Hi Friends,
As promised, here's the first blog in the new series:
Nimble Storage - So Easy Even I Can Do It - Part Deux
Today we're going to go through Setup and it couldn't be easier!
Once you've got your array racked, stacked and powered you can setup the array in a couple ways. If you want to install it through the serial cable, you can do that, but I prefer using the Nimble Setup Manager! This way I can configure it from the comfort of my own cube, it's warmer and less noisy than the datacenter.
If you haven't downloaded the Nimble Setup Manager, head over to InfoSight. Click on the download cloud and select Integration Kits, Windows Toolkit and grab the latest software version.
This is a pretty cool pack of software. It has the Setup Manager and the Connection Manager. I'm just going to cover the Setup Manager today.
Install the Windows Toolkit on a Windows machine on the same network the array has been plugged into. The Setup Manager will detect the new array on the network. How cool is that?!?!
Launch the Nimble Setup Manager by clicking on the icon.
I still can't get over how cool this is! There's my array! Select the array you want to configure and click next.
You'll get this information box telling you what IP address your browser will go to to access the array. Yep, I know that's not a good looking IP address, don't worry, trust the Setup Manager and click OK. :-)
Now we need to make a decision, is this a stand-alone array or do we want to join it to an existing group? Let's start off with a stand-alone array and in another blog I'll show you how joining an existing group works.
We'll need to enter in some information now.
1. Array Name
2. Group Name
3. Management IP
4. Netmask
5. Default Gateway
6. Domain Name
7. Admin Password
If this is a stand alone array the array and group names are just names you'd like to call the array and what the group the array belongs to is called.
The management IP is the IP address you're going to use to administer the array. Don't worry about data IP's just yet, but we will need them soon.
The netmask, default gateway and domain name will depend on your environment.
Enter in a password for your array. If you don't like it, you can always change it later, but don't forget it! :-)
Next you should see this message telling you you're ready to proceed to the next steps using the management IP you just entered!
Cool, now you'll be greeted by the Nimble Storage Login Page. Enter in the password you just entered.
Now we're going to setup the advanced networking. Remember when we put in the Management IP? Well, we can use Management for management and data, but this is more of a temporary configuration and it's better to separate the traffic. We'll use 10gig ports for data and 1gig ports for management. So on this page we need to do a couple things. We need to change the Traffic Type from Mgmt + Data to just Mgmt and add our data subnets using the Add Data Subnet button.
Now we're looking good! I've switched Management to Mgmt only, I've added two data networks called iSCSI-A and iSCSI-B and have configured them to be Data only. You'll need a couple of IP addresses for your Data Discovery.
Notice the Management subnet no longer has a Discovery IP address? That's by design since it will no longer be serving data and will only be used for management.
And you'll notice I also highlighted MTU. I've selected Standard, but you can select Jumbo Frames if you're using them.
Now that we've created our subnets we need to assign them to ports. In my image all the ports are 1gig. On newer arrays 10gig ports would be available for you. It's super easy to select what subnet you want for each port, just click the pull down and select one.
And here's a finished Network Settings. I've put Management on eth1 and iSCSI-A and iSCSI-B on eth5 and eth6. Remember we had to put in an IP address for our data subnets? Those were for discovery and those will be the ones you use to let clients discover your Nimble array. The Data IP Address is the actual IP data will go over.
Diagnostic IP's are in case something happens to the management IP and you need a direct way to connect to the individual Controllers.
Now we put in our Domain Name and DNS Servers. If you only have one DNS server, that's fine.
Select your Time Zone and the name or IP address of your NTP server.
Remember all the blogs I've written about the excellent Nimble Support and InfoSight? Well here's how you get all the information to them. Put in a From Address, that's who emails will be from and a To Address, who receives them. If you want Nimble Support to be aware of your array and all the goodness that comes along with it, select Send event data to Nimble Storage Support and Send AutoSupport data to Nimble Storage Support. If you're not able to use these features, talk with your Nimble Account Manager.
That's it! You're ready to rock and roll!
I hope you've enjoyed the first part of my Nimble Storage - So Easy Even I Can Do It - Part Deux! Be on the look out for the next blog.
Until Next Time!
-Brain
