Install, Upgrade, or Uninstall FlexSync

You can download FlexSync from the StorNext add ons page on the StorNext Connect website.

1. From the StorNext Connect website, browse to the StorNext add ons page. See Download StorNext Add-ons in the StorNext Connect Documentation Center.
2. Click the FlexSync button to download the FlexSync installer file.

   You are prompted to save the file to a local destination.

3. Make note of this destination for the installation process.

After installing the FlexSync application, you need to activate one or both of the FlexSync daemons.

Special Considerations for Metadata Archive

In order to leverage metadata capabilities, you must enable StorNext metadata archive (mdarchive) on the source system, but may be turned off on the destination system, reducing the performance impact on the destination system. Only disable mdarchive on the target system if other features such as file system auditing and online stripe group management, which also use mdarchive, are not needed on the source system. For FlexSync to connect to the source MDC, the hostname/IP pairs of the MDCs need to be in DNS or by adding the mapping to /etc/hosts on both sides of the MDC.

If you plan to have truncated files on your source system and you are running FlexSync 2.1.x (or any prior release), Quantum recommends you set the Metadata Archive Cache Size to a minimum of 8 GiB on your source system (the default is 2 GiB). To configure the Metadata Archive Cache Size, see Edit a File System, expand the Manual Configuration drop-down, and then expand the Configuration Parameters > Features Tab drop-down.

Admin Daemon

The admin daemon (flexsyncadmind) performs centralized management tasks, as follows:

• Provides the management GUI
• Creates tasks
• Provides status

Data Mover Daemon

The data mover daemon (flexsyncd) executes data movement tasks, as follows:

• Initiates the data movement (copy) tasks, based on the defined tasks
• Initiates the first copy task to move all files
• Performs incremental updates
• Creates point-in-time versions of files.

Which Daemon(s) Do I Activate?

The daemons you activate depend upon your StorNext environment and client OS support. See FlexSync Appliance Compatibility.

In addition, your management method will determine the best daemon(s) to activate.

Central Management

If you use a centralized management, without replication on the admin server, only enable the flexsyncadmind daemon.

Local Management

If you use local management, enable both the flexsyncd and the flexsyncadmind daemons.

Activate the FlexSync Daemon(s)

1. Log on to an SSH client, and connect to your system.
2. At the prompt, enter one of the following commands, depending on your RHEL version, to enable the daemon(s):
   For RHEL 6

   chkconfig flexsyncd on

   chkconfig flexsyncadmind on

   For RHEL 7, RHEL 8

   systemctl enable flexsyncd

   systemctl enable flexsyncadmind

   For Debian

   systemctl enable flexsyncd

   systemctl enable flexsyncadmind

   Example Output: Central Management

   Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/flexsyncadmind.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/flexsyncadmind.service

3. At the prompt, enter one of the following commands depending on your RHEL version to activate the daemon:
   For RHEL 6

   service flexsyncd start

   service flexsyncadmind start

   For RHEL 7, RHEL 8

   systemctl start flexsyncd

   systemctl start flexsyncadmind

   For Debian

   systemctl start flexsyncd

   systemctl start flexsyncadmind

After installing FlexSync and enabling the FlexSync daemons, you need to add FlexSync users through the FlexSync CLI.

Considerations

• All FlexSync users have administrator privileges.
• For enhanced security, FlexSync provides Password-Based Key Derivation Function (PBKDF2). With PBKDF2, you must create login credentials before you can log in to the FlexSync GUI. When creating login credentials, keep the following in mind:
  • The username cannot exceed sixteen (16) characters.

  • The password must have a minimum of 8 characters, and cannot exceed 32 characters.

• You must create a user account with each daemon that you have activated.

  Example

  If you have activated both flexsyncd and flexsyncadmin, then you must create an account for the user with each of those daemons.

• After initially adding FlexSync users, you can manage them at any time. Keep in mind that any changes to users are effective immediately, unless a user is already logged in. In that case, updates will not take effect until the user logs out.

Add a FlexSync User

Note: You must create a user account with each daemon that you have activated. If you have activated both flexsyncd and flexsyncadmin, then you must create an account for the user with each of those daemons.

1. Log on to an SSH client, and connect to your system.
2. At the prompt, enter the following command to create a FlexSync user account for the activated FlexSync daemon:

   /opt/quantum/flexsync/bin/flexsyncauth -a -U <USERNAME> -P <PASSWORD> -d <daemon>

   Example

   /opt/quantum/flexsync/bin/flexsyncauth -a -U TJONES -P Tjpassword! -d flexsyncd

Update a FlexSync User's Password

1. Log on to an SSH client, and connect to your system.
2. Change the password for the flexsyncadmind daemon.
   1. At the prompt, enter the following command to update the password for a FlexSync user account:

      /opt/quantum/flexsync/bin/flexsyncauth -a -U <USERNAME> -P <NEW_PASSWORD> -d <daemon>

      Example

      /opt/quantum/flexsync/bin/flexsyncauth -a -U TJONES -P Newpassword! -d flexsyncadmind

   2. If you have an active FlexSync GUI session, then log out of the active session.
   3. Log in to your FlexSync GUI. See Access the FlexSync GUI.
   4. Verify your system and tasks are operational.
3. Use the new password from Step 2 to change the password for the flexsyncd daemon.
   1. At the prompt, enter the following command to update the password for a FlexSync user account:

      /opt/quantum/flexsync/bin/flexsyncauth -a -U <USERNAME> -P <NEW_PASSWORD> -d <daemon>

      Example

      /opt/quantum/flexsync/bin/flexsyncauth -a -U TJONES -P Newpassword! -d flexsyncd

   2. Use the FlexSync GUI to update the password for the host on which the flexsyncd password was changed. See Edit a Host.
      
   3. Verify your system and tasks are operational.

Delete a FlexSync User

1. Log on to an SSH client, and connect to your system.
2. At the prompt, enter the following command to delete a FlexSync user account for the activated FlexSync daemon:

   /opt/quantum/flexsync/bin/flexsyncauth -r -U <USERNAME> -d <daemon>

   Example

   /opt/quantum/flexsync/bin/flexsyncauth -r -U TJONES -d flexsyncd

View the List of Existing FlexSync Users

1. Log on to an SSH client, and connect to your system.
2. At the prompt, enter the following command to view active FlexSync user accounts for the activated FlexSync daemon:

   /opt/quantum/flexsync/bin/flexsyncauth -l -d <daemon>

   Example

   /opt/quantum/flexsync/bin/flexsyncauth -l -d flexsyncd

During the upgrade process, keep the following in mind:

• You need to download the FlexSync distribution package separately to a local directory on your system. FlexSync is not bundled with the StorNext software distribution package.

• FlexSync must be able to resolve the host name of the appliance that is the server for the source file system. Typically, this occurs through your DNS server configuration, or you could add the mapping to the /etc/hosts file on the appliance where the source flexsyncd daemon is running (which might not be the same system as where the file appliance is running).

• You need to upgrade FlexSync on each system using the feature, including the source destination, the target destination, and the managing appliance.

  Note: Mixed versions of FlexSync daemons is not supported and results in a communication error. You must install the same version of FlexSync, or upgrade to the same version of FlexSync on all of the hosts or systems using Flexsync. A newer version of the Flexsync daemon cannot communicate with an older version within a configuration, or on another host or system.

• You do not need to stop StorNext when you upgrade FlexSync.
• After upgrading FlexSync, you need to restart the FlexSync daemons if they were not stopped prior to the upgrade.

• Restart the FlexSync Daemons

  1. Log on to an SSH client, and connect to your system.
  2. At the prompt, enter one of the following commands depending on your RHEL version to restart the daemon:

     For RHEL 6

     service flexsyncd | flexsyncadmind restart

     For RHEL 7, RHEL 8 or Debian

     systemctl restart flexsyncd | flexsyncadmind

• In order to leverage metadata capabilities, you must enable StorNext metadata archive (mdarchive) on the source system, but may be turned off on the destination system, reducing the performance impact on the destination system. Only disable mdarchive on the target system if other features such as file system auditing and online stripe group management, which also use mdarchive, are not needed on the source system. For FlexSync to connect to the source MDC, the hostname/IP pairs of the MDCs need to be in DNS or by adding the mapping to /etc/hosts on both sides of the MDC.

  If you plan to have truncated files on your source system and you are running FlexSync 2.1.x (or any prior release), Quantum recommends you set the Metadata Archive Cache Size to a minimum of 8 GiB on your source system (the default is 2 GiB). To configure the Metadata Archive Cache Size, see Edit a File System, expand the Manual Configuration drop-down, and then expand the Configuration Parameters > Features Tab drop-down.

1. Log on to an SSH client, and connect to your system.
2. At the prompt, enter the following commands to navigate to the directory where your FlexSync distribution package is located and to view the package:

   cd <local_directory>

   ls

3. At the prompt, enter the following command to extract the binary (bin) package:
   unzip <FlexSync_distribution_package>

4. At the prompt, enter the following command to unpack the installer files:

   For RHEL

   ./<Redhat_bin_file>

   For Debian

   ./<Debian_bin_file>

5. After the bin file has been successfully extracted, the end user license agreement (EULA) displays.

6. Review the EULA, and enter y to accept the terms.
7. At the prompt, enter the following commands to view the list of available installer files.

   cd /tmp/flexsync

   ls

   Example Redhat RPM Files

   flexsync-x.x.x-x.el7.x86_64.rpm

   quantum_jansson-x.x.x-x.x86_64.rpm

   quantum_libevent-x.x.x-x.x86_64.rpm

   quantum_librsync-x.x.x-x.x86_64.rpm

   Example Debian deb Files

   flexsync-x.x.x-x.x86_64.deb

   quantum-libevent_x.x.x-x_x86_64.deb

   quantum-jansson_x.x.x-x_x86_64.deb

   quantum-librsync_x.x.x-x_x86_64.deb

   IMPORTANT

   Within the /tmp/flexsync directory, there are four rpm files that must be installed to operate FlexSync correctly. If the StorNext software is already installed on your system, the following two files may already be installed:

   • quantum_jansson-x.x.x-x.x86_64.rpm
   • quantum_libevent-x.x.x-x.x86_64.rpm

   Keep in mind that these existing rpm files must be upgraded to the same level as the newly unpacked rpm files for proper operation.

8. At the prompt, enter the following commands to check for any existing packages and their respective versions:

   For RHEL

   rpm -q flexsync

   rpm -q quantum_jansson

   rpm -q quantum_libevent

   rpm -q quantum_librsync

   Example Output: Only StorNext Software Installed at the Proper Level

   package flexsync-x.x.x-x.el7.x86_64 is not installed

   quantum_jansson-x.x.x-x.x86_64

   quantum_libevent-x.x.x-x.x86_64

   package quantum_librsync-x.x.x-x.x86_64 is not installed

   For Debian

   dpkg -l flexsync

   dpkg -l quantum-libevent

   dpkg -l quantum-jansson

   dpkg -l quantum-librsync

9. At the prompt, enter the following to install the appropriate files:

   For RHEL

   rpm -U <rpm_file> <rpm_file>...

   IMPORTANT 

   You must install the following files in the order listed below:

   1. quantum_librsync-<version>.x86_64.rpm
   2. flexsync-x.x.x-x.<version>.x86_64.rpm

   Example

   rpm -U quantum_jansson-x.x.x-x.x86_64.rpm

   rpm -U quantum_libevent-x.x.x-x.x86_64.rpm

   rpm -U quantum_librsync-x.x.x-x.x86_64.rpm flexsync-x.x.x-x.el7.x86_64.rpm

   For Debian

   dpkg -i <deb_file> <deb file>

   IMPORTANT 

   You must install the following files in the order listed below:

   1. quantum-librsync_x.x.x-x_x86_64.deb
   2. flexsync-x.x.x-x.x86_64.deb

   Example

   dpkg -i quantum_jansson-x.x.x-x.x86_64.deb

   dpkg -i quantum_libevent-x.x.x-x.x86_64.deb

   dpkg -i quantum-librsync_x.x.x-x_x86_64.deb flexsync-x.x.x-x.x86_64.deb

10. After you upgrade the FlexSync Application, you need to restart the FlexSync daemons if they were not stopped prior to the upgrade. See Restart the FlexSync Daemons.

1. Log on to an SSH client, and connect to your system.

2. At the prompt, enter the following commands to stop both the flexsyncd and the flexsyncadmind daemons.

   systemctl stop flexsyncadmind

   systemctl stop flexsyncd

3. At the prompt, enter the following commands to remove the flexsync .rpm file(s):

   rpm -qa | grep flexsync <-- This command lists the FlexSync .rpm file(s) to remove.

   rpm -evh flexsync-XXX <-- Where XXX is the flexsync information from above.

   rm -rf /opt/quantum/flexsync <-- This command removes the directory and contents of opt/quantum/flexsync.

4. At the prompt, enter the following commands to remove the libsync .rpm file(s):

   rpm -qa | grep librsync <-- This command lists the librsync .rpm file(s) to remove.

   rpm -evh quantum_librsync-YYY <-- Where YYY is the librsync information from above.

   rm -rf /opt/quantum/librsync <-- This command removes the directory and contents of opt/quantum/librsync.

5. If StorNext is NOT running on your system, then enter the following commands at the prompt to remove both the jansson and libevent .rpm file(s):

   1. To remove the jansson .rpm file(s):

      rpm -qa | grep quantum_jansson <-- This command lists the quantum_jansson .rpm file(s) to remove.

      rpm -evh quantum_jansson_ZZZ <-- Where ZZZ is the quantum_jansson information from above.

      rm -rf /opt/qauntum/jansson <-- This command removes the directory and contents of opt/quantum/jansson.

   2. To remove the libevent .rpm file(s):

      rpm -qa | grep quantum_libevent <-- This command lists the quantum_libevent .rpm file(s) to remove.

      rpm -evh quantum_libevent_QQQ <-- Where QQQ is the quantum_libevent information from above.

      rm -rf /opt/quantum/libevent <-- This command removes the directory and contents of opt/quantum/libevent.

6. At the prompt, enter the following command to remove the FlexSync log file(s):

   rm /var/log/flexsync*

1. Log on to an SSH client, and connect to your system.

2. At the prompt, enter the following command to access and edit the flexsyncadmind file:

   vi /etc/sysconfig/flexsyncadmind
3. At the prompt, enter the following command to change the OPTIONS value to a new port number:
   OPTIONS="-p <port_number>"
4. Enter :w to write the changes to the file.
5. Enter :q to exit the editor.
6. At the shell prompt, enter the following command — depending on your StorNext 6 client version — to activate the flexsyncadmind daemon.
   RHEL 6 Activation Command

   service flexsyncadmind restart
   RHEL 7, RHEL 8 Activation Command

   systemctl restart flexsyncadmind

1. Log on to an SSH client, and connect to your system.

2. At the prompt, enter the following command to access and edit the flexsyncd file:

   vi /etc/sysconfig/flexsyncd

3. At the prompt, enter the following command to change the OPTIONS value to a new port number:

   OPTIONS="-a <port_number> -d <port_number> -p <port_number>"
4. Enter :w to write the changes to the file.
5. Enter :q to exit the editor.
6. At the shell prompt, enter the following command — depending on your StorNext 6 client version — to activate the flexsyncd daemon.
   RHEL 6 Activation Command

   service flexsyncd restart

   RHEL 7, RHEL 8 Activation Command

   systemctl restart flexsyncd

In the case where the file has been truncated and there are multiple copies in tertiary storage, FlexSync retrieves the first copy in the retrieve order of the managed files’ policy class. If a different copy is desired, you can change the retrieve order using the following CLI command:

For example, if there are two copies, the first on tape, and the second on object storage, then the tape copy is preferred if the retrieve order is 1,2, and the object storage copy is preferred if the retrieve order is 2,1.

By default, FlexSync stages data through Storage Manager’s in-memory buffers when processing a FlexSync request. However, in the case where the data is stored on tape media and the available network bandwidth is low in comparison with the tape bandwidth, the buffers might fill completely, requiring the tape to stop intermittently to wait for the network to catch up. Since this behavior is undesirable, it might be appropriate to stage incoming data through temporary disk files rather than through memory. You can configure the behavior by setting the FS_DIRECT_STAGE_ENABLE_SIZE and FS_DIRECT_STAGE_DISK configuration parameters using the following guidelines:

• The parameter, FS_DIRECT_STAGE_ENABLE_SIZE, specifies the minimum request size. If the total amount of data requested for transfer equals or exceeds this value, staging files are used to transfer data from tape to FlexSync. You must specify the value in bytes.
• When staging is enabled, the size of the staging files must also be configured by setting the parameter FS_DIRECT_STAGE_DISK. You must specify the value in bytes.
• While the optimal settings for the above parameters differ depending on multiple external factors, the values of FS_DIRECT_STAGE_ENABLE_SIZE greater than or equal to 2 GB and FS_DIRECT_STAGE_DISK greater than or equal to 5 GB are appropriate, under most circumstances.

Note: The parameters affect only retrieval from tape and are not required for retrieving explicitly from object storage media.

If a source file is truncated and has never been replicated:

• The file is requested from Storage Manager and streamed to the destination.
• The file is not rehydrated on the source.

If a source file has been replicated and is also truncated, then FlexSync ignores the file.