Veritas Flex Appliance Getting Started and Administration Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): Appliances (2.1.1, 2.1)
Platform: Flex Appliance OS
  1. Product overview
    1.  
      Introduction to Veritas Flex Appliance
    2.  
      Flex Appliance terminology
    3.  
      About the Flex Appliance documentation
  2. Release notes
    1.  
      Flex Appliance 2.1 new features, enhancements, and changes
    2.  
      Flex Appliance 2.1.1 new features, enhancements, and changes
    3.  
      Supported upgrade paths to this release
    4.  
      Operational notes
    5.  
      Flex Appliance 2.1 release content
    6.  
      Flex Appliance 2.1.1 release content
  3. Getting started
    1.  
      Initial configuration guidelines and checklist
    2.  
      Performing the initial configuration
    3.  
      Adding a node
    4.  
      Accessing and using the Flex Appliance Shell
    5.  
      Accessing and using the Flex Appliance Console
    6.  
      Managing the appliance from the Appliance Management Console
    7.  
      Setting the date and time for appliance nodes
    8.  
      Common tasks in Flex Appliance
  4. Managing network settings
    1.  
      Creating a network bond
    2.  
      Deleting a network bond
    3.  
      Configuring a network interface
    4. Managing the appliance Fibre Channel ports
      1.  
        Viewing the devices that are connected to the Fibre Channel ports
    5.  
      Changing DNS or Hosts file settings
  5. Managing users
    1.  
      Overview of the Flex Appliance default users
    2.  
      Changing the password policy
    3. Managing Flex Appliance Console users and tenants
      1.  
        Adding a tenant
      2.  
        Editing a tenant
      3.  
        Removing a tenant
      4.  
        Adding a local user to the Flex Appliance Console
      5.  
        Connecting a remote user domain to the Flex Appliance Console
      6.  
        Importing a remote user or user group to the Flex Appliance Console
      7.  
        Editing a remote user domain in the Flex Appliance Console
      8.  
        Changing a user password in the Flex Appliance Console
      9.  
        Expiring user passwords in the Flex Appliance Console
      10.  
        Removing users from the Flex Appliance Console
      11.  
        Managing user authentication with smart cards or digital certificates
    4.  
      Changing the hostadmin user password in the Flex Appliance Shell
    5.  
      Changing the sysadmin user password in the Veritas Remote Management Interface
  6. Using Flex Appliance
    1. Managing the repository
      1.  
        Adding files to the repository
      2.  
        Removing the current appliance upgrade or update package from the repository
    2.  
      Creating application instances
    3.  
      Managing application instances from Flex Appliance and NetBackup
    4. Managing application instances from Flex Appliance
      1.  
        Resizing instance storage
      2.  
        Editing instance network settings
      3.  
        Assigning Fibre Channel ports to an instance
      4.  
        Unassigning Fibre Channel ports from an instance
      5. Managing application add-ons on instances
        1.  
          Installing application add-ons
        2.  
          Uninstalling application add-ons
        3.  
          Changing the application add-on installation order
      6.  
        Viewing instance performance metrics
      7.  
        Clearing a configuration error status on an application instance
    5. Upgrading application instances
      1.  
        Warnings and considerations for instance rollbacks
    6.  
      Updating an application instance to a newer revision
    7. About Flex Appliance upgrades and updates
      1.  
        Upgrading Flex Appliance
      2.  
        Updating Flex Appliance
      3.  
        Updating the firmware
  7. Appliance security
    1.  
      Security overview
    2. About lockdown mode
      1.  
        Changing the lockdown mode
    3.  
      Using a sign-in banner
    4.  
      Using an external certificate
  8. Monitoring the appliance
    1.  
      Registering an appliance
    2. Configuring alerts
      1. About AutoSupport and Call Home
        1.  
          Configuring Call Home
      2.  
        Configuring email alerts
      3.  
        Configuring SNMP alerts
      4.  
        Setting the threshold values for disk usage alerts
    3. Viewing the hardware status
      1.  
        Viewing node information
      2.  
        Viewing Primary Storage Shelf information on a Veritas 53xx Appliance
      3.  
        Viewing Expansion Storage Shelf information on a Veritas 53xx Appliance
      4.  
        Viewing Storage Shelf information on a Veritas 5250 Appliance
    4.  
      Viewing hardware faults
    5.  
      Viewing system data
    6.  
      Forwarding logs
    7.  
      Providing access for external monitoring
    8.  
      Revoking access for external monitoring
  9. Reconfiguring the appliance
    1.  
      Performing a factory reset
    2.  
      Performing a reimage
    3.  
      Recovering storage data after a factory reset or a reimage
    4.  
      Performing a storage reset
    5.  
      Removing a node
    6.  
      Viewing or resetting the storage shelf order on a Veritas 5250 Appliance
  10. Troubleshooting guidelines
    1.  
      General troubleshooting steps
    2.  
      Generating a One-Time Password and unlocking access in lockdown mode
    3.  
      Gathering logs

Flex Appliance 2.1 new features, enhancements, and changes

The following list describes the new features, enhancements, and changes in the Flex Appliance 2.1 release:

  • During an upgrade to this release, if you choose not to restart the node when prompted, the command to restart it manually has changed. You must now enter the following command to complete the upgrade:

    system restart apply-upgrade

    If you run the system restart command without the apply-upgrade option, the node starts on the older version instead of completing the upgrade. If you have a multi-node appliance, both nodes must be restarted with the apply-upgrade option.

  • EEB packages are now supported on application instances. In addition, the add-on installation procedure has been updated to check for conflicts between add-ons and alert you to them before installation.

    See Managing application add-ons on instances.

  • You can now set a sign-in banner that appears before a user signs in to the Flex Appliance Console and the Flex Appliance Shell.

    See Using a sign-in banner.

  • You can now forward the appliance system logs (syslogs) and the audit logs to an external log management server.

    See Forwarding logs.

  • You can now update the appliance firmware from the Flex Appliance Console.

    See Updating the firmware.

  • Flex appliances are now supported on the Appliance Management Console.

    See the Veritas Appliance Management Guide for details.

  • External certificates are now supported for host communication.

    See Using an external certificate.

  • You can now generate an API access token to provide access to the appliance for external monitoring or support. For this release, you can generate a metrics token to use with a third-party analytics application like Grafana, or a support token to provide access to Veritas Technical Support.

    See Providing access for external monitoring.

  • You can now configure Call Home and email alerts from the Flex Appliance Console. In addition, this release introduces support of SNMP alerts.

    See Configuring alerts.

  • SAN client backups over Fibre Channel are now supported for NetBackup 9.1.0.1 and later application instances.

    See Assigning Fibre Channel ports to an instance.

  • When you connect an Active Directory domain, you can now choose between the following connection types:

    • Plain text

    • Plain text + TLS (encrypted)

    • SSL (encrypted)

    See Connecting a remote user domain to the Flex Appliance Console.

  • The Data Collect log package now offers additional options to include more detailed debugging information.

    See Gathering logs.

  • You can now delete generated log packages from the Flex Appliance Console.

    See Gathering logs.

  • To conform with the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) and the Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG), the Flex Appliance Shell now supports only the following ciphers and message authentication codes (MACs):

    • Ciphers:

      • aes256-ctr

      • aes192-ctr

      • aes128-ctr

    • MACs:

      • hmac-sha2-512

      • hmac-sha2-256

    See Accessing and using the Flex Appliance Shell.

  • The appliance I/O configuration no longer displays when you first log in to the Flex Appliance Shell. To see the I/O configuration, run the show hardware-health node component=Product command.

  • The supported browser versions for the Flex Appliance Console have been changed to the following:

    • Google Chrome version 94 or later recommended (minimum version 80 or later)

    • Mozilla Firefox version 93 or later recommended (minimum version 80 or later)

  • The Appliance updates tab of the repository now indicates whether an update release supports rollback.

  • A precheck now runs before an appliance upgrade and alerts you of any issues.

  • The /log directory has moved to /var/log.

  • The following commands in the Flex Appliance Shell have changed in this release, as part of an effort to create greater consistency across the Veritas appliance products:

    Command in previous release

    New command in version 2.1

    system hardware-health node node_component=<component>

    show hardware-health node component=<component>

    system hardware-health primaryshelf primaryshelf_component=<component>

    show hardware-health primaryshelf component=<component>

    system hardware-health expansionshelf expansionshelf_component=<component>

    show hardware-health expansionshelf component=<component>

    system hardware-health storageshelf storageshelf_component=<component>

    show hardware-health storageshelf component=<component>

    set appliance clear-fault service_group=<service>

    system ha-service clear-fault service=<service>

    set appliance online node_name=<hostname> service_group=<service>

    system ha-service restart service=<service> node=<hostname>

    set appliance migrate node_name=<hostname> service_group=<service>

    system ha-service migrate service=<service> node=<hostname>

    set appliance offline node_name=<hostname> service_group=<service>

    system ha-service stop service=<service> node=<hostname>

    system restart

    system restart to do a normal restart or system restart apply-upgrade to restart and complete an upgrade.

    system service restart name=<service>

    system os-service restart service=<service>

    system service stop name=<service>

    system os-service stop service=<service>

    system service status name=<service>

    system os-service status service=<service>

    set autosupport log-level loglevel_component=<INFO or DEBUG>

    support log-level autosupport level=<INFO or DEBUG>

    system data-collect

    support data-collect

    system hardware-errors

    show hardware-errors

    system beacon HDD slot=<number> operation=start or stop

    set beacon HDD slot=<number> operation=start or stop

    system beacon UID duration=<seconds>

    set beacon UID duration=<seconds>

    system set-DNS

    set network dns

    show date current-ntp, show date current-timezone, and show date current-date

    show date (the three older commands have been combined)

    show storage df

    support shell > df -h

    show storage volumes

    support shell > vxdisk list

    show storage volumes-extended

    support shell > vxprint -ht

    show appliance status

    support shell > hastatus -sum

    show appliance status service_groups

    support shell > hagrp -state

    show appliance status group_resources

    support shell > hares -state