Local Access

Predefined local accounts can log in to HyperFlex Connect. The password for the default account is set during cluster creation as the cluster password. Using local access is recommended only when vCenter or SSO credentials are not available. WithHyperFlex 3.5 and higher, the HX Connect GUI does not allow root user access; you can log in as an admin user only.

Role-Based Access Control

HyperFlex Connect provides role-based access control (RBAC) via integrated authentication with the vCenter server managing the HyperFlex cluster. Cisco HyperFlex Connect supports two types of RBAC login:

• Administrator: Users with administrator rights in the managing vCenter server have read and modified rights within HyperFlex Connect. These users can make changes to the cluster settings and configuration.

• Read-Only: Users with read-only rights in the managing vCenter server have read rights within HyperFlex Connect. These users cannot make changes to the cluster settings and configuration.

Users can log in to HyperFlex Connect by using vCenter credentials, such as administrator@ vsphere.local, or by using vCenter single sign-on (SSO) credentials, such as domainuser for an Active Directory user.

Creation and management of RBAC users and rights must be done via vCenter Web Client or vCenter 6.5 HTML5 vSphere Client.

Figure 4-1 shows the Cisco HyperFlex Connect login page.

To manage a HyperFlex cluster using HyperFlex Connect, follow these steps:

Step 1. Enter the HX storage cluster management IP address or FQDN in a browser.

Step 2. Enter local credentials, such as admin or vCenter RBAC credentials.

Step 3. Click the eye icon to view or hide the password field text.

Step 4. To log out of HX Connect and properly close the session, select User > Logout.

After a successful login, you see a Dashboard page. You must have administrative privileges to see all the options. Also, it is important to sync the time between vCenter and the controller VMs to avoid AAA authentication failure.

Figure 4-2 shows a summary of the pages in Cisco HyperFlex Connect.

Key monitoring pages include information about the local HX storage cluster:

• Dashboard: Overall HX storage cluster status.

• Alarms, Events, Activity: See the Cisco HyperFlex Systems Troubleshooting Guide for details.

• Performance: Charts for IOPS, throughput, latency, and replication network bandwidth.

• System Information: System overview, plus status and tasks for nodes and disks.

• Datastores: Status and tasks related to datastores.

• Virtual Machines: Status and tasks related to protecting virtual machines.

Additional HX Connect pages provide management access:

• Encryption: For data at rest disk and node encryption tasks.

• Replication: For disaster recovery VM protection tasks.

• Upgrade: Provides access to HX Data Platform and Cisco UCS Manager firmware upgrade tasks.

The following sections provide detailed information about these pages.

Dashboard Page

The Dashboard page, which is the first page that you see when you log in to Cisco HyperFlex Connect, shows a status summary of the HX storage cluster. Figure 4-3 shows the Dashboard page.

The key parts of this page to understand are as follows:

• Operational status: Provides the functional status of the HX storage cluster and application performance.

• Resiliency health: Provides the data health status and ability of the HX storage cluster to tolerate failures.

• Capacity: Displays a breakdown of the total storage compared to how much storage is used or free, along with storage optimization, compression savings, and deduplication percentages, based on the data stored in the cluster.

• Nodes: Displays the number of nodes in the HX storage cluster and the division of converged and compute nodes. Hovering over a node icon displays that node’s name, IP address, node type, and an interactive display of disks with access to capacity, usage, serial number, and disk type data.

• Virtual machines: Displays the total number of virtual machines on this HX storage cluster. This does not include the virtual machines that reside on a remote HX storage cluster.

• Performance: Displays an HX storage cluster performance snapshot for a configurable amount of time, showing IOPS, throughput, and latency data. For full details, see the section “Performance Page,” later in this chapter.

Settings Page

The Settings page allows users to configure support, notification, integration, and connection with Cisco Intersight. Figure 4-4 shows the available settings, and the following sections describe the various options.

Auto-Support Settings

Auto-Support is the alert notification service provided through HX Data Platform. If you enable Auto-Support, notifications are sent from HX Data Platform to designated email addresses or email aliases that you want to receive the notifications. Figure 4-5 shows the Auto-Support Settings page.

The key options to understand are as follows:

• Enable Auto-Support (Recommended): Allows you to enable Auto-Support if it is not enabled during initial configuration.

• Send service ticket notifications to: Allows you to enter the email address to which notifications should be sent.

• Enable Remote Support: Allows Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) to collect information from this cluster to accelerate troubleshooting on reported anomalies.

• Use Proxy Server: Allows you to provide a web proxy server URL, port, username, and password.

Figure 4-6 shows the Web Proxy Settings section of the Auto-Support Settings page.

Support Bundle Settings

The Support Bundle Settings page lists the already-generated Cisco HX Data Platform support bundles and contains an option to generate a new support bundle.

A support bundle is a collection of logs from components within and used by HX Data Platform. (The VMware vCenter logs are not collected through HX Connect.) After you generate a support bundle, you can upload it to the HX Data Platform FTP server for use by Cisco TAC.

Figure 4-7 shows the Support Bundle page.

On this page, the Generate section enables you to create a support bundle from the logs of every controller VM and ESXi host in the HX storage cluster.

You can download an already-generated support bundle up to midnight local controller VM time. After midnight, the system deletes the support bundle. Details include the filename, size, and date the bundle was generated.

Notifications Settings

The Notification Settings page shows the settings needed to send email notifications for HX storage cluster and ESXi alarms from the Cisco HX Data Platform to Auto-Support. Figure 4-8 shows the Notifications Settings page.

To send email notifications for alarms, you need to provide the following information on this page:

• Mail server address

• From address (that is, an email address used to identify your HX storage cluster in support service tickets and as the sender for Auto-Support notifications)

• Recipient list (comma separated)

Kubernetes

The Kubernetes page displays data about Cisco Container Platform Kubernetes clusters.

The Cisco HyperFlex Kubernetes storage integration allows HyperFlex to dynamically provide persistent storage to Kubernetes pods running on HyperFlex. The integration enables orchestration of the entire persistent volume object life cycle to be offloaded and managed by HyperFlex, while being driven (initiated) by developers and users through standard Kubernetes persistent volume claim objects.

Figure 4-9 shows the Kubernetes settings.

Kubernetes storage provisioning and management has three status options:

• Enabled: The HyperFlex cluster can provision and manage Kubernetes storage.

• Partially Enabled: In certain circumstances, a previously enabled cluster may show the status Partially Enabled. This status typically appears when either of these options is set: Expansion of the HyperFlex cluster or Change to required ESXi networking for iSCSI.

• Not Enabled: The HyperFlex cluster cannot provision Kubernetes storage.

Device Connector

Device Connector connects Cisco HyperFlex Connect to Cisco Intersight, a cloud-hosted server management system. It enables Cisco HyperFlex systems to be managed and monitored through Cisco Intersight.

Device Connector does not mandate the format of the login credentials; rather, they are passed as is to the configured HTTP proxy server. Whether the username must be qualified with a domain name depends on the configuration of the HTTP proxy server.

Figure 4-10 shows the Device Connector page.

To register a device with Cisco Intersight in the cloud, you must connect Cisco HyperFlex Connect with Cisco Intersight by configuring the device connector proxy settings, if they are required. You can then use the device ID and claim code to validate your access to the device from Cisco Intersight and claim the device. By default, Intersight management is enabled.

By clicking the HTTPS Proxy Settings button on the Device Connector page, you reach the Settings page shown in Figure 4-11.

To connect with Intersight, HyperFlex needs Internet connectivity. If your devices don’t have a direct connection, you might need to provide proxy details.

In the Settings page shown in Figure 4-11, you enter HTTPS proxy details manually:

• Off: Select this option if you want to disable the HTTPS proxy settings configuration. This is the default HTTPS proxy setting.

• Manual: Select this option if you want to enable the HTTPS proxy settings configuration.

• Proxy Hostname/IP: Enter the proxy hostname or IP address.

• Proxy Port: Enter the proxy port number.

• Authentication: Enable this option to authenticate access to the proxy server. Enter the username and password to authenticate access.

Alarms Page

The Alarms page displays a list of HX storage cluster and ESXi alarms raised by HyperFlex Data Platform. You can acknowledge an alarm and reset it to green.

Figure 4-12 shows the Alarms page, which includes the following information:

• Severity: The options in this column are Warning, Error, Information, and Critical.

• Source: The component where the alarm is triggered.

• Description: Details about the alarm.

• Time: The time when the alarm was triggered.

• Acknowledged: The time when the alarm was acknowledged.

• Acknowledged By: The username of the person who acknowledged the alarm.

When you select an alarm from the Alarms page, the following at the top of the list are enabled:

• Acknowledge: If you want to take ownership of an issue and work on it, you can select the appropriate alarm and click Acknowledge. Alarms are neither cleared nor reset when acknowledged.

• Reset to green: An alarm triggered by an event might not reset to a normal state if vCenter Server does not retrieve the event that identifies the normal condition. In such a case, you can click on Reset to green to manually return it to a normal state.

Events Page

The Events page displays information about state changes, such as user actions and system actions, that occur on the HX storage cluster, hosts, or datastores. Examples of state changes include adding a node to the HX storage cluster, removing a node from the HX storage cluster, and reconfiguring a VM resource.

Figure 4-13 shows the events and the actions you can take on this page:

• Events: Provides the type, description, timestamp when the event occurred, name of the target, user of the resource for the event, link to vSphere storage cluster events, and event details. The following target and event types are possible:

  • Target types: Storage Cluster, Host, Datastore, Disk

  • Event types: Warning, Error, Information, Critical

• Download: Downloads the events report in the format you select: csv or doc.

• Filter: Allows you to filter the displayed events. Available filters include the following:

  • All: Shows all events

  • Info: Shows events with the severity Info

  • Warning: Shows events with the severity Warning

  • Error: Shows events with the severity Error

  • Critical: Shows events with the severity Critical

Activity Page

The Activity page displays a list of recent activities on the HX storage cluster, gathered from vSphere. You can monitor the progress of recent tasks on the HX storage cluster (for example, ReadyClones, VM Power On/Off, and Enter/Exit Maintenance Mode).

Figure 4-14 shows the Activity page.

The list of recent tasks on the Activity page includes the following details:

• ID

• Description

• VM power on/off/suspend status

• Task status, with possible values In Progress, Success, and Failed

For failed VM power operations, the Existing State and Required State fields are also included, with a date and timestamp and a progress bar.

Performance Page

The Monitor Performance tab of the Performance page shows the read and write performance of the storage cluster, hosts, and datastores (see Figure 4-15).

You can select an object from the menu to display associated performance charts:

• Cluster: Displays the combined performance of all hosts in the cluster. This is the default.

• Nodes > node_name: Displays the performance of a selected node.

• Datastores > datastore_name: Displays the performance of a selected datastore.

Figure 4-16 shows examples of performance charts.

The screen in Figure 4-16 includes the following parts:

• IOPS chart: The number of input and output operations per second performed at a point in time.

• Throughput (MBps) chart: The rate of data transfer in the storage cluster, measured in megabytes per second (MBps).

• Latency (msec) chart: How long it takes for a single I/O request to complete. This is the time between issuing a request and receiving a response, measured in milliseconds (msec).

This page displays the past one hour of performance data, plotted in 20-second intervals. You can hover your mouse over individual data points to view peak performance information and timestamps. Light blue indicates write operations, and dark blue indicates read operations.

System Information Page

The System Information page displays HX storage cluster system-related information, including node and disk data, and provides access to HX maintenance mode (see Figure 4-17).

This page displays basic configuration information for a HyperFlex storage cluster:

• vCenter (link): Provides a link to remotely access vSphere Web Client.

• Hypervisor: Indicates the hypervisor version installed on this HX storage cluster.

• HXDP Version: Indicates the installer package version installed on this HX storage cluster.

• Data Replication Factor: Indicates the number of the redundant data replicas stored on this HX storage cluster. For more detail, see Chapter 6, “Disaster Recovery.”

• Uptime: Shows how long this cluster has been up and online.

• Total Capacity: Indicates the overall storage size of this cluster.

• Available Capacity: Indicates the amount of free storage in this cluster.

• DNS Server(s): Indicates the IP address(es) for the DNS server(s) for this HX storage cluster.

• NTP Server(s): Indicates the IP address(es) for the NTP server(s) for this HX storage cluster.

• HX storage cluster status: Provides the functional status of the HX storage cluster, which can be any of the following:

  • Online: Cluster is ready.

  • Offline: Cluster is not ready.

  • Read Only: Cluster is out of space.

  • Unknown: Transitional state while the cluster is coming online.

Controller VM Access

You can access the controller VM by using SSH as an administrator. To enable SSH access, click Actions > Enable Controller Access over SSH, as shown in Figure 4-18.

Nodes Page

The Nodes page displays data about all the nodes in the HX storage cluster (see Figure 4-19). It shows the node name, hypervisor, and controller address, along with status, hardware model for each node, HyperFlex Data Platform installer package version, and number of disks on each node. You can sort data based on column.

In some cases, the HX nodes may need to go through a maintenance window. This may be the case, for example, when replacing disks or making modifications to the UCS service profiles that require reboot. The HX maintenance can be performed with no disruption to the HyperFlex workloads. The maintenance operation can be performed on a single node, on multiple nodes, or on all nodes in the cluster. When you apply changes to all nodes in the cluster, the changes are applied sequentially, through a rolling maintenance operation.

You can select a node and click on Enter HX Maintenance Mode to open the Confirm HX Maintenance Mode dialog box.

Disks Page

The Disks page displays data about all the disks in the HX storage cluster (see Figure 4-20). The seven-column table on this page allows you to sort the data by column.

The important information to focus on in this screen is as follows:

• Node: The name of the node where the disk resides.

• Slot: The location of the drive. This identifies the drive for maintenance procedures.

• Capacity: The total disk size.

• Status: The following status options are available:

  • Available: The initial state for a newly added, data-at-rest–capable disk. Also, a transitional state when disks move into one of the other states.

  • Blacklisted: The state when a disk is not being consumed by the cluster due to either a software error or an I/O error. This could be a transitional state while the cluster attempts to repair the disk, if the disk is still available, before the state transitions to Repairing.

  • Repairing: The state when a blacklisted disk is being repaired.

  • Claimed: The state when a disk is recognized and in use.

  • Ignored: The state when a disk is not being consumed by the cluster (for example, the HX controller VM system disk, a disk with other data [valid file system partitions], or a disk where I/O is failing).

  • Ok To Remove: The state when a self-encrypting drive (SED) has been securely erased using the Secure Erase option and can be removed safely.

  • To Be Removed: The state when a disk is scheduled for RMA.

  • Removed: The state when an SED is removed after the Secure Erase option has been used.

• Encrypted status: Whether the node is encrypted. The status is enabled if encryption is configured for this data-at-rest–capable disk; otherwise, it is disabled. It may also be Unknown when the SED is removed.

• Type: The type of the node, which may be Rotational if the node has a hybrid drive or Solid State for an SSD drive.

• Usage: How the node is used. Options are Cache and Persistent. Hybrid nodes use solid-state drives (SSDs) for caching and hard-disk drives (HDDs) for capacity; all flash nodes use fast SSDs or Nonvolatile Memory Express (NVMe) storage for caching and SSDs for capacity.

• Turn on Locator LED and Turn Off Locator LED: This option allows activation or deactivation of a beacon LED on the host to help locate the disk.

• Secure erase: (Optional) This option is only for a HyperFlex storage cluster that is encrypted using local key encryption.

Datastores Page

Datastores are logical containers, like file systems, that hide specifics of physical storage and provide a uniform model for storing VM files. You can also use datastores to store ISO images and VM templates. Figure 4-21 shows the Datastores page.

The Datastores page enables users to create, edit, delete, mount, and unmount datastores. The important information to focus on in this screen is as follows:

• Name: The datastore name, which is unique for a given HX storage cluster.

• Mount Summary: Basic information about the mount, which can be Mounted when the datastore is successfully mounted on all the nodes in the HX storage cluster or Unmounted if it is not mounted.

• Pairing Status: The pairing status of the datastore, which is Remote_datastore when it is paired and Unpaired otherwise.

• Status: The status of the datastore, which is Normal when the datastore is mounted on all nodes in this HX storage cluster, Partial when the datastore is available but not mounted on this HX storage cluster, or Warning for any error condition.

• Size: The size of the datastore, which is thin provisioned. The minimum size of the datastore is 1 GB. Ensure that the size is sufficient to support the virtual machines in the HX storage cluster.

• Used: The portion of the allocated datastore that is consumed by virtual machines and related files.

• Free: The amount of the allocated datastore that is available for use by this HX storage cluster.

• Create Datastore: This option allows you to create a datastore, for which you will need to provide the name, size, units of the datastore, and block size (see Figure 4-22).

You can also edit or delete an existing datastore from the Datastores page.

Virtual Machines Page

From the Virtual Machines page, you can perform virtual machine–related tasks such as creating ReadyClones, changing virtual machine power settings, and configuring virtual machine protection through replication (see Figure 4-23).

With the replication feature you can protect virtual machines by taking replication snapshots at each configured interval. The snapshots are replicated to or from the remote cluster configured in the replication pair. This allows the virtual machines to remain active during replication.

The important information to focus on in this screen is as follows:

• Name: The virtual machine name. Click anywhere in the row to select the virtual machine and enable tasks on that virtual machine. Multiple selection enables group tasks for the virtual machines.

• Status: The power state of the virtual machine, which can be Powered On, Suspended, or Powered Off.

• IP Address: If configured, the IP address for network access by the virtual machine.

• Guest OS: If installed, the operating system version on the virtual machine.

• Protection Status: Whether replication is applied to the virtual machine. These are the options:

  • N/A: Protection cannot be applied to any virtual machine or protection group because the replication network and replication pair are not configured.

  • Protected: A replication schedule has been applied to this virtual machine. If protected through a protection group, the <protection_group_name> is in parentheses. If protected individually, only the word Protected is listed.

  • Unprotected: No replication schedule has been configured for this virtual machine.

• Storage Provisioned: The amount of storage configured for use by the virtual machine. The total provisioned on all the virtual machines combined exceeds the amount available through the HX storage cluster.

• Storage Used: The amount of storage currently consumed by the virtual machine. The total consumed storage on all the virtual machines combined does not exceed the amount available through the HX storage cluster.

• Ready Clones: This option allows you to rapidly create and customize multiple cloned VMs from a host VM. It lets you create multiple copies of VMs that can then be used as standalone VMs. Clones are useful when you deploy many identical VMs to a group.

Upgrade Page

Cisco HyperFlex systems have several components that can be upgraded, depending on the environment. The core components in a HyperFlex system are as follows:

• Cisco UCS server firmware (the UCS C-bundle, which consists of UCS server, BIOS, CIMC, NIC, and so on)

• Cisco HX Data Platform software

• VMware ESXi software

Cisco HyperFlex upgrade deployment can be performed in either online mode or offline mode. You can choose the type of upgrade you want to perform based on your environment.

Figure 4-24 shows the upgrade options.

UCS Server Firmware

To upgrade the UCS server firmware, you need to provide UCS Manager detail and click on Discover. When you do, HyperFlex Connect populates the M5 Desired Version drop-down, and you can select the version you want to upgrade. Figure 4-25 shows a UCS Server Firmware upgrade page.

HX Data Platform Upgrade

When you select the HX Data Platform option, you see the current version and can provide an HX file bundle for the version that you want to upgrade (see Figure 4-26).

ESXi Upgrade

When you select the ESXi option, you see the current version of ESXi and can specify the ESXi bundle that you want to upgrade (see Figure 4-27).

Web CLI Page

You can monitor and manage a storage cluster by using the Cisco HX Data Platform command-line interface (CLI). The web CLI allows you to run stcli (the HX Data Platform storage controller VM command line) through HX Connect.

Figure 4-28 shows the screen from which to run commands through the web CLI.

You can use the command line to run direct commands that complete in a single pass and do not require responses (for example, stcli cluster info).

Only direct commands are supported through HX Connect. To run interactive commands, you need to log in to the storage controller VM command line.

Replication Pairing

Two HyperFlex clusters that will be able to replicate VMs to each other must first be paired before the replication can begin, and a datastore on each cluster must also be paired. Prior to pairing, the replication networking on both clusters must be configured, and datastores must have been created on both clusters. Each HyperFlex cluster can be paired with only one other cluster, and each datastore can be paired with only one other datastore. The snapshots and VMs on the source cluster, in their source datastore, will be replicated to the paired cluster and stored in the paired datastore. You must know the administrative login credentials of the remote cluster and the remote cluster’s management IP address in order to proceed.

When configuring a replication pair, you need to provide the name, the cluster management IP address or FQDN for the remote cluster, the username, and the password. The username and password must have admin rights in the vCenter server managing the remote cluster. Once pairing is done, you can map a local datastore with a remote data-store.

Figure 4-31 shows the screen you can use to configure remote cluster information for a replication pair.

Once a replication pair is established and datastores are mapped to each other across two HX clusters, VM protection can be configured. VMs can be protected individually, or they can be added to a new or existing protection group. For more detail, refer to Chapter 6.