# Servers
Servers Objects in the VPSA represent Cloud Servers that consume VPSA
Volumes. A Server needs to be properly defined and connected in order to
access the VPSA Volumes via iSCSI, FC, NFS or SMB protocols.
## Filtering the List of Servers
To filter the list of servers displayed in the center pane, you can use
a predefined custom tag.
1. Expand the **Filter** control.
2. On the right, click the **Add Filter** dropdown, and select **Tag**.
The tag input fields appear on the left.
3. The **Tag** filter requires input of the predefined custom **Tag Name**,
and optionally, a **Tag Value** to further refine filtering for tags
that have specific values for assigned servers.
Wildcards are not accepted.
See the [Tags](#server-tags-tab) section for configuring predefined
custom tags.
4. Click **Search** to apply the filter.
5. To remove the filter, click **Clear**, or click the trash icon to the
right of the filter.
Click **Search** again to refresh the volumes list.
## Adding a Server
Establishing a connection between a Server and the VPSA involves the
following steps:
- Creating a Server Object in the VPSA database.
- Setting the Server IQN for iSCSI connectivity and/or Servers FC
Connectivity and/or the server IP address for NFS/SMB connectivity.
- Establishing CHAP authentication handshake between the Server and the
VPSA for iSCSI.
- Registering Server OS information (optional).
### Adding a Server for NAS access
Adding servers to the VPSA in order to access files over NFS/SMB
requires introducing the server’s IP address to the VPSA.
- Go to Servers > Add and select Manual:
- On the Create Server dialog give the server a name
- Select the server’s Operating System (optional)
- Turn on File Access
- Provide the IP address
- If you want to secure the IP connectivity with an IPsec tunneling
check select the Enable IPsec checkbox. Please note that your
Server must be properly configured to utilize IPsec, and that
performance is impacted.
- An alternative to IPSec tunneling is SMB Encrypt that works for Windows servers that support it.
SMB Encryption provides end-to-end encryption of SMB data and protects data from
eavesdropping occurrences on untrusted networks. It has no requirements for Internet Protocol
security (IPsec tunneling) and is much easier to configure. SMB Encryption can be configured on
a per share basis. No setting is required on the VPSA. Just enable SMB Encryption on the Windows Server.
To add a server for block storage access follow the procedure shown below:
### Adding a Server automatically
The VPSA automates the above steps for you via the “**Connect Server**” script.
Go to Servers > Add and select Automatic:
#### Adding a Server automatically over iSCSI
**To Add a Windows Server:**
- The first time you connect an iSCSI Volume to a Windows Server, you
need to start the iSCSI service on the Windows Server **before**
running the VPSA connect script.
- In Windows Start->Run dialog, type iSCSI and select the “iSCSI
Initiator” program. You will be prompted to start the service.
Press Yes to confirm:
- Open the VPSA GUI on the Windows Server
- On the VPSA GUI > Connect Server dialog, select platform:
Windows.
- Select the iSCSI checkbox if you wish to expose VPSA Block Volumes to
this Server via iSCSI.
- Click the download link to download the connect script from the VPSA
to your Server.
- Depending on your browser, locate the downloaded script, open and run
it. The below screenshots are using the Chrome browser.
- Once the connect script successfully completes, the new connected
Server will be listed in the VPSA Servers page with status =
“Active” Registered = “Yes” and the correct OS details.
**To Add a Linux Server:**
- Verify that open-iscsi is installed on the Server:
- On RedHat Servers do:
```default
$ yum install iscsi-initiator-utils
```
- On Ubuntu Servers do:
```default
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install open-iscsi open-iscsi-utils
```
- On the VPSA GUI > Connect Server dialog, select platform: Linux.
- Select the iSCSI checkbox if you wish to expose VPSA Block Volumes to
this Server.
- Run the three steps as detailed in the connect server dialog to
execute the vpsa_linux.sh script.
- Once the connect script completes successfully, the new connected
Server will be listed in the VPSA GUI > Servers page with status =
“Active” Registered = “Yes” and the correct OS details.
**Multiple Virtual Networks:**
If the VPSA has more than one Virtual Network assigned, the server can be assigned to it over any of them.
Servers can be added using any VNI, automatic server registration in the presence of VNIs
shows drop down list of available VNIs for you to select:
#### Adding a Server automatically over Fibre Channel
Before defining a server using FC connectivity, make sure to install and
configure multipathing software on the server. Also make sure to setup
the zoning on the FC switch to allow connectivity between the connecting
server and the VPSA FC ports.
**To Add a Windows Server:**
The first step is to configure MPIO. Open the Windows MPIO dialog:
Enter the device HW ID as follows: “Zadara VPSA “ (“Zadara” followed by
2 blank spaces, and then “VPSA” followed by 4 blank spaces. 16 characters
total) and press OK.
- Open the VPSA GUI on the Windows Server
- On the VPSA GUI > Connect Server dialog, select FC access
type and download the connection script
- Run the script as described above in
[Adding a Server automatically over iSCSI](#adding-a-server-automatically-over-iscsi).
**To Add a Linux Server:**
To add Linux Server over FC you need to set up the multipathing on the
server. For detailed instructions follow this KB article:
[https://support.zadarastorage.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003851406-How-To-Setup-Fiber-Channel-Multipath-in-Linux](https://support.zadarastorage.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003851406-How-To-Setup-Fiber-Channel-Multipath-in-Linux)
- On the VPSA GUI goto the Connect Server dialog, select FC access
type and download the connection script.
- Run the three steps as detailed in the Connect Server dialog to
execute the vpsa_linux.sh script.
- Once the connect script completes successfully, the new connected
Server will be listed in the VPSA Servers page with status =
“Active” Registered = “Yes” and the correct OS details.
### Adding a Server manually
#### Establishing an iSCSI connection
If for some reason adding a server automatically doesn’t work, follow
these steps to add the server manually. Go to Servers > Add and select
Manual:
- Enter the Server Name.
- Select the server OS
- Enter the server iSCSI IQN
- Check the “Enable IPSec” checkbox if you wish to secure iSCSI traffic
between the Server and the VPSA. Please note that your Server must be
properly configured to utilize IPsec and that performance is
impacted.
- To enable CHAP, select between global CHAP (for the VPSA) or per
host.
- Provide the CHAP user name and password (secret). Global CHAP
parameters can be copied from here [Viewing Controller Properties](controllers.md#viewing-controller-properties).
After manually adding a Server you need to establish an iSCSI
connection between the Server and the VPSA. Please note that you can
skip this step if the Server was added automatically or if the Server is
only consuming NFS/SMB type Volumes.
**On Windows Servers:**
- Open iSCSI Initiator: In Windows Start->Run dialog, type iSCSI and
select the “iSCSI Initiator” program. If this is the first time you
have run iSCSI initiator on this Server you will be prompted to
start the service. Press Yes to confirm.
- The Windows iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box will open,
and the Targets tab will be displayed.
- On the Targets tab, type the iSCSI IP address of the VPSA
(which is displayed in the VPSA GUI > Controllers page) in
the Quick Connect target text box and then click
the Quick Connect… button.
- The Quick Connect dialog box will be displayed, with the VPSA
discovered iSCSI target in an “Inactive” status. Press Done.
- To activate the connection, select the VPSA target and press
the Connect button. Please note that if you have multiple
targets listed you can identify the VPSA target by its IQN name
which is in the form of “iqn.2011-04.com.zadarastorage:vsa-xxxx” and
is displayed in the Controller properties page in the VPSA GUI.
- You may check the Enable multi-path check-box if you wish to use MPIO
multi-pathing. Then, click Advanced…
- Check the Enable CHAP log-on check-box and enter the CHAP Username:
and Target Secret. You can retrieve those values from
the VPSA GUI, under the Controllers page, in the properties tab.
Press OK to confirm the operation.
- In the Targets tab you’ll see that the VPSA iSCSI target has
moved from “Inactive” to “Connected” status. A new Server is created
automatically in the VPSA and is displayed in the Servers GUI page.
The name of the server is its iSCSI initiator IQN. You may change the
Server Display Name.
**On Linux Servers:**
Locate the VPSA iSCSI IP address and the CHAP Username and Password in
the VPSA GUI Controller Properties Page:
Run the following commands to issue an iSCSI login using CHAP credentials:
```default
$ iscsiadm -m node -T -p --op new
$ iscsiadm -m node -T -p --op update -n node.session.auth.authmethod -v CHAP
$ iscsiadm -m node -T -p --op update -n node.session.auth.username -v
$ iscsiadm -m node -T -p --op update -n node.session.auth.password -v
$ iscsiadm -m node -T -p --login
```
Where:
- *VPSA-Target-IQN* – Target IQN of the VPA. Can be found in the
VPSA GUI > Controllers page, Properties South Panel,
Target parameter. It is of this format:
```default
iqn.2011-04.com.zadarastorage:vsa-000009e5:1
```
- *VPSA-Management-IP* - The iSCSI IP of your VPSA. Can be found in the
VPSA GUI > \`Controllers page, under the iSCSI IP column.
To ensure automatic login of your Server to the VPSA after
each reboot (or iscsid restart), run the following command on your Linux
Server:
```default
$ iscsiadm -m node -T -p --op update -n node.startup -v automatic
```
**On VMware ESX Servers:**
On VMware ESX use the native multipathing. No special configuration is required.
#### Establishing FC connection
To add Servers (of any OS) connecting to the VPSA over Fibre Channel:
Go to Servers > Add and select
Manual:
- Enter the Server Name.
- Select the server OS
- Turn on the FC connectivity:
> Click Edit and select the WWPN of your chosen Server
Before defining a Server using FC connectivity, make sure to install and
configure multipathing software on the Server.
**For Windows, Linux and ESX servers:**
follow the instructions
listed above [Adding a Server automatically over Fibre Channel](#adding-a-server-automatically-over-fc).
**For Solaris server:**
While on Solaris x86 multipath is a default, on SPARC servers it must be configured using:
```default
bash-3.2# stmsboot -e
```
Multipathing parameters should be set in the following configuration
file: /kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.con:
```default
#load-balance="round-robin";
load-balance="none";
#
auto-failback="disable";
#
# For enabling MPxIO support for 3rd party symmetric device need an
# entry similar to following in this file. Just replace the "SUN SENA"
# part with the Vendor ID/Product ID for the device, exactly as reported by
# Inquiry cmd.
#
device-type-scsi-options-list =
"Zadara VPSA ", "f_tpgs";
# Tunable for updating path states after a UNIT ATTENTION reset.
# There are arrays which do not queue UAs during resets
# after an implicit failover. For such arrays, we need to
# update the path states after any type of UA resets, since
# UA resets take higher precedence among other UNIT ATTENTION
# conditions. By default, scsi_vhci does not update path states
# on UA resets. To make scsi_vhci do that for such arrays, you need
# to set the tunable scsi-vhci-update-pathstate-on-reset to "yes"
# for the VID/PID combination as described below.
#
# "012345670123456789012345", "yes" or "no"
# "|-VID--||-----PID------|",
#
scsi-vhci-update-pathstate-on-reset =
"Zadara VPSA ", "yes";
```
**For AIX server:**
For AIX server to connect to VPSA volumes using multipathing
**Veritas Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP)** is required. Install DMP on the AIX server.
**ODM** Package (Zadara.aix.fcp.nonmpio.rte.1.0.0.0.bff) should be installed
(to set the storage prameters to the OS) by running the following command:
```default
# installp -ad -e
#### Connectivity Monitoring
The VPSA can be configured to allow a server connectivity monitoring for
specific attached server(s). Connectivity monitoring will ping a specific
server and will notify the VPSA administrators (or any other VPSA user with
the “Notify on alerts” permissions), notifications are optional (but enabled
by default).
Connectivity monitoring can be enabled for a specific server record during
server record creation time or any time later by using the “Config” option
in the VPSA Servers view. Toggle the option on for “Connectivity monitoring”
The VPSA will attempt to reach to the remote server and in case of a failure
that doesn’t meet the success threshold (Default 60%) an alert will be sent
to the VPSA administrator.
Once enabled, the south pane for a server record will have an additional section
presenting the connectivity monitoring status (last state, last success rate,
reachability status change and latest connectivity test)
The default configuration for the connectivity monitoring is set globally
on the VPSA level and applicable for all server records. For additional information
on how to customize the alerting/connectivity success threshold, refer to
[Server Connectivity Monitoring](settings.md#server-connectivity-monitoring) in Settings.
### Configure Server Attributes
For iSCSI Servers you can change the following Server Attributes using
the Config Server dialog:
- Server IQN
- Server IP address
- Enable/Disable IPSec
- CHAP settings
Both the server IQN and IP address must be unique. Therefore, the VPSA
will block you from changing those attributes to conflicting values used
by other Servers.
For FC servers you can change the following Server Attributes using the
Config Server dialog:
- WWPN’s
## Viewing Servers Properties
The Servers Page displays a list of the available Server objects. You
can view the following detailed information in the Servers details South
Panel tabs:
### Properties
Each server displays the following properties:
| **Property** | **Description** |
|------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| ID | An internally assigned unique ID. |
| Name | User assigned name. If the Server was created as a result of an iSCSI login, the VPSA will assign it a name similar to its IQN. Name can be modified anytime |
| Comment | User free text comment. Can be used for labels, reminders or any other purpose |
| VPSA CHAP User | VPSA CHAP User |
| VPSA CHAP Secret | VPSA CHAP Secret |
| Host CHAP User | Host CHAP User |
| Host CHAP Secret | Host CHAP Secret |
| IP or CIDR Block | IP Address or CIDR block of the Server(s). |
| iSCSI IQN | Unique “iSCSI Qualified Name” of the Server. |
| IPSec ISCSI | Enabled\\Disabled |
| IPSec NFS | Enabled\\Disabled |
| WWPN1 | WorldWide Port Name for FC connectivity |
| WWPN2 | WorldWide Port Name for FC connectivity |
| Registered | Yes – The Connect script was used to create the Server.
No – The Server was created manually or via iSCSI login. |
| OS | OS version detailed string, such as:
“Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter 6.1.7601”
Available only for registered Servers. |
| Added | Date & time when the Server object was added. |
| Modified | Date & time when the Server object was last modified. |
### Volumes
A list of all the Volumes attached to this Server.
### Paths
This tab lists all the paths between this Server and each controller of
the VPSA. If multipathing is set it shows all paths, along with the number
of active sessions.
For iSCSI connections the initiator and target IQNs are listed.
For Fibre Channel connections initiator and target WWPN are listed.
### Metering
The Metering Charts provide live metering of the IO workload associated
with the selected Server.
The charts display the usage data as it was captured in the past 20
“intervals”. An interval length can be set to one of the following: 1
Second, 10 Seconds, 1 Minute, 10 Minutes, or 1 Hour. The Auto button lets you
see continuously-updating live metering info (refreshed every 3 seconds).
The following charts are displayed:
| **Chart** | **Description** |
|-------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| IOPs | The Number of read and write SCSI commands issued from this Server to all its attached Volumes. |
| Bandwidth (MB\\s) | Total Throughput (in MB) of read and write SCSI issued from this Server to all its attached Volumes. |
| IO Time (ms) | Average response time of all read and write SCSI issued from this Server to all its attached Volumes. |
### Logs
Displays all event logs associated with this Server.
### Performance Alerts
A VPSA administrator has the option to set the following Server
Performance Alerts:
* **Read IOPS Limit** – Creates an alert when, during the past minutes, the
average read IOPS for this Server exceeds a user-specified threshold.
* **Read Throughput Limit** - Creates an alert when the average read MB/s
during the past minute for this server exceeds a user-specified threshold.
* **Read Latency Limit** – Creates an alert when, during the past minute,
the average read latency for this server exceeds a user-specified
threshold.
* **Write IOPS Limit** – Creates an alert when, during the past hour, the
average write IOPS for this server exceeds a user-specified threshold.
* **Write Throughput Limit** - Creates an alert when, during the past
minute, the average write MB/s for this server exceeds a user-specified
threshold.
* **Write Latency Limit** – Creates an alert when, during the past minute,
the average write latency for this server exceeds a user-specified
threshold.
### Tags
Predefined custom tags can be configured in the **Tags** tab.
An example use case for tags is
[Filtering the List of Servers](#filtering-servers-list)
in the center pane.
A tag is identified by its **Tag Name** and has a **Tag Value** associated
with it. A tag can be defined only once for a server. However, the same
**Tag Name** can be defined with a different **Tag Value** for other
servers.
- **Create**: To create a new tag for a server, in the pool’s **Tags**
tab click **Create**, and enter the **Tag Name** and **Tag Value**.
The tag is added to the list of tags in the **Tags** tab.
- **Edit**: To change the **Tag Value** of an existing tag, click on that
tab in the tags list to mark it, and then click **Edit**.
The **Edit Tag** dialog box opens, allowing overwriting of the
**Tag Value**.
- **Delete**: To delete a tag, click on that tag row in the tags list to
mark it, and then click **Delete**. A confirmation dialog box opens.
- **Refresh**: Displays the updated tags list.
## Deleting a Server
In case a server record is no longer needed, it can be Deleted from the VPSA.
The server record marked for deletion must not have any volumes attached to it.
Once volumes are detached, the server will lose access to the volumes.
In order to delete a server record select the **Delete** option from the top
actions menu in the **Servers** section.