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16.6. Storage Devices

You can install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on a large variety of storage devices. This screen allows you to select either basic or specialized storage devices.
Storage devices
Screen to select basic or specialized storage devices
Figure 16.1. Storage devices

Basic Storage Devices
Select Basic Storage Devices to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the following storage devices:
  • hard drives or solid-state drives connected directly to the local system.
Specialized Storage Devices
Select Specialized Storage Devices to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the following storage devices:
  • Storage area networks (SANs)
  • Direct access storage devices (DASDs)
  • Firmware RAID devices
  • Multipath devices
Use the Specialized Storage Devices option to configure Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) and FCoE (Fiber Channel over Ethernet) connections.
If you select Basic Storage Devices, anaconda automatically detects the local storage attached to the system and does not require further input from you. Proceed to Section 16.8, “Setting the Hostname”.

16.6.1.  The Storage Devices Selection Screen

The storage devices selection screen displays all storage devices to which anaconda has access.
Select storage devices — Basic devices
The Basic Devices tab
Figure 16.2. Select storage devices — Basic devices

Select storage devices — Multipath Devices
The Multipath Devices tab
Figure 16.3. Select storage devices — Multipath Devices

Select storage devices — Other SAN Devices
The Other SAN Devices tab
Figure 16.4. Select storage devices — Other SAN Devices

Devices are grouped under the following tabs:
Basic Devices
Basic storage devices directly connected to the local system, such as hard disk drives and solid-state drives.
Firmware RAID
Storage devices attached to a firmware RAID controller.
Multipath Devices
Storage devices accessible through more than one path, such as through multiple SCSI controllers or Fiber Channel ports on the same system.

Important — device serial numbers must be 16 or 32 characters

The installer only detects multipath storage devices with serial numbers that are 16 or 32 characters in length.
Other SAN Devices
Any other devices available on a storage area network (SAN).
If you do need to configure iSCSI or FCoE storage, click Add Advanced Target and refer to Section 16.6.1.1, “ Advanced Storage Options ”.
The storage devices selection screen also contains a Search tab that allows you to filter storage devices either by their World Wide Identifier (WWID) or by the port, target, or logical unit number (LUN) at which they are accessed.
The Storage Devices Search Tab
The tab contains a drop-down menu to select between searching by port, target, and LUN (with corresponding text boxes for these values) and searching by WWID (with a corresponding text box for this value).
Figure 16.5. The Storage Devices Search Tab

The tab contains a drop-down menu to select searching by port, target, WWID, or LUN (with corresponding text boxes for these values). Searching by WWID or LUN requires additional values in the corresponding text box.
Each tab presents a list of devices detected by anaconda, with information about the device to help you to identify it. A small drop-down menu marked with an icon is located to the right of the column headings. This menu allows you to select the types of data presented on each device. For example, the menu on the Multipath Devices tab allows you to specify any of WWID, Capacity, Vendor, Interconnect, and Paths to include among the details presented for each device. Reducing or expanding the amount of information presented might help you to identify particular devices.
Selecting Columns
The drop-down menu in its expanded state
Figure 16.6. Selecting Columns

Each device is presented on a separate row, with a checkbox to its left. Click the checkbox to make a device available during the installation process, or click the radio button at the left of the column headings to select or deselect all the devices listed in a particular screen. Later in the installation process, you can choose to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux onto any of the devices selected here, and can choose to automatically mount any of the other devices selected here as part of the installed system.
Note that the devices that you select here are not automatically erased by the installation process. Selecting a device on this screen does not, in itself, place data stored on the device at risk. Note also that any devices that you do not select here to form part of the installed system can be added to the system after installation by modifying the /etc/fstab file.

Important — chain loading

Any storage devices that you do not select on this screen are hidden from anaconda entirely. To chain load the Red Hat Enterprise Linux boot loader from a different boot loader, select all the devices presented in this screen.
when you have selected the storage devices to make available during installation, click Next and proceed to Section 16.12, “Initializing the Hard Disk”

16.6.1.1.  Advanced Storage Options

From this screen you can configure an iSCSI (SCSI over TCP/IP) target or FCoE (Fibre channel over ethernet) SAN (storage area network). Refer to Appendix B, ISCSI disks for an introduction to iSCSI.
Advanced Storage Options
Advanced Storage Options.
Figure 16.7. Advanced Storage Options

16.6.1.1.1. Select and configure a network interface
If a network interface is not already active on the system, anaconda must activate one through which to connect to the storage devices. If your system has only a single network interface, anaconda automatically activates it. However, if your system has more than one network interface available, anaconda prompts you with the Select network interface dialog to choose one to use during installation.
Select network interface
The Select network interface dialog.
Figure 16.8. Select network interface

  1. Select an interface from the drop-down menu.
  2. Click OK.
Anaconda activates the interface that you selected, then starts NetworkManager to allow you to configure the interface.
Network Connections
Configuring network connections.
Figure 16.9. Network Connections

For details of how to use NetworkManager, refer to Section 16.8, “Setting the Hostname”
16.6.1.1.2. Configure iSCSI parameters
To use iSCSI storage devices for the installation, anaconda must be able to discover them as iSCSI targets and be able to create an iSCSI session to access them. Each of these steps might require a username and password for CHAP (Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol) authentication. Additionally, you can configure an iSCSI target to authenticate the iSCSI initiator on the system to which the target is attached (reverse CHAP), both for discovery and for the session. Used together, CHAP and reverse CHAP are called mutual CHAP or two-way CHAP. Mutual CHAP provides the greatest level of security for iSCSI connections, particularly if the username and password are different for CHAP authentication and reverse CHAP authentication.
Repeat the iSCSI discovery and iSCSI login steps as many times as necessary to add all required iSCSI storage. However, you cannot change the name of the iSCSI initiator after you attempt discovery for the first time. To change the iSCSI initiator name, you must restart the installation.
Procedure 16.1. iSCSI discovery
Use the iSCSI Discovery Details dialog to provide anaconda with the information that it needs to discover the iSCSI target.
The iSCSI Discovery Details dialog
The iSCSI Discovery Details dialog. It shows an example target IP address of 192.168.0.108 and an example iSCSI initiator name of iqn.1994-05.com.domain:01b1b85d.
Figure 16.10. The iSCSI Discovery Details dialog

  1. Enter the IP address of the iSCSI target in the Target IP Address field.
  2. Provide a name in the iSCSI Initiator Name field for the iSCSI initiator in iSCSI qualified name (IQN) format.
    A valid IQN contains:
    • the string iqn. (note the period)
    • a date code that specifies the year and month in which your organization's Internet domain or subdomain name was registered, represented as four digits for the year, a dash, and two digits for the month, followed by a period. For example, represent September 2010 as 2010-09.
    • your organization's Internet domain or subdomain name, presented in reverse order with the top-level domain first. For example, represent the subdomain storage.example.com as com.example.storage
    • a colon followed by a string that uniquely identifies this particular iSCSI initiator within your domain or subdomain. For example, :diskarrays-sn-a8675309.
    A complete IQN therefore resembles: iqn.2010-09.storage.example.com:diskarrays-sn-a8675309, and anaconda pre-populates the iSCSI Initiator Name field with a name in this format to help you with the structure.
    For more information on IQNs, refer to 3.2.6. iSCSI Names in RFC 3720 - Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) available from http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3720#section-3.2.6 and 1. iSCSI Names and Addresses in RFC 3721 - Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) Naming and Discovery available from http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3721#section-1.
  3. Use the drop-down menu to specify the type of authentication to use for iSCSI discovery:
    iSCSI discovery authentication
    The three types of discovery authentication available: no credentials, CHAP pair, and CHAP pair and a reverse pair.
    Figure 16.11. iSCSI discovery authentication

    • no credentials
    • CHAP pair
    • CHAP pair and a reverse pair
    • If you selected CHAP pair as the authentication type, provide the username and password for the iSCSI target in the CHAP Username and CHAP Password fields.
      CHAP pair
      The iSCSI Discovery Details dialog with CHAP pair selected as the authentication type. Fields are displayed for username and password.
      Figure 16.12. CHAP pair

    • If you selected CHAP pair and a reverse pair as the authentication type, provide the username and password for the iSCSI target in the CHAP Username and CHAP Password field and the username and password for the iSCSI initiator in the Reverse CHAP Username and Reverse CHAP Password fields.
      CHAP pair and a reverse pair
      The iSCSI Discovery Details dialog with CHAP pair and a reverse pair selected as the authentication type. Fields are displayed for CHAP username, CHAP password, reverse CHAP username, and reverse CHAP password.
      Figure 16.13. CHAP pair and a reverse pair

  5. Click Start Discovery. Anaconda attempts to discover an iSCSI target based on the information that you provided. If discovery succeeds, the iSCSI Discovered Nodes dialog presents you with a list of all the iSCSI nodes discovered on the target.
  6. Each node is presented with a checkbox beside it. Click the checkboxes to select the nodes to use for installation.
    The iSCSI Discovered Nodes dialog
    The iSCSI Discovered Nodes dialog displays a list of nodes with checkboxes beside them. This example shows only a single node, discovered at iqn.2009-02.com.example:for.all.
    Figure 16.14. The iSCSI Discovered Nodes dialog

  7. Click Login to initiate an iSCSI session.
Procedure 16.2. Starting an iSCSI session
Use the iSCSI Nodes Login dialog to provide anaconda with the information that it needs to log into the nodes on the iSCSI target and start an iSCSI session.
The iSCSI Nodes Login dialog
The iSCSI Nodes Login dialog.
Figure 16.15. The iSCSI Nodes Login dialog

  1. Use the drop-down menu to specify the type of authentication to use for the iSCSI session:
    iSCSI session authentication
    The three types of session authentication available: no credentials, CHAP pair, and CHAP pair and a reverse pair, plus the option to use the same credentials that were used for iSCSI discovery.
    Figure 16.16. iSCSI session authentication

    • no credentials
    • CHAP pair
    • CHAP pair and a reverse pair
    • Use the credentials from the discovery step
    If your environment uses the same type of authentication and same username and password for iSCSI discovery and for the iSCSI session, select Use the credentials from the discovery step to reuse these credentials.
    • If you selected CHAP pair as the authentication type, provide the username and password for the iSCSI target in the CHAP Username and CHAP Password fields.
      CHAP pair
      The iSCSI Node Login dialog with CHAP pair selected as the authentication type. Fields are displayed for username and password.
      Figure 16.17. CHAP pair

    • If you selected CHAP pair and a reverse pair as the authentication type, provide the username and password for the iSCSI target in the CHAP Username and CHAP Password fields and the username and password for the iSCSI initiator in the Reverse CHAP Username and Reverse CHAP Password fields.
      CHAP pair and a reverse pair
      The iSCSI Node Login dialog with CHAP pair and a reverse pair selected as the authentication type. Fields are displayed for CHAP username, CHAP password, reverse CHAP username, and reverse CHAP password.
      Figure 16.18. CHAP pair and a reverse pair

  3. Click Login. Anaconda attempts to log into the nodes on the iSCSI target based on the information that you provided. The iSCSI Login Results dialog presents you with the results.
    The iSCSI Login Results dialog
    The iSCSI Login Results dialog displays a list of attached nodes. This example shows only a single node attached, iqn.2009-02.com.example:for.all.
    Figure 16.19. The iSCSI Login Results dialog

  4. Click OK to continue.
16.6.1.1.3.  Configure FCoE Parameters
To configure an FCoE SAN, select Add FCoE SAN and click Add Drive.
On the menu that appears in the next dialog box, select the network interface that is connected to your FCoE switch and click Add FCoE Disk(s).
Configure FCoE Parameters
Configure FCoE Parameters
Figure 16.20. Configure FCoE Parameters

Data Center Bridging (DCB) is a set of enhancements to the Ethernet protocols designed to increase the efficiency of Ethernet connections in storage networks and clusters. Enable or disable the installer's awareness of DCB with the checkbox in this dialog.