XLR8r Installation and Configuration Guide

Revision 2
4 October 2011












Contents
Welcome ................................................................................................................................................. 3
Packing List.............................................................................................................................................. 3
Physical Installation and Connectivity ...................................................................................................... 3
Initial Configuration ................................................................................................................................. 4
Console Configuration ......................................................................................................................... 4
Network Configuration .................................................................................................................... 4
Web Configuration .............................................................................................................................. 6
Network Configuration .................................................................................................................... 6
Autosupport Configuration .............................................................................................................. 8
LUN Configuration ................................................................................................................................... 9
Initiators................................................................................................................................................ 10
Creating Initiators .............................................................................................................................. 10
Mapping LUNS ................................................................................................................................... 10
Important Notes ................................................................................................................................ 11
NFS........................................................................................................................................................ 11
CIFS ....................................................................................................................................................... 13
Best Practices ........................................................................................................................................ 15
Performance...................................................................................................................................... 15
Benchmarks ....................................................................................................................................... 15
WhipTail Support................................................................................................................................... 16



Welcome
Welcome and thank you for your purchase of the WhipTail XLR8r storage appliance. WhipTail
Technologies is excited to provide your organization with the power of Tier-0 solid-state
storage performance.
Packing List
The shipping container contains the following items:
(1) Installation & Configuration Guide
(1) WhipTail XLR8r appliance
(1) Rack-mounting kit
Physical Installation and Connectivity
The WhipTail appliance will occupy 2U of rack space. Prior to placing the two snap-lock rails
that ship with the unit into the cabinet, the inner rails in each snap-lock rail assembly should be
removed and mounted to the WhipTail chassis. The snap-lock rails must be positioned in the
cabinet and secured with screws. The XRL8r appliance, with inner rails secured to the chassis,
can then be slid into position on to the snap-lock rails via the inner rails.

The following user accessible connections will be available via the XLR8r rear backplane:
(2) Gigabit Ethernet connections
(1) DB9 serial port
(1) VGA connector (DE-15)
(1) PS/2 keyboard connector
(2) USB connectors
(1) CF adapter w/ CF card*
* WARNING: Removal of the CF card from the appliance without prior instructions from
technical support will result in the voiding of the factory warranty.

Depending on the organizations existing infrastructure and / or the requested initial
configuration of the appliance, the following user accessible connections may also be available
via the XLR8r rear backplane:
(4) Gigabit Ethernet connections
(2) 4/8Gb Fibre Channel
(2) 10Gb Ethernet connectors (CX-4)
(4) 10Gb Ethernet (SFP)
(2) Infiniband connectors (QDR)
To facilitate initial configuration, either of the onboard 1 GB Ethernet links or the DB9 serial
port must be cabled.
Initial Configuration
Initial IP configuration of the XLR8r interfaces can be completed either through the Console or
the Web Interface.

Console Configuration
After the XLR8r has been powered on, a serial cable can be attached to the DB9 connector at
the rear of the device, enabling access to the WhipTail console menu via a terminal session with
the following settings:
Speed: 9600 bps
Data bits: 8
Parity: N
Stop bits: 1
Once the terminal session is established, the administrator will be prompted for credentials.
The default username and password is:
Username: console
Password: whiptail1

Network Configuration
By default, the XLR8r ships with two network teams or bonds. Bond0 is comprised of both
onboard Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, while Bond1 consists of any additional Ethernet
interfaces. The below table details the default IP addresses of these bonds. The console can
also be accessed from a ssh client on these default subnets via a straight-through cable.

Default Network Configuration
Bond Slave 1 Slave 2 Slave 3 Slave 4 IP Address
Bond0 eth0 (1Gb/s) eth1 (1Gb/s) N/A N/A 192.168.10.1 /24
Bond1 eth2 (1 or 10Gb/s) eth3 (1 or 10Gb/s) eth4 (1 or 10Gb/s) eth5 (1 or 10Gb/s) 192.168.20.1 /24


Once a console session has been established, the IP configuration of the interfaces can be
updated via the following procedure:

1. Once authenticated, select option 1 to configure interfaces.

2. Update the IP configuration of the network interfaces via the appropriate options.
Note: it is strongly recommended that the options to update the bond assignments (options 1
and 2 below) be avoided. If these bond slaves are configured incorrectly, the interface IPs will no
longer be accessible, regardless of the address configuration.



3. Please note that all network configuration updates applied via the console require a system
reboot.

Web Configuration
The WhipTail web interface can be reached via the default IP from a host on the default subnet
or, alternatively, via the administrator-defined IP and subnet once the network configuration
updates detailed above have been completed.
The web interface is accessible via the following URL: http://<IPADDRESS of WHIPTAIL>.

The default usernames and passwords are listed below:
Username: admin
Password: abc123

Network Configuration
Once authenticated, select the Network option listed in the left frame. The network
configuration overview page will be displayed:


The following procedure will enable the administrator to update the IP configuration of a
network bond:
1. Select the desired bond, eg. bond0 or bond1, from the dropdown menu at the top-right
of the page and click the Save button to target the selected bond for editing.
2. Once the correct device has been selected, click the Edit hyperlink to display the Edit
Device dialogue.

3. From within the Edit Device dialogue, the IP address, subnet mask, and MTU of the bond
can be updated. The Save button will commit the configuration changes, and the Start /
Restart button will force the changes to apply. Note: the default MTU of 1500 bytes can
be changed to support jumbo frames, as above.
4. IP configuration changes to multiple bonds or interfaces can be completed without
returning to the network overview page by selecting additional devices from the top-
right dropdown menu and clicking the Save button.
Note: changes to the IP configuration of bonds may cause the web interface to become
unavailable. If updating the IP configuration of the bond through which the web
interface is currently accessible, close the current browser session and re-open a new
session using the updated IP address.

Through the network menu, it is also possible to configure the following settings:
Virtual interfaces for VLAN tagging (via the Add hyperlink)
Static routing information (via the option in the left frame)
DNS servers (via the option in the left frame)
Default gateway (via the option in the left frame)

Autosupport Configuration
After completing network configuration changes, it is imperative that Autosupport is
configured. Autosupport provides WhipTail with critical information on the health and
performance of the storage appliance at regular intervals.
To configure autosupport, select Settings from the left menu to display the System Settings,
including the autosupport configuration:



To configure autosupport, the following configuration changes must be applied:

1. Input the SMTP Server the WhipTail will use for SMTP relay. If entering a hostname
for the relay server, a DNS server must be specified via the Network menu option.
Otherwise, an IP must be used to define the SMTP relay. This SMTP relay must allow
the XLR8r to relay messages; as such, please ensure that the WhipTail device is
added to any IP-restricted access lists. Additionally, the default gateway and any
additional static routes necessary must be defined through the Network menu via
the Gateway and Static Routes options.
2. The Autosupport CC field can be updated to ensure that autosupport messages are
sent to an internal administrator in addition to the WhipTail support team.
3. Input the appropriate domain information in the Send from Domain field to fulfill
any requirements of the internal SMTP relay defined above and to help WhipTail
support better identify the source of the autosupport messages.
4. After the configuration changes have been completed, click the Submit button to
commit the changes. The Test Autosupport button will trigger the generation of an
autosupport message outside of the regular autosupport schedule to test the relay
settings.

LUN Configuration
Once the initial setup has been completed, LUNs can be created and configured. LUNs created
on XLR8r arrays can be assigned to any type of initiator, eg. FC, iSCSI, SRP.
To begin creating LUNs, select the LUNS option in the left frame to display the the LUN
configuration menu:


A summary of the fields and options in the LUN creation dialogue is provided below; fields
required for LUN creation are denoted with a (*).
Name* Freeform name field limited to 16 characters
Size* Size of the block device that will be presented to the operating system
(expressed in GB)
Path* The storage pool from which to draw (in most cases, this will be the
default SSD pool SSD1)
Write-Back Cache (this option should remain disabled in most cases)
Destroy (this option is used to destroy existing LUNs once created)

After the above fields have been inputted, click the Save button to commit the changes, and
the LUN will be created and added to the target portal. The LUN can then be assigned to
initiator groups. As suggested above, the LUNs can be removed via the same interface page by
highlighting the LUN from the top-right dropdown menu and selecting the Destroy checkbox.
Similarly, LUNs can be expanded by increasing the value in the Size field.

Initiators
The Initiator menu option in the left frame enables the creation of initiator groups through
which LUNs are mapped.

Creating Initiators
Initiators are created by selecting Create new initiator in the top-right dropdown box and
inputting the appropriate values in the following fields:
WWN / IQN The WWN / IQN of the connecting port (WWN
must be expressed in colon notation).
Note:in the case of a multi-ported HBA, it is
likely that multiple initiators must be created
if multi-path is used.
Name Friendly-name of the initiator group

Mapping LUNS
Once an initiator group has been created, select the initiator from the dropdown list to
display the LUN mapping dialogue. This dialogue will enable you to map any available LUN
to the initiator group. To map a LUN to an initiator, select the LUN from the list, input the
LUN ID number, and click the Map button. The form will auto-refresh, and the LUN will be
displayed along with the ID below. Conversely, LUNs can be unmapped from an initiator
group via the UnMap button.


Important Notes
1. All initiator groups must (without exception) have a LUN mapped to ID 0.
2. Do NOT attempt to map resources until the initiator has been created on the appliance,
as this may cause the initiator to pull its LUN list from the DEFAULT group.
NFS
The WhipTail XLR8r supports NFS volumes. To enable a NFS volume and create NFS exports
through which hosts will connect to the volume, select the NFS hyperlink in the left menu to
display the NFS volume configuration dialogue.

Once NFS is enabled via the checkbox and the adjacent Update button, a new NFS volume can
be created by specifying (in GB) the desired capacity of the volume in the Size field and clicking
the Create button.

Exports are created via the Export menu options by clicking the Select button while the Create
New dropdown menu is active and inputting the following fields:
Path Name and path of the NFS export, eg. /NFS/ssd1/pathname
NFS Volumes NFS volume on which to create the export (by default, /NFS/ssd1)
IP / Mask IP and subnet mask for restricted access (if applicable)
Access Options Read Only or Read Write

Once created, NFS exports and volumes can be destroyed and removed via the Exports and
Volumes menus, respectively. Similarly, NFS volumes can be expanded via the Size field in the
Volumes dialogue.


CIFS
The XLR8r storage appliance also supports CIFS. To enable CIFS, select the CIFS option from the
left menu, click the feature checkbox, and input the following fields in the Host dialogue:
Hostname The hostname with which the XLR8r will join the domain, enabling the
XLR8r to present the CIFS share and negotiate domain credentials
Description Description of the Computer object in Active Directory
Netbios domain name NetBIOS name of the domain to be joined
Full domain name Full name of the domain to be joined
Username Username of administrator with rights to join a machine to the domain
Password Password of administrator with rights to join a machine to the domain

Similar to the configuration of NFS volumes, capacity must be allocated to the CIFS volume.
Once the XLR8r has joined the domain, select the Volumes option from the CIFS menu, input
the capacity of the CIFS volume (in GB) in the Size field, and click the Create button.

After capacity has been allocated to CIFS, shares can be created via the Shares hyperlink in the
left frame. To create a share, the administrator must specify the Name of the share (on both
the XLR8r and Windows clients) and the Valid Users of the domain, in the following format:
@%DOMAIN NAME%+%Domain Group%, where the variables %Domainname% and %Domain
Group% are the name of the domain (in caps) and the domain group to be granted access to
the share respectively (eg. @WHIPTAIL+Domain Users, please refer to below screenshot).


Best Practices
Performance
1. The performance of NFS volumes is bound by a ceiling of approximately 50,000 IOPS due
to limitations of the protocol.
2. To achieve the best possible performance via 4 Gb links, MPIO will be required.
Benchmarks
1. All IO tests performed to benchmark the devices performance, using IOMeter or any
other IO tools, should be aligned at 4096 bytes with an outstanding IO queue depth of
32 64 to yield the best results.
2. Virtual machines (VMs) running on the most commonly deployed hypervisors will be
limited to a performance ceiling of roughly 60,000 IOPs per VM.
3. Linked clones are subject to a performance ceiling of approximately 2000 IOPs per clone
due to limitation of the hypervisor.

WhipTail Support

Please contact WhipTail Support to address any additional questions or concerns. Thank you.

WhipTail Technologies, LLC
9 Whippany Rd
Bldg 2 6 and 7
Whippany, NJ 07981
[email protected]
+1 888.550.8136