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Getting Started with NetApp BlueXP & Cloud Volumes ONTAP for Google Cloud

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Getting Started with NetApp BlueXP & Cloud Volumes ONTAP for Google Cloud

Lab 1 hour 30 minutes universal_currency_alt 1 Credit show_chart Introductory
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This lab was developed with our partner, NetApp. Your personal information may be shared with NetApp, the lab sponsor, if you have opted-in to receive product updates, announcements, and offers in your Account Profile.

GSP770

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Overview

In this lab, you will learn about NetApp BlueXP and how to deploy NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP for Google Cloud on top of Compute Engine, Persistent Disk, and Cloud Storage. You will get an initial practical experience in setting up Cloud Volumes ONTAP and use it as an NFS storage for your applications.

This lab is derived from the BlueXP’s documentation published by NetApp.

What you'll learn

In this lab, you will learn how to:

  • Log in to the NetApp BlueXP
  • Deploy a Cloud Volumes ONTAP instance
  • Create a FlexVol volume
  • Access FlexVol volume from a Linux VM using NFS

Setup and requirements

Before you click the Start Lab button

Read these instructions. Labs are timed and you cannot pause them. The timer, which starts when you click Start Lab, shows how long Google Cloud resources will be made available to you.

This hands-on lab lets you do the lab activities yourself in a real cloud environment, not in a simulation or demo environment. It does so by giving you new, temporary credentials that you use to sign in and access Google Cloud for the duration of the lab.

To complete this lab, you need:

  • Access to a standard internet browser (Chrome browser recommended).
Note: Use an Incognito or private browser window to run this lab. This prevents any conflicts between your personal account and the Student account, which may cause extra charges incurred to your personal account.
  • Time to complete the lab---remember, once you start, you cannot pause a lab.
Note: If you already have your own personal Google Cloud account or project, do not use it for this lab to avoid extra charges to your account.

How to start your lab and sign in to the Google Cloud console

  1. Click the Start Lab button. If you need to pay for the lab, a pop-up opens for you to select your payment method. On the left is the Lab Details panel with the following:

    • The Open Google Cloud console button
    • Time remaining
    • The temporary credentials that you must use for this lab
    • Other information, if needed, to step through this lab
  2. Click Open Google Cloud console (or right-click and select Open Link in Incognito Window if you are running the Chrome browser).

    The lab spins up resources, and then opens another tab that shows the Sign in page.

    Tip: Arrange the tabs in separate windows, side-by-side.

    Note: If you see the Choose an account dialog, click Use Another Account.
  3. If necessary, copy the Username below and paste it into the Sign in dialog.

    {{{user_0.username | "Username"}}}

    You can also find the Username in the Lab Details panel.

  4. Click Next.

  5. Copy the Password below and paste it into the Welcome dialog.

    {{{user_0.password | "Password"}}}

    You can also find the Password in the Lab Details panel.

  6. Click Next.

    Important: You must use the credentials the lab provides you. Do not use your Google Cloud account credentials. Note: Using your own Google Cloud account for this lab may incur extra charges.
  7. Click through the subsequent pages:

    • Accept the terms and conditions.
    • Do not add recovery options or two-factor authentication (because this is a temporary account).
    • Do not sign up for free trials.

After a few moments, the Google Cloud console opens in this tab.

Note: To view a menu with a list of Google Cloud products and services, click the Navigation menu at the top-left. Navigation menu icon

Activate Cloud Shell

Cloud Shell is a virtual machine that is loaded with development tools. It offers a persistent 5GB home directory and runs on the Google Cloud. Cloud Shell provides command-line access to your Google Cloud resources.

  1. Click Activate Cloud Shell Activate Cloud Shell icon at the top of the Google Cloud console.

When you are connected, you are already authenticated, and the project is set to your Project_ID, . The output contains a line that declares the Project_ID for this session:

Your Cloud Platform project in this session is set to {{{project_0.project_id | "PROJECT_ID"}}}

gcloud is the command-line tool for Google Cloud. It comes pre-installed on Cloud Shell and supports tab-completion.

  1. (Optional) You can list the active account name with this command:
gcloud auth list
  1. Click Authorize.

Output:

ACTIVE: * ACCOUNT: {{{user_0.username | "ACCOUNT"}}} To set the active account, run: $ gcloud config set account `ACCOUNT`
  1. (Optional) You can list the project ID with this command:
gcloud config list project

Output:

[core] project = {{{project_0.project_id | "PROJECT_ID"}}} Note: For full documentation of gcloud, in Google Cloud, refer to the gcloud CLI overview guide.

Task 1. Set up Service Accounts

  1. Run the following commands in the cloud shell to set some environment variables:
export PROJECT_ID=$(gcloud config get-value project) export serviceAccount="netapp-cloud-manager@"$PROJECT_ID".iam.gserviceaccount.com" export serviceAccount2="netapp-cvo@"$PROJECT_ID".iam.gserviceaccount.com"
  1. Next, run the following commands to assign roles to the pre-created netapp-cloud-manager service account:
# assign roles to the netapp-cloud-manager service account gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding $PROJECT_ID \ --member="serviceAccount:${serviceAccount}" \ --role='roles/iam.serviceAccountAdmin' gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding $PROJECT_ID \ --member="serviceAccount:${serviceAccount}" \ --role='roles/storage.objectAdmin' gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding $PROJECT_ID \ --member="serviceAccount:${serviceAccount}" \ --role='roles/deploymentmanager.editor' gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding $PROJECT_ID \ --member="serviceAccount:${serviceAccount}" \ --role='roles/logging.admin' gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding $PROJECT_ID \ --member="serviceAccount:${serviceAccount}" \ --role='roles/compute.admin' gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding $PROJECT_ID \ --member="serviceAccount:${serviceAccount}" \ --role='roles/cloudkms.admin' gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding $PROJECT_ID \ --member="serviceAccount:${serviceAccount}" \ --role='roles/storage.admin'

Click Check my progress to verify that you've performed the above task.

Assign roles to service account
  1. Lastly, create the netapp-cvo service account and assign it the relevant roles:
# create netapp-cvo service account gcloud iam service-accounts create netapp-cvo --display-name=netapp-cvo gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding $PROJECT_ID \ --member="serviceAccount:${serviceAccount2}" \ --role='roles/storage.objectAdmin' gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding $PROJECT_ID \ --member="serviceAccount:${serviceAccount2}" \ --role='roles/storage.admin' gcloud iam service-accounts add-iam-policy-binding ${serviceAccount2} --member="serviceAccount:${serviceAccount}" --role='roles/iam.serviceAccountUser'

Click Check my progress to verify that you've performed the above task.

Set up Service Accounts

Task 2. Set up a new ONTAP storage environment

In this section, you will log in to NetApp BlueXP, NetApp’s data lifecycle management platform, and create a new Cloud Volumes ONTAP storage environment on Google Cloud infrastructure.

  1. From the Navigation Menu, go to Compute Engine > VM instances. You should see the cloudmanager VM already deployed for you.

  2. Click the External IP to connect to the VM in a new window. Use http://<IP Address>/

  • Note: If you are unable to see External IP then, click on cloudmanager VM and scroll down, you can find the external IP under Network interfaces.
  • Note: If Chrome gives you a privacy error, you can still continue by clicking Advanced, then Proceed.

Once you are on the BlueXP SaaS setup page, you can set up your NetApp Account.

  1. First click Sign Up, then enter in your email address and a password. Fill out the rest of the fields to authenticate yourself with NetApp’s Cloud Central and click Sign Up to log in to BlueXP.
If prompted, accept the terms and conditions and click on Continue.

The deployed cloudmanager VM

  1. Next, you will be prompted to create an Account Name and a BlueXP name. For these, you can just use user. Click Let's Start. Click on Lets go to BlueXP.
If prompted Welcome to NetApp BlueXP, click Continue.
  1. Before you add a working environment, navigate to the gear icon on the top-right of the page then click Connector Settings.

  2. For Automatic Cloud Volumes ONTAP update during deployment, click the box and then uncheck the Automatically update Cloud Volumes ONTAP box to turn the updates off.

  3. Click Save. Your configuration settings should resemble the following:

Capacity tabbed page displaying configuration fields for Capacity, General, and Azure

  1. Click BlueXP on the top left to navigate to the home page, then click Add Working Environment.
Note: If you happen to run into any issues adding a Working Environment (i.e server fault), this can be due to BlueXP automatically updating. If this happens, please wait a few minutes, refresh the page, and try again.
  1. Choose a Location: select Google Cloud Platform.

  2. Choose Type: For Cloud Volumes ONTAP, click on Add New.

  3. Specify a cluster name, optionally add labels, and then specify a new password for the default admin account.

  4. Click Continue.

Note: The service account netapp-cvo has been pre-created for you with the Storage Admin role.
  1. For Data Sense & Compliance, leave the default configuration and click Continue.

  2. Location & Connectivity: For the Google Cloud Region and Google Cloud Zone, use us-central1 and us-central1-a, respectively. For VPC, select the value from the dropdown. For the Subnet, and Firewall Policy, leave as default. Select the checkbox to confirm network connectivity to Google Cloud storage for data tiering, and click Continue.

  3. Cloud Volumes ONTAP Charging Methods & NSS Account: Select Freemium (Up to 500 GiB) and click on Continue.

  4. Preconfigured Packages: click Change Configuration.

  5. On the Licensing section, first click Change version and select ONTAP-9.7P5 version from the drop down.

  6. Click Apply. Next, from the Machine Type dropdown list select n1-highmem-4.

  7. Click Continue.

  8. Underlying Storage Resources: Choose Standard and for the GCP Disk Size select 100 GB. Click Continue.

  9. WORM (write once, read many): keep the settings as default and click Continue.

  10. Create Volume: Skip this as you will create a volume and access it in the next sections.

  11. Review & Approve: Review and confirm your selections:

  • Review details about the configuration.
  • Click More information to review details about support and the Google Cloud resources that BlueXP will purchase.
  • Select both checkboxes.
  • Click Go.

Great! You’re done. Now, sit back while BlueXP deploys your Cloud Volumes ONTAP system on top of Google Cloud resources (Compute Engine and Persistent Disks + Cloud Storage). This should take around ten minutes to complete. In the meantime, you can check out the NetApp documentation for Cloud Volumes ONTAP for Google Cloud.

Click Check my progress to verify that you've performed the above task.

Set up a new ONTAP Storage Environment

Task 3. Create an ONTAP volume

In this section, you will learn how to create a Cloud Volumes ONTAP volume, choose the access protocol to be used, and enable storage efficiencies and cold data tiering.

  1. After your Cloud Volumes ONTAP system is deployed, on the Working Environments page, double click the new Working Environment added to enter the Volumes page.

  2. Navigate to the Volumes page on the top, right side and, click on Add Volume.

  3. Edit the Volume Details, Protection & Tags, Protocol section with the following information:

  • Name your volume data1
  • Set size to 10 (size set in GiB)
  • Leave Snapshot Policy with default, and click Next.
  • Select NFS as protocol
  • Verify Access Control is set to Custom export policy, and click Next
  1. Update the Disk Type, Usage Profile & Tiering Policy with the following:
  • For disk type, pick Standard, then click Next.
  • Verify the Storage Efficiency is marked (to enable NetApp’s data footprint reduction technologies).
  • Leave Tiering data to object storage with default settings.
  1. Click Next and then click Add. Refresh the page to see the data1 volume.

Great! You have just created your first Cloud Volumes ONTAP volume to store your applications data optimized for capacity and cost, leveraging NetApp’s data footprint reduction technologies (thin provisioning, deduplication and compression) with intelligent data management - frequently accessed (hot) data remains on SSD-backed PD while infrequently accessed (cold) data is seamlessly moved to Cloud Storage.

Task 4. Access the volume

In this section, you will access the Cloud Volumes ONTAP volume created in Section 2 from a Linux VM using the NFS protocol.

  1. Go back to the Cloud Console.

  2. Run the following commands in Cloud Shell to reset your PROJECT_ID environment variable and create a new linux-vm instance:

export PROJECT_ID=$(gcloud config get-value project) gcloud compute --project=$PROJECT_ID instances create linux-vm --zone=us-central1-a --machine-type=e2-standard-4
  1. After the VM has been deployed, navigate back to the NetApp BlueXP page and refresh the page.

  2. On the Volumes page, locate the data1 volume and click on Manage volume.

data1 box displaying the info details Disk Type, Tiering Policy, and Backup, as well as the Capacity

  1. From the list of operations revealed, click on Mount Command, and then click on Copy to copy the command to your clipboard.

  2. Back in the Cloud Console, from the Navigation Menu, navigate to Compute Engine > VM instances

  3. On the VM instances page, locate the linux-vm instance and connect to it by clicking on SSH.

  4. In the linux VM SSH window, create a local directory under /mnt named data1 that would serve as a mount point:

sudo mkdir /mnt/data1
  1. Before mounting, use the following command to install nfs-common:
sudo apt install nfs-common -y
  1. Next, paste the Mount Command (copied on step 5) and replace <dest_dir> with the /mnt/data1 directory created. Press Enter to mount Cloud Volumes ONTAP volume using NFS:
Make sure your command looks like following. # you may need to change command here sudo mount 10.142.0.36:/data1 /mnt/data1
  1. Verify that your volume is properly mounted using the following native Linux command:
df -h

You should see the data1 volume mounted on /mnt/data.

Great! You have just mounted the volume created in the previous section, and it’s ready to be accessed by your applications that use NFS.

Click Check my progress to verify that you've performed the above task.

Access the Volume

Congratulations!

In this lab, you got your first NetApp Cloud solutions skills by using BlueXP to deploy Cloud Volume ONTAP for Google Cloud on top of Google Cloud infrastructure. You have also learned how to create volumes that serve as data containers, and provide your applications with an optimized NFS storage.

Next steps / Learn more

Be sure to check out the following to receive more hands-on practice with NetApp:

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Manual Last Updated April 28, 2023

Lab Last Tested April 28, 2023

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