Installing on a virtual machine

Install the IBM Storage Ceph Provisioner server on a virtual machine (VM) by using the Provisioner Server ISO.

Before you begin

Before you begin, make sure that you have the following prerequisites in place:

The prerequisites listed in Installing the Ceph Provisioner server are met.
The VM environment supports UEFI boot mode.
Two virtual NICs are configured: one for the provisioning network and one for the external network.
The Provisioner Server ISO is downloaded.

About this task

You can install the server on VMware vCenter or on KVM or libvirt, depending on your environment. For KVM or libvirt deployments, the provisioning network NIC must be connected to a Linux bridge-based network to support the layer-2 broadcasts required for node discovery.

Procedure

Create and configure the VM for your hypervisor environment.

To install on VMware vCenter, complete the following steps:
1. Create a new VM with 4 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM, 200 GB disk, and two NICs (provisioning and external).
2. Enable UEFI boot mode.
3. Attach the IBM-Ceph-Provisioner-version.iso file as a virtual CD/DVD device.
4. Power on the VM.
To install on KVM or libvirt, complete the following steps:
1. Create a bridge-based provisioning network by using virsh:
```
cat <<EOF > prov-network.xml
<network>
  <name>prov</name>
  <forward mode='bridge'/>
  <bridge name='nm-bridge'/>
</network>
EOF
virsh net-define prov-network.xml
virsh net-start prov
virsh net-autostart prov
```
  Replace nm-bridge with the name of your Linux bridge interface.
  Important: The provisioning network must be a bridge-based network. A NAT-based virtual network does not support the layer-2 DHCP and ARP broadcasts required for Ready Node discovery. Verify the network type after creation:
```
virsh net-info prov
```
  Confirm that the Bridge field shows a valid bridge interface name.
2. Create the VM with two virtual NICs by using virt-install:
```
virt-install \
  --name mtserver \
  --ram 4096 \
  --vcpus 4 \
  --disk size=200 \
  --cdrom /path/to/IBM-Ceph-Provisioner-version.iso \
  --network network=default \
  --network network=prov \
  --boot uefi
```
  The first NIC connects to the external network. The second NIC connects to the bridge-based provisioning network.
  
  Replace version with the ISO version number and /path/to/ with the actual path to the downloaded ISO file.
3. Verify the VM network configuration after creation:
```
virsh domiflist mtserver
```
  Confirm that one interface is connected to the default network and one is connected to the prov bridge network. For example:
```
Interface   Type      Source    Model    MAC
-------------------------------------------------------------
vnet0       network   default   virtio   52:54:00:20:10:08
vnet1       bridge    prov      virtio   52:54:00:b6:e7:67
```
4. Select UEFI firmware, for example, OVMF_CODE.fd.
5. Boot the VM.

Results

The Provisioner server is installed and ready for initial login and password configuration.

What to do next

After installation completes, log in and secure the server. See Logging in and securing the server.