StarWind SAN & NAS: Technical Paper

Introduction

StarWind SAN & NAS is designed to allow you to repurpose your existing hardware running industry-standard hypervisor into high-performing storage. The solution is a fully certified shared storage for VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V Server.
StarWind SAN & NAS supports hardware and software-based storage redundancy configurations. The solution allows turning your server with internal storage into a redundant storage array presented as NAS or SAN, exposing standard protocols such as iSCSI, SMB, and NFS. It comes with Web-based UI, Text-based UI, vCenter Plugin, and Command-line interface for your cluster-wide operations.

StarWind SAN & NAS virtual machine requirements

Prior to installing StarWind SAN & NAS virtual storage appliance, please make sure that the system meets the requirements, which are available at the following link: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/system-requirements

Pre-Configuring the Servers

The diagrams below illustrate the common network and storage configurations of the solution:

  • Converged storage appliance for ESXi and Hyper-V compute servers:
  • Converged storage appliance for vSphere and Hyper-V clusters:

1. Install the hypervisor of your choice, VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi or Hyper-V Server, on a single converged storage server, and the compute servers that are intended to connect and utilize the shared storage provisioned by the appliance.
2. StarWind SAN & NAS virtual machine is deployed on a single Hyper-V Server or VMware ESXi server with commodity direct-attached storage.
3. The network interfaces on each node for Management and Data/iSCSI interfaces should be connected to different subnets and connected directly according to the network diagram above. Here, the 172.16.10.x subnet is used for the Data/iSCSI traffic.
Note: The vCenter server is recommended for the deployment of multiple ESXi servers.
Note: The Failover Cluster feature is recommended for the deployment of multiple Hyper-V servers.

Setting up StarWind SAN & NAS

This part describes how to prepare the environment to deploy and install StarWind SAN & NAS using VMware ESXi and VMware vSphere web-clients.

Configuring single-server storage appliance with VMware ESXi

Configuring Networks on VMware ESXi Server(s)

Configure network interfaces on each node to ensure that Management and iSCSI/StarWind data interfaces are in different subnets and connected physically according to the network diagram above. All actions below should be applied to each ESXi server for running StarWind SAN & NAS.

NOTE: Virtual Machine Port Group should be created for iSCSI/StarWind Data vSwitch. VMKernel port should be created only for iSCSI traffic. Static IP addresses should be assigned to VMKernel ports.

NOTE: It is recommended to set jumbo frames to 9000 on vSwitches and VMKernel ports for iSCSI traffic. Additionally, vMotion can be enabled on VMKernel ports.

1. Using VMware ESXi web console, create an additional vSwitch for the iSCSI/StarWind Data channel.

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2. Create a VMKernel port for the iSCSI/StarWind Data channel.

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3. Add a Virtual Machine Port Group to the vSwitch for iSCSI/StarWind Data traffic.

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4. Repeat steps 1-3 for any other links intended for iSCSI/StarWind Data on ESXi hosts.

Deploying StarWind SAN & NAS on the ESXi server

1. Download zip archive that contains StarWind SAN & NAS: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/san-and-nas#download

2. Extract the virtual machine files.

3. Deploy the virtual machine on the ESXi server. Right-click on the Host or Virtual Machine menu and select “Create/Register VM” from a drop-down menu.

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4. In the first step of the wizard, select the “Deploy a virtual machine from OVF or OVA file” and click Next.

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5. In the second step of the wizard, specify the virtual machine name and point to the OVF template location. Select the VM files and click Next.

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6. Specify the direct-attached storage for the StarWind SAN & NAS VM system drive location.

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7. Select network and storage deployment options for the VM.

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8. Specify the hostname, static IPv4 address, gateway, DNS, and additional network settings for Management and iSCSI/Data network interfaces:

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NOTE: In order to manage the SAN & NAS appliance via StarWind vCenter plugin, the static IPv4 address must be assigned. As an example, all additional properties of the storage appliance specified:

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NOTE: If a DHCP server is available on the given network, you can skip setting the additional parameters for that interface.

9. Review the information about the VM.

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10. Click “Finish” to start the deployment process.

Configuring converged storage server with VMware vSphere

Creating Datacenter in VMware vSphere

1. Connect to the vSphere Client, right-click on the “vCenter Site” menu, and select the “Create Datacenter” option.

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2. Specify the Datacenter Name and click “OK“.

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3. Right-click on the Datacenter icon and select the “New Cluster…” action.

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4. Specify the cluster name and enable the required services.

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5. Right-clink on “Cluster” and select the “Add Hosts” action.

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6. On launched, in the “Add Hosts” wizard, specify the IPv4 or FQDN, login, and password of each ESXi server intended to add to the cluster

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7. Manually verify the ESXi servers’ certificates and accept the thumbprints. Click “OK” to proceed.

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8. Review settings and finish adding servers to the cluster.

Configuring Networks on vSphere Servers

Configure network interfaces on each node to ensure that Management and Data/iSCSI interfaces are in different subnets and connected physically according to the network diagram above. All actions below should be applied to each ESXi server for running StarWind SAN & NAS.

NOTE: Virtual Machine Port Group should be created for the Data/iSCSI vSwitch. VMKernel port should be created only for iSCSI traffic. Static IP addresses should be assigned to VMKernel ports.

NOTE: It is recommended to set jumbo frames to 9000 on vSwitches and VMKernel ports for iSCSI traffic. Additionally, vMotion can be enabled on VMKernel ports.

1. Using VMware vSphere Client console, start the “Add Networking” wizard. Add a new VMKernel network adapter for the Data/iSCSI channel.

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2. Create a new standard switch for the Data/iSCSI channel. Set MTU accordingly.

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3. Assign the second network adapter to the virtual switch. Click Next.

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4. Specify port properties such as Network Label, MTU, and enable required services. Click Next.

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5. Assign static IPv4 address settings to the virtual switch. Click Next.

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6. Review the summary of your settings and click “Finish” to add networking.

7. Start the “Add Networking” wizard again to create a “Virtual Machine Port Group for a Standard Switch“.

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8. Specify the previously created vSwitch. Click Next.

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9. Set the Network label and click Next. Optionally, set VLAN ID if used.

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10. Review the port group setting and click Finish to apply.

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10. Repeat steps 1-9 for any other links intended for the Data/iSCSI connection on each vSphere server.

Deploying StarWind SAN & NAS on vSphere server

1. Download the zip archive that contains StarWind SAN & NAS
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/san-and-nas#download

2. Extract the virtual machine files.

3. Deploy the virtual machine to the VMware vSphere. Right-click on the Datacenter, cluster, or node menu and select the “Deploy OVF Template…” option from a drop-down menu.

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4. In the first step of the wizard, point to the location of the OVF template. Select the VM files and click Next.

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5. Specify the VM name and target location.

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6. Select a compute resource intended to run the StarWind SAN & NAS VM

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7. Review the template details. Click Next.

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8. In the second step of the wizard, specify the virtual machine provisioning type, VM Storage Policy, and select the direct-attached storage for the appliance system drive. Click Next.

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9. Select the destination network for each network adapter assigned to the VM.

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10. Specify the hostname, static IPv4 address, gateway, DNS, and additional network settings for Management and iSCSI/Data network interfaces:

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NOTE: In order to manage the SAN & NAS appliance via StarWind vCenter plugin, the static IPv4 address must be assigned.

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NOTE: if a DHCP server is available on the given network, you can skip setting the additional parameters for that interface.

9. Review the deployment summary information and click to start the VM creation.

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Installing StarWind vCenter Plugin

1. To install the StarWind Plugin ensure that the version of your VMware vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) is 6.7 update 3 or newer, then click Next.

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2. Specify the vCenter Server FQDN or IP Address and administrator credentials and click Next.

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3. Confirm the connection to your vCenter Server Appliance.

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4. Review Summary and click the Install button.

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5. Wait until the plugin is installed.

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6. Click the Open Plugin page to start using StarWind SAN & NAS via the vCenter Plugin interface.

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Configuring converged storage server with Hyper-V Server

Configuring Networks on Microsoft Hyper-V Server

Configure external virtual switches on a hypervisor server, at least one for Management and one Data/iSCSI. Ensure the interfaces are in different subnets and connected physically according to the network diagram above. All actions below should be applied to each Hyper-V server for running StarWind SAN & NAS. In this document, 172.16.10.x subnet is used for Data/iSCSI traffic.

NOTE: It is recommended to set jumbo frames to 9000 on the virtual switch and network interfaces used for Data/iSCSI traffic.

1. Using Virtual Switch Manager create a new external virtual switch for the Management network.

2. Create a second external virtual switch for the Data/iSCSI network.

 

Deploying StarWind SAN & NAS on Hyper-V Server

1. Download the zip archive that contains StarWind SAN & NAS
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/san-and-nas#download

2. Extract the virtual machine files.

3. Deploy the virtual machine to the Hyper-V Server using the “Import Virtual Machine” wizard in Hyper-V Manager.

4. On the second page of the wizard, point to the location of the VM template. Select the VM folder and click Next.

5. Click Next on the “Select Virtual Machine” step.

6. Select ”Copy the virtual machine” import type and click Next.

7. Specify new or existing folders to store virtual machine files, such as configuration, snapshots, smart paging, and virtual disk. Click Next.

8. In the second step of the wizard, the “VM import” wizard will validate the network. Default naming for management virtual switch is “Management vSwitch” and for iSCSI virtual switch is “Data/iSCSI vSwitch”. If existing virtual switches have different names, specify corresponding network connections. Click Next.

9. Review import configuration and click Finish to complete the import.

Getting started with StarWind SAN & NAS

1. Start StarWind SAN & NAS VM.

2. Launch Console to see the VM boot process and get the IPv4 address of the Management network interface.
Note: in case VM has no IPv4 address obtained from a DHCP server, use the Text-based User Interface (TUI) to set up a Management network.

3. Using the web browser, open a new tab and enter the VM IPv4 address to open StarWind SAN & NAS Web Interface. Click “Advanced” and then “Continue to…

4. StarWind SAN & NAS  welcomes you, and Initial configuration wizard will guide you through the deployment process.

5. In the following step, upload the license file.

6. Read and accept the End User License Agreement to proceed.

7. Review or edit the Network settings and click Next.
Note: Static network settings are recommended for the configuration.

8. Specify the hostname for the virtual machine and click Next.

9. Create an administrator account. Click Next.

8. Review your settings selection before setting up StarWind SAN & NAS.

19. Please standby until the First Run Wizard configures StarWind SAN & NAS  for you.

20. The appliance is set and ready. Click on the Done button to install StarWind vCenter Plugin right now or uncheck the checkbox to skip this step and proceed to the Login page.

Connecting StarWind SAN & NAS to the hypervisor server

Connecting StarWind virtual disk to VMware ESXi server

1. Log in VMware ESXi server.

2. Navigate to the Storage sidebar-menu, then open the Adapters tab.

3. Click the “Software iSCSI” button to launch the “Configuring iSCSI” wizard.

4. Set the “iSCSI enabled” option as Enabled.

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5. Add the IPv4 address of StarWind SAN & NAS iSCSI/Data network interface to the Dynamic targets. Save the configuration.

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6. Switch to the Devices tab and click the “Rescan” button.

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7. Once scanned, the created StarWind virtual disks appear.

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8. Click the “New datastore” button.

9. The Datastore creation wizard appears. Specify the Datastore name.

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10. Select the StarWind virtual disk.

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11. Specify the partition options and create the VMFS 6 partition using the entire disk capacity.

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12. Review the configuration summary and click “Finish” to create the datastore.

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13. Confirm virtual disk erase if ESXi warning appears.

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14. Check the StarWind datastore in the Datastores tab.

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Connecting StarWind virtual disk to VMware vSphere servers

1. Log in to VMware vSphere Client.

2. Select the ESXi server in the sidebar-menu, then navigate to the “Configure” tab and open the “Storage Adapters” submenu page.

3. Click the “+Add Software Adapter” button to launch the corresponding wizard.

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4. Mark the “Add software iSCSI adapter” option and click OK.

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5. Add the IPv4 address of StarWind SAN & NAS iSCSI\Data network interface to the “Dynamic Discovery“. Save the configuration

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6. Click on the “Rescan” button to discover StarWind virtual disk.

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7. Once scanned, the created StarWind virtual disk appears on the “Storage Devices” submenu page.

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8. Right-click on the ESXi server to open the “Actions” menu, click on “Storage” and click the “New datastore” button.

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9. The Datastore creation wizard appears. Specify the Datastore type as VMFS.

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10. Specify the datastore name. Select the StarWind virtual disk.

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11. Specify the VMFS6 version for the datastore.

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12. Specify the datastore size using the entire disk capacity.

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13. Review the configuration summary and click “Finish” to create the datastore.

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14. Check the StarWind datastore in the Datastores tab.

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Connecting StarWind virtual disk to Hyper-V servers

Enabling Multipath Support on Hyper-V Servers

1. Install the Multipath I/O feature by executing the following command in the PowerShell window:

2. Open MPIO Properties by executing the following command in the CMD window:

3. In the Discover Multi-Paths tab, select the Add support for iSCSI devices checkbox and click Add.

4. When prompted to restart the server, click Yes to proceed.

5. Repeat the same procedure on the other compute server that will be connected to SAN & NAS appliance.

Provisioning StarWind SAN & NAS Storage to Hyper-V Server Hosts

1. Launch Microsoft iSCSI Initiator by executing the following command in the CMD window:

2. Navigate to the Discovery tab.

3. Click the Discover Portal button. The Discover Target Portal dialog appears. Type the IP address assigned to iSCSI/Data interface, i.e. 172.16.10.100.

4. Click the Advanced button. Select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator as a Local adapter and as Initiator IP select the IP address of a network adapter connected to the Data\iSCSI virtual switch. Confirm the actions to complete the Target Portal discovery.

5. The target portals are added on this server.

6. Click the Targets tab. The previously created targets (virtual disks) are listed in the Discovered Targets section.

7. Select the target created in StarWind SAN & NAS web console and click Connect.

8. Enable checkboxes as shown in the image below. Click Advanced.

9. Select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator in the Local adapter dropdown menu. In the Initiator IP field, select the IP address for the Data/iSCSI channel. In the Target portal IP, select the corresponding portal IP from the same subnet. Confirm the actions.

10. Repeat steps 1-9 for all remaining device targets.
11. Repeat steps 1-9 on the other compute servers, specifying corresponding Data/iSCSI channel IP addresses.

Connecting Disks to Servers

To initialize the connected iSCSI target disks and create the partitions on them use DISKPART.

1. Run diskpart in the CMD window:

NOTE: It is recommended to initialize the disks as GPT.

2. Perform the steps above on other compute servers.

Web Console

This part provides a detailed description of StarWind SAN & NAS monitoring and management capabilities using the web console.

Login Page

Log in to the appliance using the username and password you specified during the initial configuration.

 

Dashboard

The DASHBOARD item provides a set of widgets that allow monitoring of a storage appliance.

DASHBOARD consists of the following widgets:

  • Appliance Summary – delivers general information about the SAN & NAS, such as hostname, StarWind Service version, appliance type, and system uptime.

  • Virtual Disks(s) Availability – delivers the overall information on the state of StarWind virtual disks, including those that are of high availability (StarWind HA disks that are synchronized and available on both nodes), limited availability (StarWind HA disks that are synchronized and available currently only from one node) and ones that are not available (offline StarWind volumes) and simple (StarWind virtual disks that are not replicated).

  • Resource usage – delivers information on the CPU, Memory, and Storage usage.

  • Performance – delivers the information in the form of graphs about IOPSDisk Throughput, and Network Throughput. These metrics can be checked live, last hour, last day, last week, last month, or last year.

  • Tasks and events – delivers the information on tasks and events in StarWind SAN & NAS.

Storage

The Storage item provides Disks, Pools, Volumes and Virtual Disks pages and allows performing the inventory of the attached storage to the appliance, listing, creating, and editing storage pools, volumes and virtual disks.

Disks

The Disks page delivers the ability to rescan the storage attached to the StarWind SAN & NAS and check the drive state.

Two control buttons are provided for disk management:

  • Rescan Storage button executes storage identification tasks, seeks physical controllers, virtual and physical disks. Devices appear in the table once identified.
  • Maintenance button lists Check State maintenance operation. The Check State button launches a disk state check task and fixes the disk state if the drive is not in use by any storage pool.

Pools

The Pools page delivers the ability to create, list, edit and delete storage pools. Hardware RAID, Linux Software RAID and ZFS storage pools are supported and integrated into StarWind SAN & NAS web interface.

Create Storage Pool Wizard

1. To create a storage pool, click the “Add” button.

2. Select physical disks to include in the storage pool name and click the “Next” button.

3. Select one of the preconfigured storage profiles or create a redundancy layout for the new storage pool manually.

4. Review “Summary” and click the “Create” button to create the pool.

Manage Storage pool

1. To edit a storage pool, select the pool and click the “Manage pool” control button.

2. On the General tab find basic pool information such as name, layout, and capacity.

3. Extend the storage pool by:

  • adding more physical disks to the appliance and using the Add disks wizard.

  • adding groups of physical disks to the appliance and using the Change pool layout wizard.

4. Add or remove hot spare drives to the pool using the Assign hot spare wizard.

Delete Storage Pool Wizard

1. To delete a storage pool, select the pool and click the Delete button.

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Performing maintenance operations on a storage pool

2. To perform maintenance operations on a storage pool, select the required storage pool and click the Manage pool button.

  • To rebuild the storage pool and replace a failed drive with a healthy one add more physical disks or groups of disks to the appliance and use the Replace disks wizard.
  • To replace disk a healthy disk in the storage pool add another disk to the appliance and use the Replace disks wizard.

Volumes

The Volumes page allows creating, listing, editing, and deleting volumes (partitions) on a storage pool. Standard and Backup repository volume types are provided in StarWind SAN & NAS web interface.

Note: Prior to creating a volume, create a storage pool.

Create Volume wizard

1. To create a volume on a storage pool, click the “Add” button.

2. Select the storage pool on which to create the volume and click the “Next” button.

3. Specify volume name and capacity.

4. Specify volume type.
Note: use Standard volume for most cases, and Backup repository volume for Veeam Hardened Repository.

5. Review “Summary” and click the “Create” button to create the pool.

Edit Volume wizard

1. To edit a volume, select on in a table of volumes and click the “Edit” button.

2. Only extending volume is allowed. Specify the new size for the selected volume and click the “Save” button.

 

Manage VHR user

This wizard allows configuring SAN & NAS as Hardened Repository for Veeam by creating and assigning a user account to a Backup repository volume. Once the user is set to a backup repository, the appliance can be connected as a Hardened Repository in Veeam Backup and Repository management.

1. To create a VHR user, select any Backup repository type volume and click the “Manage VHR user” button.

2. Click the “Add” button.
Note: A user account also can be created on the Users page.

3. Type the username and password. Click Save.

4. Wait for user creation as see the account appears in the wizard. Click Save.

5. SAN & NAS is set and ready to be connected as a Hardened Repository in Veeam Backup and Repository management.

Note: by creating a user account for Veeam Hardened Repository, SSH is enabled for the user by default. Once the Hardened Repository is configured in Veeam Backup & Replication, it is recommended to disable SSH access for the account.

Virtual Disks

The Virtual Disks page allows creating, listing, extending, and removing StarWind virtual disks using the corresponding controls.

Add Virtual Disk Wizard

NOTE: The availability for StarWind SAN & NAS virtual disk is Simple – StarWind virtual volume which is not replicated

1. To create a virtual disk, click the Add button.

2. Specify the virtual disk name, placement, and size. Click Create.

Edit Virtual Disk Wizard

1. To extend a virtual disk, select a virtual disk and click the Edit button.

2. Specify the new size of the selected disk and click Save.

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Delete Virtual Disk Wizard

1. To delete a virtual disk, select the virtual disk and click the Delete button.

2. Check “Ignore active sessions and force remove the selected virtual disks” if the selected disk has active connections.

3. Click the Confirm button to delete the virtual disk.

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Network

The Network page allows performing the inventory of the attached network adapters to appliance, listing, and editing network settings.

Edit Network Adapter Wizard

1. To edit network settings, select a network adapter and click the Edit button.

2. Specify target network settings:

  • Set Management role to the network adapter connected to the management network switch. Set iSCSI role to the network adapter connected to the iSCSI network and used for iSCSI\Data traffic.
  • Select DHCP or Static mode. For Static mode selected, specify IPv4, Netmask, Gateway, and DNS server(s).
  • Set MTU according to your network configuration. For iSCSI\Data traffic, MTU set to 9000 is recommended.

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Users

The Users page delivers role-based management for user accounts created on the appliance. Three roles are provided to choose from:

  • Administrator – administrative level access to manage the entire appliance in the web and text user consoles.
  • User – read-only level access to view all in the web console
  • Veeam service – service level account to create and access Veeam repositories.

Create user.

1. To create a user account press the “Add” button.

2. Specify the username, password, and additional information (optionally).

3. Select the user role.

4. Review summary.

Tasks and Events

This item delivers information on the tasks and events running in StarWind SAN & NAS.

Tasks

The Tasks tab provides information on tasks performed in StarWind SAN & NAS. The Tasks tab displays the task name, the appliance entity type where this task has been performed, entity name, owner of the task, its status, and timestamp.

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Events

The Events tab contains information on the events that occurred in StarWind SAN & NAS. The Events tab displays the event severity level, event source, time of the event, description, entity type where the event has occurred, entity name, number of occurrences, and the current event status.

1. To check the events in the StarWind SAN & NAS, navigate to the Events tab.

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2. To mark the recent event as Acknowledged or Resolved, select the event and select the required option.

General Settings

To modify the appliance settings, click the gear icon in the top right corner of the StarWind SAN & NAS interface.

The General tab allows performing an inventory of the appliance, checking and modifying its state, license, and general settings.

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The Plugins tab lists the available plugins, shows their state, and allows to launch plugin wizards.

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Controls

Power

To perform shut down and restart operations with the appliance, click Power, then Power Off or Restart buttons in the appliance block.

License

To check the appliance license, included features, upgrade the appliance by activating the new license, click the License control.

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Support bundle.

To provide the StarWind Support Team with information on the appliance’s issues, click Support bundle to download the support bundle.

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Modifying General Settings

To modify the general StarWind SAN & NAS settings such as the appliance hostname, change password, time zone, click Edit in the General tab.

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Services

The Services page lists services that are running on the StarWind SAN & NAS appliance and provides controls to change their state.

 

StarWind vCenter Plugin

On this page, you can find information about installed vCenter plugins, their installation status, version, and IP address of the vCenter Server Appliance for installed plugins.

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Two control actions are available Open vCenter Plugin or Open Plugin Installer by pressing the corresponding controls.

Open vCenter Plugin

The control opens the vCenter Plugin page which connects to the corresponding SAN & NAS appliance.

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The StarWind Plugin also can be launched from the vSphere Client Menu:

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Open Plugin Installer

This control allows you to deploy, update, or uninstall the StarWind Plugin in your VMware environment.

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Deploy Wizard

This wizard installs the StarWind plugin to the VMware virtualization environment.

1. Read and accept the End User License Agreement to proceed.

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2. Specify the vCenter Server FQDN or IP Address and administrator credentials and click Next.

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3. Confirm the connection to your vCenter Server Appliance.

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4. Review Summary and click the Install button.

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5. Wait until the plugin is installed.

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6. Click the Open Plugin page to start using StarWind SAN & NAS via the vCenter Plugin interface.

Uninstall Wizard

This wizard uninstalls the StarWind Plugin from your vCenter Server Appliance.

1. Specify the vCenter Server FQDN or IP Address and administrator credentials and click Next.

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2. Confirm the connection to your vCenter Server Appliance.

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3. Review Summary and click Uninstall button.

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4. Close the wizard upon finish or go back to the installer homepage.

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Software Update

To update SAN & NAS to the latest published version use the Software Update page.

1. Click Check update

2. If a newer version of SAN & NAS is released, it will be listed on the page. Click Install update.

3. Wait for the update to finish.

4. Log back in to SAN & NAS to start using the updated version of the product.

Text Console

This part provides a detailed description of Text-based User Interface (TUI) management capabilities.

Welcome page

The Welcome page provides the network connection settings, such as hostname, management IPv4 address, web console location, and SSL certificate and allows to log in to the appliance.

NOTE: If no network settings were previously applied upon the appliance deployment or no DHCP server is connected to the management network, use Text Console to configure the management network settings manually.

 

Login screen

Enter the “user” account’s password to log into the text console.

NOTE: The default value is “rds123RDS” without quotes.


Text console menu

The Text Console menu allows modifying the appliance settings.

Configure Management Network

In order to use the SAN & NAS appliance, the management network should have an IPv4 address assigned.

Possible configurations:

  • static IP obtained from VMware vApp/OVF template import
  • dynamic IP obtained from a DHCP server

NOTE: If no IP address was assigned after VMware vApp/OVF template import or was not obtained from the DHCP server, Text Console will show only the hostname on the 1/3 configuration step:

Press Enter to Modify settings, set the static IP configuration on 2/3 step.

NOTE: IP address and subnet mask are required fields. Gateway and DNS servers are optional.

Press Enter to apply the new network settings.

Step 3/3 will show the applied network settings. Press Enter or Esc to go back to the main menu.

NOTE: You can now use the web console to manage the appliance. The Welcome screen of the text console now shows the network information.

Change password

This menu allows changing and setting a new password to the “user” account to access the appliance over SSH and web console.

Type a new password twice.

Press Enter key to set it up.

Create NFS Share

To create an NFS share, select a storage pool created using the web console and type the name of the network share.

Press Enter to go to the next step.

NOTE: if the appliance has no storage pools, network shared folders can’t be created.

Set the allowed IP address range to access the network share.

Use * to allow all clients on your Management and Data network. Limit access by specifying the corresponding IP range i.e. 192.168.0.0/24

Review the configuration and press Enter key to create.

The NFS share is created on a selected pool and is available at the /mnt/nfs/share-name-folder.

Create SMB Share

To create an SMB share, select a storage pool created using the web console and type the name of the network share.

NOTE: if the appliance has no storage pools, network shared folders can’t be created.

Set the allowed IP address range to access the network share.

Use * to allow all clients on your Management and Data network. Limit access by specifying the corresponding IP range i.e. 192.168.0.0/24

Review the configuration and press Enter to create.

The SMB network share is created on a selected pool. The network pass to the network share is displayed on the screen.

Change SMB password

This menu allows setting a new password to the “user” account to access SMB shares.

Enter a new password twice. Press Enter to set a new password.

Remove share

This menu allows removing any share created on the appliance.

NOTE. All the data located on the selected share will be permanently removed.

Select share name to remove.

Type yes to confirm.

The selected network share has been removed.

Disable/Enable SSH and Shell

Press Enter key to enable or disable the SSH service.

NOTE: The SSH service is disabled by default.

Open Shell Terminal

This menu option allows to open a command-line console over the text-based user interface.

To exit the command-line console, press Ctrl + x to release focus, then press the Esc key.

Collect Support Bundle

Collect Support Bundle allows collecting all logs to a file generated into /tmp/support_bundle/ folder.

NOTE: Upon system reboot, all data is removed from the /tmp folder

The support bundle now can be downloaded using external SFTP or SSH clients.

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