The Linux express method is based on the following assumptions:

Component Assumptions

Hardware

  • You have used the Installation and Setup Instructions included with the controller shelves to install the hardware.

  • You have connected cables between the optional drive shelves and the controllers.

  • You have applied power to the storage system.

  • You have installed all other hardware (for example, management station, switches) and made the necessary connections.

  • If you are using NVMe over Fabrics, each DE6000F or DE6000H controller contains at least 64 GB of RAM.

Host

  • You have made a connection between the storage system and the data host.

  • You have installed the host operating system.

  • You are not using Linux as a virtualized guest.

  • You are not configuring the data (I/O attached) host to boot from SAN.

  • You have installed any OS updates as listed under Lenovo Storage Interoperation Center (LSIC).

Storage management station

  • You are using a 1 Gbps or faster management network.

  • You are using a separate station for management rather than the data (I/O attached) host.

  • You are using out-of-band management, in which a storage management station sends commands to the storage system through the Ethernet connections to the controller.

  • You have attached the management station to the same subnet as the storage management ports.

IP addressing

  • You have installed and configured a DHCP server.

  • You have not yet made an Ethernet connection between the management station and the storage system.

Storage provisioning

  • You will not use shared volumes.

  • You will create pools rather than volume groups.

Protocol: FC

  • You have made all host-side FC connections and activated switch zoning.

  • You are using Lenovo-supported FC HBAs and switches.

  • You are using FC HBA driver and firmware versions as listed in Lenovo Storage Interoperation Center (LSIC).

Protocol: iSCSI

  • You are using Ethernet switches capable of transporting iSCSI traffic.

  • You have configured the Ethernet switches according to the vendor’s recommendation for iSCSI.

Protocol: SAS

Protocol: NVMe over RoCE

  • You have received the 100G host interface cards in a DE6000F, or DE6000H storage system pre-configured with the NVMe over RoCE protocol or the controllers were ordered with standard IB ports and need to be converted to NVMe-oF ports.

  • You are using NVMe/RoCE driver and firmware versions as listed in Lenovo Storage Interoperation Center (LSIC).

Protocol: NVMe over Fibre Channel

  • You have received the 32G host interface cards in a DE6000F, or DE6000H storage system pre-configured with the NVMe over Fibre Channel protocol or the controllers were ordered with standard FC ports and need to be converted to NVMe-oF ports.

  • You are using NVMe/FC driver and firmware versions as listed in Lenovo Storage Interoperation Center (LSIC).

Note: These express method instructions include examples for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Examples for RHEL are specific to RHEL7.