In this chapter, we describe the IBM DS8880 that we used to host our cloud. This configuration involves setting up Ethernet connections and defining Object Storage for the cloud.

 

To access the cloud services, your DS8880 hardware must be configured to communicate with the cloud by using Ethernet connections. This configuration includes defining the following the components:

The DS8880 features four Ethernet ports, where two ports can be used to connect to the cloud services and the remaining two are used for the Hardware Management Console (HMC). You can connect one or two Ethernet cables to your hardware to provide a failover option and increase the overall bandwidth that is available for use. In addition, because the metadata is transmitted by the mainframe, it also must be connected to the cloud service.

When configuring your DS8880, you first must set up the Ethernet port configuration. This configuration is required to enable network connectivity. After you connect your Ethernet cables to the hardware, you can use the lsnetworkport command from the DS8880 Command Line Interface DSCLI to display any current Ethernet configuration. Example 4-1 shows a sample output from the lsnetworkport command.

Ensure that you have the correct IP addresses, subnet mask, and DNS information available while you are configuring your hardware. Then, use the setnetworkport command to define the network settings, as shown on Example 4-2.

After the configuration is complete, issue a new lsnetworkport command to confirm that the network was properly configured. Example 4-3 shows the new network configuration.

With the Ethernet configuration complete, you can proceed to the cloud configuration process.

Now that your network is properly configured and functional, you can configure the cloud to access the cloud storage. When you are defining your cloud settings, you should have all cloud-related information that is required to set up the connection, including the cloud endpoint, tenant, user ID, and password.

Use the mkcloudserver command to define a new cloud to your hardware. The following parameters must be supplied when the mkcloudserver command is used:

A URL that describes the place to authenticate to the Object Storage system.

Transparent Cloud Tiering supports the following types of Object Storage protocols and authentication mechanisms. Both keywords relate to the OpenStack Swift protocol for Object Storage communication:

The cloud administrator supplies a tenant name that describes the tenant of the object store because Object Storage is traditionally a multi-tenant system.

The cloud administrator supplies a user name and a password for each tenant.

For the swift-keystone type that uses SSL/TLS to encrypt the authentication path, certificates are required to maintain a chain of trust between the DS8880 and the object store. If you use self-signed certificates, only the SysCA option is required. If you use a certificate authority (CA), the root CA and intermediate CA can be provided in the mkcloudserver command. These items point to a PEM file type that you can import into the DS8880 system.

You can provide a unique name to describe the object store that is being configured. The cloud name that is used in the hardware configuration should be the same that is used when the cloud is defined on DFSMS.

Example 4-4 shows a sample mkcloudserver command that was issued from the DSCLI interface.

When you run the mkcloudserver command, the ability of the DS8880 and the object store to communicate is verified. Running the command also verifies that the data path is accessible and encryption certificates are valid.

You can also list the cloud configuration on your hardware. Use the lscloudserver command to list cloud information. Sensitive information, such as user ID and password, is not displayed in the output.

If you need to update any cloud settings, the existing configuration first must be deleted. Then, the new configuration is defined. Use the rmcloudserver command to remove the existing cloud configuration.