Deploying IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI

This chapter describes the IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI planning and installation. It also includes prerequisites that you need to meet before you consider installation.

The IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI installation is designed to provide a seamless and accelerated experience to get the system up and running with a few clicks. After the installation prerequisites, such as physical site safety and network readiness are met, the wizard guides the user through the next steps to get the appliance connected to the data center network. The installation wizard progressively gathers the information for the installation of IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI.

IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI comes with the bootstrapping software that is installed from the factory. Work with your IBM Technical Sales team to get the Mac addresses. Before the rack reaches your premises, see the site readiness topic in the planning section and ensure all the requirements are met.

After the rack arrives at your destination, coordinate with your IBM Technical Sales team to remove the pallet and follow the printed manual to unbox the rack and locate it in your data center.

Complete your Domain Name System (DNS) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) setup. The IBM Service Support Representative (SSR) assists you to complete the initial verification, connection of the system to your network, power cabling, and so on.

In the Network setup, the SSR, in collaboration with your network administrator, configures VLANs, aggregating links, and sets up DHCP and DNS servers.

In the Fusion software installation wizard, you can continue with the installation from a remote host by using the details that are provided at the end of the previous stage. In this stage, you accept the license agreement contracts, provide the image registry details, configure the storage, set up the disaster recovery for Metro Sync DR, customize the OpenShift® and storage network details, and configure a custom certificate for OpenShift. At the end of this stage, IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI completes the installation of OpenShift cluster and management software.

In Cluster expansion, you configure the OpenShift, the global data platform services, and establish the connection between the disaster recovery sites if the Metro Sync DR setup is deployed. After the successful completion of the installation, you can start the IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI user interface and the system is ready to host client workloads and other "day 2" operations like backup configuration.