> Cisco UCS Server Hardware Configuration for MUR Applications
> This section describes procedures for configuring a Cisco UCS server running a custom Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system. These procedures are for Mobility Unified Reporting System (MUR) applications only.
> Overview
> Important: This document is specific to MUR applications. For all other applications, please refer to the official UCS Server documentation.
> This section explains two procedures: disk partition and creating an XFS file system. Disk partitioning is carried out as part of the RHEL OS installation. The XFS file system is configured afterwards.
> Prerequisites
> The following are prerequisites for this configuration:

> • | Cisco UCS 460-1 server with multiple hard disks.

> • | MegaRAID Controller.

> • | ISO for the RHEL OS.

> Storage Recommendations
> The following are recommendations for this configuration:

> • | Separate storage (either a single disk or RAID array for the OS (root and swap space partitions).

> • | Two RAID arrays: RAID-0 for the MUR application and RAID-5 for the Postgres database.

> • | LVM: separate physical volume and volume groups for the three RAID array disk groups.

> • | XFS file system:

> • | Block size = 4KB.

> • | S-unit in terms of RAID strip size = 256KB

> • | S-width in terms of span of disks in the RAID array.

> Important: The rest of this section assumes the RAID arrays have already been configured per the above recommendations.
> Disk Partitioning
> Follow these steps to partition a disk.

> 1. | Start the RHEL installation. The Disk Partitioning screen opens showing the two available drives. These are the RAID arrays configured earlier.

> 2. | Select both drives. Ensure the default option to remove Linux partitions on selected drive and create default layout is selected.

> 3. | Select the Review and Modify Partitioning Layout checkbox. Press Next.

> 4. | Press Yes to confirm the edits are required. Press Next to open the Volume Groups and Partitions configuration screen as depicted below:

> Creating Volume Groups and Partitions
> Follow these steps to create the volume groups and partitions based on the following table:
> Volume Groups and Partitions Data

> Partition | Space (GB) | Logical Volume | File-System | Mount Point
> VolGroup00 (on drive with RAID-0)
> Root (RHEL OS) | 100 | LogVol100 | ext3 | ‘/’
> Swap Space | 32 | LogVol01 | Swap | -
> VolGroup01 (on drive with RAID-0
> MUR Application | All remaining space on Volume Group | LogVol00 | ext3 | /apps
> VolGroup02 (on drive with RAID-5
> Database (Postgres data directory) | All the space in the Volume Group | LogVol00 | ext3 | /db

> ‌
> In the Disk Partition Screen (depicted below) the default configuration combines all the disks into a single volume group (VolGroup00) having two logical volumes LogVol00 and LogVol01 for ‘/’ and Swap partitions respectively. These default partitions have to be deleted.

> 1. | Select VolGroup00 and press the Edit button to re-configure the volume group and its logical volumes (partitions). The Edit screen opens as depicted below:

> 2. | Delete the the default logical volumes (partitions for '/' and Swap) from the bottom window.

> 3. | In the Physical Volumes to Use window, select the drive configured with RAID-0 for the OS installation.

> 4. | Press the Add button and configure a partition for Swap using parameters defined in the table provided earlier.

> 5. | Press the Add button and configure a partition for / using parameters defined in the table provided earlier:

> 6. | Verify the new Logical Volumes are configured as required and press the OK button to set the configuration.

> 7. | Click the LVM Volume Groups entry to create a new Volume Group for the MUR Application and Postgres Database partitions. Create these with the name VolGroup01 and VolGroup02 respectively.

> 8. | In the Physical Volume to Use field, select the drive configured with RAID-0 and create a Volume Group with the MUR Application as detailed in the table and press the Add button.

> 9. | Use the last physical volume to create the Volume Group for the Postgres Database as detailed in the table and press the Add button.

> 10. | Press OK to display the updated Volume Groups screen. Check this detail against the correct information in the table if required.

> 11. | Press Next to finish the RHEL installation then reboot the system.

> Configuring the XFS File System
> The LVM configuration you just performed created all the partitions with an EXT file system. An XFS file system can be fine-tuned to work with a RAID array. To configure the XFS file system parameters for stripe-unit and stripe-width you must know the RAID information (stripe size and span of disks) for the respective drives. These values have to be provided in terms of 512 byte blocks.
> We suggest you use su (stripe-unit) and sw (stripe-width) to avoid confusion when setting the following values:

> • | su = RAID controller stripe size in Bytes or KBytes

> • | sw = The span of the physical data disks excluding the number of duplicate disks for RAID10 and parity disks for RAID5 and RAID6.

> Follow these steps to configure the MUR application (/apps) and Postgres (/db) partitions with an XFS file system. In this example, these settings are for four (4) disks of RAID-0 and seven (7) disks of RAID-5.

> 1. | Un-mount the partitions using the umount command:

> $ umount /apps
> $ umount /db

> 2. | Create the XFS file system using the mkfs.xfs command:

> $ mkfs.xfs -f -b size=4096 -d su=256k,sw=4 /dev/mapper/VolGroup01-LogVol00
> $ mkfs.xfs -f -b size=4096 -d su=256k,sw=6 /dev/mapper/VolGroup02-LogVol00

> 3. | Re-mount the partitions using the mount command:

> $ mount -t xfs /dev/mapper/VolGroup01-LogVol00 /apps
> $ mount -t xfs /dev/mapper/VolGroup02-LogVol00 /db

> 4. | Update the /etc/fstab file to reflect the updated configuration.

> 5. | Open the /etc/fstab file and change the file system type for the /apps and /db partitions to XFS. The correct entries should be as follows:

> /dev/VolGroup01/LogVol00 /apps xfs defaults 1 2
> /dev/VolGroup02/LogVol00 /apps xfs defaults 1 2

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