Planning for the Lightbits Cluster Software Installation

At a high level, the following command automatically installs a Lightbits cluster:

ansible-playbook -i ansible/inventories/cluster_example/hosts playbooks/deploy-lightos.yml

When this command completes, you will have a Lightbits cluster.

To use this Ansible command successfully, you will need to provide the Ansible software with information about your data center’s specific environment. This means you should gather some details and enter them into text files that Ansible uses during the Lightbits installation operations.

However, to use this Ansible command successfully, you will need to prepare the environment and provide the Ansible software with information about your data center’s specific environment into specific configuration files. This includes the hosts file seen above, and other Ansible yaml files. This means that you should gather some details and enter them into text files that Ansible uses during the Lightbits installation operations.

The remainder of this Installation Guide is organized into the following flow:

• Preparing the environment.
• Setting up, configuring, and running the Ansible installation - which deploys/installs the Lightbits cluster.
• Connecting a client to a live cluster.
• Additional troubleshooting.
• Additional information that can be useful for other sections.

The installation process generally follows the path in the following diagram. When Ansible runs, it reads the text files you configured (in step 3), connects to the Lightbits software repository (in step 1), and downloads Lightbits software onto each storage server that will exist in the cluster (in step 4).

Installation Files Backup

During the installation process, Ansible generates certification files required by etcd used by Lightbits, the API service, and Admin. These files are not critical but are very important in case of changes required in the cluster (adding/replacing/recovering a server).

Lightbits’ recommendation is to back up this directory: lightos-certificates (using Ansible), or lightos-certificates (using lb-docker) - for future use, if required.

If the certificate files are lost, Lightbits can help work through a procedure of regenerating those files.

Additionally, we advise backing up the Ansible configuration files in the ansible directory and the created jwt files: lightos-system-jwt and lightos-default-admin-jwt.