Hello, and welcome to this video on managing iSCSI storage in Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager.
In this video we will introduce basic storage concepts implemented by Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager.
List the requirements for using iSCSI storage with Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager.
Demonstrate the steps for adding iSCSI storage.
Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager uses storage domains to hold the resources used by virtual
machines.
These virtual machine resources include disk images, ISO files, templates, and snapshots.
Storage domains are defined by the storage interfaces associated with particular storage
types.
Supported storage types can be file-based storage like NFS or Network File System, or
other POSIX compliant file systems.
On these file-based storage domains, all virtual machine resources are implemented as files.
Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager also supports block-based storage types like iSCSI or Internet
Small Computer System Interface and FCP or Fibre Channel Protocol storage.
In these block-based storage domains, virtual machine resources are implemented as logical
volumes.
You can also use locally attached storage for storage domains.
Resources stored on locally attached disks are available to the host to which they are
attached.
Its important to remember, that if a host is attached to local storage it gets placed
into its own private cluster, and a host can only belong to one cluster.
This means migration functions are not possible for this host as it cannot be associated with
any other hosts.
Remember, to be able to create and maintain storage domains, you should be familiar with
the supported storage technologies, including the storage products that use them.
One important note to mention is that you cannot initialize a data center without an
activated storage domain attached to it.
Before creating an iSCSI storage domain, ensure that your environment contains at least two
systems running Oracle Linux.
One acting as the manager system and the other is your KVM host.
You also need an iSCSI server, accessible to both the Manager and the KVM hosts, with
configured targets and LUNs.
When adding a iSCSI storage domain, you perform a discovery, so you need to know the fully
qualified name or IP address of the iSCSI server.
To perform an iSCSI login, you also need the target ID and initiator name of the LUN to
use.
Ok, so now lets use the Administration Portal to create an iSCSI storage domain.
After logging in I am taken to the Dashboard.
The environment contains three KVM hosts and one active storage domain.
I click the Data Storage Domains link in the box near the top of the page.
The Storage Domains page displays.
The only active storage domain listed is for NFS file storage.
To create and attach a new storage domain, click the New Domain button.
In the New Domain dialog window, from the four configuration options on the left, I
first click the Data Center drop down, and select the data center name to which we will
attach this storage domain.
We can choose any of the Data Centers available.
For this demonstration, I will attach it to the Default Data Center.
The second option is the Domain Function.
Clicking its drop down, we have three choices, Data, ISO, and Export.
Here we select Data as this new domain will function as a Data domain because it will
contain the virtual disk files and virtual appliances for all virtual machines and templates.
An ISO domain holds the ISO files used by virtual machines to boot and install their
operating systems.
Export domains are the third option.
If I wanted to copy or move images between data centers in my environment, I would store
them in an export domain.
Clicking the Storage Type drop down we select iSCSI.
This causes a Discover Targets dialog box to open.
The New Domain dialog box automatically displays any known targets with unused LUNs under the
Target Name column.
The last option is which Host to Use.
The drop-down menu will list the available hosts.
Here we will take the displayed host ovs037.
The new storage domain requires a name, I will paste in the name iscsi-data-domain for
this demonstration.
In order to display the available targets, you need to discover them.
In the Discover Targets Address field, we can enter a fully qualified domain name or
IP address of the iSCSI host on the storage array.
Here I paste in the address I want to use, 10.196.210.62.
For the Port field, we enter the port to connect to on the host when browsing for targets.
By default, this field is automatically populated with the default iSCSI Port of 3260.
Ticking the User Authentication check box allows us to authenticate with the storage
using a CHAP username and password.
But for this environment its not needed.
With my information set, I click Discover.
The Target Name column updates to list all the available targets discovered on the storage
array.
Scrolling down the Target Name column, I select the desired target and select the black right-directional
arrow beside the name to log in to the target.
The Storage Domains list refreshes to now only list the targets for the address which
we logged in to.
We click the plus sign button beside our target to expand the desired target.
It expands to display all the unused LUNS.
For the second of the two listed, I click Add for the LUN ID that is to connect to the
target.
I get a warning message that discard is not supported because this target in on a ZFS
storage system.
This is because I forgot to uncheck the Discard after Delete option in the Advanced Parameters,
which is required when using ZFS storage.
So lets uncheck that box now.
Clicking the plus button beside Advanced Parameters, it expands to show the options.
I uncheck the Discard After Delete box, and can now click OK.
This closes the New Domain dialog and refreshes the Storage Domains list.
We now see the new domain with our selected name added to the list.
As the Storage Domain is set up we can see the Cross Data Center Status changing from
Unattached to Locked.
We can click Tasks to monitor the various processing steps that are completed to attach
the iSCSI data domain to the data center.
And after a few minutes, the tasks show Compete status and we can click Close to return to
the Storage Domains list.
The Cross Data Center Status now shows Active.
With the iSCSI data domain now added to our virtualization environment, we can upload
the resources that are used by virtual machines.
In this video we introduced basic storage concepts implemented by Oracle Linux Virtualization
Manager.
Listed the requirements for using iSCSI storage with Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager.
Demonstrated the steps for adding iSCSI storage.
Oracle provides an extensive number of resources which you can use to find out more about this
subject and others.
You can find documentation on Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager at the link shown.
There is a comprehensive Oracle Linux curriculum available to support a full range of Linux
administration skills for cloud, on-premise and hybrid users.
For more information or to get started on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, go to cloud.oracle.com.
And for more training on Linux on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure go to the link shown here.
That’s the end of this video, thanks for watching.