4.5. Management Server Installation
4.5.1. Management Server Installation Overview
This section describes installing the Management Server. There are two slightly different installation flows, depending on how many Management Server nodes will be in your cloud:
A single Management Server node, with MySQL on the same node.
Multiple Management Server nodes, with MySQL on a node separate from the Management Servers.
In either case, each machine must meet the system requirements described in System Requirements.
For the sake of security, be sure the public Internet can not access port 8096 or port 8250 on the Management Server.
The procedure for installing the Management Server is:
Prepare the Operating System
(XenServer only) Download and install vhd-util.
Install the First Management Server
Install and Configure the MySQL database
Prepare NFS Shares
Prepare and Start Additional Management Servers (optional)
Prepare the System VM Template
4.5.2. Prepare the Operating System
The OS must be prepared to host the Management Server using the following steps. These steps must be performed on each Management Server node.
Log in to your OS as root.
Check for a fully qualified hostname.
hostname --fqdn
This should return a fully qualified hostname such as "management1.lab.example.org". If it does not, edit /etc/hosts so that it does.
Make sure that the machine can reach the Internet.
ping www.cloudstack.org
Turn on NTP for time synchronization.
NTP is required to synchronize the clocks of the servers in your cloud.
Install NTP.
yum install ntp
apt-get install openntpd
Repeat all of these steps on every host where the Management Server will be installed.
4.5.3. Install the Management Server on the First Host
The first step in installation, whether you are installing the Management Server on one host or many, is to install the software on a single node.
If you are planning to install the Management Server on multiple nodes for high availability, do not proceed to the additional nodes yet. That step will come later.
The CloudStack Management server can be installed using either RPM or DEB packages. These packages will depend on everything you need to run the Management server.
4.5.3.1. Install on CentOS/RHEL
We start by installing the required packages:
yum install cloud-client
4.5.3.2. Install on Ubuntu
apt-get install cloud-client
4.5.3.3. Downloading vhd-util
This procedure is required only for installations where XenServer is installed on the hypervisor hosts.
Before setting up the Management Server, download vhd-util from
vhd-util.
If the Management Server is RHEL or CentOS, copy vhd-util to /usr/lib64/cloud/common/scripts/vm/hypervisor/xenserver.
If the Management Server is Ubuntu, copy vhd-util to /usr/lib/cloud/common/scripts/vm/hypervisor/xenserver.
4.5.4. Install the database server
The CloudStack management server uses a MySQL database server to store its data. When you are installing the management server on a single node, you can install the MySQL server locally. For an installation that has multiple management server nodes, we assume the MySQL database also runs on a separate node.
CloudStack has been tested with MySQL 5.1 and 5.5. These versions are included in RHEL/CentOS and Ubuntu.
4.5.4.1. Install the Database on the Management Server Node
This section describes how to install MySQL on the same machine with the Management Server. This technique is intended for a simple deployment that has a single Management Server node. If you have a multi-node Management Server deployment, you will typically use a separate node for MySQL. See
Section 4.5.4.2, “Install the Database on a Separate Node”.
Install MySQL from the package repository of your distribution:
yum install mysql-server
apt-get install mysql-server
Open the MySQL configuration file. The configuration file is /etc/my.cnf
or /etc/mysql/my.cnf
, depending on your OS.
Insert the following lines in the [mysqld] section.
You can put these lines below the datadir line. The max_connections parameter should be set to 350 multiplied by the number of Management Servers you are deploying. This example assumes one Management Server.
On Ubuntu, you can also create a file /etc/mysql/conf.d/cloudstack.cnf
and add these directives there. Don't forget to add [mysqld] on the first line of the file.
innodb_rollback_on_timeout=1
innodb_lock_wait_timeout=600
max_connections=350
log-bin=mysql-bin
binlog-format = 'ROW'
Start or restart MySQL to put the new configuration into effect.
On RHEL/CentOS, MySQL doesn't automatically start after installation. Start it manually.
service mysqld start
On Ubuntu, restart MySQL.
service mysqld restart
(CentOS and RHEL only; not required on Ubuntu)
On RHEL and CentOS, MySQL does not set a root password by default. It is very strongly recommended that you set a root password as a security precaution.
Run the following command to secure your installation. You can answer "Y" to all questions.
mysql_secure_installation
CloudStack can be blocked by security mechanisms, such as SELinux. Disable SELinux to ensure + that the Agent has all the required permissions.
Configure SELinux (RHEL and CentOS):
Check whether SELinux is installed on your machine. If not, you can skip this section.
In RHEL or CentOS, SELinux is installed and enabled by default. You can verify this with:
$ rpm -qa | grep selinux
Set the SELINUX variable in /etc/selinux/config
to "permissive". This ensures that the permissive setting will be maintained after a system reboot.
In RHEL or CentOS:
vi /etc/selinux/config
Change the following line
SELINUX=enforcing
to this:
SELINUX=permissive
Set SELinux to permissive starting immediately, without requiring a system reboot.
$ setenforce permissive
Set up the database. The following command creates the "cloud" user on the database.
In dbpassword, specify the password to be assigned to the "cloud" user. You can choose to provide no password although that is not recommended.
In deploy-as, specify the username and password of the user deploying the database. In the following command, it is assumed the root user is deploying the database and creating the "cloud" user.
(Optional) For management_server_key, substitute the default key that is used to encrypt confidential parameters in the CloudStack properties file. Default: password. It is highly recommended that you replace this with a more secure value. See
Section 4.5.5, “About Password and Key Encryption”.
(Optional) For database_key, substitute the default key that is used to encrypt confidential parameters in the CloudStack database. Default: password. It is highly recommended that you replace this with a more secure value. See
Section 4.5.5, “About Password and Key Encryption”.
(Optional) For management_server_ip, you may explicitly specify cluster management server node IP. If not specified, the local IP address will be used.
cloudstack-setup-databases cloud:<dbpassword>@localhost \
--deploy-as=root:<password> \
-e <encryption_type> \
-m <management_server_key> \
-k <database_key> \
-i <management_server_ip>
When this script is finished, you should see a message like “Successfully initialized the database.”
If you are running the KVM hypervisor on the same machine with the Management Server, edit /etc/sudoers and add the following line:
Defaults:cloud !requiretty
Now that the database is set up, you can finish configuring the OS for the Management Server. This command will set up iptables, sudoers, and start the Management Server.
#
cloudstack-setup-management
You should see the message “CloudStack Management Server setup is done.”
4.5.4.2. Install the Database on a Separate Node
This section describes how to install MySQL on a standalone machine, separate from the Management Server. This technique is intended for a deployment that includes several Management Server nodes. If you have a single-node Management Server deployment, you will typically use the same node for MySQL. See
Section 4.5.4.1, “Install the Database on the Management Server Node”.
Install MySQL from the package repository from your distribution:
yum install mysql-server
apt-get install mysql-server
Edit the MySQL configuration (/etc/my.cnf or /etc/mysql/my.cnf, depending on your OS) and insert the following lines in the [mysqld] section. You can put these lines below the datadir line. The max_connections parameter should be set to 350 multiplied by the number of Management Servers you are deploying. This example assumes two Management Servers.
On Ubuntu, you can also create /etc/mysql/conf.d/cloudstack.cnf file and add these directives there. Don't forget to add [mysqld] on the first line of the file.
innodb_rollback_on_timeout=1
innodb_lock_wait_timeout=600
max_connections=700
log-bin=mysql-bin
binlog-format = 'ROW'
bind-address = 0.0.0.0
Start or restart MySQL to put the new configuration into effect.
On RHEL/CentOS, MySQL doesn't automatically start after installation. Start it manually.
service mysqld start
On Ubuntu, restart MySQL.
service mysqld restart
(CentOS and RHEL only; not required on Ubuntu)
On RHEL and CentOS, MySQL does not set a root password by default. It is very strongly recommended that you set a root password as a security precaution.
Run the following command to secure your installation. You can answer "Y" to all questions except "Disallow root login remotely?". Remote root login is required to set up the databases.
mysql_secure_installation
If a firewall is present on the system, open TCP port 3306 so external MySQL connections can be established.
On Ubuntu, UFW is the default firewall. Open the port with this command:
ufw allow mysql
On RHEL/CentOS:
Edit the /etc/sysconfig/iptables file and add the following line at the beginning of the INPUT chain.
-A INPUT -p tcp --dport 3306 -j ACCEPT
Now reload the iptables rules.
service iptables restart
Return to the root shell on your first Management Server.
Set up the database. The following command creates the cloud user on the database.
In dbpassword, specify the password to be assigned to the cloud user. You can choose to provide no password.
In deploy-as, specify the username and password of the user deploying the database. In the following command, it is assumed the root user is deploying the database and creating the cloud user.
(Optional) For management_server_key, substitute the default key that is used to encrypt confidential parameters in the CloudStack properties file. Default: password. It is highly recommended that you replace this with a more secure value. See About Password and Key Encryption.
(Optional) For database_key, substitute the default key that is used to encrypt confidential parameters in the CloudStack database. Default: password. It is highly recommended that you replace this with a more secure value. See
Section 4.5.5, “About Password and Key Encryption”.
(Optional) For management_server_ip, you may explicitly specify cluster management server node IP. If not specified, the local IP address will be used.
cloudstack-setup-databases cloud:<dbpassword>@<ip address mysql server> \
--deploy-as=root:<password> \
-e <encryption_type> \
-m <management_server_key> \
-k <database_key> \
-i <management_server_ip>
When this script is finished, you should see a message like “Successfully initialized the database.”
4.5.5. About Password and Key Encryption
CloudStack stores several sensitive passwords and secret keys that are used to provide security. These values are always automatically encrypted:
CloudStack uses the Java Simplified Encryption (JASYPT) library. The data values are encrypted and decrypted using a database secret key, which is stored in one of CloudStack’s internal properties files along with the database password. The other encrypted values listed above, such as SSH keys, are in the CloudStack internal database.
Of course, the database secret key itself can not be stored in the open – it must be encrypted. How then does CloudStack read it? A second secret key must be provided from an external source during Management Server startup. This key can be provided in one of two ways: loaded from a file or provided by the CloudStack administrator. The CloudStack database has a new configuration setting that lets it know which of these methods will be used. If the encryption type is set to "file," the key must be in a file in a known location. If the encryption type is set to "web," the administrator runs the utility com.cloud.utils.crypt.EncryptionSecretKeySender, which relays the key to the Management Server over a known port.
The encryption type, database secret key, and Management Server secret key are set during CloudStack installation. They are all parameters to the CloudStack database setup script (cloudstack-setup-databases). The default values are file, password, and password. It is, of course, highly recommended that you change these to more secure keys.
4.5.6. Prepare NFS Shares
CloudStack needs a place to keep primary and secondary storage (see Cloud Infrastructure Overview). Both of these can be NFS shares. This section tells how to set up the NFS shares before adding the storage to CloudStack.
NFS is not the only option for primary or secondary storage. For example, you may use Ceph RBD, GlusterFS, iSCSI, and others. The choice of storage system will depend on the choice of hypervisor and whether you are dealing with primary or secondary storage.
The requirements for primary and secondary storage are described in:
4.5.6.1. Using a Separate NFS Server
This section tells how to set up NFS shares for secondary and (optionally) primary storage on an NFS server running on a separate node from the Management Server.
The exact commands for the following steps may vary depending on your operating system version.
(KVM only) Ensure that no volume is already mounted at your NFS mount point.
On the storage server, create an NFS share for secondary storage and, if you are using NFS for primary storage as well, create a second NFS share. For example:
# mkdir -p /export/primary
# mkdir -p /export/secondary
To configure the new directories as NFS exports, edit /etc/exports. Export the NFS share(s) with rw,async,no_root_squash. For example:
# vi /etc/exports
Insert the following line.
/export *(rw,async,no_root_squash)
Export the /export directory.
# exportfs -a
On the management server, create a mount point for secondary storage. For example:
# mkdir -p /mnt/secondary
Mount the secondary storage on your Management Server. Replace the example NFS server name and NFS share paths below with your own.
# mount -t nfs nfsservername:/nfs/share/secondary /mnt/secondary
4.5.6.2. Using the Management Server as the NFS Server
This section tells how to set up NFS shares for primary and secondary storage on the same node with the Management Server. This is more typical of a trial installation, but is technically possible in a larger deployment. It is assumed that you will have less than 16TB of storage on the host.
The exact commands for the following steps may vary depending on your operating system version.
On RHEL/CentOS systems, you'll need to install the nfs-utils package:
$ sudo yum install nfs-utils
On the Management Server host, create two directories that you will use for primary and secondary storage. For example:
# mkdir -p /export/primary
# mkdir -p /export/secondary
To configure the new directories as NFS exports, edit /etc/exports. Export the NFS share(s) with rw,async,no_root_squash. For example:
# vi /etc/exports
Insert the following line.
/export *(rw,async,no_root_squash)
Export the /export directory.
# exportfs -a
Edit the /etc/sysconfig/nfs file.
# vi /etc/sysconfig/nfs
Uncomment the following lines:
LOCKD_TCPPORT=32803
LOCKD_UDPPORT=32769
MOUNTD_PORT=892
RQUOTAD_PORT=875
STATD_PORT=662
STATD_OUTGOING_PORT=2020
Edit the /etc/sysconfig/iptables file.
# vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables
Add the following lines at the beginning of the INPUT chain where <NETWORK> is the network that you'll be using:
-A INPUT -s <NETWORK> -m state --state NEW -p udp --dport 111 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s <NETWORK> -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 111 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s <NETWORK> -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 2049 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s <NETWORK> -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 32803 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s <NETWORK> -m state --state NEW -p udp --dport 32769 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s <NETWORK> -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 892 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s <NETWORK> -m state --state NEW -p udp --dport 892 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s <NETWORK> -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 875 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s <NETWORK> -m state --state NEW -p udp --dport 875 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s <NETWORK> -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 662 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s <NETWORK> -m state --state NEW -p udp --dport 662 -j ACCEPT
Run the following commands:
# service iptables restart
# service iptables save
If NFS v4 communication is used between client and server, add your domain to /etc/idmapd.conf on both the hypervisor host and Management Server.
# vi /etc/idmapd.conf
Remove the character # from the beginning of the Domain line in idmapd.conf and replace the value in the file with your own domain. In the example below, the domain is company.com.
Domain = company.com
Reboot the Management Server host.
Two NFS shares called /export/primary and /export/secondary are now set up.
It is recommended that you test to be sure the previous steps have been successful.
Log in to the hypervisor host.
Be sure NFS and rpcbind are running. The commands might be different depending on your OS. For example:
# service rpcbind start
# service nfs start
# chkconfig nfs on
# chkconfig rpcbind on
# reboot
Log back in to the hypervisor host and try to mount the /export directories. For example (substitute your own management server name):
# mkdir /primarymount
# mount -t nfs <management-server-name>:/export/primary /primarymount
# umount /primarymount
# mkdir /secondarymount
# mount -t nfs <management-server-name>:/export/secondary /secondarymount
# umount /secondarymount
4.5.7. Prepare and Start Additional Management Servers
For your second and subsequent Management Servers, you will install the Management Server software, connect it to the database, and set up the OS for the Management Server.
This step is required only for installations where XenServer is installed on the hypervisor hosts.
If the Management Server is RHEL or CentOS, copy vhd-util to /usr/lib64/cloud/common/scripts/vm/hypervisor/xenserver.
If the Management Server is Ubuntu, copy vhd-util to /usr/lib/cloud/common/scripts/vm/hypervisor/xenserver/vhd-util.
Ensure that necessary services are started and set to start on boot.
#
service rpcbind start
#
service nfs start
#
chkconfig nfs on
#
chkconfig rpcbind on
#
cloudstack-setup-databases cloud:dbpassword
@dbhost
-e encryption_type
-m management_server_key
-k database_key
-i management_server_ip
Configure the OS and start the Management Server:
#
cloudstack-setup-management
The Management Server on this node should now be running.
Repeat these steps on each additional Management Server.
4.5.8. Prepare the System VM Template
Secondary storage must be seeded with a template that is used for CloudStack system VMs.
When copying and pasting a command, be sure the command has pasted as a single line before executing. Some document viewers may introduce unwanted line breaks in copied text.
On the Management Server, run one or more of the following cloud-install-sys-tmplt commands to retrieve and decompress the system VM template. Run the command for each hypervisor type that you expect end users to run in this Zone.
If your secondary storage mount point is not named /mnt/secondary, substitute your own mount point name.
This process will require approximately 5 GB of free space on the local file system and up to 30 minutes each time it runs.
For XenServer:
# /usr/share/cloudstack-common/scripts/storage/secondary/cloud-install-sys-tmplt -m /mnt/secondary -u http://download.cloud.com/templates/acton/acton-systemvm-02062012.vhd.bz2 -h xenserver -s <optional-management-server-secret-key> -F
For vSphere:
# /usr/share/cloudstack-common/scripts/storage/secondary/cloud-install-sys-tmplt -m /mnt/secondary -u http://download.cloud.com/templates/burbank/burbank-systemvm-08012012.ova -h vmware -s <optional-management-server-secret-key> -F
For KVM:
# /usr/share/cloudstack-common/scripts/storage/secondary/cloud-install-sys-tmplt -m /mnt/secondary -u http://download.cloud.com/templates/acton/acton-systemvm-02062012.qcow2.bz2 -h kvm -s <optional-management-server-secret-key> -F
On Ubuntu, use the following path instead:
# /usr/lib/cloud/common/scripts/storage/secondary/cloud-install-sys-tmplt
If you are using a separate NFS server, perform this step. If you are using the Management Server as the NFS server, you MUST NOT perform this step.
When the script has finished, unmount secondary storage and remove the created directory.
# umount /mnt/secondary
# rmdir /mnt/secondary
Repeat these steps for each secondary storage server.
4.5.9. Installation Complete! Next Steps
Congratulations! You have now installed CloudStack Management Server and the database it uses to persist system data.
What should you do next?
Even without adding any cloud infrastructure, you can run the UI to get a feel for what's offered and how you will interact with CloudStack on an ongoing basis. See Log In to the UI.
When you're ready, add the cloud infrastructure and try running some virtual machines on it, so you can watch how CloudStack manages the infrastructure. See Provision Your Cloud Infrastructure.