, configure two FC HBAs for a server to access different FC switches.

·     As a best practice, use stacked switches. For example, you can set up H3C IRF fabrics.

·     If the management network switch is enabled with STP, you must configure the interfaces that connect the switch to the management NICs of the CVK hosts as STP edge ports.

·     A server can have only one default gateway, and an IP address is optional to a service NIC.

·     To avoid VM migration and vSwitch selection failures, make sure all hosts in a cluster are consistent in the name of the vSwitch for a specific network.

Typical networking schemes

Typical IP SAN networking scheme

As shown in Figure 1:

·     Configure two bonded NICs for the CVM host (management host), and connect each of them to an Ethernet switch. CVM hosts do not deliver VM services.

·     Configure the following NICs for a CVK host (service host):

¡     Configure two bonded management NICs, and connect each of them to an Ethernet switch.

¡     Configure two bonded storage NICs, and connect each of them to an Ethernet switch.

¡     Configure two bonded service NICs, and connect each of them to an Ethernet switch.

·     Configure two bonded NICs for the IP SAN, and connect each of them to an Ethernet switch.

·     Configure VLANs to isolate the management, storage, and service networks.

Figure 1 Network diagram

 

Typical FC SAN networking scheme

As shown in Figure 2:

·     Configure two bonded NICs for the CVM host (management host), and connect each of them to an Ethernet switch. CVM hosts do not deliver VM services.

·     Configure NICs and FC HBAs for a CVK host (service host) as follows:

¡     Configure two bonded management NICs, and connect each of them to an Ethernet switch.

¡     Configure two bonded service NICs, and connect each of them to an Ethernet switch.

¡     Configure a dual-port FC HBA, connect each port to an FC switch, and configure multipathing.

·     Configure a dual-port FC HBA for the FC SAN, connect each port to an FC switch, and configure multipathing.

 

 

·     Configure VLANs to isolate the management and service networks.

Figure 2 Network diagram

 

Planning server networks

CAS requires management, service, and storage networks isolated through VLAN. Therefore, to add a server to a CAS cluster, you must prepare three (two if FC SAN is used) NICs for the server. For a FlexServer R390 server, you must also prepare an iLO NIC with an IP address in the management network for the server.

Table 3 gives an example for IP address assignment in a scenario with the following networks planned:

·     Management network—The network address is 192.168.11.0/24, the gateway address is 192.168.11.254, and the VLAN ID is 11.

·     Storage network—The network address is 192.168.12.0/24, the gateway address is 192.168.12.254, and the VLAN ID is 12.

·     Service network—The network address is 192.168.13.0/24, the gateway address is 192.168.13.254, and the VLAN ID is 13.

Table 3 IP address assignment

 

CAS uses vSwitches to provide vNICs to VMs. Table 4 gives an example for vSwitch planning.

Table 4 vSwitch planning

 

 

Planning storage networks

CAS supports IP SAN and FC SAN.

IP SAN

To use IP SAN, you must configure IP addresses for it. Table 5 uses P5000 as example to describe storage network planning.

Table 5 Storage network planning for IP SAN (P5000)

 

FC SAN

As a best practice, plan the storage network as follows when FC SAN is used:

·     Connect the two ports on the FC HBA to different FC switches.

·     Install a dual-port FC HBA on each controller of the FC SAN, and connect the two ports to different FC switches.

·     Do not interconnect the two FC switches.

Figure 3 Storage network planning with FC SAN

 

An FC switch enables you to isolate devices by creating zones. Devices in the same zone can communicate, and devices in different zones cannot.

A zone supports domain/port, WWN, and alias members.

As a best practice, assign an HBA port on a server and an HBA port on an FC SAN controller to a zone, and create a zone for each of the HBA port pairs.

You can zone an FC switch based on WWNs or interface numbers. As a best practice, zone it based on WWNs.

FC switch zoning example

Table 6 WWNs of the FC HBAs

 

To zone the FC switches based on WWNs:

1.     Configure FC switch 1:

zonecreate "CVK01-01", "50:01:43:80:24:d2:8a:aa; 50:01:43:80:24:d2:8c:aa "

zonecreate "CVK01-02", "50:01:43:80:24:d2:8a:aa; 50:01:43:80:24:d2:8c:ac "

zonecreate "CVK02-01", "50:01:43:80:24:d2:8b:ad; 50:01:43:80:24:d2:8c:aa "

zonecreate "CVK02-02", "50:01:43:80:24:d2:8b:ad; 50:01:43:80:24:d2:8c:ac "

2.     Configure FC switch 2:

zonecreate "CVK02-01", "50:01:43:80:24:d2:8b:ac; 50:01:43:80:24:d2:8c:ad "

zonecreate "CVK02-02", "50:01:43:80:24:d2:8b:ac; 50:01:43:80:24:d2:8c:ab "

zonecreate "CVK01-01", "50:01:43:80:24:d2:8a:ab; 50:01:43:80:24:d2:8c:ad "

zonecreate "CVK01-02", "50:01:43:80:24:d2:8a:ab; 50:01:43:80:24:d2:8c:ab "

To zone the FC switches based on interface numbers:

1.     Configure FC switch 1:

zonecreate "CVK01-01", "1,1; 1,3"

zonecreate "CVK01-02", "1,1; 1,4"

zonecreate "CVK02-01", "1,2; 1,3"

zonecreate "CVK02-02", "1,2; 1,4"

2.     Configure FC switch 2:

zonecreate "CVK02-01", "2,1; 2,3"

zonecreate "CVK02-02", "2,1; 2,4"

zonecreate "CVK01-01", "2,2; 2,3"

zonecreate "CVK01-02", "2,2; 2,4"

Planning local disks

As a best practice, set up RAID arrays on the disks of a server as follows:

·     Set up a RAID 1 array if the server has only two disks.

·     Set up RAID 5 arrays if the server has three or more disks.

 

Installing CAS

 

H3C CAS has two components CVK and CVM. On a management server, you must install all these two CAS components. On a virtualization server, you need to install only the CVK component.

As a best practice to maximize server performance, configure a server to run with the maximum power. The configuration is as follows:

1.     Select Power Management Options > HP Power Profile.

2.     Select Maximum Performance.

Figure 4 Configuring maximum performance

 

Pre-installation configuration

Typically, a server provides built-in management software, through which you can install an operating system for the server.

Before installing CAS on a server, perform the following tasks on the server:

1.     Configure the server management software such as iLO or IPMI.

Figure 5 Configuring server management software

 

2.     Set up RAID arrays on the disks of the server.

For configuration details, see the configuration guide for the server.

 

 

Figure 6 Configuring RAID arrays

 

3.     Start the server and enter the BIOS setup utility.

4.     Enable CPU virtualization features, and configure USB or CD-ROM as the first boot option as needed.

5.     Save the BIOS settings and quit the BIOS setup utility.

For more information about BIOS settings, see the user manual that comes with the server.

6.     Restart the server.

Performing installation tasks

Installation task list

 

Starting the installation

 

To start the installation:

1.     Place the CD-ROM into the optical disk drive, mount the image file onto the virtual drive, or insert the USB bootable drive into the USB port on the server.

For an ARM server, use the following procedure to mount an ISO image file onto the virtual drive:

a.     Launch the BMC Web console.

b.     Select Media > Virtual Media Wizard.

c.     On the Virtual Media page, identify the Hard disk/USB Key Media : I area.

Figure 7 Identifying the Hard disk/USB Key Media : I area

 

d.     Click Browse and then select the ARM version of the CAS ISO image file.

Figure 8 Selecting the ARM version of the CAS ISO image file

 

e.     Click Connect Hard disk/USB Key.

Figure 9 Connecting the hard disk or USB key

 

2.     Start the server. Then, select to boot up from the CD-ROM or USB bootable drive. The CAS installation start page is displayed.

Figure 10 CAS installation start page

 

3.     On the CAS installation start page, perform either of the following tasks:

a.     For a server that is not Huawei 2488H V5 or 2288H V5 server, select install cas-X86_64 and then press Enter, or wait for the system to start installation automatically.

¡     For a Huawei 2488H V5 or 2288H V5 server, modify the installation parameters as follows and then press CTRL+X to start installation.

 

 

# Press E to enter edit mode.

# At the end of the line starting with linuxefi or linux, add inst.graphical inst.xdriver=fbdev video=efifb:off video=VGA-1:1024x768-32@60me ro console=tty0.

Figure 11 Adding parameters

 

Configuring network parameters

You can choose to configure the network parameters manually or not configure the network parameters during the installation process. If you do not configure network parameters during the installation process, DHCP is used by default and you must change the network parameters to static settings after installation. For more information, see "Changing network parameters after installation of CAS."

 

 

To configure network parameters manually:

1.     On the INSTALLATION SUMMARY page, click NETWORK & HOST NAME in the SYSTEM area.

Figure 12 INSTALLATION SUMMARY page

 

2.     Select a NIC and click Configure in the bottom right corner. Then, select the manual method and configure the parameters, including the IP address, subnet mask, gateway IP address, DNS server IP address, and domain name.

 

 

Figure 13 Network settings

 

3.     Set a host name for the server in the bottom left corner and then click Done.

As a best practice, specify a name that contains only letters and digits. A host name must meet the following requirements:

¡     It can contain only letters, digits, hyphens (-), and dots (.).

¡     It cannot start with a digit, hyphen (-), or dot (.) and end with a hyphen (-) or dot (.).

¡     The length cannot exceed 255 characters.

Selecting the system disk

1.     On the INSTALLATION SUMMARY page, click INSTALLATION DESTINATION in the SYSTEM area.

Figure 14 INSTALLATION DESTINATION page

 

2.     In the Local Standard Disks area, clear the disks on which you are not to install the system. Leave one disk selected to install the system.

Figure 15 Selecting the disk to install the system

 

Partitioning the disk

The disk to install CAS can be partitioned automatically or manually. As a best practice, use automatic partitioning if no system is installed on the disk.

 

 

Automatic disk partitioning

1.     On the INSTALLATION DESTINATION page, select Automatically configure partitioning in the Partitioning area.

Figure 16 Selecting automatic disk partitioning

 

2.     Click Done in the top left corner.

The system returns to the INSTALLATION SUMMARY page when the partitioning is complete.

Figure 17 Returning to the INSTALLATION SUMMARY page

 

Manual disk partitioning

1.     On the INSTALLATION DESTINATION page, select I will configure partitioning in the Partitioning area. Then click Done in the top left corner.

Figure 18 Selecting manual disk partitioning

2.     On the MANUAL PARTITIONING page, click the  button.

Figure 19 MANUAL PARTITIONING page

 

 

3.     In the dialog box that opens, select a partition from the Mount Point list and set a capacity for it. Then click Add mount point.

¡     If the server has booted in UEFI boot mode, add /boot/efi, /boot, /, /var/log, swap, and /vms partitions in turn. See Table 7 for the partition specifications.

¡     If the server has booted in Legacy boot mode, add /, /boot, /var/log, swap, and /vms partitions in turn. See Table 7 for the partition specifications.

Figure 20 Adding a new mount point

 

Figure 21 shows sample partitioning information when the partitioning is complete.

Figure 21 Partitioning information

 

Table 7 Partition descriptions and specifications

 

 

4.     Click Done in the top left corner.

5.     In the dialog box that opens, click Accept Changes to confirm the partitioning.

Figure 22 Confirming the partitioning

 

Setting the date, time, and time zone

On the INSTALLATION SUMMARY page, click DATE & TIME. Then set a correct date, time, and time zone for the system.

Figure 23 Setting the date, time, and time zone

 

Selecting the components to install

On the SOFTWARE SELECTION page, select the components to install:

·     For a management server, select CVM-English.

·     For a virtualization server, select CVK.

Docker is a component in the H3Linux installation package. It does not affect installation of CAS. By default, Docker is not installed.

Figure 24 Selecting the components to install

 

Finishing the installation

1.     On the INSTALLATION SUMMARY page, click Begin installation.

2.     Set a root password when prompted.

The system creates the sysadmin account with default password Sys@1234 after installation. You can use the sysadmin account to perform operations such as adding hosts after you disable Root SSH on the management platform.

Figure 25 Setting a root password

 

After the installation is complete, the host restarts automatically and opens the Configuration screen.

Before the reboot is completed, eject the CD-ROM, disconnect the virtual drive, or unplug the USB flash drive.

 

 

Figure 26 Host configuration screen

 

 

Changing network parameters after installation of CAS

To change network parameters configured during the installation process, access the server console for the change after installation.

 

 

To change network parameters after installation of CAS:

1.     Access the console of the server and then access the Configuration screen.

Figure 27 Configuration screen

 

2.     Select Network and Management Interface > Configure Management Interface.

Figure 28 Configure Management Interface screen

 

3.     Enter the password of the root user. By default, the password is root.

Figure 29 Login screen

 

4.     Select a management network interface and then press Enter.

 

 

Figure 30 Selecting a NIC

 

5.     Enter the IP address, subnet mask, gateway address, hostname, and VLAN ID for the management interface as needed, and then press Enter.

For hostname requirements, see "Configuring network parameters."

Figure 31 Configuring management interface parameters

 

Setting the system time for each server

After CAS is installed on a server, the server will restart and automatically enter the CAS console. Set the system time for each server at the console to ensure consistent time among all servers.

Table 8 describes the commands for setting the system time.

Table 8 Commands for setting the system time

 

Configuring link aggregation for the management network

After CAS installation, you can configure link aggregation for the management network on the xsconsole page. To configure link aggregation, you must select multiple physical NICs (interfaces) for the host.

·     You can configure static or dynamic link aggregation for the interfaces as required. To configure dynamic link aggregation, you must enable LACP on the physical switch.

·     You can configure basic, advanced, or active/standby load balancing for the interfaces as required.

¡     Advanced load balancing—Distributes traffic across the interfaces based on Ethernet type, IP protocol, source IP address, destination IP address, source port, and destination port.

¡     Basic load balancing—Distributes traffic across the interfaces based on the source MAC address and VLAN tag.

¡     Active/standby load balancing—Distributes traffic based on the primary and backup roles of the interfaces. When the primary interface fails, traffic is automatically switched to the backup interfaces. Dynamic link aggregation does not support this mode.

Configuring dynamic link aggregation

1.     On the Management Interface Configuration page, select multiple NICs and enable LACP.

Figure 32 Configuring dynamic link aggregation

 

2.     Select basic or advanced load balancing mode as required.

Figure 33 Configuring the load balancing mode

 

Configuring static link aggregation

1.     On the Management Interface Configuration page, select multiple NICs and leave LACP unselected.

Figure 34 Configuring static link aggregation

 

2.     Select basic, advanced, or active/standby load balancing mode as required.

Figure 35 Configuring the load balancing mode

 

3.     (Optional.) Specify the priority for the primary and backup interfaces if active/standby load balancing mode is configured.

Figure 36 Specifying the priority for the primary and backup interfaces

 

Accessing CAS

You can access CAS through HTTP or HTTPS.

Accessing CVM

To access CVM:

1.     Launch your web browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

2.     Enter http:// server-ip:8080/cas or https:// server-ip:8443/cas in the address bar of the Web browser.

The IP address must be that of the management network interface configured for the management server.

3.     Enter the username and password.

Both the default username and password are admin and Cloud@1234, respectively.

 

 

Accessing CIC

1.     Launch your web browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

2.     Enter http://server-ip:8080/cic or https://server-ip:8443/cic in the address bar of the Web browser.

The IP address must be that of the management network interface configured for the management server.

3.     Enter the username and password.

Both the default username and password are admin and Cloud@1234, respectively.

 

 

Accessing SSV

1.     Launch your web browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

2.     Enter http://server-ip:8080/ssv or https://server-ip:8443/ssv in the address bar of the Web browser.

The IP address must be that of the management network interface configured for the management server.

3.     Enter the username and password.

The username and password are set in CIC by the operator.

 

 

FAQs

What browsers can I use to access CAS?

As a best practice, use browser Google Chrome 39, or Mozilla Firefox 22 to access CAS.

Do I need to install a client for accessing CAS?

No. CAS uses the browser/server (B/S) architecture and you can access CAS directly by using a browser.

To access CAS, enter http://server-ip or https://server-ip in the address bar of a Web browser. The IP address must be that of the management interface configured for the management server.

Why do some pages look different when they are accessed from different browsers?

This is because the browsers interpret some page elements differently. This issue is normal and does not affect the functionality of the product.

What installation media can I use to install CAS?

As a best practice, use a USB drive or virtual drive to install CAS.

Appendix Building a bootable USB drive

You can build a bootable USB drive by burning an ISO image file to the USB drive, and use the bootable USB drive to install software for the server.

You can use Linux or Rufus DD mode to build a USB bootable flash drive. Rufus has multiple versions. Some versions do not support DD mode. As a best practice, use Linux DD to build a USB bootable flash drive.

Using Linux DD mode to build a USB bootable flash drive

1.     Prepare for the building.

a.     Insert a USB flash drive into a device running a Linux operating system.

b.     Copy the ISO image file to the Linux system.

Execute the md5sum xx.iso command (xx.iso is the file name) before and after the copying operation to verify the integrity of the copied file.

c.     Execute the fdisk -l command to view the name of the USB flash drive. This procedure uses name sdb as an example.

2.     Execute the mount | grep sdb command. Use /dev/sdb as an example.

¡     If this command displays mounting information for the USB flash drive, the drive has been automatically mounted to the Linux system. You must first unmount it and then mount it.

[root@cvknode-32 ~]# mount | grep sdb

/dev/sdb1 on /var/ftp type ext4 (rw,relatime,stripe=64,data=ordered)

[root@cvknode-32 ~]# umount /dev/sdb1

[root@cvknode-32 ~]# mount | grep sdb

¡     If no output is displayed, go to the next step.

3.     Execute the dd if= xx.iso of=/dev//USB flash drive name bs=1M command to burn the ISO image file onto the USB flash drive.

4.     Execute the sync && sync command.

5.     Remove the USB flash drive from the device.

Using Rufus to build a USB bootable flash drive

Rufus is a free bootable drive building tool that can be downloaded from its official website.

To build a bootable USB drive, perform steps 1 and 2 for a Ubuntu ISO image file and steps 1 to 4 for a CentOS ISO image file.

1.     Double-click the Rufus tool. On the Rufus window, select the target USB drive from the Device list and Disk or ISO image (Please select) from the Boot selection list and then click SELECT.

Figure 37 Selecting the USB drive and ISO image booting

 

2.     Select the H3C CAS ISO image file, for example, H3C_CAS-E0706-centos-x86.iso and configure the other settings as required. Then click START.

Figure 38 Starting to build the bootable USB flash drive

 

3.     On the ISOHybrid image detected window, select Write in DD image mode and then click OK.

Figure 39 Selecting to write in DD image node

 

4.     Click START.

Figure 40 Building the bootable USB flash drive