Table of contents
Introduction
This guide describes how to prepare the BVQ Server, the BVQ Clients and the way to integrate the external systems. These has to be done before starting the BVQ installation.
The actions to be performed are identified as follows:
Required action
Optional action
ToDo list
Action | Short description |
---|---|
Procurement of license key file | Please obtain a valid BVQ license key file. |
Check of the hardware and software requirements | Please check, if the HW/SW of your systems corresponds to the descriptions under supported environments. |
Adjustment of BVQ Servers | Please prepare the BVQ Servers for the installation of BVQ. |
Adjustment of SVC/Storwize | Please prepare monitored IBM storage systems appropriately. |
Adjustment of the VMware vCenter | Please prepare monitored VMware vCenter systems appropriately. |
Please prepare a list of all information needed to configure the BVQ Scanners. |
Overview BVQ HW / SW components
Verification of hardware and software requirements
In the online document BVQ supported environments you find an overview of the hardware requirements and supported operating systems. Please check if your systems fullfill these requirements
BVQ Servers
The following tests and adjustments should be made: BVQ Services require the network connections to communicate with each other, with BVQ Clients and the external disk- and VMware systems. The following connections should or must be provided for each system: Legend: BVQ Services require a different amount of disk storage capacity at different times for program files, program data and log files. For the approximately required capacity, please refer to the relevant document under BVQ supported environments. To ensure that in case of a problem overflowing directories does not endanger the execution of other services, we recommend to distribute main directories on multiple partitions or drives. The following main Windows directories are used to a significant degree: A significant use can also be expected for the following main directories on each system: UAC - User Account Control Windows 2008 R2, 2012, Vista, 7, 8: Microsoft introduced Windows Vista User Account Control (UAC) in Windows platforms to avoid that all actions are performed with administrator privileges. The virus scanner on the BVQ server should be set so that the following directories are NOT searched: Note: Problems has been observed in context with the virus scanner 'Sophos', which could be relevant for others too. The time and time zone of the BVQ systems have to be set properly. The following users and groups are created during the BVQ installation on the BVQ server. This chapter does not contain any adjustments to be carried out here and just provides an overview. If a domain registration is used, the database and the BVQ User must be created in advance on the AD server. Type Name Member of Description User account bvq Domain user, local administrators BVQ user (Access and create the database, updates bvq database, BVQ Windows services) The following overview shows which software is required on the BVQ systems: Legend: An Oracle Java Runtime Environment version 1.8.x 64 bit with most current patches has to be installed as the main system JRE on the BVQ server, database server and the clients. The installed version of Java and the existence of the java.exe in the system path can be checked by using the following command: Microsoft Excel 2016 or later has to be installed on the BVQ Server to be able to create advanced BVQ Reports with that. BVQ Excel based reports are connected to the BVQ Server's REST endpoint via MS PowerQuery, which is embedded in Excel since version 2016. You can automate the creation of such Reports by using MS Powershell and Windows Scheduler. Please ask your BVQ Support Partner for more information. The following checks and adjustments should be made to the SVC / Storwize systems: For the communication of the BVQ SVC Scanner with the SVC CLI a user account on each SVC is mandatory, which should be at least member of the group 'Administrator'. The user authentication can be only done via password SSH key pair authentication is no longer supported by BVQ) *Unfortunately, the performance monitoring of an SVC / Storwize cluster without the permission level 'Administrator' is not possible so far as for copying the performance statistics files from the other nodes into the config node the CLI command The number of simultaneously opened SSH sessions is limited in the SVC/Storwize to 10 sessions for SVC Code < v7.5 (32 sessions >v7.5) . If the sessions are used by other applications, it should be ensured that for a short time up to 3 SSH sessions are simultaneously required for the communication with the BVQ SVC Scanner. The time and the time zone of the SVC/Storwize systems have to be set correctly. CLI command for setting an NTP server: CLI command for setting the time zone (here Europe/Berlin): CLI command for showing the cluster time: The SVC performance statistics are generated regularly (in intervals) by the SVC and picked up by the BVQ SVC Scanner. BVQ supports all intervals possible in the SVC (1min to 60min). We recommend to set the time interval to 5 minutes. If a closer monitoring should be necessary, the interval can also be reduced to 1 minute. The V7000u system consists of 2 levels: The administration of a V7000u is usually done by using the IP addresses of the file service gateways. CLI commands are tunneled through that layer to the underlying V7000. Unfortunately, the performance statistics of the V7000 cannot be downloaded from this upper level . Hence cluster IP addresses have to be assigned to the underlying V7000. Similar to a usual V7000 the BVQ SVC Scanner has be configured to access this IP address. For the operation of BVQ VMware Scanner, a user is required for the operation of the BVQ VMware Scanner, who should at least have read-only access to the VMware vCenter system. With BVQ version 5.6 it will be possible to scan performance data for VMware objects (virtual machines, ESX hosts, etc.) within BVQ. The following statistics settings are required: With BVQ version 5.6 it will be possible to scan performance data for VMware objects (virtual machines, ESX hosts, etc.) within BVQ. The following configuration settings are required: Important Requirement: a separate system/server is needed to run the Brocade SMI Scanner For the operation of BVQ Brocade SAN Scanner, a user is required on the SAN core switch. Please create this user before installing the BVQ Brocade SAN Scanner. We recommend to name the user as follows: 'bvq' BVQ scanners need the following information to be configured for each System. In addition to the BVQ licensed IBM Spectrum virtualize systems (SVC), BVQ Scanners should also be configured for each BVQ supported backend system behind them. Such Systems are already covered by your BVQ license and can be added without additional cost, but be aware to have them included in your BVQ license key file. For each IBM storage system: For a VMware vCenter system:Preparation of the Windows operating system
Action Short description Administrator Make sure that the installation of all components is performed by a user who is a member of the local user group 'administrators'. Restarts Make sure that the system can be restarted (several times) without any problems during the installation phase. Network connections Check whether the BVQ systems have contact with all necessary external systems and clients which are described in check and unlock network connections. Disk storage Set up the necessary drives, paths and partitions to the recommended sizes as described in adjust disk storage configuration. Minimize UAC Minimize the Windows User Access Control configuration prior to the installation as recommended under: adjust user account control (UAC) Customize virus scanner If necessary, please customize the configuration of an installed virus scanner on the BVQ systems (see customize virus scanner) Time and time zone Please ensure that the clocks on all BVQ systems and other integrated systems are synchronized and set to the same time zone (please see check time and time zone) Windows user Make sure that the necessary conditions for Windows users are met. Install the additionally required software on the BVQ systems Contribution of BVQ license key files Please ensure that your BVQ license key file is available in the download directory of your BVQ server. It will be needed for the BVQ installation. Check and unlock network connections
Please adjust the settings of any existing firewalls accordingly.
Please check any necessary network connection by using
ping
.Overview: Network connections and ports
Links / System Standard TCP port BVQ DB Server BVQ Server BVQ Client Description RDP to BVQ Client 3389 ←
←
→
Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol for remote screen sessions SSH to SVC System 22 →
→
Secure Shell to access the SVC CLI interface WebService to vCenter 443 →
Web service with HTTPS on VMware vCenter API SMI provider to BNA 5989 →
SMI interface to Brocade Network Advisor MongoDB 27017 ←
→
→
Client to access the MongoDB service BVQ Server Web UI 80 ←
→
Client acces to BVQ Server Web UI BVQ Server Grafana 3000 ←
→
Cleint access to BVQ Grafana Dashbord Web UI Internet N/A →
→
→
Connection to the Internet for remote maintenance or code-download - necessary connection,
- optional connection, → - outgoing connection, ← - incoming connection
Adjust disk storage configuration
Main directory Standard path Typical standard path Standard drive Usage Program files %PROGRAMFILES%\SVA\BVQ C:\Program Files\SVA\BVQ C: Storage of program files Program data %PROGRAMDATA%\SVA\BVQ C:\ProgramData\SVA\BVQ C: Storage of service logs and queue data Program files %PROGRAMFILES%\SVA\BVQ\bvq-mongodb C:\Program Files\SVA\BVQ\bvq-mongodb C: Storage of MongoDB program files Program data %PROGRAMDATA%\SVA\BVQ\bvq-mongodb C:\ProgramData\SVA\BVQ\bvq-mongodb C: Storage of MongoDB database Directory / system BVQ DB Server BVQ Server BVQ Client Program files Program data MongoDB Database Adjust User Account Control (UAC)
For the installation of BVQ components it is recommended to set the UAC temporarily to 'Never notify' (reboot required).
When finished, it can be reseted to the previously set level. Customize virus scanner
During the installation of BVQ disable any virus scanner or other programs which vary from the basis Windows installation and might interfere with the installation.
Database Directory
%ProgramData%\SVA\BVQ\bvq-mongodb
%ProgramFiles%\SVA\BVQ\bvq-scanner
%ProgramFiles%\SVA\BVQ\bvq-scheduler
Check time and time zone
Please check whether a NTP server is configured in Windows: it is strongly recommended to use a NTP server to synchronize all clocks of all systems (SVC nodes, Windows) .
Please check whether the time zone is set correctly: the time zone of all systems (SVC, Windows) have to be set to the same value.
Check Windows users
Locally managed users
Often the username 'BVQ' is shared for the BVQ Service and DB user. In this case, the name of the BVQ Server may not be 'BVQ' as both the server and the user name are managed in the same Windows namespace .
Type Name Member of Description User account bvq Local administrators BVQ user account (Access and create the database, updates bvq database, BVQ Windows services) User account (optional) bvqservice BVQ Windows services run under this user account Users managed by active directory
The following table provides an overview of the required users and their user groups in active directory.Additional required software
Software / System BVQ DB Server BVQ Server BVQ Client Java Runtime Environment Microsoft Excel 2016 PuTTY PDF Reader Remote Screenshare - required software,
- optional software
BVQ installation packages
Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
C:\>java -version
java version "1.8.0_xx"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_xx)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build xx, mixed mode)
Microsoft Excel
PuTTY (optional)
Remote Screenshare (optional)
IBM Spectrum virtualize (SVC), Storwize & Flash systems
Action Short Description Configuration of SVC user Please create a user account (typically 'bvq') within the group 'Administrators'. Check SSH access for free sessions Please check whether 3 SSH sessions are free on each involved system in order to ensure communication with the BVQ SVC scanners. Check time and time zone Please check whether an NTP server and the same time zone are set on each involved system as well as on the BVQ systems. Check performance statistics interval Please check the settings of the performance statistics on each involved system (default: 5 minutes). Configuration of SVC user
Please create such a user. We recommend that to give that user the following name:
bvq
svctask mkuser -name bvq -usergrp Administrator -password P@ssw0rd
svctask cpdumps
is mandatory. This is the only administrator-level command, which uses the BVQ SVC scanner. For all other commands (svcinfo lsxxx
) the permission level 'monitor' would be sufficient. Check SSH access for free sessions
Check time and time zone
Please check if an NTP server is configured: we strongly recommend to use an NTP server to synchronize the time of all systems (SVC Nodes, Windows).
svctask chcluster -ntpip <IP address of NTP Server> ### Example: svctask chcluster -ntpip 9.20.165.16
Please check whether the time zone is set correctly: the time zones of all systems (SVC, Windows) should be set to the same value.
svctask settimezone -timezone 360 ### Timezone 360: Europe/Berlin !!!
At the end please check whether the expected time is actually displayed.
svqueryclock ### Check the cluster's current date and time
Check performance statistics interval
Check the interval time set in the SVC / Storwize. Example:
svcinfo
lssystem | while read key value; do [[ "$key" =~
^(statistics_status|statistics_frequency)$ ]] && echo "$key
$value"; done
statistics_status on
statistics_frequency 5
Set the statistics interval time:
svctask startstats -interval 5 ### Set SVC Perf Statistics Interval (possible values 1-60)
Clear old performance statistic files on all nodes. It is not certain that they were created at the same point in time or they may contain no longer existing nodes.
svcinfo lsnode -nohdr | while read id
rest ; do svctask cleardumps -prefix /dumps/iostats $id ; done
Configure a Unified Storwize V7000
Check whether a cluster IP address is set there on the V7000u:
lssystemip
cluster_id cluster_name location port_id IP_address subnet_mask gateway IP_address_6 prefix_6 gateway_6
00000200A080006A swv1blk local 1 9.20.136.5
255.255.255.0 9.20.136.1
00000200A080006A swv1blk local 2 If necessary, set a cluster IP address on the V7000u:
chsystemip -clusterip 9.20.136.5 -gw 9.20.136.1 -mask 255.255.255.0 -port 1
VMware vCenter systemsVMware vCenter user
Please create this user before installing the VMware BVQ Scanner. We recommend to name the user as follows: 'bvq'
VMware vCenter statistic settings
Select: vCenter → Configure tab → Settings - General → Statistics
Tip: Check the required database size required by configuring the physical hosts & virtual machines. Depending on the selected configuration, this will show you an estimate of the db size (filesystem space required on the vCenter server). Maybe you have to modify the vCenter filesystem size to collect/save the additional performance data.
VMware vCenter configuration settings
Select: vCenter (1) → Configure tab (2) → Settings - Advanced settings (3) → Edit (4)config.vpxd.stats.maxQueryMetrics
and check if value is set to -1
(5)config.vpxd.stats.maxQueryMetrics
-1
Brocade SAN ScannerBrocade SAN Switch user
The user should at least have "Operator role" and AOR (Areas of Responsibility) =All Fabrics, All Hosts.
Example:Gather information for BVQ Scanner configuration