Set Up Your KVM Virtual Machine for an On-premises Server Cluster

First configure the VM on the master node, and then configure the VM on each worker node.

Follow these steps to setup and configure your VM on a cluster of servers in an on-premises deployment:

1. Verify that your master node meets the VM requirements.

   Resource	Minimum Requirements
   Processor	Sixteen (16) virtual CPUs
   Memory	64 GB RAM
   Local disk storage	500 GB SSD with minimum disk IOPS of 1000 for a standard 4kb block size (Note: This must be an SSD; use of other storage options can lead to system instability and are not supported.)
   Network interface speed	1 Gb NIC
   Hypervisor	KVM/QCOW (QEMU Copy on Write) image for servers running CentOS, Ubuntu, and RedHat operating systems

2. Confirm that the needed ports are open for communications.

   You must open the following ports on your NetQ on-premises servers:

   Port or Protocol Number	Protocol	Component Access
   4	IP Protocol	Calico networking (IP-in-IP Protocol)
   22	TCP	SSH
   80	TCP	Nginx
   179	TCP	Calico networking (BGP)
   443	TCP	NetQ UI
   2379	TCP	etcd datastore
   4789	UDP	Calico networking (VxLAN)
   5000	TCP	Docker registry
   6443	TCP	kube-apiserver
   30001	TCP	DPU communication
   31980	TCP	NetQ Agent communication
   31982	TCP	NetQ Agent SSL communication
   32708	TCP	API Gateway

   Additionally, for internal cluster communication, you must open these ports:

   Port	Protocol	Component Access
   8080	TCP	Admin API
   5000	TCP	Docker registry
   6443	TCP	Kubernetes API server
   10250	TCP	kubelet health probe
   2379	TCP	etcd
   2380	TCP	etcd
   7072	TCP	Kafka JMX monitoring
   9092	TCP	Kafka client
   7071	TCP	Cassandra JMX monitoring
   7000	TCP	Cassandra cluster communication
   9042	TCP	Cassandra client
   7073	TCP	Zookeeper JMX monitoring
   2888	TCP	Zookeeper cluster communication
   3888	TCP	Zookeeper cluster communication
   2181	TCP	Zookeeper client
   36443	TCP	Kubernetes control plane

3. Download the NetQ Platform image.

   1. On the NVIDIA Application Hub, log in to your account.
      
   2. Select NVIDIA Licensing Portal.
   3. Select Software Downloads from the menu.
   4. Click Product Family and select NetQ.
   5. Locate the NetQ SW 4.2 KVM image and select Download.
   6. If prompted, agree to the license agreement and proceed with the download.

   For enterprise customers, if you do not see a link to the NVIDIA Licensing Portal on the NVIDIA Application Hub, contact NVIDIA support.

   
   

   For NVIDIA employees, download NetQ directly from the NVIDIA Licensing Portal.

4. Setup and configure your VM.

   KVM Example Configuration

   This example shows the VM setup process for a system with Libvirt and KVM/QEMU installed.

   1. Confirm that the SHA256 checksum matches the one posted on the NVIDIA Application Hub to ensure the image download has not been corrupted.

      $ sha256sum ./Downloads/netq-4.2.0-ubuntu-18.04-ts-qemu.qcow2
      $ 0A00383666376471A8190E2367B27068B81D6EE00FDE885C68F4E3B3025A00B6  ./Downloads/netq-4.0.0-ubuntu-18.04-ts-qemu.qcow2

   2. Copy the QCOW2 image to a directory where you want to run it.

      Tip: Copy, instead of moving, the original QCOW2 image that was downloaded to avoid re-downloading it again later should you need to perform this process again.

      $ sudo mkdir /vms
      $ sudo cp ./Downloads/netq-4.2.0-ubuntu-18.04-ts-qemu.qcow2 /vms/ts.qcow2

   3. Create the VM.

      For a Direct VM, where the VM uses a MACVLAN interface to sit on the host interface for its connectivity:

      $ virt-install --name=netq_ts --vcpus=16 --memory=65536 --os-type=linux --os-variant=generic --disk path=/vms/ts.qcow2,format=qcow2,bus=virtio,cache=none --network=type=direct,source=eth0,model=virtio --import --noautoconsole

      Replace the disk path value with the location where the QCOW2 image is to reside. Replace network model value (eth0 in the above example) with the name of the interface where the VM is connected to the external network.

      Or, for a Bridged VM, where the VM attaches to a bridge which has already been setup to allow for external access:

      $ virt-install --name=netq_ts --vcpus=16 --memory=65536 --os-type=linux --os-variant=generic \ --disk path=/vms/ts.qcow2,format=qcow2,bus=virtio,cache=none --network=bridge=br0,model=virtio --import --noautoconsole

      Replace network bridge value (br0 in the above example) with the name of the (pre-existing) bridge interface where the VM is connected to the external network.

      Make note of the name used during install as this is needed in a later step.

   4. Watch the boot process in another terminal window.

      $ virsh console netq_ts

5. Log in to the VM and change the password.

   Use the default credentials to log in the first time:

   • Username: cumulus
   • Password: cumulus

   $ ssh cumulus@<ipaddr>
   Warning: Permanently added '<ipaddr>' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
   Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
   cumulus@<ipaddr>'s password:
   You are required to change your password immediately (root enforced)
   System information as of Thu Dec  3 21:35:42 UTC 2020
   System load:  0.09              Processes:           120
   Usage of /:   8.1% of 61.86GB   Users logged in:     0
   Memory usage: 5%                IP address for eth0: <ipaddr>
   Swap usage:   0%
   WARNING: Your password has expired.
   You must change your password now and login again!
   Changing password for cumulus.
   (current) UNIX password: cumulus
   Enter new UNIX password:
   Retype new UNIX password:
   passwd: password updated successfully
   Connection to <ipaddr> closed.
   

   Log in again with your new password.

   $ ssh cumulus@<ipaddr>
   Warning: Permanently added '<ipaddr>' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
   Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
   cumulus@<ipaddr>'s password:
     System information as of Thu Dec  3 21:35:59 UTC 2020
     System load:  0.07              Processes:           121
     Usage of /:   8.1% of 61.86GB   Users logged in:     0
     Memory usage: 5%                IP address for eth0: <ipaddr>
     Swap usage:   0%
   Last login: Thu Dec  3 21:35:43 2020 from <local-ipaddr>
   cumulus@ubuntu:~$
   

6. Verify the master node is ready for installation. Fix any errors indicated before installing the NetQ software.

   cumulus@hostname:~$ sudo opta-check

7. Change the hostname for the VM from the default value.

   The default hostname for the NetQ Virtual Machines is ubuntu. Change the hostname to fit your naming conventions while meeting Internet and Kubernetes naming standards.

   Kubernetes requires that hostnames are composed of a sequence of labels concatenated with dots. For example, “en.wikipedia.org” is a hostname. Each label must be from 1 to 63 characters long. The entire hostname, including the delimiting dots, has a maximum of 253 ASCII characters.

   The Internet standards (RFCs) for protocols specify that labels may contain only the ASCII letters a through z (in lower case), the digits 0 through 9, and the hyphen-minus character ('-').

   Use the following command:

   cumulus@hostname:~$ sudo hostnamectl set-hostname NEW_HOSTNAME

   Add the same NEW_HOSTNAME value to /etc/hosts on your VM for the localhost entry. Example:

   127.0.0.1 localhost NEW_HOSTNAME

8. Verify that your first worker node meets the VM requirements, as described in Step 1.

9. Confirm that the needed ports are open for communications, as described in Step 2.

10. Open your hypervisor and set up the VM in the same manner as for the master node.

    Make a note of the private IP address you assign to the worker node. You need it for later installation steps.

11. Verify the worker node is ready for installation. Fix any errors indicated before installing the NetQ software.

    cumulus@hostname:~$ sudo opta-check

12. Repeat Steps 8 through 11 for each additional worker node you want in your cluster.

The final step is to install and activate the NetQ software using the CLI:

• Use the CLI