We are going to learn how to instantiate vCloud Director Transfer Storage on an NFS export which is where all scalable VCD implementations in production are supposed to reside. The process is pretty straightforward but can be difficult to remember the fine details if linux is not your native operating system. You are required to run through the following steps on each VCD cell server in the server group before installing vCloud Director. I will be performing these on a RHEL 5 Update 7 distribution.
Start by creating the directory structure which the NFS export will be mounted to (the -p argument creates the entire path of directories as necessary):
mkdir -p /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/data/transfer
Then, mount the NFS export manually:
mount nfshost.fqdn.orip:/nfs_export_name /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/data/transfer
finally, we make sure the NFS export auto mounts each time the cell is rebooted. This is done by editing /etc/fstab
nano -w /etc/fstab
add the lines below to /etc/fstab:
nfshost.fqdn.orip:/nfs_export_name /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/data/
transfer nfs rw 0 0
When prompted.Exit nano using CTRL + X. Save /etc/fstab
Precede with the vCloud Director Cell installation. If using the mount path in the example above, it is safe and convenient to press Enter through the default prompt relating to the Transfer Server Storage installation path.
Transfer Server Storage is used as a temporary holding tank for vApp and catalog media imports and exports, critical cell data is also stored in this repository. If the Transfer Server Storage area is unavailable (ie. issues with NFS or the network), the VCD cell will not function properly, yielding a range of symptoms such as not being able to authenticate at the provider or organization portals.
