TS7700C (Cloud) Requirements, Restrictions, and prerequisites

Edit online

TS7700 cluster with Tier Cloud, requirements, restrictions and prerequisites.

Requirements:

The following TS7700 Cloud Storage Tier targets are supported:
  • IBM Cloud Object Storage (IBM COS, ICOS) on-premise
  • Amazon S3 public
  • ICOS public with NGINX reverse proxy (via RPQ)
  • RStor with NGINX reverse proxy (via RPQ)
For more details, refer to IBM TS7700 R5.1 Cloud Storage Tier Guide.

Restrictions:

  • The time on the TS7700 and the cloud endpoint must be synchronized before you perform the tier to Cloud MES.
    Note: If the time difference between the TS7700 and cloud endpoint is greater than 10 minutes, then the MES fails.
  • If HTTPS will be used, the TLS version must be the same at both the TS7700 and the cloud server to avoid problems with the SSL Certificate Retrieve.

Prerequisites:

  • The TS7760 must be at a microcode level of 8.42.x.x or later for cloud support. If the TS7760 is in a grid, then all clusters need to be at 8.42.x.x or later. To check the microcode level either
    • from the TS7700 Management Interface screen, select Access > Infocenter Setting. Look for the Released Code Level for the current active code or
    • from the TS7700 Management Interface screen, click on the "?" icon and choose "About".
  • The TS7760 memory must be upgraded to 64 GB before starting this installation. This is done by using the FC 3466: 32 GB Memory Upgrade.
  • The cloud infrastructure (IBM COS or Amazon AWS) needs to be installed and configured before starting this FC 5278 installation.

    A cloud container is accessible via a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) which includes either a host's name or Internet Protocol (IP) address. An Amazon web Services (AWS) URL includes an automatically generated host name. A host name is resolved to an IP address by a Domain Name System (DNS). A TS7700's DNS IP address must be specified whether a cloud URL includes a host name.

  • The customer network must allow connectivity between the TS7700 GRID network and the IBM COS endpoints or AMAZON region endpoints.
  • The cloud account information in Table 1 needs to provided before starting the FC 5278 installation.
    Table 1. IP information for the TS7700 cluster and the cloud
    MI fields Value Notes
    Cloud Pools    
    - Nickname Nickname of a cloud pool Alphanumeric string up to 8 characters
    - Cloud Data Format Standard format In 8.42.x.x, standard format is supported.
         
    Cloud Accounts    
    - Nickname Nickname of a cloud account Alphanumeric string up to 8 characters
    - Type Amazon S3 or IBM COS S3  
    - Health check Event, Periodic, or Disable Health check interval is requested if user selects Periodic. Default value is Event.
    - Access Key ID Access Key ID of Amazon S3 or IBM COS Access Key ID and Secret Access Key can be created using the Amazon S3 or IBM COS management console. See https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_access-keys.html for Amazon S3 Access Keys. For IBM COS Access Keys, open the Security tab, select an account, click Change Keys, and click Generate New Access Key.
    - Secret Access Key
    		 Secret Access Key ID of Amazon S3 or IBM COS
    - Notes    
         
    Containers    
    - Container name Name of Amazon S3 bucket or IBM COS vault This name must exactly match the name of the COS vault or AWS bucket that has already been established by the customer.
    Note: Container names must not contain uppercase characters or underscores. Refer to Containers for naming guidelines.

    Amazon S3 bucket or IBM COS vault needs to be created before creating a container on TS7700. For Amazon S3 bucket, select one of the regions in the link:

    https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/spectrum-scale/5.0.1?topic=services-managing-cloud-storage-account

    If Amazon S3 bucket is created in a region not listed in the link, cloud tier configuration will fail.
    - Cloud Pool    
    - Cloud Account    
    - Cloud URL URL of IBM COS accessor nodes This information is not needed for Amazon S3.

    The Cloud URLs for COS systems are the addresses for the Accesser devices.

    - Cloud URL URL of IBM COS accessor nodes
    . . URL of IBM COS accessor nodes
    . . URL of IBM COS accessor nodes
    . . URL of IBM COS accessor nodes
    - Cloud URL URL of IBM COS accessor nodes
    - Cloud URL URL of IBM COS accessor nodes
    Certificate Alias SSL certificate alias to be used for https access. SSL certificate needs to be imported from the cloud storage before setting certificate alias. To import a SSL certificate on TS7700, go to Access > SSL Certificates and click New Certificate. Then, select Retrieve certificate from server, press Next, enter IP address or a hostname of the cloud storage endpoint, press Next, enter Alias, and press Finish.
    - Cluster Association for Cloud URL    
    - Cluster Association for Cloud URL    
  • For merge and join:

    In table 2, "cloud enabled" means the FC MES 5278 has been completed. Some possible merge situations are

    • two Cloud enabled clusters or
    • a Cloud enabled cluster with a grid containing at least one Cloud enabled cluster or
    • two grids each with at least one Cloud enabled cluster
    where one party (either cluster or grid) MUST NEVER HAVE had a Cloud Pool created.
    Warning: If you intend on joining a cloud enabled cluster to an existing grid, that cluster must not have any configured cloud settings.
    Table 2. TS7700 4.2 GA support for joins and merges
    Type Joining/Merging Cluster(s) Existing Cluster(s) 4.2 GA Supported?
    Join No Cloud Enabled No Cloud Enabled Yes
    Join Cloud Enabled No Cloud Enabled Yes*
    Join No Cloud Enabled Cloud Enabled Yes
    Join Cloud Enabled Cloud Enabled Yes*
    Merge No Cloud Enabled No Cloud Enabled Yes
    Merge Cloud Enabled No Cloud Enabled Yes
    Merge No Cloud Enabled Cloud Enabled Yes
    Merge Cloud Enabled Cloud Enabled Yes**

    * = Only supported if the joining cluster does not have any configured cloud pools, cloud accounts, containers, or URLs.

    ** = Only supported if the resulting grid contains no more than one cloud pool and no more than 256 items for each of the following: cloud accounts, containers, cloud URLs, and cluster associations.

  • The following Feature Keys is needed PRIOR to starting the MES script. These keys must be provided and the installation instruction documents explain how to install them using the TS7700 Management Interface

    Feature Keys for this II:

    • FC 5278 - Cloud Enablement
    • FC 5274 - Enable 1 TB Active Premigration Queue (minimum 1 FC required, maximum 10)
      Note: You must install 10 FC 5274s before installing FC 5279.
    • Optional
      FC 5279 - 5 TB Active Premigration Queue (maximum 10)
      Note: FC 5279 is an optional start for the MES.

Postinstallation:

This post instruction is for GRID only.

Network traffic to and from the cloud can interfere with the native TS7700 load balancing algorithm for normal Grid copies. If your network sees an unusual number of warnings about DegradedGrid links after the activation of FC 5278, then contact Service to establish a more reasonable threshold for these warnings.

Possible solutions: Reduce the NTC default 60% value to a lower value to minimize the false warnings or disable the check altogether by setting the threshold to 0%.