Post-installation configurations

To complete the installation of the node server, you must to configure the network addresses and various other settings. In a two-node appliance, you must install the S1 operating system on each of the node-servers and configure them separately.

After the S1 operating system is successfully installed, a system reboot prompt appears. When the S1 system boots up for the first time, it presents a terminal interface. Enter the default localhost host login and password:

• Local host login: s1admin

• Password: storone

  
  

The first login may take a few minutes while the system sets up initial configurations. After logging in, the Terminal User Interface (TUI) appears. Use the TUI to configure system settings.

Using the Terminal user interface (TUI)

The Terminal user interface (TUI) uses the following keybindings:

The TUI Main Menu window contains the following sections:

• System Status

• Configurations

• Network Interfaces

• StorONE Storage Service Management

• Utilities

• Logout

  
  

System Status

The System Status window displays system information as follows:

Configurations

The configurations window allows you to configure general settings for your node-server as follows:

Network Interfaces

Network Interface Card (NIC)

To configure the network interface cards (NICs) of your node server (NS), use the Network Interfaces feature. To access it, navigate to Network Interfaces from the main menu and select Enter. The Network Interfaces window appears, displaying a list of all the NICs installed on your node server and indicating their status, whether they are up or down. You can configure each NIC separately or bind several NICs for the same configuration.

NICs are configured for three type of tasks:

1. Management: configured NICs that allow remote network access to the TUI and the GUI management interfaces.
2. Data: configured NICs that allow remote access for S1 users (clients).
3. Interconnection: configured NICs that allow communication between the two node servers.

The following table describes the NIC configuration fields:

Network interface bonding

Network interface bonding (bond), also known as network link aggregation, is a technique that combines multiple physical network interfaces into a single logical interface. The purpose of network bonding is to increase the network bandwidth, improve network reliability, and provide fault tolerance by distributing the network traffic across multiple interfaces.

The Create new Bond field creates a network bond from NICs that are installed on the node server. By bonding network interface(s), the network stack treats them as a single network interface, with a single IP address and MAC address. This allows network traffic to be spread across multiple interfaces, increasing the total available bandwidth, and provides redundancy in case one of the interfaces fails.
There are several bonding mode algorithms available, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

• balance-rr (Round Robin): Transmit packets in sequential order from the first available interface, useful for load balancing. Balance-rr does not support automatic failover in case of network interface failure and may not be compatible with some network switches.
• active-backup: Only one interface is active at a time, and the other interfaces are on standby, useful for redundancy and failover. Active-backup mode supports automatic failover, however in case of failover, the process can cause temporary disruption of network traffic.
• balance-xor: Distributes outgoing traffic across the bonded interfaces using the XOR function. The XOR function uses a combination of the source and destination MAC addresses to determine which interface to send the packet through. The balance-xor provides load balancing and fault tolerance by distributing outgoing traffic across multiple network interfaces. However, balance-xor may not be supported by all NICs. Additionally, the performance of the bonded interfaces may be limited by the speed of the slowest interface, which can become a bottleneck for the overall performance.
• broadcast: In interface bonding through broadcast algorithm, network packets are sent through all bonded interfaces simultaneously. This allows for increased data transfer speeds and improved network reliability by minimizing the impact of individual interface failures. However, it can cause network congestion and reduce network performance, especially in large networks.
• 802.3ad or LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol): Dynamically manage the network links in the bond, allowing for automatic failover in case of link failure and load balancing across the active links. The 802.3ad mode may not support automatic failover, this can impact network availability in case of network interface failure. In the 802.3ad bonding mode each switch in the network must be configured to support the standard and use the LACP protocol. Additionally, the mode only works with MII link monitor.
• balance-tlb (Transmit Load Balancing): Outgoing network traffic is distributed across all available network interfaces based on a simple hash of the packet header information. The balance-tlb bonding mode provides increased bandwidth and improved network performance, particularly for outgoing traffic-heavy applications. The balance-tlb mode does not support network interface failure. In some cases, the load balancing mechanism can lead to packet reordering which can affect the performance of some applications.
• balance-alb (Adaptive Load Balancing): Outgoing network traffic is distributed across all available network interfaces based on a hash of the outgoing packet’s source MAC address, useful for both load balancing and redundancy. Nevertheless, balance-alb mode may not provide automatic failover in case of network interface failure. In addition, the mode may introduce some packet duplication, which can affect the performance of certain applications.

Network bonding configurations include the following fields:

Notice:
To manage the node server, the Management option must be checked for one network interface (NIC or Bond).

StorONE Storage Service Management

Utilities

The Utilities section is used for connectivity testing. You can use it to ping to URLs or IP addresses.

Logout

To logout from the Terminal User Interface (TUI).