Chapter 3. Enabling Red Hat Gluster Storage in Red Hat Virtualization Manager

Procedure 3.1. To Enable Red Hat Gluster Storage in Red Hat Virtualization Manager

1. Install Red Hat Virtualization Manager

   The Red Hat Virtualization Manager is the control center of the Red Hat Virtualization environment. Ensure that Red Hat Virtualization Manger is installed and configured.
   Install and configure Red Hat Virtualization Manager. See Installing the Red Hat Virtualization Manager in the Red Hat Virtualization Installation Guide for more information: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_virtualization/4.1/html/installation_guide/part-installing_red_hat_enterprise_virtualization.
   Ensure that the installation of Red Hat Virtualization Manager is complete before proceeding.

2. Install Hosts

   Install the host machines with either of the following operating systems:
   • Red Hat Virtualization Host 4
   • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (with virtualization packages: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_virtualization/4.1/html/installation_guide/subscribing_to_required_channels_using_subscription_manager1)
   Ensure that all hosts meet the hardware requirements of the operating system before beginning the installation process.
   During installation, set the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) and IP address for the server in order to avoid network conflicts. For information on installing the hypervisor, see Installing Hypervisor Hosts in the Red Hat Virtualization Installation Guide: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_virtualization/4.1/html/installation_guide/part-installing_hypervisor_hosts.

3. Configure the data centers

   Create data centers and clusters to organise the virtualization and storage hosts. Red Hat Gluster Storage servers must be managed in a separate data center to Red Hat Virtualization hosts, so at least two data centers are required. The installation process creates one data center and associated cluster named Default.
   The data center is expected to appear non-operational at this point in the process.

   Note

   A virtualization host can have either a Red Hat Virtualization Host or a Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system. A trusted storage pool requires a minimum of three Red Hat Gluster Storage servers, and at least one active virtualization host is required to connect the system to a storage pool.

4. Install Red Hat Gluster Storage

   Install the latest version of Red Hat Gluster Storage on new servers (not the host machines).
   For more information on obtaining and installing the software, see the Red Hat Gluster Storage Installation Guide: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_gluster_storage/3.2/html/installation_guide/chap-installing_red_hat_storage.
   If you want to configure combined virtualization hosts and storage servers, see the Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure documentation: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_hyperconverged_infrastructure/1.0/html/deploying_red_hat_hyperconverged_infrastructure/

5. Configure Storage

   Configure the Red Hat Gluster Storage installation for your requirements.
   For instructions on creating a Red Hat Gluster Storage Volume, see chapter Red Hat Gluster Storage Volume in the Red Hat Gluster Storage Administration Guide: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_gluster_storage/3.2/html/administration_guide/chap-red_hat_storage_volumes.
   Optimize your Red Hat Gluster Storage volumes for storing virtual machine images by following the instructions in Procedure 4.1, “To Configure Volumes Using the Command Line Interface”.

   Note

   To reduce the risk of split-brain conditions developing in the cluster, Red Hat requires three-way replication when using Red Hat Gluster Storage with Red Hat Virtualization. Three-way replication is provided by the following volume types:

   • three-way replicated volumes (replica 3)
   • three-way distributed replicated volumes (replica count 3)
   • arbitrated replicated or distributed arbitrated replicated volumes (replica 3 arbiter 1)

6. Attach Storage to Hypervisor

   Check that you can access the Red Hat Virtualization Manager Administration Portal and that at least one virtualization host has Up status before you continue.
   Create a new storage domain with a Data domain function and the GlusterFS storage type. For further information, see the Adding a Red Hat Gluster Storage Volume as a Storage Domain section in the Red Hat Virtualization Administration Guide: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_virtualization/4.1/html/administration_guide/sect-using_red_hat_gluster_storage_as_a_storage_domain