Self-service portal

This page presents working with the WEKA Self-Service Portal when installing the WEKA system in AWS.

Overview

The WEKA Self-Service Portal is a planning tool for WEKA clusters to meet storage requirements when installing in AWS.

It is possible to start by just entering the capacity required, configuring advanced parameters such as required performance and even provision of a multi-AZ cluster for added reliability.

Each configuration can be immediately deployed as a CloudFormation stack by redirecting to the AWS console.

Note: CloudFormation should only be used for initial deployment. To expand cluster resources, refer to Expanding & Shrinking Cluster Resources.

Once the cluster is deployed:

  1. Refer to Getting Started with WEKA section. See Manage the system using the WEKA GUI or Manage the system using the WEKA CLI.

  2. Refer to Run first IOs with WEKA filesystem to quickly get familiar with creating, mounting, and writing to a WEKA filesystem.

Plan a cluster

The Self-Service Portal is available at https://start.weka.io. Its main screen is divided into two panes: the left pane, which is used for input requirements, and the right pane which displays possible configurations for the defined requirements.

As shown in the screen above, configuration options include the total capacity, the desired deployment model, and additional performance requirements. For more information about deployment types, refer to Deployment Types.

Deploy a cluster

Once the configuration to be deployed has been found, click the Deploy to AWS button next to the desired configuration. At this point, it is possible to specify additional options for the deployment, such as adding client instances or selecting the WEKA system version to be deployed.

Once everything is ready to deploy the cluster, click the Deploy to AWS button. This will display the AWS CloudFormation screen with a template containing the configured cluster.

Note: Before deploying the configuration, please refer to the Prerequisites for Deployment section.

CloudFormation screen

After clicking the Deploy to AWS button, the AWS CloudFormation screen is displayed, requiring the creation of stacks.

In the Create Stack screen, define the parameters which are specific to your AWS account.

Cluster CloudFormation stack

Define the parameters for WEKA cluster configuration:

Define the following optional parameters if tiering to S3 is desired:

Note: For public subnets, make sure to select a subnet that has the Enable Auto-Assign Public IPv4 Address setting turned on, or select a subnet that has Internet connectivity.

Once all required parameters have been filled, make sure to check the "I acknowledge that AWS CloudFormation might create IAM resources” checkbox at the bottom and click the Create Stack button:

Deploying in a Private Network

When deploying in a private network, without a NAT (using a WEKA proxy or a custom proxy), some resources should be created (once) per VPC (such as the WEKA VPC endpoint, S3 gateway, or EC2 endpoint).

Copy the link under the Network Topology parameter, and run it in a new browser tab. The AWS CloudFormation screen is displayed, requiring the creation of the prerequisites stack.

In the Create Stack screen, define the parameters specific to your AWS account.

Prerequisites CloudFormation stack

Note: To run this stack, enableDnsHostnames and enableDnsSupport DNS attributes should be enabled for the VPC.

Cluster deployment process

The cluster deployment process takes about 10 minutes. During this time, the following occurs:

  1. The AWS resources required for the cluster are provisioned.

  2. The WEKA system is installed on each instance provisioned for the cluster.

  3. A cluster is created using all backend instances.

  4. All client instances are created.

  5. A filesystem is created using all the available capacity and is mounted on all client instances. This shared filesystem is mounted on /mnt/weka in each cluster instance.

Note: If the deployment is unsuccessful, see Troubleshooting for how to resolve common deployment issues.

Once the deployment is complete, the CloudFormation stack status will be updated to CREATE_COMPLETE. At this point, it is possible to access the WEKA system cluster GUI by going to the Outputs tab of the CloudFormation stack and clicking the GUI link (or by http://<backend server name or IP address>:14000).

Related topics

Manage the system using the WEKA GUI

Manage the system using the WEKA CLI

Run first IOs with WEKA filesystem

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