Installing oVirt as a self-hosted engine using the Cockpit web interface

Install the NFS utils package.

# dnf install nfs-utils -y

To check the enabled versions:

# cat /proc/fs/nfsd/versions

Enable the following services:

# systemctl enable nfs-server
# systemctl enable rpcbind

Create the group kvm:

# groupadd kvm -g 36

Create the user vdsm in the group kvm:

# useradd vdsm -u 36 -g kvm

Create the storage directory and modify the access rights.

# mkdir /storage
# chmod 0755 /storage
# chown 36:36 /storage/

Add the storage directory to /etc/exports with the relevant permissions.

# vi /etc/exports
# cat /etc/exports
 /storage *(rw)

Restart the following services:

# systemctl restart rpcbind
# systemctl restart nfs-server

To see which export are available for a specific IP address:

# exportfs
 /nfs_server/srv
               10.46.11.3/24
 /nfs_server       <world>

Create a new configuration file in the /etc/multipath/conf.d/user.conf directory.

Copy the individual setting you want to override from /etc/multipath.conf to the new configuration file in /etc/multipath/conf.d/user.conf. Remove any comment marks, edit the setting values, and save your changes.

Apply the new configuration settings by entering:

# systemctl reload multipathd

Visit the oVirt Node Download page.

Choose the version of oVirt Node to download and click its Installation ISO link.

Write the oVirt Node Installation ISO disk image to a USB, CD, or DVD.

Start the machine on which you are installing oVirt Node, booting from the prepared installation media.

From the boot menu, select Install oVirt Node 4.4 and press Enter.

Select a language, and click Continue.

Select a keyboard layout from the Keyboard Layout screen and click Done.

Select the device on which to install oVirt Node from the Installation Destination screen. Optionally, enable encryption. Click Done.

Select a time zone from the Time & Date screen and click Done.

Select a network from the Network & Host Name screen and click Configure…​ to configure the connection details.

Optionally configure Language Support, Security Policy, and Kdump. See Customizing your RHEL installation using the GUI in Performing a standard RHEL installation for _Enterprise Linux 8 for more information on each of the sections in the Installation Summary screen.

Click Begin Installation.

Set a root password and, optionally, create an additional user while oVirt Node installs.

Click Reboot to complete the installation.

The installer installs the Engine Appliance to the deployment host.

The appliance installs the Engine virtual machine.

The appliance installs the Engine on the Engine virtual machine.

On Enterprise Linux hosts:

Synchronize installed packages to update them to the latest available versions:

# dnf distro-sync --nobest

Install the Engine Appliance to the host manually:

# dnf install ovirt-engine-appliance

Start firewalld:

# systemctl unmask firewalld
# systemctl start firewalld

# systemctl enable firewalld

Ensure that firewalld is running:

# systemctl status firewalld

Ensure that your management interface is in a firewall zone via

# firewall-cmd --get-active-zones

Log in to Cockpit at https://HostIPorFQDN:9090 and click Virtualization  Hosted Engine.

Click Start under the Hosted Engine option.

Enter the details for the Engine virtual machine:

Optionally expand the Advanced fields:

Click Next.

Enter and confirm the Admin Portal Password for the admin@internal user.

Configure event notifications:

Click Next.

Review the configuration of the Engine and its virtual machine. If the details are correct, click Prepare VM.

(Optional) If you selected Pause Host, the deployment pauses after adding the deployment host to the Engine and displays a message on the Prepare VM screen similar to Pause execution until /tmp/ansible.<id>_he_setup_lock is removed, delete it once you are ready to proceed.

$ ssh root@manager.example.com

When the virtual machine and Engine installation is complete, click Next.

Select the Storage Type from the drop-down list, and enter the details for the self-hosted engine storage domain:

Click Next.

Review the storage configuration. If the details are correct, click Finish Deployment.

When the deployment is complete, click Close.

Optionally, add a directory server using the ovirt-engine-extension-aaa-ldap-setup interactive setup script so you can add additional users to the environment. For more information, see Configuring an External LDAP Provider in the Administration Guide.

Optionally, deploy Grafana so you can monitor and display reports from your oVirt environment. For more information, see Configuring Grafana in the Administration Guide.

Enable the javapackages-tools module.

# dnf module -y javapackages-tools

Enable the pki-deps module.

# dnf module -y enable pki-deps

Enable version 12 of the postgresql module.

# dnf module -y enable postgresql:12

Synchronize installed packages to update them to the latest available versions.

# dnf distro-sync --nobest

In a web browser, navigate to https://manager-fqdn/ovirt-engine, replacing manager-fqdn with the FQDN that you provided during installation.

# vi /etc/ovirt-engine/engine.conf.d/99-custom-sso-setup.conf
SSO_ALTERNATE_ENGINE_FQDNS="alias1.example.com alias2.example.com"

Click Administration Portal. An SSO login page displays. SSO login enables you to log in to the Administration and VM Portal at the same time.

Enter your User Name and Password. If you are logging in for the first time, use the user name admin along with the password that you specified during installation.

Select the Domain to authenticate against. If you are logging in using the internal admin user name, select the internal domain.

Click Log In.

You can view the Administration Portal in multiple languages. The default selection is chosen based on the locale settings of your web browser. If you want to view the Administration Portal in a language other than the default, select your preferred language from the drop-down list on the welcome page.

In the Administration Portal, click Compute  Hosts.

Click New.

Use the drop-down list to select the Data Center and Host Cluster for the new host.

Enter the Name and the Address of the new host. The standard SSH port, port 22, is auto-filled in the SSH Port field.

Select an authentication method to use for the Engine to access the host.

Optionally, configure power management, where the host has a supported power management card. For information on power management configuration, see Host Power Management Settings Explained in the Administration Guide.

Click the Hosted Engine tab.

Select Deploy.

Click OK.

From the Administration Portal, click Compute  Hosts.

Click New.

Use the drop-down list to select the Data Center and Host Cluster for the new host.

Enter the Name and the Address of the new host. The standard SSH port, port 22, is auto-filled in the SSH Port field.

Select an authentication method to use for the Engine to access the host.

Optionally, click the Advanced Parameters button to change the following advanced host settings:

Optionally configure power management, where the host has a supported power management card. For information on power management configuration, see Host Power Management Settings Explained in the Administration Guide.

Click OK.

In the Administration Portal, click Storage  Domains.

Click New Domain.

Enter a Name for the storage domain.

Accept the default values for the Data Center, Domain Function, Storage Type, Format, and Host lists.

Enter the Export Path to be used for the storage domain. The export path should be in the format of 123.123.0.10:/data (for IPv4), [2001:0:0:0:0:0:0:5db1]:/data (for IPv6), or domain.example.com:/data.

Optionally, you can configure the advanced parameters:

Click OK.

Click Storage  Domains.

Click New Domain.

Enter the Name of the new storage domain.

Select a Data Center from the drop-down list.

Select Data as the Domain Function and iSCSI as the Storage Type.

Select an active host as the Host.

The Engine can map iSCSI targets to LUNs or LUNs to iSCSI targets. The New Domain window automatically displays known targets with unused LUNs when the iSCSI storage type is selected. If the target that you are using to add storage does not appear, you can use target discovery to find it; otherwise proceed to the next step.

Click the + button next to the desired target. This expands the entry and displays all unused LUNs attached to the target.

Select the check box for each LUN that you are using to create the storage domain.

Optionally, you can configure the advanced parameters:

Click OK.

Click Storage  Domains.

Click New Domain.

Enter the Name of the storage domain.

Select an FCP Data Center from the drop-down list.

Select the Domain Function and the Storage Type from the drop-down lists. The storage domain types that are not compatible with the chosen data center are not available.

Select an active host in the Host field. If this is not the first data domain in a data center, you must select the data center’s SPM host.

The New Domain window automatically displays known targets with unused LUNs when Fibre Channel is selected as the storage type. Select the LUN ID check box to select all of the available LUNs.

Optionally, you can configure the advanced parameters.

Click OK.

If the Engine virtual machine is up and running as normal, you will see the following output:

--== Host 1 status ==--

Status up-to-date              : True
Hostname                       : hypervisor.example.com
Host ID                        : 1
Engine status                  : {"health": "good", "vm": "up", "detail": "up"}
Score                          : 3400
stopped                        : False
Local maintenance              : False
crc32                          : 99e57eba
Host timestamp                 : 248542

If the output is normal but you cannot connect to the Engine, check the network connection.

If the health is bad and the vm is up, the HA services will try to restart the Engine virtual machine to get the Engine back. If it does not succeed within a few minutes, enable the global maintenance mode from the command line so that the hosts are no longer managed by the HA services.

# hosted-engine --set-maintenance --mode=global

Connect to the console. When prompted, enter the operating system’s root password. For more console options, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/2221461.

# hosted-engine --console

Ensure that the Engine virtual machine’s operating system is running by logging in.

Check the status of the ovirt-engine service:

# systemctl status -l ovirt-engine
# journalctl -u ovirt-engine

Check the following logs: /var/log/messages, /var/log/ovirt-engine/engine.log, and /var/log/ovirt-engine/server.log.

After fixing the issue, reboot the Engine virtual machine manually from one of the self-hosted engine nodes:

# hosted-engine --vm-shutdown
# hosted-engine --vm-start

On the Engine virtual machine, verify that the ovirt-engine service is up and running:

 # systemctl status ovirt-engine.service

After ensuring the Engine virtual machine is up and running, close the console session and disable the maintenance mode to enable the HA services again:

# hosted-engine --set-maintenance --mode=none

If you have more than one host in your environment, ensure that another host is not currently trying to restart the Engine virtual machine.

Ensure that you are not in global maintenance mode.

Check the ovirt-ha-agent logs in /var/log/ovirt-hosted-engine-ha/agent.log.

Try to reboot the Engine virtual machine manually from one of the self-hosted engine nodes:

# hosted-engine --vm-shutdown
# hosted-engine --vm-start

Check the VDSM logs in /var/log/vdsm/vdsm.log.

Check the ovirt-ha-agent logs in /var/log/ovirt-hosted-engine-ha/agent.log.

Check the status of ovirt-ha-agent on the host:

# systemctl status -l ovirt-ha-agent
# journalctl -u ovirt-ha-agent

If the ovirt-ha-agent is down, restart it:

# systemctl start ovirt-ha-agent

Check the ovirt-ha-agent logs in /var/log/ovirt-hosted-engine-ha/agent.log.

Check that you can ping the shared storage.

Check whether the shared storage is mounted.

Run /usr/sbin/ovirt-hosted-engine-cleanup and select y to remove anything left over from the failed self-hosted engine deployment.

# /usr/sbin/ovirt-hosted-engine-cleanup
This will de-configure the host to run ovirt-hosted-engine-setup from scratch.
Caution, this operation should be used with care.
Are you sure you want to proceed? [y/n]

Define whether to reinstall on the same shared storage device or select a different shared storage device.

Redeploy the self-hosted engine.

Run modprobe to remove any currently-loaded module:

# modprobe -r <module name>

If the module cannot be unloaded, a process or another module might still be using the module. If so, terminate the process and run the modpole command written above another time to unload the module.