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Connect file storage to a dedicated server
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Connect file storage to a dedicated server

The file storage and the dedicated server are always in different pools Therefore, to connect file storage to a dedicated server, you must configure private network connectivity at the L3 level through the global router.

For your information

Some dedicated server configurations Chipcore Line cannot be added to the global router's network because they do not have a port to connect to the private network. You can check the availability of a port for the private network in the control panels: from the top menu, press Products and select Dedicated servers → Servers → server page → tab Ports.

  1. Create a global router.

  2. Connect the network and subnet to the global router up to the VLAN of the dedicated server.

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

  4. Assign an IP address to the dedicated server.

  5. Write routes on a dedicated server.

  6. Create file storage.

  7. Mount the file storage to a dedicated server.

Check it out example of connecting file storage to a dedicated server.

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

Example of connecting file storage to a dedicated server⁠

For example, you want to connect file storage in the ru-2 pool to a dedicated server in the SPB-2 pool.

  1. Create a global router.

  2. Connect two private subnets to the global router — 192.168.0.0/29 gateway 192.168.0.1 for the SPB-2 pool and 172.16.0.0/29 gateway 172.16.0.1 for pool ru-2.

  3. Assign an address from a subnet 192.168.0.0/29 on a dedicated server, such as 192.168.0.2.

  4. Write a route on a dedicated server in the SPB-2 pool — to a subnet 172.16.0.0/29 through the gateway 192.168.0.1.

  5. Create file storage on a subnetwork 172.16.0.0/29.

  6. Mount the file storage to a dedicated server.

1. Create a global router⁠

  1. in control panels from the top menu, press Products and select Global router.
  2. Click Create a router. Each account is set limit to five global routers.
  3. Enter the name of the router.
  4. Click Create.
  5. If the router was created with status ERROR or hovered in one of the statuses, file a ticket.

2. Connect the network and subnet to the router to the VLAN of the dedicated server⁠

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 control panels from the top menu, press Products and select Global router.

  2. Open the router page → tab Networks.

  3. Click Create a network.

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

  5. Select a service Servers and hardware.

  6. Select pool.

  7. Select VLAN. If you want to create a network up to the internal segment (Q-in-Q), specify its tag, a number from 2 to 4094. If there is already a network up to the VLAN, be sure to specify the Q-in-Q segment of this VLAN.

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

  9. Enter the CIDR — IP address and private subnet mask. You can enter a new subnet or an existing private subnet of the server if it is not already added to any of the global routers in the account. The subnet must meet the conditions:

    • belong to the RFC 1918 private address range: 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12 or 192.168.0.0/16;
    • 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 will be included in the global router network, the subnet must not overlap with the ranges 10.250.0.0/16, 10.10.0.0/16 and 10.96.0.0/12. These subnets participate in the internal addressing of Managed Kubernetes, their use may cause conflicts in the global router network.

  10. If you have specified a Q-in-Q tag, make sure that customized Q-in-Q. When configuring, use the subnet you specified in step 10.

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

  12. Enter service IPs or leave the last addresses from the subnet assigned by default. Do not assign these addresses to your devices to avoid disrupting the network.

  13. Click Create a network.

  14. Optional: check the network topology on the global router. in control panels from the top menu, press 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 control panels from the top menu, press Products and select Global router.

  2. Open the router page → tab Networks.

  3. Click Create a network.

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

  5. Select a service Cloud platform.

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

  7. Select project This is 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: 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12 or 192.168.0.0/16;
    • 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 will be included in the global router network, the subnet must not overlap with the ranges 10.250.0.0/16, 10.10.0.0/16 and 10.96.0.0/12. These subnets participate in the internal addressing of Managed Kubernetes, their use may cause conflicts in the global router network.

  10. Enter the gateway IP 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 service IPs 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 a network.

  13. Optional: check the network topology on the global router. in control panels from the top menu, press Products → Global router → router page → Network map.

4. Assign an IP address to the dedicated server⁠

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

  1. Connect to the server via SSH or through KVM console.

  2. Open the utility configuration file netplan with the vi text editor:

    vi /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml

  3. Add or change values for the network interface settings of the private network:

        <eth_name>:
                addresses: [<ip_address>/<mask>]

    Specify:

    • <eth_name> — name of the network interface of the private network;
    • <ip_address>/<mask> — private IP address of the server with a subnet mask, e.g. 192.168.0.2/29.

  4. Press the key ESC.

  5. Exit the vi text editor with your changes saved:

    :wq

  6. Apply the configuration:

    netplan apply

  7. Optional: restart the server.

5. Write routes on the dedicated server⁠

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.

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.

  1. Connect to the server via SSH or through KVM console.

  2. Open the network configuration file:

    vi /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml

  3. At the end of the network interface data block, add a route:

    routes:
      - to: <ip_address>/<mask>
        via: <gateway>

    Specify:

    • <ip_address>/<mask> — the subnet to which you want to route, specifying the mask, e.g. 192.168.0.0/29;
    • <gateway> — gateway for the current server subnet, which is specified on the global router.

  4. If you need to prescribe multiple routes, add them sequentially in the same block, for example:

    routes:
    - to: 192.168.0.0/29
        via: 172.16.0.1
    - to: 192.168.1.0/29
        via: 172.16.0.1

  5. Save the file.

  6. Check the settings:

    sudo netplan try

  7. Apply the changes:

    netplan apply

6. Create file storage⁠

  1. in control panels from the top menu, press 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 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. To connect the storage you will only need to mount 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 examples of how to configure network connectivity in the instructions in the section Connect file storage.

    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 file storage type:

    • 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 expand file storage but you can't reduce 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 have selected the option Access is restricted, press Add rule.

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

    Once the storage has been created, you can configure new access rules.

7. Mount the file storage to a dedicated server⁠

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

  1. Connect to a dedicated server.

  2. Open the CLI.

  3. Install the NFS protocol package:

    sudo apt install nfs-common

  4. Create a folder to mount the storage:

    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> — The IP address of the file storage. You can look in control panels: from the top menu, press Products → File storage → storage page → tab Settings → field IP;
    • <mountpoint_uuid> — The ID of the mount point. You can look in control panels: from the top menu, press Products → File storage → storage page → block Connection → tab GNU/Linux.