System requirements
Installation requirements
Before you install the virtual System Management Unit (SMU), check that your system meets all of the requirements for new installations.
The minimum virtual SMU resource requirements are stated below. The physical hardware should exceed these minimum requirements so that the host has resources beyond those allocated to the virtual SMU. In particular, the host should have more physical RAM than is allocated to the virtual SMU.
- Minimum virtual SMU specifications:
- 64-bit CPU with at least 2 CPU cores (1 CPU core per managed server or cluster recommended).
- 2 GiB minimum for a CentOS 6, 4GiB minimum for CentOS Stream 8 (or 1 GiB per managed server or cluster, if higher).
- 100 GiB hard drive space.
- 1 GigE network adapter.
- IP addresses for access to a hypervisor installation, if applicable, and for connecting to the SMU.
NoteEach SMU virtual machine (VM) you deploy requires at least one IP address for management UI access.
- An SMU OS install package.
- An SMU software install image.
If you have any questions, please contact your support organizations for assistance with these products.
Considerations when using a virtual SMU
Before you install and configure the virtual SMU, consider the following:
- A minimum amount of resources must be available for each VM if the hypervisor is configured to enforce minimum reservations. For more information, see Memory and CPU resource allocations.
- The following SMU software versions support up to 10 managed servers or clusters:
- VMware vSphere® (ESXi): Version 12.5.4038.04 or later.
- Hyper-V: Version 12.7.4221.xx or later.
Earlier SMU software versions support up to two managed servers or clusters.
- Open virtual appliance/application (OVA) is the standard distribution format of a virtual SMU OS for VMware. An OVA is a compressed archive (tarball) of Open Virtualization Format (OVF) files, including configuration and sparse disk image files.
A zip file containing a Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) file is the standard distribution format of a virtual SMU OS for Hyper-V.
Memory and CPU resource allocations
A minimum amount of resources must be available for each VM if the hypervisor is configured to enforce minimum reservations.
In SMU software version 12.5.4038.04 or later for VMware, and version 12.7.411.xx or later for Hyper-V, the virtual SMU supports up to 10 managed servers or clusters.
The virtual SMU should be allocated 1 GiB RAM and 1 CPU core per managed server or cluster, regardless of the number of nodes in a cluster. For example, to manage four HNAS clusters, the virtual SMU should be allocated 4 GiB RAM and 4 CPU cores. The virtual SMU’s minimum requirement is2 GiB RAM for CentOS 6, or 4 GiB RAM for CentOS Stream 8, and 2 CPU cores, which is the default when it is deployed.
Sufficient memory and CPU resources allocated to the virtual SMU ensure that:
- The SMU's quorum device has enough priority on an oversubscribed host to maintain real-time communication with an HNAS cluster.
- Sufficient resources are available for background monitoring, which the SMU performs for each managed server cluster.
Resource reservations are less important when the SMU is not used as a quorum device.