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SERVERware 4 Adding Processing host to Controller

SERVERware 4 Adding Processing host to Controller

Adding Processing Host

Hosts must be correctly installed before you can add them to the SERVERware virtualization platform. Before adding hosts ensure that the IP addresses have been assigned correctly. There is no need to additionally configure Network Bridge which is automatically created during the installation. Network Bridge allows Virtual Servers to interact with the network as if they were using physical NICs.

To add a SERVERware Processing host, follow the next steps:

  1. On the Hosts view, click Add Host button.
  2. The Add Host dialog appears.

    sw3 add host.png
  3. Enter the details in the following fields:
    • Purpose: the purpose of the host (select 'PROCESSING' or 'BACKUP').
    • Storage Location: the storage location field appears only when the selected host purpose is processing. Select the Network Storage as a storage location for VPS volumes.
    • Service Pool: the service pool such as the storage location makes sense only for the processing hosts. Select the Mixed pool.
    • Name a descriptive name for the host. Use a button for generating a random hostname if the name is not so important.
    • IP Address: the IP address of the host which was provided during installation.
    • Port: the port number for the communication with the sw-connector agent running on the host. Leave default port number 4433.
    • Root Password: the password of the designated host. If not manually changed on the host, the default password is serverware so you will be asked to provide a new password as soon as you enter the default one into the field.
  4. Click Add button to submit the form.

The new host appears in the list of hosts with a disabled state. Host health indicators for the connection and sw-connector should be green circles. Depending on it whether the host SAN network interface was pre-configured or not, the Storage connectivity indicator will be a green or red circle.

Enabling Host

After a host has been added, updated or an existing host has been taken down for maintenance, it needs to be enabled before it can be used.

  1. In the Hosts view, select the host to be enabled.
  2. Click the Enable button. A confirmation dialog appears.
  3. Click Yes.

The host state changes to UP. Virtual servers can now run on the host.

Managing Host Network Interfaces

The Network Interfaces tab on the Details pane of a host allows you to define the attachment of the logical subnet to the physical network interface cards (or NICs) of the host. This is a simple operation in which you attach one or more of the host's physical network interface cards (NICs) to predefined logical subnets in the SERVERware environment.

There are three logical subnets defined by SERVERware during installation:

  • LAN - Local Area Network used for SERVERware management traffic as well as for VPSs services.
  • RAN - Replication Area Network is used for the storage mirroring. It is implemented as a direct connection between two storage hosts that constitute a fault-tolerant storage solution.
  • SAN - Storage Area Network is used for storing traffic between storage and processing hosts.

The Network Interfaces tab displays the name, logical subnet name, IP address, subnet mask, MAC address, and link status for each host interface. There is an Edit button next to each interface. The network interface configured during the host installation is automatically assigned to the LAN subnet. Given that the LAN interface is used for the host management, it is not safe to edit the LAN interface from the administration GUI. RAN interface is used by storage servers only and is configured automatically by the setup wizard. The SAN interface is only used in the SERVERware Cluster Edition. It is automatically setup on the storage servers by the setup wizard but needs to be configured upon new processing host addition.

  1. In the Hosts view, select the appropriate host.
  2. Click Maintenance button to switch the host into maintenance mode.
  3. Click Network Interface tab on the Details pane to display the list of NICs on the host, their address, and other specifications.
  4. Click the Edit button next to NIC that you want to edit. Edit Host Network Interface dialog appears.

    sw3 edit host net.png
  5. Select a logical subnet from the list to attach NIC to a different logical subnet.
  6. Provide an IP address belonging to the selected logical subnet.
  7. Click Save button to apply the changes.
  8. Click Enable button to enable the host.