Thinsy Internal Cloud Installation

Thinsy Internal Cloud
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Install Guide

Software Version 3.0-3. Document Version 1.2

© Thinsy Corporation


INTRODUCTION

The Thinsy Internal Cloud Platform enables you to build your own cloud compute service, similar to Amazon EC2. You can run Windows, Linux or Solaris in Virtual Machines hosted by the Thinsy Internal Cloud Platform.
This guide will walk you through the simple process of downloading and installing the Thinsy Internal Cloud Platform.

The Thinsy Internal Cloud platform consists of the following two components:

  1. EnSpeed Virtual Machine Monitor – VM Server
  2. EnSpeed VM Orchestrator – VM Management Server

REQUIREMENTS

The Thinsy Internal Cloud Platform is delivered as bootable ISO images. It is installed on bare hardware, i.e. it does not require a host Operating System

  • x86 Server with the following features
    • Intel VT or AMD Pacifica Technology enabled CPU(s)
    • Minimum 4 GB of memory. 8GB recommended
    • 250 GB of disk space, preferably in two SATA or SCSI disk drives
  • IP Addresses
    • Private IP Address range of 65536 addresses (The suggested range is 10.1.0.0 to 10.1.255.254 with a 255.255.0.0 mask)
    • Two or three public IP Addresses (you can obtain these later in the process, when you want to make services available to the outside world)

DOWNLOAD

Thinsy Internal Cloud platform has two downloads:

  1. The bootable ISO image for your Thinsy Internal Cloud Platform’s first server Installing this on a server will give you a VM Orchestrator for managing the Internal Cloud, and a VM server for running some VMs. The MD5Sum of this image is fd502b7fb96ab2f606fc2c31815058b5.
    You can also use the URL http://www.thinsy.com/ic303/ks.cfg for PXE installation.
  2. The bootable ISO image containing just the VM Server software for your second and subsequent serversThe second and subsequent servers are managed by the VM Orchestrator from download (1) above, and you can run VMs on these servers. The md5sum of this download is a42c2142be1cf61c875b7bea4c3ad3dd

CREATE A CD FROM THE ISO IMAGE
While burning a CDR with the ISO image for the Thinsy Internal Cloud Platform, please note that you may need to use the overburn option, since our CD image is slightly over 700MB


INSTALLATION

The Thinsy Internal Cloud Platform installer goes through the following steps in its installation process.

  • Boot Menu
  • Disk Partitioning Screen
  • Time zone Selection
  • Root Password entry
  • Reboot after installation
  • Bootup screen after reboot is complete

Click here to view a Thinsy Virtual Conference recording of this easy installation step. (2 minute recording)

The VM Server is configured to use DHCP for its network interface.
Instructions are provided later in this document for switching to a static IP Configuration if so desired.


Installation Step 1: Boot Menu

Press .Enter. at this screen. The graphical installer will load now. If you have difficulty with the graphical installer, reboot the system and try pressing .linux text., and then Enter.

NOTE: In some instances you may get a screen with an error message stating that the ks.cfg file is not found, and prompting you to choose the location of the ks.cfg file . At this screen you will see “cdrom” entered by default. Please choose “OK” by hitting tab button and press Enter. You may have to do this a few times in order to get it to work.


Installation Step 2: Disk Partitioning Screen

In this screen, you may choose between using free space on the disk, or deleting all existing partitions on the disk and installing the EnSpeed VMM on the entire disk.


Installation Step 3: Time Zone Selection

This dialog is self explanatory.


Installation Step 4: Root Password Entry

Choose the root password for this server. Note that the root password is used for shell access to the EnSpeed VMM Server either from the console or using Ssh. The login name is .root. and password is the one you select here.

Access to the Webmin web based administration facility is using the default login name and password of .admin.. That password is not chosen in this screen.

Once you choose the root password, hitting next causes the installer to do much work in figuring out package dependencies and installing software.


Installation Step 5: Reboot After Installation Completed


Installation Step 6: Bootup Screen After Reboot

As shown above, once the newly installed EnSpeed VMM Server reboots, it displays the http URL that the EnSpeed VM Orchestrator Web based admin facility is available at.

In the example above, if you point a browser to https://192.168.1.195/ you will be presented with the web based admin facility for this server.

If the newly installed EnSpeed VMM Server fails to obtain a DHCP address, the screen above will not display a useful URL to browse to and administer the server from. In this case, you may reconfigure the EnSpeed VMM to use a static IP address as described here.


Post Installation Network Interface Customization

Static IP Configuration

By default, the newly installed EnSpeed VMM Server is configured to use DHCP for configuration of all network interfaces discovered at installation time. Here are the steps required to switch the network interface eth0 to static IP address. Follow these instructions for each network interface (eth0, eth1, eth2, etc.) that needs to use a static IP Address.

  • Login as root using the root password you selected earlier
  • Type in the following command
    1. # cat > /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
    2. DEVICE=eth0
    3. ONBOOT=yes
    4. BOOTPROTO=static
    5. IPADDR=192.168.1.227
    6. NETMASK=255.255.255.0
  • Edit the file /etc/sysconfig/network and add a line such as .GATEWAY=192.168.1.1. to configure the default gateway/router for the VMM Server
  • Edit the file /etc/resolv.conf and add a line such as .nameserver 192.168.1.254.. This indicates that the DNS server for this VMM Server is at IP Address 192.168.1.254.
  • Bring down and then bring up the eth0 interface by typing in the following commands
    1. # ifdown eth0
    2. # ifup eth0
  • Ping the address from elsewhere to ensure that the above worked.

Alternate Ethernet Interface for Virtual Machines

By default, the EnSpeed VMM installer configures network interface eth0 as the one that is used by Virtual Machines. If another interface, e.g. eth3 is the interface that virtual machines must use, then the EnSpeed VMM can be reconfigured as follows:

  • Edit the file /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp using a text editor
  • Add a line of the following format to the file. The line includes braces:
    1. (network-script ‘network-bridge bridge=xenbr0 netdev=eth3′)

In the above line, note that the bridge=xenbr0 should not be changed. The netdev=eth3 should be changed to point to the Ethernet interface of your choice.

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Thinsy Internal Cloud Platform

  • Own your own Amazon EC2 like service
  • Use our software to build your own cloud
  • Fully web based multi-user management
  • Offer VMs to your users
  • Download free Virtual Appliances - SugarCRM, Liferay, Alfresco, etc.
  • Use for training labs, QA teams, etc.
  • Product Information,  Datasheet

Thinsy Virtual Conference

  • Own your own WebEx in your own Internal Cloud
  • Video conferencing
  • HD Audio Conferencing with SIP telephony
  • Desktop sharing with dedicated cloud desktop
  • Any browser (IE, FF) on any OS (Windows, Linux, MacOS) works as client
  • One touch record
  • Product Information,  Datasheet