Hardware Node Preparation¶
CPU¶
Modern server management tools (like iLO) provide features to throttle CPU frequency and run fans at lower speed to reduce power consumption. When these features are enabled, the CPU will not be allowed to run at its maximum frequency which impacts performance.
For optimal performance, Scality requires allowing the CPUs to run at maximum frequency and fans to run at full speed to prevent thermal throttling. Set those settings accordingly in the server management tools. Please refer to your hardware vendor to see how to set it.
Network¶
For both security and performance, it is recommended for each server to have two physical network interfaces, one for the control plane, and one for the workload plane.
The control plane network interface must be with dual 1GbE ports.
The workload plane network interface must be with dual 10GbE ports.
Note
If only one physical network interface is available on each node, it must be at least with dual 10GbE ports.
The logical interfaces are configured with Link Aggregation Policy and LACP bonding during the Deploy the ARTESCA Operating System using the following parameters:
mode=4 miimon=100 lacp_rate=1 xmit_hash_policy=layer3+4
If the previous configuration is not compatible with the target network infrastructure, install ARTESCA using the following parameters:
mode=1 miimon=100
The workstation must be able to connect to the machines’ control plane IP addresses to reach the cluster-provided UIs.
Note
In this context, the term workstation refers to the computer used during the installation process.
Storage¶
Each ARTESCA server is composed of several types of drives:
The OS drives: protected with RAID1 array.
The Service drives: protected with RAID1 array.
The Data drives: configured with individual RAID0 logical volumes for each disk if using HDD. No specific configuration is required if using flash disks.
OS Drives RAID1 Configuration¶
Important
For production deployments, the boot and operating system partitions must be protected with RAID1 for increased tolerance of disk failures.
Note
The RAID1 array can be provided by a physical RAID controller or through Software RAID during operating system installation.
Note
For virtual machines, you do not need to set up a RAID1, but make sure that the virtual drive is backed up by resilient and fast storage units.
HPE Hardware Family¶
The servers are equipped with a NS204i card that provides OS drives in RAID1 out of the box. As such, no configuration is required.
DELL PowerEdge R740xd2¶
The supported hardware configurations for this server model include two dedicated SSDs for the OS installation, and an onboard hardware RAID controller.
Before installing the OS, make sure to create a RAID1 array from the two SSDs using the UEFI utilities exposed by the RAID controller (refer to the DELL documentation for more information).
Supermicro ASG-1014S-ACR12N4H¶
The supported hardware configurations for this server model include two dedicated SSDs for the OS installation, and an onboard hardware RAID controller.
Before installing the OS, make sure to create a RAID1 array from the two SSDs using the UEFI utilities exposed by the RAID controller (refer to the Supermicro documentation for more information).
Service Drives RAID1 Configuration¶
Service disks are protected through a software RAID1 array.
Create a software RAID1 array using the OS mdadm utility after the OS is installed. Refer to Software RAID Array Creation for more information.
Data Drives Configuration¶
When using mechanical drives, configure each drive as an individual RAID0 array using the RAID controller user interface provided by the hardware vendor.
Since all ARTESCA hardware configurations come with Data drives (spinners) set
behind a RAID card with battery, Scality recommends the RAID0 configuration NRWBD
(i.e. No Read Ahead / Write Back / Direct IO).
On full Flash drives, no RAID0 configuration is needed.
The RAID configuration can be handled post OS install following the Data Disks preparation.
