Linux: Installing Mellanox VSA

Installation Prerequisites

VSA is dependent on the following RPMs as prerequisites. Before installing VSA, ensure that the following are installed:

• sg3_utils: SCSI Generic utils, required by VSA management.
• sg3_utils-libs: Libraries needed for the utils (on RHEL).
• mdadm: Required to create, manage, and monitor Linux MD (software RAID) devices.
• device-mapper: User-space files and tools for the device-mapper.
• lvm2: Required for managing physical volumes and creating logical volumes.
• Python
  • python
  • python-twisted-web is needed by vsacli-2.1.1-2.el6.noarch
  • python-twisted-conch is needed by vsacli-2.1.1-2.el6.noarch

Installing

The VSA.tgz archive file contains the installation file install.vsa-<x.x.x.el>.tgz for Linux distributions:

• RedHat
• CentOS

The ./install.sh installation script:

• Installs the package content.
• Creates VSA users.
• Configures/initializes the VSA services to start upon reboot.

The installation adds 3 users who can all log in using remote shell (SSH):

• vsadmin is the privileged user who has access to all features.
• vsuser is the non-privileged user without access to configuration commands.
• vsfiles has limited remote SFTP access to VSA log and configuration files.

NOTE: Before installing VSA, ensure that SE Linux is disabled.

tar -xzvf install.vsa-<x.x.x.el>.tgz
cd release.vsa-<x.x.x.el>
./install.sh

VSA License

Save the license file on your local computer, or on the master and standby nodes in a cluster installation, under /opt/vsa/files/.

Viewing License Information

[root@blade7 vsa]# vscli --lic
1 licenses
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Software name |  Customer ID    |     SN     |     Type      |   MAC Address   |   Exp. Date   |Limit| Functionality | Status |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|VSA            |Boston Solutions |4076        |Evaluation     |NA               |2013-12-31     |1    |Standard       |Valid   |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

VSA Script

The vsa script is a helper tool to enable easy management of the different VSA services and to initiate VSA cluster management operations. To view the different options, type vsa --help

Starting VSA

vsa start

Quick Configuration

[root@Blade7 vsa]# vscli

Welcome to Mellanox Storage Accelerator console!, Ver 2.1
Type: help or help <command> for more details
Type: help quick for quick step by step configuration guide

*** Evaluation License: 123 days left before it expires, make sure to obtain a Permanent License ***

VSA-root>

Overview

The Linux initiator stack contains two sets of elements:

• iscsi-initiator-utils (user space management utilities):
  • iscsid(8) daemon
  • iscsiadm(8) administration utility
  • iscsi service
  • additional utilities
• iSCSI kernel modules:
  • scsi_transport_iscsi
  • libiscsi
  • iscsi_tcp (the TCP transport)
  • ib_iser (the iSER transport)
  • additional transports

For the RHEL, OEL, and CentOS distributions, install the iSCSI initiator package using

yum install iscsi-initiator-utils

Recommended Platforms

• The OFED 1.5.x series supports the iSER initiator transport only for RHEL 5.4

For other distributions, OFED-based setups are possible with OFED 1.4.x only.

• We strongly recommend using the iSCSI and IB stacks provided by the Linux distribution, which support RHEL 5.4, RHEL 5.5, RHEL 5.6, and RHEL 6.
• We recommend using IB stacks provided by the Linux distribution, not from the OFED version.