Configuration Requirement

This chapter briefly describes the necessary basic environment configurations of ZStack Private Cloud.


Network Environment

A cloud computing environment is a vitally basic IT infrastructure in a company. Before you install ZStack, make sure that you read carefully and meet configuration requirements to make full preparations for a basic hardware and software environment. Inappropriate environment configurations may lead to failures of the subsequent Private Cloud environment deployment, or abnormalities of the cloud when you use the cloud.

A typical Private Cloud environment is built on a small data center. This environment consists of two parts: multiple servers with different features and two independent network environments.

Specifically, two out of the above multiple servers can serve as a ZStack management node and a backup storage, while rest of the servers can serve as physical hosts on which VM instances run. In a small data center, a management node and a backup storage can share one server. In a large-scale physical environment, multiple management nodes are configured to provide high availabilities while multiple backup storages are configured to extend storage capacities and the throughput rate.

Each server can connect to the management network and the data network. Specifically, the data network can reach the Internet via a firewall. The management network is a network where a management node manages hosts, VM instances, volumes, and other resources. The data network is a network where VM instances provide data services.

Note:
  • You must specify static IP addresses for the servers that connect to the management network, and use the IP addresses when you add physical servers.
  • You do not need to specify IP addresses for NICs that connect to the data network. However, NIC device names where each server connects to the data network must be identical, such as eth0.

Hardware Requirements

Hardware Configuration

To install and deploy ZStack, make sure that the servers and other hardware devices meet the following minimum requirements:
Device Component Requirements
Server CPU x86-64 CPU. Supports Intel VT or AMD VT, such as Intel VMX and AMD SVM
Memory No special requirements. We recommend that you use DDR4 or higher performance memories
Motherboard Dual server motherboard (standard)
RAID controller Supports SAS/SATA RAID 0/1/10 as well as the passthrough mode
Hard disk No special requirements. You can select hard disk drives (HDD) or solid state drives (SSD) as needed
Network interface
  • One gigabit network interface used for management networks, such as 1 GbE and RJ45
  • One 10 gigabit network interface used for business networks, such as 10GbE and SFP+
Network Switch /
  • A minimum of one gigabit switch. We recommend that you use a 10 gigabit switch
  • Several CAT5 jumpers
When you prepare hardware configurations, note that:
  • Make sure that the CPU virtualization support is enabled for the BIOS of your server is enabled, and all servers have a unified CPU model configured to avoid differences of CPU instruction sets.
  • Make sure that you complete associated planning for storages in advance as follows:
    • If you use local storages, we recommend that you use the RAID solution to improve reliabilities of backup storages and primary storages. For example, use 4 hard disks to serve as RAID 10. Simultaneously, if you require relatively high VM I/O read and write performances, we recommend that you use RAID configurations of full SSD. If read performance is more involved in the IO access of a VM instance, you can also use a mixed configuration of SSD and HDD.
    • If you use network storages of distributed file systems such as NFS, Ceph, and Shared Mount Point, make sure that you reconfigure corresponding storages or file systems. Simultaneously, if backup storages are with Ceph, primary storages must also be with Ceph.
  • Ensure that you plan for networks in advance. We recommend that NIC names of all hosts must be consistent, and the NICs with the same name carry the same communications traffics. For example, management traffics are distributed by em1 (NIC).
  • Make sure that you complete the necessary configurations for a network switch as follows:
    • If you need to use an environment with a VLAN network, configure the corresponding VLAN network communications on the network switch in advance.
    • ZStack will automatically assign IP addresses for VM instances. In this regard, reserve an IP range that cannot be in conflict with IP addresses in the system. At the same time, this IP range must avoid being conflict with DHCP services in your original network environment.
  • CPUs, memories, storages, NIC performances, and other parameter configurations of your server can directly decide business loading capabilities of ZStack as follows:
    • All In One: Require a minimum of 4 core CPU and 8 GB memory, which is only applied to a basic demonstration environment rather than a production environment.
    • Production environment: Confirm management node configurations according to your deployment size, and ensure compute node configurations according to your business size. For more information, contact our official technical support.

Management Node Configuration

According to the different deployment sizes, a single management node must occupy hardware server resources as follows.
Hardware Deployment Size (Per Host)
=1 (Non-production environment) <=50 <=500 <=1000
Minimum Recommended Recommended Recommended
CPU 4 cores 16 cores 32 cores 64 cores
Memory 8 GB 32 GB 64 GB 128 GB
Hard disk 60 GB 120 GB 480 GB 960 GB
Note: This management node configuration can be only used as a reference. Actual requirements are different according to your needs and environments. For more information, contact our official technical support.
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