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Veritas Flex Appliance Getting Started and Administration Guide

Last Published: 2023-10-25

Product(s): Appliances (3.3, 3.2, 3.1, 3.0)

Platform: Flex Appliance OS

Adding a node

Flex Appliance supports up to two nodes on the Veritas 53xx Appliance. You can add a second node during initial configuration or any time after.

A multi-node appliance provides the following benefits:

Increased efficiency with a shared workload
Automatic failover for a single-node failure

Adding a second node consists of the following tasks:

Perform the host network configuration on the new node.
From the existing node, add the new node to the appliance.

Note:

If you add a node to an appliance that has already been configured and is in lockdown mode, the same lockdown mode is automatically enabled on the new node. However, if you are configuring a new multi-node appliance, you must configure all nodes before you enable lockdown mode.

Tasks for adding a node

To perform the host network configuration on the new node

Verify the version compatibility between the new node and the node that you want to add it to. The nodes must be running the same version of Flex Appliance, but they can have different security patches installed.
If the existing node is at a lower version that does not meet these requirements, upgrade or update that node before you add the new one. If the new node is at a lower version that does not meet these requirements, it must be reimaged to the later version.
Gather the following details for the new node that you want to add to the appliance:
- IP address
- Hostname
Note:
The following subnets are reserved for internal use and cannot be used for the appliance network:
192.168.227.0/24 and fdf8:192:168:227::/120
192.168.228.0/24 and fdf8:192:168:228::/120
192.168.229.0/24 and fdf8:192:168:229::/120
192.168.230.0/24 and fdf8:192:168:230::/120
Gather the following details from the appliance that you want to add the node to:
- Default gateway
- (Optional) DNS server IP address
- DNS domain
- (Optional) Search domain
If the node that you want to add has Fibre Channel connections to external devices, disable all Fibre Channel ports that are connected to those devices. You do not need to disable the ports that are connected to the appliance storage shelves.
Use the following steps to access the Flex Appliance Shell from the Veritas Remote Management Interface:
- Open a supported web browser on a system that has a network connection to the appliance. Flex Appliance supports the following browsers:
  - Google Chrome version 94 or later recommended (minimum version 80 or later)
  - Mozilla Firefox version 93 or later recommended (minimum version 80 or later)
- Enter the IP address that is assigned to the remote management port of the new node.
- Log in to the Veritas Remote Management Interface with the following default credentials:
  - Username: sysadmin
  - Password: P@ssw0rd
- Change the sysadmin password from the known default password as follows:
  - Navigate to Configuration > Users and select the sysadmin user.
  - Click Modify User.
  - Select the Change Password check box and enter a new password.
- Navigate to Remote Control > Console Redirection and click Launch Console to launch the Flex Appliance Shell.
Log in to the Flex Appliance Shell with the following default credentials:
- Username: hostadmin
- Password: P@ssw0rd
Enter the following command to change the password for the hostadmin user:
set user password
Enter the following command to configure the host network:
setup configure-network
Follow the prompts to enter the host network information. You can enter multiple DNS server IP addresses or search domains using a comma-separated list.
If you did not fill in the optional DNS parameters or want to bypass DNS for the new node, you must add the hostname resolution information for the new node to the appliance Hosts file. If you did not already add this information when you configured the first node, enter the following command:
system add-host
Follow the prompts to enter the required information for the new node.
Use the set date commands to set the date and time. Make sure that the settings are in sync with the other node. See Setting the date and time for appliance nodes.

To add the new node to the appliance

Log in to Flex Appliance Shell from the other, preexisting node that was previously configured for the appliance.
On versions 3.0 and 3.1, if you do not use DNS or bypassed DNS for the new node, run the following command:
system ha-service restart service=infra_svc node=<node hostname>
Where <node hostname> is the hostname of the node that you are logged in to.
You do not need to perform this step on version 3.2 and later.
From the preexisting node, enter the following command to add the new node to the appliance:
setup add-node
Follow the prompts to add the node. When you are prompted for the new node's password, enter the hostadmin password that you set in the previous procedure.
Note:
Do not perform any other tasks on the appliance until the add-node operation is complete.
When the add-node operation is complete, exit the Flex Appliance Shell from the new node that you just added to the appliance. Then launch a new session from the Veritas Remote Management Interface or open an SSH session to the node. The shell should now display additional command options.
If the node that you added has existing Fibre Channel connections, enable them and then run the following command:
system sync-settings
Alternatively, you can first clean and then rescan the ports from the Flex Appliance Console. See Viewing the devices that are connected to the Fibre Channel ports.
If you added this node as part of the appliance initial configuration, return to the initial configuration procedure and refer to the next steps at the end of the procedure to get started using the appliance.
See Performing the initial configuration.