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Connect file storage to a cloud server in another pool
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Connect file storage to a cloud server in another pool

If you plan to use file storage to store backups, we recommend pooling the storage and cloud server from different availability zones or regions. This will increase the fault tolerance of the system. If the file storage and cloud server are located in different pools, you must configure private network connectivity at the L3 level through a global router to connect the storage.

  1. Create a global router.

  2. Connect the network and subnet for the cloud server to the global router.

  3. Connect the network and subnet for the file storage to the global router.

  4. Assign an IP address to the cloud server.

  5. Write routes on the cloud server.

  6. Create file storage.

  7. Mount the file storage to the cloud server.

See an example of connecting file storage to a cloud server in a different pool.

The instructions describe connection examples for cloud servers with Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS and Windows operating systems. Instructions for servers running VMware ESXi, Proxmox and FreeNAS are in the Selectel Selectel File Storage blog article.

If you need to increase disk space with your file storage, we recommend creating the storage in the same pool as the cloud server. For more information, see Connect file storage to a cloud server in the same pool.

Example of connecting file storage to a cloud server⁠

For example, you need to connect file storage in pool ru-2 to a cloud server in pool ru-8.

  1. Create a global router.

  2. Connect two private networks to the global router — 192.168.0.0.0/29 with gateway 192.168.0.1 for pool ru-8 and 172.16.0.0.0/29 with gateway 172.16.0.1 for pool ru-2.

  3. Assign an address from the 192.168.0.0.0/29 subnet to the cloud server, such as 192.168.0.2.

  4. Write a route on the cloud server in the ru-8 pool — to subnet 172.16.0.0.0/29 via gateway 192.168.0.1.

  5. Create a file store on the 172.16.0.0.0/29 subnet.

  6. Mount the file storage to the cloud server.

1. Create a global router⁠

  1. In the Control Panel, on the top menu, click Products and select Global Router.
  2. Click Create router. Each account has a limit of five global routers.
  3. Enter the name of the router.
  4. Click Create.
  5. If the router is created with ERROR status or hangs in one of the statuses, create a ticket.

2. Connect the network and subnet for the cloud server to the router⁠

For your information

If the cloud platform network is connected to a global router, you can only manage it on the global router page.

You need to connect the network and subnet to the global router up to the project and cloud platform pool where the cloud server is created.

You can connect a new network to the router or an existing network if it is not already connected to any of the account's global routers.

  1. In the Control Panel, on the top menu, click Products and select Global Router.

  2. Open the router page → Networks tab.

  3. Enter a network name, this will only be used in the control panel.

  4. Select a Cloud Platform service.

  5. Select a pool.

  6. Select a project.

  7. Enter the subnet name — this will only be used in the control panel.

  8. Enter the CIDR — IP address and subnet mask. The subnet must meet the conditions:

    • belong to the RFC 1918 private address range: 10.0.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0.0/12, or 192.168.0.0.0/16;
    • have a size of at least /29, as three addresses will be occupied by Selectel network equipment;
    • Do not overlap with other subnets added to this router: The IP addresses of each subnet on the router must not overlap with the IP addresses of other subnets on the router;
    • If Managed Kubernetes nodes are included in the global router network, the subnet must not overlap with the ranges 10.250.0.0.0/16, 10.10.0.0.0/16 and 10.96.0.0.0/12. These subnets participate in the internal addressing of Managed Kubernetes and their use can cause conflicts in the global router network.

  9. Enter the gateway IP address or leave the first address from the subnet assigned by default. Do not assign this address to your devices to avoid disrupting the network.

  10. Enter a service IP address or leave the last addresses from the subnet assigned by default. Do not assign these addresses to your devices to avoid disrupting the network.

  11. Click Create Network.

  12. Optional: Check the network topology on the global router. In the control panel, from the top menu, click Products → Global Router → Router Page → Network Map.

3. Connect a network and subnet to the router for file storage⁠

For your information

If the cloud platform network is connected to a global router, you can only manage it on the global router page.

You need to connect the network and subnet to the global router up to the project and cloud platform pool where the file storage will be created in the future.

You can connect a new network to the router or an existing network if it is not already connected to any of the account's global routers.

  1. In the Control Panel, on the top menu, click Products and select Global Router.

  2. Open the router page → Networks tab.

  3. Click Create Network.

  4. Enter a network name, this will only be used in the control panel.

  5. Select a Cloud Platform service.

  6. Select the pool where the file storage will be created.

  7. Select the project where the file storage will be created.

  8. Enter the subnet name — this will only be used in the control panel.

  9. Enter the CIDR — IP address and subnet mask. The subnet must meet the conditions:

    • belong to the RFC 1918 private address range: 10.0.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0.0/12, or 192.168.0.0.0/16;
    • have a size of at least /29, as three addresses will be occupied by Selectel network equipment;
    • Do not overlap with other subnets added to this router: The IP addresses of each subnet on the router must not overlap with the IP addresses of other subnets on the router;
    • If Managed Kubernetes nodes are included in the global router network, the subnet must not overlap with the ranges 10.250.0.0.0/16, 10.10.0.0.0/16 and 10.96.0.0.0/12. These subnets participate in the internal addressing of Managed Kubernetes and their use can cause conflicts in the global router network.

  10. Enter the gateway IP address or leave the first address from the subnet assigned by default. Do not assign this address to your devices to avoid disrupting the network.

  11. Enter a service IP address or leave the last addresses from the subnet assigned by default. Do not assign these addresses to your devices to avoid disrupting the network.

  12. Click Create Network.

  13. Optional: Check the network topology on the global router. In the control panel, from the top menu, click Products → Global Router → Router Page → Network Map.

4. Assign an IP address to the cloud server⁠

Configure a local port on the cloud server that is included in the global router network. On the port, assign an IP address from the subnet you created on the global router for the corresponding pool.

  1. Add the cloud server to the created subnet of the global router. If you do not already have a cloud server, create one. When creating it, select the global router subnet as the subnet.

  2. Apply changes depending on the port parameter Apply changes. You can view the value of the parameter in the control panel: from the top menu, click Products → Cloud Servers → Cloud Server page → Ports tab → Ports Configuration block:

    • When the server reboots. — programmatically reboot the cloud server or manually make changes to the network configuration file on the server;
    • Manually in the network configuration file on the server — Manually make changes to the network configuration file on the server.

5. Prescribe routes on the cloud server⁠

If you create a new server and add it to an existing global router network, you do not need to specify routes. In this case, the server will be immediately available to other devices on the network.

If you are adding an existing server to a global router network, it must have static routes to all subnets with which you want connectivity.

  1. Connect to the cloud server.

  2. Disable network configuration. To do this, create the file 99-disable-network-config.cfg:

    echo "network: {config: disabled}" >> /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg

  3. Open the configuration file:

    vi /etc/network/interfaces.d/50-cloud-init.cfg

  4. Locate the data block of the corresponding network interface.

  5. At the end of this block, add a route:

    up route add -net <ip_address> netmask <mask> gw <gateway>

    Specify:

    • <ip_address> — the subnet to which you want to route, e.g. 192.168.0.0;
    • <mask> — mask of the subnet to which the route is to be routed, e.g. 255.255.255.0;
    • <gateway> — gateway for the current server subnet, which is specified on the global router.

  6. If you need to prescribe multiple routes, add them sequentially in the same block.

  7. Restart the server.

6. Create file storage⁠

  1. In the Control Panel, on the top menu, click Products and select File Storage.

  2. Click Create Storage.

  3. Enter a name for the repository or leave the name that is automatically created.

  4. Select the region and pool segment where the storage will be created.

    If you need to increase disk space with file storage, select a pool segment from the pool that hosts the cloud server or Managed Kubernetes cluster.

    If you plan to use storage to store backups, we recommend selecting a pool segment from a different availability zone or region to improve fault tolerance.

  5. Fill in the blocks:

  6. Check out the price of file storage.

  7. Click Create.

Subnetwork⁠

  1. Select the private subnet where the storage will be located. The type of subnet depends on what you want to connect the storage to:

    • cloud private subnet — the storage will be available to Managed Kubernetes cloud servers and clusters only in the pool you selected when creating the storage. You will only need to mount the storage to connect it;
    • global router subnet — the storage will be available for dedicated servers, as well as cloud servers and Managed Kubernetes clusters that are located in other pools. To connect the storage, you need to configure network connectivity between the server or cluster and the storage through the global router. See the Connect File Storage section for examples of how to configure network connectivity.

    Once the repository is created, the subnet cannot be changed.

  2. Enter a private IP address for the vault or leave the first available address from the subnet assigned by default. Once the storage is created, the IP address cannot be changed.

Settings⁠

  1. Select the type of file storage:

    • HDD Basic,
    • SSD Universal,
    • SSD Fast.

    Once created, the storage type cannot be changed.

  2. Specify the storage size: from 50 GB to 50 TB. Once created, you can increase the file storage, but you cannot decrease it.

  3. Select a protocol:

    • NFSv4 — for connecting storage to servers with Linux-based OS and other Unix systems;
    • CIFS SMBv3 — for connecting the storage to Windows servers.

    Once the repository is created, the protocol cannot be changed.

Access rules⁠

  1. Configure the file storage access rules:

    • available to all — the storage will be available to any IP address of the private subnet in which it is created;
    • access restricted — the storage will be available only to specific IP addresses or private subnets. If you create a file storage without rules, access will be restricted to all IP addresses.

  2. If you selected Restricted Access, click Add Rule.

  3. Enter the IP address or CIDR of the private subnet, select the access level.

    After creating the repository, you can configure new access rules.

7. Mount the file storage to the cloud server⁠

The mount process depends on the operating system on the server and the file storage protocol: NFSv4 or CIFS SMBv3.

  1. Connect to the cloud server.

  2. Open the CLI.

  3. Install the NFS protocol package:

    sudo apt install nfs-common

  4. Create a folder to mount the repository:

    sudo mkdir -p /mnt/nfs

  5. Mount the file storage:

    sudo mount -vt nfs "<filestorage_ip_address>:/shares/share-<mountpoint_uuid>" /mnt/nfs

    Specify:

    • <filestorage_ip_address> — IP address of the file storage. You can view it in control panel: in the top menu, click Products → File Storage → Storage page → tab Settings → field IP;
    • <mountpoint_uuuid> — The ID of the mountpoint. You can look in control panel: in the top menu, click Products → File Storage → Storage page → Block Connection → tab GNU/Linux.