Chapter 4. Deployment workflow

The workflow for deploying Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure for Virtualization (RHHI for Virtualization) is as follows:

  1. Verify that your planned deployment meets support requirements: Chapter 2, Support requirements.
  2. Install the physical machines that will act as hyperconverged hosts: Section 4.1, “Install host physical machines”.
  3. Configure key-based SSH authentication without a password to enable automated configuration of the hosts: Chapter 5, Configure Public Key based SSH Authentication without a password.
  4. Configure Red Hat Gluster Storage on the physical hosts using the Web Console: Chapter 6, Configure Red Hat Gluster Storage for Hosted Engine using the Web Console.
  5. Deploy the Hosted Engine using the Web Console: Chapter 7, Deploy the Hosted Engine using the Web Console.
  6. Configure the Red Hat Gluster Storage nodes using the Administration Portal: Log in to the Administration Portal to complete configuration.

4.1. Install host physical machines

Your physical machines need an operating system and access to the appropriate software repositories in order to be used as hyperconverged hosts.

  1. Install Red Hat Virtualization Host on each physical machine.
  2. Enable the Red Hat Virtualization Host software repository on each physical machine.

4.1.1. Installing Red Hat Virtualization Host

Red Hat Virtualization Host is a minimal operating system designed for setting up a physical machine that acts as a hypervisor in Red Hat Virtualization, or a hyperconverged host in Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that your physical machine meets the requirements outlined in Physical machines.

Procedure

  1. Download the Red Hat Virtualization Host ISO image from the Customer Portal:

    1. Log in to the Customer Portal at https://access.redhat.com.
    2. Click Downloads in the menu bar.
    3. Click Red Hat Virtualization. Scroll up and click Download Latest to access the product download page.
    4. Go to Hypervisor Image for RHV 4.3 and and click Download Now.
    5. Create a bootable media device. See Making Media in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Installation Guide for more information.
  2. Start the machine on which you are installing Red Hat Virtualization Host, and boot from the prepared installation media.

  3. From the boot menu, select Install RHVH 4.3 and press Enter.

    Note

    You can also press the Tab key to edit the kernel parameters. Kernel parameters must be separated by a space, and you can boot the system using the specified kernel parameters by pressing the Enter key. Press the Esc key to clear any changes to the kernel parameters and return to the boot menu.

  4. Select a language, and click Continue.

  5. Select a time zone from the Date & Time screen and click Done.

    Important

    Red Hat recommends using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on all hosts. This helps ensure that data collection and connectivity are not impacted by variation in local time, such as during daylight savings time.

  6. Select a keyboard layout from the Keyboard screen and click Done.

  7. Specify the installation location from the Installation Destination screen.

    Important
    • Red Hat strongly recommends using the Automatically configure partitioning option.
    • All disks are selected by default, so deselect disks that you do not want to use as installation locations.
    • At-rest encryption is not supported. Do not enable encryption.

    • Red Hat recommends increasing the size of /var/log to at least 15GB to provide sufficient space for the additional logging requirements of Red Hat Gluster Storage.

      Follow the instructions in Growing a logical volume using the Web Console to increase the size of this partition after installing the operating system.

    Click Done.

  8. Select the Ethernet network from the Network & Host Name screen.

    1. Click Configure…​ → General and select the Automatically connect to this network when it is available check box.
  9. Optionally configure Language Support, Security Policy, and Kdump. See Installing Using Anaconda in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Installation Guide for more information on each of the sections in the Installation Summary screen.
  10. Click Begin Installation.

  11. Set a root password and, optionally, create an additional user while Red Hat Virtualization Host installs.

    Warning

    Red Hat strongly recommends not creating untrusted users on Red Hat Virtualization Host, as this can lead to exploitation of local security vulnerabilities.

  12. Click Reboot to complete the installation.

    Note

    When Red Hat Virtualization Host restarts, nodectl check performs a health check on the host and displays the result when you log in on the command line. The message node status: OK or node status: DEGRADED indicates the health status. Run nodectl check to get more information. The service is enabled by default.

4.1.2. Enabling software repositories

  1. Log in to the Web Console.

    Use the management FQDN and port 9090, for example, https://server1.example.com:9090/.

  2. Navigate to Subscriptions, click Register System, and enter your Customer Portal user name and password.

    The Red Hat Virtualization Host subscription is automatically attached to the system.

  3. Click Terminal.

  4. Enable the Red Hat Virtualization Host 7 repository to allow later updates to the Red Hat Virtualization Host: 

    # subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-7-server-rhvh-4-rpms