This article will provide details on the requirements and instructions for deploying a Storage Connector in a Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Storage environment.
Virtual Machine Requirements
The Storage Connector is supplied as an RPM installation package file and installed on a separate virtual machine (VM). Each VM, which will be exclusively used to run the Storage Connector application, must meet the following requirements:
- 8GB of RAM
- 8 virtual cores (equivalent of Intel Xeon E5 Family processors, 2.20 GHz )
- A minimum of a 50GB local disk space
Operating System Requirements
Storage connector is supported on the CentOS 7.X 64bit (x64) operating system. For security reasons, all latest security patches must be installed in the host vitual machine. In this deployment, customers are responsible for provisioning the host virtual machine image which serves as the base for the Syncplicity software deployed as an rpm package. The host server OS does not receive system level patches. Therefore, we encourage you to apply your own patching and hardening regimen following the standard operating procedures for your enterprise.
Network configuration
Storage Connector supports Cloud deployment with the following requirements:
- In the VPC network, you must deploy an externally-addressable SSL-offloading load balancer in front of all virtual machines, configured with an SSL certificate that is signed by a Certificate Authority (CA). Self-signed certificates are not supported.
- The Storage Connector instances should be inside the private subnet.
- Proper firewall rules (security groups) must be created to allow access to the load balancer and to the Storage Connector instances.
The following diagram shows an example configuration.
Storage Connector requires specific inbound and outbound ports to be open, as specified in the following sections.
Inbound port requirements
To enable Syncplicity clients to connect to the Storage Connector application from the Internet, the following inbound ports must be open.
| Connection | Port # | Protocol |
|---|---|---|
From the Internet to the Load balancer. | 443 | HTTPS |
From the Load Balancer to the Storage Connector virtual machines. | 9000 | HTTP |
From trusted hosts used to manage the Storage Connector to the Storage Connector virtual machines. | 22 | TCP |
Known Limitations:
Best practice for inbound traffic from all endpoints to the Storage Connector instances is to terminate SSL traffic at a front-end load balancer. This optimizes the performance of Storage Connector by transferring the workload of SSL termination to the load balancer. When using the Azure Application Gateway to perform Load Balancing, a limitation was identified where the Application Gateway is only able to process file downloads no larger than 30MB per file. Third-party Load Balancers are available in Azure and can be used as an alternative.
Outbound Port Requirements
Outbound traffic on port 443 must be allowed to all external hosts. If this is not possible in your environment, verify that the outbound traffic is enabled at least to the hosts described in the table below.
| Connection | Port # | Protocol |
|---|---|---|
From the Storage Connector virtual machines to xml.syncplicity.com, xml.eu.syncplicity.com, api.syncplicity.com, api.eu.syncplicity.com, health.syncplicity.com and health.eu.syncplicity.com | 443 | HTTPS |
From the Syncplicity Storage Connector virtual machines to centos.org. Note: Only required during the OS update procedure to allow for RPM dependency. | 80 | HTTP |
Microsoft Azure blob storage network requirements
To enable the Storage Connector application to connect to Microsoft Azure blob storage, the following outbound port must be open.
| Connection | Port # | Protocol |
|---|---|---|
From the Storage Connector virtual machines to Microsoft Azure blob storage endpoints | 443 | HTTPS |
Google Cloud Storage network requirements
To enable the Storage Connector application to connect to Google Cloud Storage, the following outbound port must be open.
| Connection | Port # | Protocol |
|---|---|---|
From the Storage Connector virtual machines to Google Cloud Storage authentication/storage request endpoints | 443 | HTTPS |
Installing Storage Connector
Important Note: Before proceeding with the following steps, you must contact Syncplicity Technical Support, as the RPM is no longer available for download.
Note: Port 80 must be open from each Storage Connector server to centos.org to allow for RPM dependency checks. Accept all dependencies.
The following steps should be done on each VM where you want to run the Storage Connector.
- Using an SSH client, log into each Storage Connector server. Make sure you are logged in as the root user.
- Run the following command to navigate to the destination directory where you want the RPM file to be downloaded.
cd directory_path_name - Download the RPM file by typing the following command:
wgethttps://<file_location_as_provided_by_syncplicity_support>. - Run the following command to install the software:
yum install syncp-storage.noarch.rpm
Configuring Storage Connector
To complete the installation, you need to edit the syncp-storage.conf file and start the service as described in Configure the Storage Connector.