What you need for this book

Since we will be working with Proxmox clusters throughout the book, it will be extremely helpful to have a working Proxmox cluster of your own. A very basic cluster of two to three nodes will be fine. The steps should be performed as listed in a way that it prepares the system environment to be able to test the codes of the book:

1. Proxmox VE:
   • Download ISO, then burn a disk from the image.
   • Load CD/DVD into drive and power up the node.
   • Press Enter at the prompt boot to begin installation.
   • The entire installation process is graphical with some text boxes to fill in. When prompted, enter a new password, select country, IP address, and netmask, gateway. IP address, netmask, and gateway should be based on the network the server is being installed on.
   • When prompted, eject the disk and reboot to finish installation.
   • Follow these steps for the other Proxmox node.
   • Use a browser and enter the link in this format to go to the Proxmox GUI, https://<node_ip_address>:8006. When prompted, enter the user name, root, and password, the same one created during installation.
   • Click OK when prompted with nonsubscription message box.
   • Use Putty software to access Proxmox Node through SSH. Use <node_ip_address> as host and port 22.
   • CEPH requires a separate network to operate correctly. Here, we will configure the second network interface card for all Proxmox nodes with a different subnet. Do this on all nodes:

     	# nano /etc/network/interfaces
     	auto eth2
     	iface eth2 inet static
     	address 192.168.20.1
     	netmask 255.255.255.0
     

   • Use the preceding format for other two nodes and use IP address 192.168.20.2 and 192.168.20.3, respectively.
   • Install CEPH on all Proxmox nodes by running this command:

     	
     # pveceph install –version firefly
     

   • Create the initial CEPH cluster from one node only:

     	# pveceph init –network 192.168.20.0/24
     

   • Create the first CEPH monitor from the first Proxmox node:

     	# pveceph createmon
     

   • Create other two monitors from the Proxmox GUI | CEPH | Mon menu system.
   • Create OSDs from the Proxmox GUI | CEPH | OSD menu. Select a drive other than the drive used to install Proxmox OS.
2. FreeNAS:
   • Download the FreeNAS ISO file from their website and prepare a disk with the image file.
   • Plug in an USB flash drive. Load the CD into the drive and power up the node.
   • FreeNAS also has graphical installation. Simply, press Enter to go through every prompt. FreeNAS does not require any text box information.
   • Select Install/upgrade when prompted.
   • Select the USB flash drive to install FreeNAS when prompted.
   • Eject the installation disk and select Reboot when prompted at the end of installation process.
   • If the existing network has a DHCP server available, the FreeNAS node will automatically pick up an IP address. You will find the assigned IP address at the prompt after reboot is completed.
   • Use a browser and enter the IP address to access FreeNAS web management GUI.