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Nexfs Quickstart Guide (Nexfscli Only)

IMPORTANT: It is currently recommended that Nexfs be installed and run as the root user, while running nexfs as another user may be possible, doing so is currently not officially tested or supported by Nexustorage. It is also recommended that replication of Nexfs Structure data is configured on a production system.

 

This guide shows how to install and configure a basic Nexfs server using the Nexfscli command line utility, if you prefer to configure Nexfs using the admin web console please follow the Nexfs Quickstart Guide - using the Admin Portal

Step 1: Before installing Nexfs you need a running base Linux system that meets the minimum requirements detailed in Nexfs Public Preview System Requirements.

Step 2: Download the nexfscli management utility

 

All available releases nexfscli are available to download here

 

You may also directly download the latest release at:

 

http://nexfscli.nexustorage.com

 

Direct download example using wget

 

wget http://nexfscli.nexustorage.com -O nexfscli

Make the downloaded utility root executable

 

chmod u+x nexfscli

 

and group executable

 

chmod g+x nexfscli


 

It is recommended that you place the Nexfs binaries within the Linux command search path, for example, move nexfscli into /usr/bin

 

Example commands:

mv nexfscli /usr/bin

 

Step 3: Install Nexfs

 

Nexfs will be directly downloaded and installed by nexfscli, if the server which nexfs is being installed on does not have direct internet access use the "--nosoftwareinstall" option as documented in the advanced installation guide and continue 

 

Run:

nexfscli install

When prompted confirm that you have read and that you accept the Nexustorage Nexfs Terms & Conditions

Step 4: Configure the local Nexfs Datastores

 

First, configure the local filesystem where Nexfs will store its structure (file) information, in this example, Nexfs is configured to store structure data into /nexfs/s1

 

Run:

nexfscli configfile set T1SDIR /nexfs/s1

 

Next, configure the Tier-1 data storage to be used by Nexfs, in this example, Nexfs is configured to store Tier-1 data into /nexfs/t1

 

Run:

nexfscli configfile set T1DDIR /nexfs/t1

Step 5: (Optional) Configure T3 storage configuration

 

If the Nexfs server will utilise AWS S3 or MinIO  Tier-3 storage, you can use nexfscli to load the default T3 configuration.

 

To load AWS S3 defaults run:

 

nexfscli configfile set defaults s3

 

To load “out of the box” MinIO defaults run:

 

nexfscli configfile set defaults minio

 

Review the defaults shown, for more information on which default values are loaded see Sample S3 Nexfs Configurations.

 

If you are connecting to other compatible S3 storage, see Nexfs System Settings for a list S3 related settings and Sample S3 Nexfs Configurations for examples

 

After the defaults have been loaded we also need to set the following:

 

nexfscli configfile set T3S3URL {minio host}

nexfscli configfile set T3S3PORT {minio port}

nexfscli configfile set T3S3BUCKET {bucket}

nexfscli configfile set T3AWSAccessKeyId {Access Key}

nexfscli configfile set T3AWSSecretAccessKey {secret access key}

 

For example, change to follow to match your environment and run:

 

nexfscli configfile set T3S3URL miniohost.demo.nexustorage

nexfscli configfile set T3S3PORT 9000

nexfscli configfile set T3S3BUCKET nexfsinstalldemo

nexfscli configfile set T3AWSAccessKeyId minioadmin

nexfscli configfile set T3AWSSecretAccessKey minioadmin

 

Finally, enable Tier 3 storage:

 

nexfscli configfile set T3DDIRENABLED 1

 

 

Step 6: Use nexfscli to setup the datastores

 

The best practice is to use nexfscli to setup the Nexfs datastores before starting the Nexfs server

 

Run:

 

nexfscli setupdatastores

Step 7: Create the Nexfs filesystem mountpoint

 

By default, the Nexfs server will mount its filesystem to /mnt/nexfs

 

Create the mountpoint folder, run:

 

mkdir /mnt/nexfs


 

Start the Nexfs server

 

Using nexfscli start Nexfs

 

Run: 

nexfscli server start

 

Check that Nexfs is running:

 

Run: 

nexfscli server status

 

Check to make sure that Tier-1 and optionally Tier-3 status are showing as OK.

 

Check the Nexfs file system is mounted:

 

Run:  

df /mnt/nexfs

 

If all is working the results of the df command should be similar to:

 

Filesystem     1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on

nexfs.server    99037956 1284104  97753852   2% /mnt/nexfs


 

Congratulations, your new Nexfs server is running and ready to use.

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