Skip to main content
Close

We've Moved!

Product Documentation has moved to docs.hitachivantara.com
Hitachi Vantara Knowledge

System requirements

  1. Last updated
  2. Save as PDF
Parent Topic
Child Topics

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.

NoteThe vSMU OVA is not supported for deployment on any other type of virtualization product except as defined herein. Deployment of CentOS on a bare metal server and then placing the SMU application on that server is strictly unsupported. The CentOS version used in the OVA is purposely hardened to Hitachi Vantara standards and the SMU application applies CVE patches as required.

  • 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.

Parent Topic

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.

Parent Topic

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.

NoteIf a server or cluster has more than 128 filesystems, the minimum requirements are 4 GiB RAM and a minimum of 2 CPU cores allocated to the virtual SMU with a maximum of two clusters per virtual SMU.

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.
ImportantThe quorum device must respond to cluster heartbeats (over UDP) within five seconds to prevent the possibility of dependent and degraded HNAS clusters rebooting. Make sure that the SMU VM always has sufficient resources so that the quorum device is not paused or unresponsive for more than five seconds.

Resource reservations are less important when the SMU is not used as a quorum device.

NoteThe NAS module in VSP models uses a different mechanism to control High Availability, so it does not use the SMU's quorum device.
Parent Topic