Installation Preconditions

Before installing Odin Automation, make sure that the following preconditions are met:

  • The physical server designated to be the Odin Automation MN meets the following requirements:

    Important: If Odin Automation MN is running RHEL 7, it should be subscribed to 'optional' channel. Please refer to RHEL documentation for the details.

    Server Names

    LINMN01

    Description

    Odin Automation management node on Linux. The server runs Odin Automation management software and system database.

    Density

    500,000 accounts

    Important: On the installations with more than 50 parallel active sessions in UX1 for Customers (in peak), the APS Booster service must be enabled.

    • Refer to the Enabling APS Booster Service on UI Cluster section of the Linux Platform Deployment Guide for the instructions.
    • To evaluate current Odin Automation UI load profile, please refer to this KB article or contact Odin Automation Support team.

    Quantity

    1

    OS

    • RHEL 7.4 (x64) or higher
    • CentOS 7.4 (x64) or higher

    Software

    To be installed by customer:

    • OS only

    Important: Do not use the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repository and do not install Redis Cache versions other than 2.4.x. Otherwise, Odin Automation will not be able to operate properly.

    CPU

    4 core (2.4 GHz or higher)

    Important: Depending on the amount of Odin Automation accounts and users, the number of required physical cores may change:

    • 12 physical cores for 50,000 accounts or 250,000 users
    • 14 physical cores for 100,000 accounts or 500,000 users
    • 15 physical cores for 200,000 accounts or 1,000,000 users
    • 16 physical cores for 300,000 accounts or 1,500,000 users
    • 18 physical cores for 400,000 accounts or 2,000,000 users
    • 20 physical cores for 500,000 accounts or 2,500,000 users

    A big number of users, subscriptions, or domains under a single account can dramatically decrease the system performance for the users of that account. Stable performance of Odin Automation installation with the following quantity of users, subscriptions and domains has been confirmed by tests:

    • Users: 50,000,
    • Subscriptions: 500,
    • Domains: 5,000,

    under a single account.

    RAM

    Important: Depending on the amount of Odin Automation accounts and users, the amount of required RAM may change:

    • 14 GB for 50,000 accounts or 250,000 users
    • 18 GB for 100,000 accounts or 500,000 users
    • 32 GB for 200,000 accounts or 1,000,000 users
    • 36 GB for 300,000 accounts or 1,500,000 users
    • 45 GB for 400,000 accounts or 2,000,000 users
    • 54 GB for 500,000 accounts or 2,500,000 users

    A big number of users, subscriptions, or domains under a single account can dramatically decrease the system performance. Stable performance of Odin Automation installation with the following quantity of users, subscriptions and domains has been confirmed by tests:

    • Users: 50,000,
    • Subscriptions: 500,
    • Domains: 5,000,

    under a single account.

    Disks

    Array 1:

    • OS and software

    Important: Depending on the amount of Odin Automation accounts and users, the amount of required disk space may change:

    • 3 x 480 GB, SCSI, SAN storage or RAID 5 (hardware impl.) with Battery Backup Unit for 50,000 accounts/250,000 users
    • 3 x 560 GB, SCSI, SAN storage or RAID 5 (hardware impl.) with Battery Backup Unit for 100,000 accounts/500,000 users
    • 3 x 720 GB, SCSI, SAN storage or RAID 5 (hardware impl.) with Battery Backup Unit for 200,000 accounts/1,000,000 users
    • 3 x 880 GB, SCSI, SAN storage or RAID 5 (hardware impl.) with Battery Backup Unit for 300,000 accounts/1,500,000 users
    • 3 x 1040 GB, SCSI, SAN storage or RAID 5 (hardware impl.) with Battery Backup Unit for 400,000 accounts/2,000,000 users
    • 3 x 1200 GB, SCSI, SAN storage or RAID 5 (hardware impl.) with Battery Backup Unit for 500,000 accounts/2,500,000 users

    Note: In case you are going to use APS Booster, the node hosting master database needs extra 256 GB of free disk space for storing WAL files (16384 WAL files * 16 MB each).

    Disk Partitioning

    Array 1:

    • / - 5 GB

    - for OS

    • 2 x RAM size (16 GB)

    - swap

    • /usr – at least 20 GB

    - for software

    Note: The task logs are stored in /usr/local/pem/var/taskLogs therefore there should be enough disk space allocated to /usr.

    • /var – remaining space

    - for Odin Automation system database and logs (600 GB - for logging in /var/log)

    NICs

    BackNet

    There are also additional requirements for BackNet throughput in case you are going to use APS Booster. For more details refer to the Deploying UI on Cluster section.

    Important: Due to the security reasons, disable IPv6 support in backnet network interface properties on the Odin Automation management node, UI and branding nodes.
    If you use a container for deploying Odin Automation management node, UI node, open the container configuration file - /etc/sysconfig/vz-scripts/<container_id>.conf - and remove the IPv6 support for the host-only interface. If you create a new container, make sure that IPv6 support for backnet network interface is not specified in the container creation parameters.
    If Odin Automation management node, UI node is deployed on a real physical server, disable the IPv6 support in backnet network interface using the standard functionality of the OS being installed. For instructions on how to do it, refer to the appropriate documentation of the server OS.

  • At least one external DNS server is configured.
  • SMTP server with the open relay for MN is configured. This SMTP server should be connected to both the BackNet and FrontNet networks. MN will use the SMTP server to send a mail notification to the Internet.
  • YUM package-management utility is installed on the server. The YUM OS repositories are configured and they are accessible from the server. To validate that it is true, you may use the yum install <PACKAGE_NAME> command.

    Important: To keep Linux infrastructure secure it’s necessary to keep the installed OSes up-to-date. The OS updates are provided by YUM repositories, so it is necessary to configure repositories on each Linux-based hardware node. For large Linux infrastructures, we recommend that you configure local yum mirrors or Red Hat Network (RHN) proxies to reduce bandwidth consumption and provide the ability to limit Internet access from hosts. You can get additional information on how to configure local mirrors from the following resources:

    - Red Hat Network (RHN) Frequently Asked Questions: https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/node/15979;
    - Creating Local Mirrors for Updates or Installs: http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/CreateLocalMirror.

    For instructions on how to update Linux-based hardware nodes registered in Odin Automation, refer to OA Operations Provider's Guide >> Managing Hardware Nodes > Updating Linux-based Hardware Nodes section.

  • Update system software on the host using the yum update command.
  • Hostname of MN is resolved through resolver DNS servers into the BackNet IP address of MN.

If you are installing Odin Automation on physical server, the following supplementary preconditions must be met:

  1. The target server is assigned a BackNet IP address (it is assigned during configuring the server for MN installation).
  2. Hostname for the server is configured in the /etc/hosts file along with the BackNet IP address.
  3. Resolver DNS servers are specified in the /etc/resolv.conf file in the format:

    nameserver RESOLVER_DNS_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS

    RESOLVER_DNS_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS - is an IP address of resolver DNS server. If you have several DNS servers, specify all of them in that file. It will look like:

    nameserver RESOLVER_DNS_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS
    
    nameserver RESOLVER_DNS_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS
    
    nameserver RESOLVER_DNS_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS

Important: Hostname of the MN must explicitly contain the 'dot' symbol. For example, host.com.