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QoreStor 7.1.0 - Azure Deployment Guide

Creating the virtual machine

Creating the virtual machine

In the Azure user interface, complete the following steps.

To create the virtual machine
1
On the Basics tab, enter the details described in the following table.
Table 1: Basics details
Option
Description

Subscription

Select your Azure storage account from the drop-down list.

Resource group

Select a resource group from the drop-down. If you do not have a resource group or want to use a different group, click Create new.

For procedure instructions, consult Microsoft Azure documentation

Virtual machine name

Enter a name for the virtual machine that you want to create.

Region

Select your Azure region from the drop-down list.

Availability options

Select No infrastructure redundancy required.

Image

Select the QoreStor tier you want to use to create the virtual machine.

Azure Spot instance

Quest does not recommend selecting this option.

Size

Select the Recommended by image publisher option.

Authentication type
Select Password, and then enter the following information:
•
Create a username.
•
Create a password.
•
Re-enter the password
•
For information about password requirements and limitations, see Azure documentation.
2
Click Next.
3
On the Disks tab, keep the following default options:
•
OS Disk Type — Premium SSD
•
Encryption Type — Encryption-at-rest with a platform-managed key
*
NOTE: Quest does not recommend using read/write caching for Azure deployment.
4
Click Next: Networking.
5
On the Networking tab, configure the settings to match your network configuration, or leave the default options.
*
NOTE: The QoreStor image supports accelerated networking. A pre-configured network security group is provided.
Table 2: Networking details
Option
Description

Virtual network

Select a network from the drop-down.

If you do not have a network established, or you want to use a different network than what appears in the drop-down list, click Create new.

For more information about creating a network, see Microsoft Azure documentation.

Subnet

Select a subnet from the drop-down list.

Optionally, to configure your subnet options, click Manage subnet configuration.

For more information about managing subnet configurations, see Microsoft Azure documentation.

Public IP

Optionally, select a public IP for your virtual machine.

If you do not have a public IP, or you want to use a different IP than what appears in the drop-down list, click Create new.

For more information about creating an IP, see Microsoft Azure documentation.

NIC network security group

Select Advanced.

Configure network security group

Select a network security group from the drop-down list.

If you do not have an existing Network Security Group, or you want to use dedicated Network Security Group than what appears in the drop-down list, click Create new.

For more information about creating a Network Security group, see Microsoft Azure documentation.

Accelerated networking

Quest recommends selecting this option.

Place this virtual machine behind an existing load balancing solution?

Quest does not recommend selecting this option.

6
Click Next: Management.
7
On the Management tab, ensure that all options are disabled or not selected.
*

NOTE: The default for the Boot diagnostics option is Disable, but this setting is not required.

8
Click Next: Advanced.
9
On the Advanced tab, select Enable user data.
10
Under User data, enter the following commands:
cloud-container: <Azure blob container name>
connection-string: <connection string to the customer storage account>
 
*
NOTE: A pre-existing cloud container is not required. If you already created the container, it should be empty. You can find the connection string for your Azure Storage account in the Azure UI under Access Keys.
 
 
11
Click Next: Tags.
12
On the Tags tab, add any required tags.
13
Click Review + Create.
14
On the Review + create tab, verify that your selections are correct, and then enter the following information:
Table 3: Contact details
Option
Description

Name

Enter the name of the point of contact for the Azure account.

Preferred e-mail address

Enter the email address for the point of contact.

Preferred phone number

Enter the phone number for the point of contact.

15
Click Create.
16
After the deployment is complete, click Go to resource.

Accessing and configuring the virtual machine

*
NOTE: If you recently created the virtual machine, it is recommended that you wait 3 or 4 minutes before you begin this procedure.
To access and configure the virtual machine
1
By default, the instance does not have the DNS name configured. To configure the DNS name, find the DNS name field in the Networking section, and then click Configure.
Figure 1: QoreStorVM page in Azure
2
By default, Azure provides the <region>.cloudapp.azure.com domain. Edit the options for the name based on your Public IP configuration, and then click Save.
3
Open a SSH session to the Public IP or DNS name.
4
In the SSH session, provide the credentials from Creating the virtual machine.
5
After you log in, verify the filesystem is operational for I/O using the system --show command.
Figure 2: Filesystem list confirming operations
6
If the system is in Manual Intervention mode, use the following command to update the Azure Blob Storage account connection string:
object_direct --update_sentinel --cloud_container <containername> --cloud_provider AZURE
 
*
NOTE: The system prompts you for the connection string in secret.
7
To access the QoreStor UI, use the public IP assigned in the section Creating the virtual machine. The URL for accessing QoreStor UI would be https://<public_ip_of_virutal_machine>:5233.

 

Port usage

QoreStor uses certain ports for the services mentioned in the following table. The table also mentions the recommended network group settings (NSG) in Azure for each of the ports. Please refer to the next section for instructions on how to change the default/recommended NSG settings.

Table 4: Port functions and settings

Component / Function

Ports used

Protocol

Details

Default Network Security Group setting in Azure

SSH

22

TCP

SSH uses port 22. We recommend keeping this port open to enable secure connections within and from outside QoreStor.

22: ENABLE

UI

5233

TCP

QoreStor uses 5233 for HTTPS connections (and not 443). Since this connection is secure, the port remains open in default NSG settings for all incoming traffic.

5233: ENABLE

Object (S3)
 
9000
 
TCP

Object container uses port 9000 for data transfer. By default, NSG disables port 9000. However, to use Object container, enable the port in NSG.

9000: DISABLE
Secure Connect
9443
ANY

Port used by secure connect. Secure connect is enabled by default and we recommend keeping this port open in NSG settings.
9443: ENABLE

Configuring Azure Network Security Group settings

The settings for enabling or disabling the Network Security Group (NSG) settings are available in Azure using the following instructions.

To configure Azure Network Security Group settings
1
In Azure console, find “Services” and click Network security groups.
2
Click the NSG name you want to modify. This is the same NSG that is deployed with the Azure Marketplace image of QoreStor.
*
NOTE: Any modification to this NSG will change the default settlings recommended by QoreStor.
3
After you click the NSG name, a settings page like the one in the following image shows where you can modify the network settings.
Figure 3: Overview of network settings in Azure
 
4
When opening an additional port, to add inbound rules for that specific port, click Inbound security rules on the left side, and then click the Add tab on the top side of the page.
The following dialog opens.
Figure 4: Inbound security rules table and dialog in Azure
5
On this dialog, you can add rules that open other ports. For example, if Object container is enabled, then the corresponding port – 9000 per the table in earlier section – needs to be open. In that case, complete the following options:
Table 5: Add inbound security rule options
Option
Description

Source

Select an IP or an Azure NSG. If the port can be used from any external interface, select Any.

Source port ranges

Select a port range on the specified source. To select any range, select *.

Destination

Leave as the default selection, Any.

Service

Leave as the default selection, Custom.

Destination port ranges

(Required) Enter 9000 for this port.

Protocol

Select TCP.

Action

Select Allow.

Priority

Select an appropriate priority.

The rules execute by priority, with the lowest number representing the highest priority. When selecting priorities, leave spaces between the numbers so that you can insert new priorities later.

Name

Enter an appropriate name for this rule; for example, ObjectServer_9000, which highlights the port number and the functionality.

Add a description as needed.

6
Click Add.
The NSG Inbound rules will look like the following example.
Figure 5: Inbound security rules example
 
You can add rules as needed for corresponding functionality. For enabling multiple ports, NSG allows port ranges and comma-separated lists of ports so that multiple ports can be enabled as part of one rule. However, the Marketplace offer configuration does not allow for ranges or comma-separated ports, so a Marketplace image’s NSG template might mention each port number as a separate rule in such cases.
 
 
 
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