Index


Overview

This document details the infrastructure configuration for a Statseeker High-Availability (HA) installation, which is deployed across disparate data-centers. While this document focuses on an ESXi virtualized installation, the same considerations and specifications apply to any alternative VM or dedicated physical installation.

This document does not address the installation procedure, or Statseeker client configuration, to be used when creating a Statseeker HA installation.

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Requirements

ESXi Requirements

ESXI instances:

  • Are the same version, ESXi 6.0 Update 2, or newer
  • Each ESXI host features at least two physical network interfaces that will be used
    • Minimum 1Gb NIC, used for data synchronization between the two Statseeker installations. If this link is not dedicated to Statseeker, but rather run as a trunk link between data-centers (or similar configuration), then the NIC needs to support the bandwidth required by the link and a minimum of 1Gb must be reserved for Statseeker.
      • Note: in our example, this will be a 10Gb NIC used for the trunk link between the two data-centers, with 1Gb reserved for Statseeker synchronization data communications.
    • Min 1Gb NIC, used for management of the Statseeker installation (dedicated)

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Virtual Machine Requirements

The two virtual machines that will be hosting the Statseeker installations must have an identical specification and reflect the requirements of the size of the network to be monitored, see Version 5 System Requirements for details.
In addition:

  • The RAM and CPU must be dedicated, not shared resources
  • Disks should be thick-provisioned (pre-allocate the required disk-space). We recommend using thick provisioning with most Statseeker installations when running on VMware.
  • Interfaces should be VMXNET3
  • Guest OS: FreeBSD 12 or later versions (64bit)
  • Boot Firmware:
    • Statseeker v5.6.2(+): EFI
    • Statseeker v5.6.0 – v5.6.1: BIOS

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Statseeker Requirements

Each Statseeker installation must be:

  • A Statseeker High-Availability server installation
  • Licensed as a Statseeker High-Availability installation
  • The same version

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Network Configuration Requirements

The VM hosting each Statseeker installation must feature at least two virtual NICs (vNIC) for Statseeker’s use:

  • One vNIC for managing your Statseeker installation
  • One vNIC for the Statseeker HA Data-Sync
  • The IP addresses for these two vNICs should be on separate vLANs
  • A high-speed dedicated connection for the data-sync between hosts

The connection between the ESXi hosts must be a high-speed dedicated connection. If this link is to be shared among tenants, then the link must have Quality of Service policies in place ensuring that a minimum of 1Gb/s is reserved for Statseeker Data-Sync traffic.

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ESXi Configuration

  • Install ESXi on the physical server by following the official ESXi installation Guide
  • Set the IP address for the interface (on each Host) that will be used for installation management
    • Note: in our example, the Hosts will be assigned IP’s of 10.2.1.211 and 10.2.1.212.

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Network Configuration

  • Log into the ESXi user interface via the vSphere client
  • Select the host
  • Select the Configuration tab
  • Select Networking

  • Configure the two networks (port groups) that will be used by the host. In our example, we will use
    • SHARED for the main interface into the HA installation
    • data_sync_HA for the HA data-sync link
  • Tag the main/management networks on each host with the same vLAN ID.
Note: if the vLAN is already tagged on the switch, DO NOT tag it again in the network configuration. This ‘double tagging’ will result in packets being dropped and break communication.

  • The main interface utilizes Common Address Redundancy Protocol (CARP), to provide fail-over redundancy
  • The data-link uses Highly Available Storage (HAST) to provide highly available data storage across the two instances

CARP requires promiscuous mode to be enabled on the virtual switch. In our example, promiscuous mode needs to be turned on for vSwitch0 on both hosts. To do this, on each switch:

  • Review the virtual switch security (or policies, depending on ESXi version) configuration
  • Set each of the following to Accept
    • Promiscuous Mode
    • MAC Address Changes
    • Forged Transmits

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Create the Virtual Machines

Create the virtual machines, that will host the Statseeker installations, according to the Virtual Machine Requirements

Note: when configuring each of the virtual machines:

  • We recommend that you specify the VM network card as VMXNET 3, but you may want to select different NIC types for the main and data-sync interfaces to make it easier to differentiate between the two during the Statseeker installation procedure
  • The RAM and CPU must be dedicated, not shared resources
  • Disks should be thick-provisioned (pre-allocate the required disk-space). The dynamic allocation provided via thin-provisioning will produce performance issues with most Statseeker installations.
  • Guest OS: FreeBSD 12 or later versions (64bit)
  • Boot Firmware:
    • Statseeker v5.6.2(+): EFI
    • Statseeker v5.6.0 – v5.6.1: BIOS

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Install Statseeker High-Availability

Install Statseeker High-Availability on each of the virtual machines by following the directions in the Statseeker High-Availability Installation Guide.