Skip to content

IBM Cloud Platform Installation

This topic covers the virtual machine requirements, including memory and data storage, for the deployment of the Delphix Engine on IBM Cloud.

Supported Profiles

The following is a list of profiles that are supported to deploy Delphix on IBM Cloud.

Requirements Notes
mx2-8x64
mx2-16x128
mx2-32x256
mx2-48x384
- The Delphix Engine most closely resembles a storage appliance and performs best when provisioned using a storage-optimized profile
- Larger profiles provide more CPU, which can prevent resource shortfalls under high I/O throughput conditions.
- Larger profiles also provide more memory, which the Delphix Engine uses to cache database blocks. More memory will provide better read performance.

Network Configuration

Requirements Notes
Virtual Server Instances - You must deploy the Delphix Engine and all of the source and target environments in the same VPC network.
- When adding environments to the Delphix Engine, you must use the host’s VPC IP addresses.
Security Configuration - The default security group will only open port 22 for SSH access. You must modify the security group to allow access to all of the networking ports used by the Delphix Engine and the various source and target engines.
- See Network Performance Configuration Options for information about network performance tuning.
- See General Network and Connectivity Requirements for information about specific port configurations.
- Reference:IBM Cloud Security and Compliance documentation

Storage Configuration

Note

You must always attach a minimum of 2 storage pools to the Delphix Engine; one for rpool and other for domain0 pool.

Requirements Notes
- Allocate initial storage equal to the size of the physical source database storage.
- Add storage when storage capacity approaches 30% free.
- For high redo rates and/or high DB change rates, allocate an additional 10-20 %.
- Add new storage by provisioning new volumes of the same size. This enables the Delphix File System (DxFS) to make sure that its file systems are always consistent on disk without additional serialization. This also enables the Delphix Engine to achieve higher I/O rates by queueing more I/O operations to its storage.
- A Delphix Engine requires a minimum of three (3) equally sized Block Volumes, in addition to the Boot volume which was automatically created while creating the virtual server instance.
- IBM Block Storage Documentation

Additional IBM Configuration Notes

  • Resize/expansion of a storage volume
  • Expandable volume is a beta feature that is available for evaluation and testing purposes. This feature is available in the US South, US East, London, and France regions. Contact your IBM Sales representative if you are interested in getting access, [Expanding Block Storage[(https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-expanding-block-storage-volumes/)
  • After performing an “online” resize/expansion of a storage volume using IBM Cloud tools, then use the Delphix sysadmin interface to “Expand” the storage device; otherwise, the newly allocated storage space, from the resize/expansion, will not be used.
  • Resize/expansion of a storage volume using IBM Cloud is not supported while the delphix engine is in a stopped state.
  • Removing a storage volume
  • It should be done while the machine is running.
  • First use the Delphix sysadmin CLI interface to “Unconfigure” the storage device, then remove it from IBM Cloud.

Procedure for Deploying in the IBM Cloud

Prerequisites to Deploying in IBM Cloud

  1. You require a license to use Delphix software. If you are a new customer, contact Delphix to get started.
  2. Review IBM’s cloud documentation for IBM Cloud specific information.

Deploying Delphix in the IBM Cloud

There are two methods for deploying a Delphix Engine in the IBM Cloud using the Software Catalog or Manually Uploading the Delphix Image.

Deploying from the IBM Software Catalog

  1. Navigate to the IBM Software Catalog and search for Delphix.
  2. Select the Delphix Data Masking Tile for the Masking product.
  3. Scroll down to the Deployment Values section and input the specifics for your environment.
Required Parameters Description
hostname The name of the VSI you will use to deploy Delphix.
profile Compute profile to be used for deploying Delphix (see recommended profiles).
ssh_key Your public SSH key to be used when provisioning the VSI.
subnet_id The id of the subnet where the VSI will be provisioned.
volumecount Number of block storage volumes.
volumeprofile Block storage profile to use (recommended is >= 10 IOPS/GB
volumesize Block storage volume size.
vpcname The name of your VPC where the VSI is provisioned.
zone VPC zone to provision your environment.

Manually Downloading and Deploying the Delphix Image

Downloading the Delphix Image

Note

Contact your account manager to request access to the IBM variant of the Delphix product.

  1. Follow the link given to you by your Delphix solutions architect. Download the Delphix_Verson…._Standard_IBM.qcow2 file and the SHA256SUMS file.
  2. Once both files have finished downloading and assuming both files were downloaded to the same directory, you can run the following command to verify the download:
      `$ grep -i IBM.qcow2 ./SHA256SUMS | sed -E 's,Appliance_Images/(Controlled_Availability/)?,,g' | sha256sum --check`
    

Uploading the Delphix Engine Image as an Object

  1. Authenticate with the IBM Cloud and navigate to the Dashboard.
  2. Use the navigation menu to reach the Resource List page. The Resource List page can be navigated from the Dashboard by clicking on Storage within the Resource summary pane.
  3. Expand Storage from the menu and select the appropriate resource group. You should have created a resource group depending on your organization’s strategy for managing IBM resources.
  4. Create a storage bucket or select an existing bucket.
  5. Click the blue Upload button and select Files.
  6. A pop-up menu appears to select the transfer type. Aspera High-Speed Transfer is required for large files. For this, you will need to install the plugin. It will automatically navigate you through the steps to install the plugin.
  7. In the Upload Files (objects) window, click on the Select Files (objects) button and choose the IBM specific QCOW2 file that was previously downloaded.
  8. Click the Upload button.

Creating a Custom Image

  1. Authenticate with IBM Cloud and navigate to the Dashboard.
  2. Use the navigation menu to reach the Custom images page for VPC within the VPC infrastructure (IBM Cloud pull-down menu, upper left, VPC Infrastructure > Custom images).
  3. Click the blue Create button.
  4. In the Import custom image page, specify a unique name for the image.
  5. From the Resource Group drop-down, select your organization’s resource group.
  6. Optional: In the Tags section, provide appropriate tags to organize your resources.
  7. Select the appropriate Region.
  8. Select the Cloud Object Storage bucket containing the uploaded image by selecting the appropriate Cloud Object Storage instances > Location > Bucket from the drop-down menus. The downloaded QCOW2 image should appear in the pane below the three drop-down menus.
  9. Within the Operating system section, click on the Ubuntu Linux tile and select ubuntu-18-04-amd64 from the drop-down menu.
  10. Once all the parameters are entered, in the right pane click on the blue button to Import custom image.

Launching the Delphix Engine

  1. Authenticate with IBM Cloud and navigate to the Dashboard.
  2. Use the navigation menu to reach the Virtual Server Instances page within the VPC Infrastructure (IBM Cloud pull-down menu, upper left, VPC Infrastructure > Virtual Server Instances). Note: To maximize performance, deploy the Delphix Engine instance in the same VPC/subnet in which you will create your virtual databases (VDBs).
  3. Click the blue Create button.
  4. In the New Virtual Server for VPC page, specify a unique name for the VM.
  5. From the Virtual Private Cloud drop-down, select your organization’s VPC.
  6. From the Resource Group drop-down, select your organization’s resource group.
  7. Optional: In the Tags section, provide appropriate tags to organize your resources.
  8. Select the Location of your IBM Cloud resources.
  9. In the Operating System section, click on the Select Custom Image link within the Custom Image block.
  10. In the pop-menu, select the IBM specific image you previously uploaded.
  11. Within the Profile section, click on View all profiles. Select one of the supported instance types and click Save.
  12. You can skip the User data section.
  13. You can also skip the Boot Volume section since it would already have the default values.
  14. You can create block storage volumes later, so skip that for now. It will be discussed in the next section.
  15. Continue on to the Network Interfaces section. If you already have a subnet configured in your zone and VPC, then this section will already have a default network interface. Otherwise, you need to create a subnet with the appropriate security groups. This part is critical, if the network isn’t specified correctly, you are likely to run into firewall issues; please consult your IT or DevOps teams. Configure Network Security Groups (NSGs) for your subnet as required; again, please consult your IT or DevOps teams.
  16. Click the Create virtual server instance button on the right panel. This will take a couple of minutes.

Creating Block Storage Volumes

  1. Authenticate with IBM Cloud and navigate to the Dashboard.
  2. Use the navigation menu to reach the Block Storage Volumes within VPC Infrastructure (IBM Cloud pull-down menu > VPC Infrastructure > Block Storage Volumes).
  3. Click the blue Create button.
  4. In the Block Storage Volume for VPC modal window, specify a unique name for this Block Volume. It can be helpful if this name is descriptive or identifies the VM it is intended to be attached to and ends in a sequence number.
  5. From the Resource Group drop-down, select your organization’s resource group.
  6. Optional: In the Tags section, provide appropriate tags to organize your resources.
  7. Select the Location of your IBM Cloud resources.
  8. Enter the required IOPS. The recommended supported IOPS is 10/GB.
  9. Enter the storage size in GB. Set the size of the volume to be sufficiently large, with room for growth, to support the databases that will be virtualized, or masked, by this Delphix Engine.
  10. For Encryption, you can let it be the default, e.g. Provider Managed.
  11. Click the blue Create Volume button. A Delphix Engine requires a minimum of three (3) equally sized Block Volumes, in addition to the Boot volume which was automatically created while creating the virtual server instance. Repeat Steps 3-11 as many times as necessary.

Attaching Block Storage Volumes

  1. Authenticate with IBM Cloud and navigate to the Dashboard.
  2. Use the navigation menu to reach the Block Storage Volumes within VPC Infrastructure (IBM Cloud pull-down menu > VPC Infrastructure > Block Storage Volumes).
  3. From the list of pre-existing Block Volumes, identify the volumes you wish to attach to a Delphix Engine and wait until the volume’s state becomes Available.
  4. Note that the volumes you wish to attach have Attachment Type set as a hyphen.
  5. The right side of the volume row shows an Expandable menu. Click on it and select Attach to Instance.
  6. In the Attach Virtual Server Instance modal window, select your virtual server instance (Delphix Engine) from the drop-down menu.
  7. Click on the blue Attach Volume button.
  8. Repeat Steps 3-7 until all associated Block Volume resources have been attached to the Delphix Engine instance.

Configuring the Delphix Engine

  1. Connect to your running Delphix Engine instance with a web browser. Use the IP address or DNS name noted in the Instance Description. Upon successful connection, the browser will display a login prompt to enter the Delphix Setup Page.
  2. Refer to the standard product deployment instructions to complete your Delphix deployment.

Next Steps

Congratulations! You have successfully deployed a Delphix Engine in IBM Cloud.

Use Delphix documentation to learn how to:

  • configure your database source
  • configure your target environments
  • create virtual databases (VDBs)