Deploying the cloud edition cluster

If you already set up the prerequisite AWS user account, access key, policy and security group, it takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes to deploy a Cloud Edition cluster.

Procedure

  1. In Data Management, select Settings > Data Platform for Cloud.
    Note: Ensure that you are in the main Data Management and the dashboard displays a summary of All Clusters.
  2. Click Deploy and select AWS.

    A Deployment Checklist window appears. Read through the details and click Close.

  3. Provide the following information:
    • Deployment Job Name: Enter a name for this deployment job.
    • Access Key ID: Enter the access key ID for the AWS IAM user account that is used for deploying the cluster.
    • Secret Access Key: Enter the secret access key for AWS IAM user account.
    • Region: Select the AWS Region that you want the Cloud Edition cluster to run in.
  4. The Cloud Network Details page provides drop-down lists of VPC, zone, security group, and subnet based on the AWS credentials you provided in the previous step.
    Select the components that you want to use for the Cloud Edition cluster.

    You can select an existing security group or create a new one. If you create a new one, it automatically contains rules that open the ports that are needed for cross-node communication within the cluster. If you use an existing security group, ensure that the correct ports are open.

    To create a security group, select New Security Group from the drop-down and click Continue.

  5. Provide the following information:
    • Cluster Name: The name of the cluster. Specify a name up to 63 alphanumeric characters such as IBM®1MyCompany. Hyphens are allowed but cannot be the first or last character. This name is the name of the cluster as displayed in the IBM UI and the IBM CLI.

    • Node Size: Select the size for each node.

      If you select XLarge, Cloud Tier is used to move cold data from the cluster to an existing S3 bucket. Provide the bucket name, region, access key ID, and secret access ID for the bucket. Data Management registers the bucket as an external target on the cluster and enable Cloud Tier for the DefaultStorageDomain.

    • Number of Nodes: Specify how many nodes to add to the cluster. For a production cluster, at least 3 nodes are needed. However, for test or demonstration purposes, you can select 1 or 2 nodes. The cluster does not allow node failures.
    • DNS Servers: The IP addresses of the Domain Name System (DNS) servers that the Data Management cluster must use. Separate multiple IPs with commas. Ensure that the Active Directory DNS IP address (if applicable) is listed first. Verify that the specified DNS server can resolve the NTP servers and other entities in the system.
    • NTP Servers: Specify NTP servers. IBM suggests to use the external Google Public Network Time Protocol (NTP) server and specify multiple servers (time1.google.com, time2.google.com, time3.google.com, time4.google.com). Avoid by using the pool.ntp.org or time.nist.org NTP servers, as sometimes they are not available and their IP addresses tend to change. If using an internal NTP server, use only one server (and no external servers). Specify the IP address or the Fully Qualified Domain Name of the NTP server(s). The cluster uses the specified NTP server to synchronize the time on all nodes in the cluster. Also, toggle Use Authentication

    Key to secure the communication between the NTP server and the cluster. In the Key ID field, enter the Key ID that is associated with the SHA-1 key and in the Key field, enter the SHA-1 key. Only SHA-1 Keys are supported.

    • Domain Names: The domain names for the cluster.
    • Cluster Encryption: The cluster supports AES256 software encryption. If wanted, enable encryption to encrypt all the data that is to be stored on the cluster. After a cluster has been created, cluster-level encryption is not editable, however, you can enable encryption at the Storage Domain level.
  6. Click Deploy.

    The process of deploying the cluster into the AWS account begins. A message indicates deployment initiation and the cluster name is displayed in the list of Cloud Editions.

    Tip: You can cancel the deployment at any time by clicking the X next to the cluster name.

  7. Monitor the deployment progress. Click the expand icon next to deployment name for a scrollable list of tasks.
    Tip: You can also monitor the deployment progress in the AWS Console. Go to Services > CloudFormation > Stacks and click on the deployment name in the stack list. For example, the stack name for the deployment in this example might look like demo cluster-2EUUWD94Y0FKBD.
  8. Wait a few minutes and then scroll the task list to step 5. Execute Commands and copy the node IP address. You need the address to set up the cluster.