Now, Object First has launched a new release of OOTBI, 1.6.63.10886
These are the new features described in the release:
The update process, as shown before, is super straightforward and allows you to update and reboot your cluster in a few clicks without any stress or “fancy” steps, guides, or troubleshooting.
The feature I was looking forward to getting, and finally is here, is the user’s roles, I’m super excited about these:
we will continue testing the new features, and describe them in the future.
Now, is time to update our cluster, One of the most important reasons to implement OOTBI, is the ability to get updates, improvements and upgrades straight away, keeping yourself in the important task of protecting the Infrastructure and data, Object First has you covered with the Tech and Updates.
Let’s follow up the process witha few screenshots and thoughts:
When it’s time for an update, our console will tell us, also, at any time, we can check it in the settings menu as well.
Let’s login to our web GUI, and check the events and alerts, as you can see, the system is telling us that an update is available:
We go to the menu under settings. Cluster Update and the system checks for the latest updates
The Update cluster button becomes purple, and you can see the available update, let’s hit the button and proceed
IMPORTANT!
Let’s Install!
And done! Now our cluster is up to date!
I hope you like it
as you can see, the process is super simple and straight forward, and this is the main pilars of this technology, easy to use and maintain.
We will add an extra node to the “Single Node Cluster” to become a multi-node one.
The steps are straightforward, let’s see them via screenshots with comments:
First of all, we need to deploy the OOTBI VSA which will be added to the cluster, follow the guide from the previous entry, ending after the deployment (don’t create the Cluster again).
Select the Option Join To ClusterConfigure your NICThe VSA will check for updatesUpdates found, let´s update itupdating… After the update, you will be pushed to the initial menu, go over it again, and the data (NIC config) will remain, just go forward and continueNTP / NTSOK, now, add your OOTBI CLUSTER IP ADDRESS, The one we used/created in the previous entry, and the objectfirst user password we created.BOOM! Node Added to the clusterNow you see the first two options blurry, and the cluster endpoint IP Address (Bottom left) is the same as the previous cluster.There we have it, 2 NODES, 2TB FREENodes View
IMPORTANT
Now, that our Cluster setup is done, we need to update the information in our VBR to get the space and the cluster working fine. In the picture below you can see that the S3 bucket from the cluster remains at 1TB.
If we do the rescan repository it will give us an error like so.
Please Right click into the Repo, and re-run the setup wizard, next, next, finish.
The thing that will happen is that, when extending the cluster, the certificate has changed, so now the VBR needs to grab it again from our OOTBI Cluster to work properly.
Running and ending the setup (properties) wizard again to update the certificate
Boom! As you can see, after the re-config, the VBR sees 2TB of Storage, so the cluster has been updated!
Following the guide, I will add one more node, so we will have a 3TB Cluster! Follow the same steps from before, and now, we will see the 3 Nodes and the 3TB storage!
IMPORTANT Once again, run the setup (properties) wizard for the Repo once again to get the certificate updated!
In the picture, you can see the wizard updating the cert and the bucket now shows 3TB Free instead of 2TB.
Luckily I have the opportunity to have access to a VSA OOTBI for my Lab, So I would like to share the deployment and initial steps to get it up and running in my Vsphere lab with y’all.
Let`s get started, by login into our Vsphere console, and starting the new VM process, deploying a VM from OVA:
After finishing the deployment, it is time to open the remote console to continue the wizard from it,
As described in the previous entry, let’s create a single-node cluster.
Network confignode HostameChecking for updates…OK, IMPORTANT! apply the updates, and no worries, after so, we will need to start the wizard again, but the info is kept, 😉updating….After updating, lets call the wizard again, I will continue in the next new screen, the previous info is saved, so just next next….snmp, or NTS if you want it encryptedHere is the deal, lets setup the cluster name and IP AddressDefine a password for the “objectfirst” userINFO: how to connect to the Web UI, model, and S/NTelemetry, very important to notify support in case of any issueDONE, now both, setup new cluster and Join are bold, so all set.Lets access via web UIBoom!
Now, I will show you how to quickly create an S3 Key and a Bucket and how they look when added to VBR!
Go to Security – S3 Keys – Create KeyGrab and keep secure the info, you ill need it to setup the Repo in VBR.Now lets create the Bucket, S3 Bucket – Create a BucketOf course Enable Versioning, so the bucket will be ImmutableHere you can see the Bucket added into VBR, ready to be use!another VBR view!
Now for the fun part: configuring the S3 bucket, adding it to VBR, and sharing my first impressions—all with screenshots, as always!
Open the OOTBI GUI using the cluster IP configured in the earlier steps, then sign in with the objectfirst username and the password you set during installation.A great initial dashboard, with clear and essential information.Let’s create our S3 key so we can create the bucket.Here it is. Save the Key ID and password somewhere safe.The key has been created and is listed.We’re now in the S3 Buckets section of the side navigation menu.Create a bucket with a name and enable versioning for immutability.The bucket is now created.Next, add the OOTBI S3 repository to VBR: go to Infrastructure > Backup Repositories > Add Repository.Object StorageS3 CompatibleS3 CompatibleThese steps should look familiar: enter a name,the access IP address, region, and credentials. Here we’ll add the S3 key we created earlier.Accept the certificate.Great! The bucket is listed. Select it.VBR asks you to create a directory inside the bucket. I used the same name for consistency.IMPORTANT: The second checkbox enables immutability. Select it and set the immutability period. In my lab I used one day, but the right value depends on your retention policy. Remember that an immutable backup cannot be deleted until it expires, so size your repository carefully.Here’s a summary of what we added.Done! The repository is now listed in VBR.
Now that the repository has been added to VBR, let’s run a simple test with a VM, a job, and one day of immutability.
Test jobStarting with VBR 12, you can send backups directly to S3 repositories. Select the repository and use a short retention policy for this test.Summary: three days of retention, one day of immutability, and one virtual machine.The full backup has been created.Here’s the full backup stored on our OOTBI.Let’s try to delete the backup. Remember, it has one day of immutability, so we should not be able to delete it.That’s the expected error: “Failed to delete, immutable.”The backup is still available, so immutability has protected our restore point from deletion.
I hope you found this deployment and test walkthrough useful.
Next, I’ll test larger machines, Instant Recovery, SORB repositories for Performance and Capacity Tier, and more—one step at a time…
As we saw in the previous post, we unboxed our OOTBI unit.
Now it’s time to power it on, connect to its console remotely, complete the initial system setup, open its GUI, and create our first bucket.
Let’s go…
Connect to the OOTBI IPMI. To find the IP address, I scanned my network with Advanced IP Scanner. The username is ADMIN, and the password is printed on the tab on the front panel.This is the IPMI home screen. From here, we can remotely manage and power on the OOTBI.Red Power buttonPower OnGo for it!While it starts up, open the HTML5 remote console. Remote Console > Remote Console > Launch ConsoleBoom! Here’s the OOTBI booting.Does this screen look familiar? It sure does to me… I wonder where I’ve seen it before… As you can see, we’re creating the cluster. Yes, even though this is a single-node cluster, setting it up this way makes it easier to expand later.Network configuration: I’m using just one 10 Gb RJ45 interface and leaving the others disabled.HostnameCluster details, which we’ll use later when adding the system to VBR and configuring the GUI.Important: set the objectfirst user password for the GUI.The single-node cluster is ready. Now open a browser and let’s explore.Remember the cluster IP we configured? Enter it in a browser to connect to the OOTBI GUI, using the password we just set.Boom! A great-looking GUI. From here we can create S3 keys and buckets, check disk status, and more.
In the next post, we’ll create an S3 bucket and its key, then add it to VBR.
I finally got to open the box that had been waiting for me for weeks. After a little effort, we’ve finally unboxed it.
It’s an OOTBI appliance from Object First, As you know, it’s an immutable S3 storage solution for Veeam. Here’s some more information!
Let’s get to it. I’ll share photos and explain what we find along the way:
The fun begins: everything is well packed and labeled.Inside, there’s a box with accessories and rails for rack mounting.A poster with instructions—I love it! I’ll hang it in my office.The back of the poster.Oh yes, the front panel we’ve all been waiting for.Goodies…Let’s get to it.Wow!A beautiful front panel with 12 3.5-inch bays.It comes with 11 drives like this one. This appliance is the 128 TB effective-capacity model.The drive in the tray labeled NVMe is the high-speed cache drive!The rear panel and its backplane with two 2.5-inch drives look great! Not to forget the two 10 Gbps Ethernet ports, two 10 Gbps SFP+ ports, and the IPMI port.The two 2.5-inch drives at the rear.Hot-swappable power supplies: it comes with two for redundancy.This is the rear panel with the network cables connected.One last look at the rear—what a great design!Here it is inside: clean and orderly, with its fans, SFP+ card, disk controller and battery, backplane, processors, and memory. I couldn’t resist looking under the hood. It’s a beast!
That’s my first impression of the hardware and first power-on.
The build quality is excellent—Supermicro’s best. Along with high-quality drives offering great capacity and speed!
Next time: booting the OS, integrating it with Veeam VBR 12.1, and sharing first tests and impressions.
I’ll show you the front panel again; I think it looks beautiful! It would look fantastic hanging on the wall of my office like a picture!
