Chapter 8. Basic Red Hat Ceph Storage client setup

As a storage administrator, you have to set up client machines with basic configuration to interact with the storage cluster. Most client machines only need the ceph-common package and its dependencies installed. It will supply the basic ceph and rados commands, as well as other commands like mount.ceph and rbd.

8.1. Configuring file setup on client machines

Client machines generally need a smaller configuration file than a full-fledged storage cluster member. You can generate a minimal configuration file which can give details to clients to reach the Ceph monitors.

Prerequisites

  • A running Red Hat Ceph Storage cluster.
  • Root access to the nodes.

Procedure

  1. On the node where you want to set up the files, create a directory ceph in the /etc folder:

    Example

    [root@host01 ~]# mkdir /etc/ceph/

  2. Navigate to /etc/ceph directory:

    Example

    [root@host01 ~]# cd /etc/ceph/

  3. Generate the configuration file in the ceph directory:

    Example

    [root@host01 ceph]# ceph config generate-minimal-conf

# minimal ceph.conf for 417b1d7a-a0e6-11eb-b940-001a4a000740
[global]
	fsid = 417b1d7a-a0e6-11eb-b940-001a4a000740
	mon_host = [v2:10.74.249.41:3300/0,v1:10.74.249.41:6789/0]

    The contents of this file should be installed in /etc/ceph/ceph.conf path. You can use this configuration file to reach the Ceph monitors.

8.2. Setting-up keyring on client machines

Most Ceph clusters are run with the authentication enabled, and the client needs the keys in order to communicate with cluster machines. You can generate the keyring which can give details to clients to reach the Ceph monitors.

Prerequisites

  • A running Red Hat Ceph Storage cluster.
  • Root access to the nodes.

Procedure

  1. On the node where you want to set up the keyring, create a directory ceph in the /etc folder:

    Example

    [root@host01 ~]# mkdir /etc/ceph/

  2. Navigate to /etc/ceph directory in the ceph directory:

    Example

    [root@host01 ~]# cd /etc/ceph/

  3. Generate the keyring for the client:

    Syntax

    ceph auth get-or-create client.CLIENT_NAME -o /etc/ceph/NAME_OF_THE_FILE

    Example

    [root@host01 ceph]# ceph auth get-or-create client.fs -o /etc/ceph/ceph.keyring

  4. Verify the output in the ceph.keyring file:

    Example

    [root@host01 ceph]# cat ceph.keyring

[client.fs]
	key = AQAvoH5gkUCsExAATz3xCBLd4n6B6jRv+Z7CVQ==

    The resulting output should be put into a keyring file, for example /etc/ceph/ceph.keyring.