Creating an AWS NGCE cluster

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You can deploy a Next-Gen Cloud Edition (NGCE) cluster in 15 to 20 minutes, if the AWS user account, access key, policy, and security group are set up.

Procedure

  1. Log in to Data Management Service.
  2. Click Settings > Data Platform for Cloud.
  3. Click Deploy and select AWS.
    A Deployment Checklist dialog appears. Read through the details and click Close.

  4. In the Cloud Edition Name field, enter a name for this deployment workflow.
  5. In the AWS Credentials section, provide following information and then click Verify.
    • Access Key ID- Enter the access key ID for the AWS IAM user account 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.

  6. In the Cloud Environment Details section, provide the following information and then click Continue.
    • VPC- From the drop-down list, select the VPC network that the NGCE instances must use.
    • Zone- From the drop-down list, select the AWS zone where the AWS NGCE will run. For example: us-west1-b.
    • Security Group: From the drop-down list, select an existing security group or create a new one. If you create a new one, it will automatically contain rules that open the ports required for cross-node communication within the cluster. If you use an existing security group, make sure it opens the ports described in Opening firewall ports for existing security group.
    • Subnet- From the drop-down list, select a subnet in the chosen VPC that the AWS instances (nodes) of the cluster must use.

      For information about the subnet, see Configure VPC and security for AWS NGCE cluster.

    • Tags- (Optional) Click Add Tag and enter key value pairs to be associated with the cluster nodes.


  7. In the Data Platform for Cloud Details section, provide the following information:
    • Type- Select the type as Next Generation.
    • Cluster Name- The name of the IBM cluster. Specify a name up to 63 alphanumeric characters such as 'IBM1MyCompany'. Hyphens are allowed but cannot be the first or last character. This is the name of the IBM cluster as displayed in the IBM UI and the IBM CLI.
    • Node Size- Select cluster configuration from the drop-down list.
    Entry: 8 CPU 50 TiB capacity
    • HDDs 2
    • HDD Capacity 512GB
    • SSDs 2
    • SSD Capacity 511GB
    • SSD IOPS 3000
    • SSD Throughput 200
    • HDD IOPS 3000
    • HDD Throughput 200
    • Boot Disk Capacity 82GB
    • Compute Type m6i.2xlarge
    Entry AMD: 8 CPU 50 TiB capacity
    • HDDs 2
    • HDD Capacity 512GB
    • SSDs 2
    • SSD Capacity 511GB
    • SSD IOPS 3000
    • SSD Throughput 200
    • HDD IOPS 3000
    • HDD Throughput 200
    • Boot Disk Capacity 82GB
    • Compute Type m6a.2xlarge
    Core: 16 CPU 100 TiB capacity
    • HDDs 2
    • HDD Capacity 1024GB
    • SSDs 2
    • SSD Capacity 1023GB
    • SSD IOPS 3000
    • SSD Throughput 200
    • HDD IOPS 3000
    • HDD Throughput 400
    • Boot Disk Capacity 82GB
    • Compute Type m6i.4xlarge
    Core AMD: 16 CPU 100 TiB capacity
    • HDDs 2
    • HDD Capacity 1024GB
    • SSDs 2
    • SSD Capacity 1023GB
    • SSD IOPS 3000
    • SSD Throughput 200
    • HDD IOPS 3000
    • HDD Throughput 400
    • Boot Disk Capacity 82GB
    • Compute Type m6a.4xlarge
    Archive: 16 CPU 200 TiB capacity
    • HDDs 2
    • HDD Capacity 2048GB
    • SSDs 2
    • SSD Capacity 2047GB
    • SSD IOPS 3000
    • SSD Throughput 200
    • HDD IOPS 3000
    • HDD Throughput 400
    • Boot Disk Capacity 82GB
    • Compute Type m6i.4xlarge
    Archive AMD: 16 CPU 200 TiB capacity
    • HDDs 2
    • HDD Capacity 2048GB
    • SSDs 2
    • SSD Capacity 2047GB
    • SSD IOPS 3000
    • SSD Throughput 200
    • HDD IOPS 3000
    • HDD Throughput 400
    • Boot Disk Capacity 82GB
    • Compute Type m6a.4xlarge
    Performance: 32 CPU 100 TiB capacity
    • HDDs 2
    • HDD Capacity 1024GB
    • SSDs 2
    • SSD Capacity 1023GB
    • SSD IOPS 3000
    • SSD Throughput 200
    • HDD IOPS 3000
    • HDD Throughput 500
    • Boot Disk Capacity 82GB
    • Compute Type m6i.8xlarge
    Performance AMD: 32 CPU 100 TiB capacity
    • HDDs 2
    • HDD Capacity 1024GB
    • SSDs 2
    • SSD Capacity 1023GB
    • SSD IOPS 3000
    • SSD Throughput 200
    • HDD IOPS 3000
    • HDD Throughput 500
    • Boot Disk Capacity 82GB
    • Compute Type m6a.8xlarge
    • Number of Nodes- Specify how many nodes to add to the cluster. For a production cluster, at least 3 nodes are required. For test or demonstration purposes, you can select 1 or 2 nodes, however, the cluster will not tolerate node failures.
    • In AWS NGCE, the data protected onto the cluster is down-tiered to the AWS storage. Configure the following properties for the S3 bucket that will be used for down-tiering the data from the cluster:
    Note: Optionally, you can skip configuring the AWS storage now and configure it once the cluster is up and running.
    • Bucket Name- The S3 standard bucket name.
    • Region- The region name where the bucket is present.
    • Access Key ID- The access key ID of the AWS IAM user.
    • Secret Key ID- Secret access key of the AWS IAM user.
    • DNS Servers- The IP addresses of the Domain Name System (DNS) servers that the IBM cluster should 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 recommends using the external Google Public Network Time Protocol (NTP) server and specifying multiple servers (time1.google.com, time2.google.com, time3.google.com, time4.google.com). Avoid using the pool.ntp.org or time.nist.org NTP servers, as they are sometimes unavailable 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 IBM cluster uses the specified NTP server to synchronize the time on all nodes in the cluster. Also, toggle on Use Authentication Key to secure the communication between the NTP server and the IBM cluster. In the Key ID field, enter the Key id 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 name(s) for the IBM cluster.
    • Cluster Encryption- The cluster supports AES256 software encryption. If desired, enable encryption to encrypt all the data that will 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.


  8. 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 cancel button at the right of the cluster name.
  9. Monitor the deployment progress. Click the expand icon that is 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 > Cloud Formation > 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.
  10. Wait a few minutes and then scroll the task list to step 5. Execute commands and copy the node IP address. You will need the address to set up the cluster.