How to Set Up an OpenSolaris Storage Server

Each virtual disk is represented by a ZFS volume. The ZFS volumes are stored in a ZFS pool and accessed by xVM VirtualBox via iSCSI. The management of the ZFS volumes is done by Sun VDI 3.0 and requires ssh root access to the ZFS storage server and a ZFS pool on that ZFS storage server.

The ZFS storage host must be an x86 platform running OpenSolaris 2008.11 (64-bit). The ZFS server requires the following preparation.

Steps

1. Install the operating system.
   Install OpenSolaris 2008.11. We highly recommend to install the release version (101b). The OpenSolaris installer offers you the option to create a user. It is important to create such a user during the installation process otherwise several steps of the configuration will fail.
   
   
2. Enable root access.
   To enable root access:
   1. Log into the ZFS storage host. If you are working remotely, use the newly-created user account:

      $ ssh <username>@<ZFS_Storage_Host>

   2. Become superuser:

      $ su 

   3. Transform the root role to the root user:

      # rolemod -K type=normal root

   4. Edit the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config and change the line PermitRootLogin no to PermitRootLogin yes
   5. Restart the SSHD service to implement the changes you made to the sshd_config file:

      # svcadm restart ssh

      
      

3. Create a ZFS pool.
   Creating a pool is an optional action. The OpenSolaris/Solaris installer has already created a pool named 'rpool'. This pool contains the OpenSolaris/Solaris file systems and can also be used by Sun VDI 3.0. Creating a dedicated pool is recommended to separate the Sun VDI 3.0 data from the OpenSolaris/Solaris file systems.
   To create a ZFS pool, use the following command:

   # zpool create <pool name> <disk1> <disk2> <disk3> ...

   
   

4. Install the iSCSI packages.
   Install the iSCSI packages on the storage server. You can add the packages from the command line of the storage server (Internet connectivity is required):

   pkg install SUNWiscsi
   pkg install SUNWiscsitgt

   
   

5. Enable iSCSI access.
   Execute the following CLI command as root on the Solaris storage server:

   # svcadm enable svc:/system/iscsitgt:default