Deploy distributed scalable server and datanode

Introduction

The server appliance contains the Abiquo UI, API, and Events servers.

The services datanode appliance contains the database cluster and the Abiquo services. Abiquo uses the services, such as RabbitMQ and Redis, in communication between the API server and other platform components.
For Ubuntu, deploy first the services datanode and configure it, then you can deploy the api-ui or server.

Requirements

You will need the following virtual resources.

Server

• 2 CPUs

• 8 GB RAM

• 64 GB HD

Datanode

• 2 CPUs

• 8 GB RAM

• 20 GB HD

Install the API UI server

This section describes how to install the API UI server.

1. Download the server OVA file and launch it. For details of how to deploy an OVA in VMware, see OVA deployment for distributed scalable

2. Enter the standard parameters for the API UI server, which are as follows:

   1. Friendly hostname, e.g. server-ova, which must be a valid Linux hostname

   2. Management interface IPv4 Address, e.g. 10.60.10.100, which should be a static network configuration

   3. Management interface IPv4 Netmask, e.g. 255.255.255.0

   4. Default Gateway, e.g. 10.60.10.1

   5. Space separated DNS Server list, e.g. 10.60.10.1

   6. Space separated NTP Server list, e.g. 10.60.10.1, which is required for features that depend on clock synchronization

3. Enter the API/UI server parameters

   1. Abiquo API server FQDN, e.g. serverova.lab.abiquo.com

      1. This FQDN must be resolvable from customer premises for SSL and the Appliance manager to work properly

   2. Remote Services IP, e.g. 10.60.10.110

   3. Watchtower IP, e.g. 10.60.10.102

Services datanode

We will deploy a single services datanode server to form a cluster of one node. Later, you can easily deploy more nodes and add them to the cluster.

1. Download the services datanode OVA file and launch it.

2. Enter the standard parameters for the services datanode server. The description of the parameters is the same as above

   1. Friendly hostname, e.g. servicesova, enter a valid Linux hostname

   2. Management interface IPv4 Address, e.g. 10.60.10.185, which should be a static network configuration

3. Enter the services datanode server parameters

   1. Services cluster IPs, e.g. 10.60.10.185, which is the IP of this server because the cluster will only have one node

Post install steps

Services datanode

1. Log in to the services datanode server as an administrator

2. Configure the Galera cluster with the following command

   galera_new_cluster

3. Edit the RabbitMQ environment configuration file at /etc/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-env.conf

4. Set the nodename that corresponds to the server, such as rabbit@services1

5. Restart the RabbitMQ service

   systemctl restart rabbitmq-server.service

6. Then run the following command

   /usr/local/abiquo/setup build_cluster

   Note that this command will output the default user and password of the database, so for a test system behind a firewall, you can use that in the next step.

Server

1. Log in to the API/UI server as an administrator

2. To use the separate database on the datanode server, edit the tomcat configuration at /opt/abiquo/tomcat/conf/Catalina/localhost/api.xml

   1. Change the DB endpoint from localhost to the IP address of the services datanode server, where your Galera database cluster is running .
      Remove this line:

      Add this line and replace {DATANODE_IP_ADDRESS} with the IP address of your datanode server:

   2. Change the user and password. If you need more information, please contact Abiquo Support

3. Edit the abiquo.properties file at /opt/abiquo/config/abiquo.properties.

   1. Change the IP address of the services datanode and add the port of the Redis instance, and the FQDN of the API. Also deactivate monitoring until you deploy the monitoring node.

   2. Save the properties file and restart the abiquo-tomcat server

4. To check when the Abiquo server has started you can follow the end of the log with the following command until the API has started and connected to the services.

Configure firewalls

Configure the firewalls for your servers as described here.

Server firewall requirements

Services datanode firewall requirements

Browser requirements

Abiquo UI requires a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768 for productive work.
The UI uses HTML5, so browsers must support these HTML5 features: Forms block, Drag and drop.

The Abiquo UI is optimized for use with Firefox and Chrome.

Validating the server and services datanode install

1. Log in to Abiquo UI and update your user account details as described at:
   Starting Abiquo for the first time

2. Optionally, create a new user. See Create a user

Next step

Install Abiquo remote services. See Deploy distributed scalable remote services