This guide is intended for the IT administrator or person responsible for installing the Nasuni Appliance or the Nasuni Management Console on the Nutanix platform.

General Information

This chapter includes general information about the File IQ Appliance, as well as technical specifications.

File IQ

The File IQ feature is designed to provide insights and analytics on file data usage patterns. File IQ enables customers to take advantage of several important capabilities, including:

• File Usage Analytics: Track usage and collaboration patterns across users, departments, file types, volumes, and more. Gain visibility to optimize storage, plan capacity, and facilitate capacity-based chargeback.

• Health Monitoring: Monitor system component metrics to proactively identify resource contention and capacity limits so administrators can take preventative measures.

• Forensic Capabilities: Perform historical analysis of file, user, or application activity when troubleshooting issues or investigating information security events.

• Automated Reporting: Leverage prebuilt reports and dashboards that deliver actionable intelligence to technical and business users and support chargeback reporting.

Key Terms

The following terms are helpful for understanding the File IQ Appliance:

• Cache: The local storage of the File IQ Appliance. All volume metadata accessed regularly is kept locally in the File IQ Appliance cache. If the requested metadata is not locally resident, it is staged into the cache and provided for the request.

• Cloud storage: Internet-based, highly protected, unlimited storage.

• Event Hubs: A cloud-native data streaming service used to forward events between components of the File IQ Solution.

• Grafana: Grafana is a multi-platform open-source analytics and interactive visualization web application. It provides charts, graphs, and alerts for the web when connected to supported data sources.

• Nasuni Edge Appliance (NEA): The virtual or physical appliance in your data center that integrates with your infrastructure via CIFS (SMB), NFS, FTP/SFTP, or HTTPS/REST protocols. The Nasuni Edge Appliance can be mapped as a network drive.

• Nasuni Edge Appliance user interface: The Web-based graphical user interface with which you configure and manage the Nasuni Edge Appliance. The Nasuni Edge Appliance user interface is accessible with supported Web browsers, including Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari, and Google Chrome.

• File IQ: The File IQ Appliance contains the database, Grafana server, event processing, and volume scanning capabilities that the File IQ Solution uses to give insight into Nasuni Edge Appliance and volume usage across your Nasuni deployment(s).

• Nasuni Management Console (NMC): The Web-accessible appliance with which you can configure and manage multiple Nasuni Edge Appliances. The Nasuni Management Console is accessible with supported Web browsers, including Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome.

• Nasuni Orchestration Center (NOC): The zero-maintenance control path built on elastic, multi-region cloud services that enables file data to be shared across locations at any scale and without version conflict. The NOC, also referred to as Nasuni Account Dashboard, provides access to the File IQ Serial Numbers, which are used to install File IQ.

• File IQ Dashboard: A custom dashboard deployed within the File IQ Appliance-hosted Grafana to display information gathered by the File System Metadata Service (FSMS) and the File System Event Processor (FSEP).

• File IQ Service: The File IQ Service collects audit events and forwards them to the File IQ Appliance via the Azure EventHub.

  Note: The audit events collected by the File IQ Service are independent of the standard auditing feature enabled on the NEAs.

• Share/export: An access point to a folder on a volume that can be shared or exported on your network. Access to a CIFS (SMB) share can be customized on a user-level or group-level basis. You can create many shares or exports on a volume for different purposes or audiences.

• Volume: A set of files and directories (CIFS (SMB), NFS, and FTP/SFTP).

File IQ Solution Specifications

This section contains specifications for configuring the File IQ Appliance.

Supported Web Browsers

The File IQ Appliance supports the following Web browsers:

Virtual Machine Requirements

Use the Sizing Tool for the most appropriate VM size recommendations.

Installing on the Nutanix Platform

This chapter explains how to install the File IQ Solution on the Nutanix platform.

Note: Nasuni supports Nutanix AHV (Acropolis Hypervisor) versions 5.15.x, 5.16.x, 6.5.x, 6.6.x, 6.7.x.

Tip: This document describes deploying virtual machines. It does not cover configuring a storage account for use with Nasuni volumes.

Warning: Virtual machine snapshots are not supported. Do not attempt to restore from a virtual machine snapshot or backup. Doing so puts the IQ Appliance in an unknown state in relation to the Nasuni Orchestration (NOC) and requires a recovery process, which might result in data loss.

Important: File IQ Appliances must be configured with operational DNS servers and a time server (internal or external) within your environment. The File IQ Appliance is configured with a default time server time.nasuni.com. If you need to use a different time server, the procedure to change the default time server is documented in the Nasuni Edge Appliance Time Configuration section of the Nasuni Edge Administration guide.

Important: When using a virtual machine IQ Appliances, Nasuni recommends running under a hypervisor supported by its vendor. If a customer runs an IQ Appliance on an unsupported hypervisor version, a warning is logged at boot time.

Warning: The File IQ Appliance does not currently support the Nasuni Disaster Recovery process.

Tip: Check out the File IQ Installation and Configuration videos for a general reference on the File IQ installation process. Your specific hypervisor installation will include unique steps not included in this video reference series.

Day 1 File IQ Installation Checklist

To complete a day 1 File IQ installation, follow this checklist:

1. Before you Begin

The following items should be readily available so that you can navigate the File IQ installation and setup process. It is recommended that you complete these requirements before starting or have a way to fulfill them during the installation process.

Note: File IQ does not support a proxy server.

2. Installing the File IQ Appliance

To complete the installation of the File IQ Appliance, follow these steps:

1. Download the File IQ Appliance software.

2. Install the File IQ Appliance using the Prism Web Console.

Download the File IQ Appliance Software

The File IQ Appliance can run as a virtual appliance on your network and is distributed as a downloadable image. To access the download page, register for a user account and password on the Nasuni website.

To download the File IQ Appliance software from the Nasuni website:

1. Log into your Nasuni account and click Downloads.

2. Scroll down to the File IQ section and click Download Nutanix Format. The available File IQ versions for Nutanix appear in a dropdown list.

3. From the dropdown list, select an available release for File IQ.

4. Save the File IQ Appliance software file to a location on your local drive.

Note: The time required to download the File IQ Appliance software file depends on your internet connection.

Install the File IQ Appliance using the Nutanix Prism Web Console

Install the File IQ Appliance in Nutanix using the Nutanix Prism Web Console.

The Nutanix Prism Web Console uses the Nutanix virtual appliance format to install the File IQ Appliance.

For more information, see:

• The Nutanix Bible: Book of AHV.

• Nutanix Best Practices.

Important: File IQ Appliances and the NMC must be configured with operational DNS servers and a time server (internal or external) within your environment.

Important: To access Active Directory-enabled volumes, the File IQ Appliance must access the same Active Directory domains as the other Nasuni Edge Appliances connected to the volume. This requires access to the Active Directory Domain Controller or the necessary network connectivity.

Important: Similarly, to access LDAP-enabled volumes, the File IQ Appliance must be able to access LDAP and Kerberos in the same LDAP domain. You cannot enable Active Directory and LDAP Directory Services for a File IQ Appliance.

Important: The following process has been tested with Nutanix Version 2020.09.16 - NCC Version: 3.10.0.6 - LCM Version: 2.1.6835.

Creating a Nutanix Virtual Machine Image

Caution: By default, each Nutanix storage container has access to all the unused storage in the storage pool.

Therefore, if a storage pool has multiple storage containers, one container might take all the remaining space, leaving other containers with no available space.

Enable Nutanix capacity reservation to ensure that there is space for storage containers provisioned for Nasuni. Capacity reservation allows you to guarantee that a storage container has a minimum amount of storage reserved that is unavailable to other storage containers.

For more information, see Capacity Reservation Best Practices.

To create a Nutanix virtual machine image using the Prism Web Console:

1. Navigate to the top menu bar and click the Task gear icon in the upper right-hand corner.

2. From the left menu bar, select Image Configuration. The Image Configuration window appears.

3. To upload an image file to the cluster, click Upload Image. The Create Image window appears.

4. Enter the following information:

   • Name: a name for the image.

   • Annotation (optional): a description for the image.

   • Image Type: From the dropdown menu, select the Disk image type. ISO is not a valid option.

   • Storage Container: Select the storage container from the dropdown menu. The list includes all containers created for this cluster. You can also select the default container.

   • Image Source: select one of the following:

     • From URL: to import the image from the Internet. Enter the appropriate URL address.

     • Upload a file: To upload an image file from your workstation, click Choose File, then navigate to the file to upload.

5. Confirm all fields are correct, and click Save.

   The fields become disabled in the Create Image window, and the Save button changes the text to Saving …

   After the image saving is complete, the Create Image window closes, and the Image Configuration window reappears with the new image appearing in the list.

   Important: The file might take some time to upload. A percentage indicator is displayed at the top left of the screen to show the progress.

6. Click the pencil icon for that image to update the image information. The Update Image window appears. Update the fields as desired and click Save.

7. To delete an image file from the store, click X for that image.

   The image file is deleted, and that entry disappears from the list.

Creating a Nutanix Virtual Machine (VM)

To install the File IQ Appliance into Nutanix using the Prism Web Console:

1. From the Explore dropdown menu at the upper left, the Entities list appears. Select VM. The VM Dashboard window appears.

2. At the upper right, click Create VM. The Create VM dialog box appears.

   Note: This option does not appear in clusters that do not support this feature.

3. Enter the following information:

   • Name: Enter a name for the VM. The image name must be 40 characters or fewer.

   • Description: Enter a description for the VM.

   • Timezone: From the dropdown menu, select a time zone for the VM.

   • Compute: Enter the number of virtual CPUs to allocate to this VM in the vCPU(s) field. Enter the number of cores assigned to each virtual CPU in the Cores per vCPU field. The Sizing Tool defines the virtual CPUs needed for your File IQ installation.

     Important: The recommended configuration is specifying 1 core per vCPU, so set the number of vCPUs to match the requirements for the workload.

   • Memory: Enter the amount of memory (in GiBs) to allocate to this VM. The Sizing Tool defines the memory needed for your File IQ installation.

4. In the Boot Configuration area, select the boot configuration based on the machine generation.

   - For generation 1 (BIOS) machines, select Legacy BIOS.

   - For generation 2 (UEFI) machines, select UEFI.

   Note: Since the image contains only the operating system disk, the cache and COW disks must be created for the Operating System.

5. To attach the operating system disk to the VM, click Add New Disk. The Add Disk dialog box appears. Enter the following information:

   • Type: From the dropdown menu, select DISK.

   • Operation: Select Clone from Image Service to copy the image that you imported.

   • Bus Type: From the dropdown menu, select SCSI.

   • Image: Select the image you created using the image service feature.

   • Storage Container: Select the storage container to use. The list includes all containers created for this cluster.

   • Size: This is specific to the operating system disk; note that changing the size of an image is not allowed.

6. Click Add. The operating system disk is attached to the VM, and the Create VM dialog box is displayed.

7. To attach the cache disk to the VM, click Add New Disk. The Add Disk dialog box appears. Enter the following information:

   • Type: From the dropdown menu, select DISK.

   • Operation: Select Allocate on Storage Container to create a new empty disk.

   • Bus Type: From the dropdown menu, select SCSI.

   • Storage Container: Select the storage container to use. The list includes all containers created for this cluster.

   • Size: Enter the disk size in GiBs. Size the cache disk per the File IQ Sizing Tool requirements.

8. Click Add. The cache disk is attached to the VM, and the Create VM dialog box is displayed.

9. To attach the cow disk to the VM, click Add New Disk. The Add Disk dialog box appears. Enter the following information:

   • Type: From the dropdown menu, select DISK.

   • Operation: Select Allocate on Storage Container to create a new empty disk.

   • Bus Type: From the dropdown menu, select SCSI.

   • Storage Container: Select the storage container to use. The list includes all containers created for this cluster.

   • Size: Enter the disk size in GiBs. Size the cow disk as per the File IQ Sizing Tool requirements.

10. Click Add. The cow disk is attached to the VM, and the Create VM dialog box is displayed.

    Note: After configuring the operating system disk, the cache disks, and the COW disk, the operating system disk is automatically selected as the Boot Device.

11. Click Add New NIC to a network interface for the VM. If the Add New NIC button is not visible in the Create VM dialog box, scroll down to see it. The Create NIC dialog box appears.

    Enter the following information:

    • Network Name: From the dropdown, select the vlan that your File IQ Appliance will run.

    • VLAN ID: This read-only field displays the VLAN UUID.

    • Network Connection State: Ensure Connected is selected.

    • Network Address/Prefix: This read-only field displays the network IP address and prefix.

    • IP Address (This field appears only if the NIC is placed in a managed network.): Enter an IP address for the VLAN. Entering an IP address in this field is optional when the network configuration provides an IP pool. If the field is left blank, the NIC is assigned an IP address from the pool.

    After entering the field entries, click Add to create the network interface for the VM and return to the Create VM dialog box.

12. (Optionally) To set the VM host affinity, click Set Affinity. The Set VM Host Affinity dialog box appears.

    Select a VM host(s).

    Tip: Select more than one VM host to ensure that the VM runs even if a node fails.

    Tip: If you select one or more VM hosts, this selection cannot be changed.

    Click Save.

13. Ensure that the Custom Script check box is unselected. The Custom Script option is not supported with File IQ Appliance virtual machines.

14. After entering all field entries, click Save to create the VM and close the Create VM dialog box.

    The new VM appears in the VM table view.

15. To power on the File IQ Appliance virtual machine, follow these steps:

    1. Click the Explore dropdown menu at the upper left. The Entities list appears.

    2. In the Entities list, click VM, followed by Table. A list of VMs appears.

    3. From the list of VMs, select the File IQ Appliance virtual machine.

    4. Right-click on the File IQ Appliance virtual machine, and from the Actions dropdown menu, select Power On.

    The File IQ Appliance virtual machine powers on.

    Important: When using a virtual machine File IQ Appliances, Nasuni recommends running under a hypervisor that its vendor still supports. A warning is logged at boot if a customer runs a File IQ Appliance on an unsupported hypervisor version.

16. To view the File IQ Appliance in the console window, right-click on the File IQ Appliance virtual machine, and from the Actions dropdown, select Launch console. The File IQ Appliance screen appears with a plain bar on the bottom that indicates the progress of the installation.

    Tip: The first boot of a File IQ Appliance might take longer than subsequent boots.

17. If DHCP is available on the network, make note of the Assigned IP Address appearing on the console screen. Use this IP address to access the File IQ Appliance user interface.

    Alternatively, if DHCP is not available, log into the console service screen by pressing Enter and signing in. The default login username is “service,” and the default password is “service.”

    Note: For security, use the changepassword command to change the password for the service console.

    1. Enter the command: “editnetwork”.

    2. Enter the command: “setall static”.

    3. To change the IP address, enter a new IP address and press Enter. To leave the current IP address unchanged, press Enter.

    4. To change the netmask, enter a netmask and press Enter. To leave the current netmask unchanged, press Enter.

    5. To change the MTU, enter an MTU and press Enter. To leave the current MTU unchanged, press Enter.
       Note: The maximum transmission unit (MTU) is the size (in bytes) of the largest protocol data unit that the layer can pass onward. A larger MTU brings greater efficiency because each packet carries more user data while protocol overheads, such as headers, remain fixed; the resulting higher efficiency means a slight improvement in the bulk protocol throughput. A larger MTU also means processing fewer packets for the same amount of data. However, large packets can occupy a slow link for some time, causing greater delays to following packets and increasing lag and minimum latency.

    6. To change any of the above values, enter yes, then use step c, step d, and step e to change the values.

       Alternatively, to leave the values unchanged, enter No or press Enter.

    7. To change the hostname, enter a new hostname and press Enter. To leave the current hostname unchanged, press Enter.

    8. To change the default gateway, enter a default gateway and press Enter. To leave the current default gateway unchanged, press Enter.

    9. To change the DNS server, enter one or two DNS servers separated by spaces and press Enter. To leave the current DNS server unchanged, press Enter.

    10. To change the search domain, enter one or more search domains separated by spaces and press Enter. To leave the current search domain unchanged, press Enter.

    11. To change any of the above values, enter yes, then use step g, step h, step i, and step j to change the values.

        Alternatively, to leave the values unchanged, enter “No”.

    12. To save your values, enter save.

    13. To exit the editnetwork commands, enter “close”.

    14. To exit the console commands, enter “quit”.

    15. Close the Web Console window.

The File IQ Appliance is now installed and ready to access using the IP address.

3. Running the File IQ Appliance First Boot Wizard

To access the newly installed File IQ Appliance, follow this procedure:

1. Click the Explore dropdown menu at the upper left. The Entities list appears.

2. In the Entities list, click VM, followed by Table. A list of VMs appears.

3. From the list of VMs, select the File IQ Appliance virtual machine.

4. Scroll down the page, under Summary, click the VM NICs tab. The NIC details table appears displaying the IP Address used by the File IQ Appliance.

5. Navigate to the First Boot Wizard for the File IQ Appliance by opening a new browser window.

   1. To access the File IQ Appliance, enter the address in this form: https://<IP address>, where <IP address> is the IP address from step 2 above.

   2. The Enter the Network Parameters for this Filer page appears.
       

6. Enter the Hostname you defined in the File IQ Hostname of the 1. Before you Begin section.

7. Complete the remainder of the System Settings defined in the File IQ Network Details as part of the 1. Before you Begin section.

8. Click Continue. The Review the Network Settings pane appears.

9. Confirm all fields are correct and click Continue. The next pane confirms whether the File IQ Appliance is Configuring Network Settings. If the File IQ Appliance does not automatically reconnect, refresh the page and check if its IP address has changed. If so, update the browser address bar.  

10. The Nasuni Filer Software Update pane appears. Click Continue.

11. Enter the File IQ Serial Number and Authorization Code obtained under the File IQ Serial & Auth Code as part of the 1. Before you Begin section.

12. Click Continue. The Add a New Nasuni Filer to your account pane appears.

    Note: If the Internal Server Error message appears in this step, you have used a Nasuni Edge Appliance Serial Number instead of an File IQ Serial Number. Nasuni recommends double-checking your serial number and trying again. See the 1. Before you Begin section for the correct location to the File IQ Serial and Auth Code values.

13. Enter “Install New Filer” into the Confirmation textbox.

14. Click Continue. The Accept the Terms of Service and License Agreement pane appears.

15. Accept the Terms of Service and click Continue. The Enter or Accept Filer Name pane appears.

16. Click Continue. The Nasuni Management Console Detected pane appears.

17. Enable the Join NMC Management checkbox and click Continue. The Enter a username and password for Administration of this Filer pane appears.

18. Enter the NMC local account Username, Password, and Confirm Password. These were obtained in the File IQ Username and Password section of the 1. Before you Begin section.

19. Click Continue, the First Boot Wizard is complete, and the File IQ Appliance Management window appears.

Tip: After the First Boot Wizard finishes and the main user interface (UI) is displayed, you might receive a notification advising that Nasuni suggests keeping the cache size of the File IQ appliance no larger than four times the size of the snapshot space. Disregard this warning, as all volumes are shared in read-only mode with the File IQ appliance.

3.1 Joining the File IQ Appliance to your Active Directory

If Active Directory protects the volumes you want to be scanned, join your File IQ Appliance to the Active Directory to secure the volumes.

Note: The configuration of Active Directory can vary based on different factors, and your specific configuration might require additional settings not mentioned in this section. If you encounter any issues while connecting to Active Directory, contact your Nasuni Account Manager for assistance.

Follow this procedure to join Active Directory:

1. Open a Web Browser and access the File IQ Appliance. Enter the address in this form: https://<IP address>, where <IP address> is the IP address from step 2 of the previous section. The File IQ Appliance user interface appears.

2. Ensure that the host name of your File IQ Appliance is shorter than 16 characters:

   1. Navigate to the Configuration menu. Under the NETWORKING section, select Network Configuration.

   2. Verify that the host name in Hostname or FQDN is 15 characters or less.

   3. If required, shorten the host name and click Save Network Configuration.

   4. Enter your Nasuni admin account details, confirm, and wait for the File IQ Appliance to apply the new settings.

3. Unless your Active Directory is registered publicly, change the File IQ’s DNS server to your Active Directory Primary Domain Controller (PDC).

   1. Navigate to the Configuration menu. Under the NETWORKING section, select Network Configuration.

   2. Under System Settings and within Settings Source, select DHCP with Custom DNS.

   3. Leave the Search Domain empty.

   4. Set the Primary DNS server to your Active Directory PDC’s IP address.

   5. Click Save Network Configuration. Enter your Nasuni admin account details, confirm, and wait for the appliance to apply the new settings.

4. Join the File IQ Appliance Active Directory by following these steps:

   1. Navigate to the Configuration menu. Under the CIFS & DIRECTORY SERVICES section, select Directory Services.

   2. Enter your full Active Directory domain in the Domain entry field.

   3. Unless your Nasuni Account Manager instructs, do not change any other fields.

   4. Click Continue. The Confirm/Authenticate Directory Service dialog box appears.

   5. On the Confirm/Authenticate Directory Service screen, enter your Active Directory administrator username and password and click Submit.

   6. Wait until the joining process is complete and the volume selection page is displayed.

   7. Select all volumes you want to access from the File IQ appliance and click Continue.

   8. Wait until the volume configuration is complete and the domain selection page is displayed.

   9. Enable all the trusted domains you wish to monitor users from and click Continue.

   10. Wait until the trusted domain configuration is complete and the Complete the Configuration page is displayed.

   11. Click Finish to finish the active directory configuration.

   12. Wait until the configuration completes.

   13. The display returns to the Directory Services configuration page and displays Active Directory domain information.

You have successfully joined Active Directory.

4. Resizing the File IQ Appliance VM

After completing the first boot wizard, add the File IQ DB disk. Optionally, allocate more memory to the VM and increase the CPU.

Adding the File IQ DB disk

The inputs for this task were defined as Sizing Tool Outputs in the 1. Before you Begin section.

Warning: Never delete the File IQ DB or cache disk.

Warning: You must shut down the virtual machine to change the size of the disks.

Warning: Virtual machine snapshots are not supported.

Do not attempt to restore from a virtual machine snapshot or backup.

Attempting to restore from a virtual machine snapshot or backup puts the File IQ Appliance in an unknown state in relation to the Nasuni Orchestration Center (NOC) and is not recoverable.

Note: There must be sufficient disk space in the datastore to increase the disk size.

To add the File IQ DB disk on the Prism Web Console, follow these steps:

1. Power off the File IQ Appliance. For more information, see Shutting Down the Nutanix VM.

2. Click the Explore dropdown menu at the upper left. The Entities list appears.

3. In the Entities list, click VM, followed by Table. A list of VMs appears.

4. From the list of VMs, select the File IQ Appliance virtual machine.

5. Right-click on the File IQ Appliance virtual machine, and from the Actions dropdown menu, select Update. The Update VM dialog box appears.

6. Scroll down and click Add New Disk. The Add Disk dialog box appears. Enter the following information:

   • Type: From the dropdown menu, select DISK.

   • Operation: Select Allocate on Storage Container to create a new empty disk.

   • Bus Type: From the dropdown menu, select SCSI.

   • Storage Container: From the dropdown menu, select the storage container to use. The list includes all containers created for this cluster.

   • Size: Enter the disk size in GiBs. Size the File IQ DB disk according to the File IQ Sizing Tool requirements.

7. After entering all field entries, click Add to attach the disk to the VM and return to the Update VM dialog box.

8. Click Save. The Update VM dialog box closes.

9. Power on the File IQ Appliance.

(Optional) Changing VM Memory

If you need to resize the memory on your File IQ Appliance, reference this section.

Warning: You must shut down the virtual machine to change the memory size.

To resize the VM memory size, follow this procedure:

1. Click the Explore dropdown menu at the upper left. The Entities list appears.

2. In the Entities list, click VM, followed by Table. A list of VMs appears.

3. From the list of VMs, select the File IQ Appliance virtual machine.

4. Right-click on the File IQ Appliance virtual machine, and from the Actions drop-down menu, select Update. The Update VM dialog box appears.

5. Edit the amount of Memory.

6. Click Save. The Update VM dialog box closes.

(Optional) Changing the Number of CPU Processors

If you need to resize the CPU processors on your File IQ Appliance, reference this section.

Warning: You must shut down the virtual machine to change the number of CPU processors.

To change the number of CPU processors on the Nutanix platform using the Prism Web Console, follow these steps:

1. Click the Explore dropdown menu at the upper left. The Entities list appears.

2. In the Entities list, click VM and then click Table. A list of VMs appears.

3. From the list of VMs, select the Nasuni Edge Appliance virtual machine.

4. Right-click on the File IQ Appliance virtual machine, and from the Actions drop-down menu, select Update. The Update VM dialog box appears.

5. Edit the number of VCPU(S) and Number of Cores per VCPU values.

6. Click Save. The Update VM dialog box closes.

Post-Resizing the File IQ Appliance VM

Power on the File IQ Appliance VM following these steps:

1. Click the Explore dropdown menu at the upper left. The Entities list appears.

2. In the Entities list, click VM and then click Table. A list of VMs appears.

3. From the list of VMs, select the File IQ Appliance virtual machine.

4. Right-click on the File IQ Appliance virtual machine and from the Actions drop-down menu, select Power On.

The File IQ Appliance virtual machine powers on.

5. Connect the Nasuni Volumes to the File IQ Appliance

Important: A maximum of 19 volumes can be connected to a single File IQ Appliance at a given time.

Note: You might see a "File IQ unhealthy" alert displayed prior to enabling the File IQ service in step 7. This alert is expected and resolves itself after a successful File IQ service enablement.

To share and connect a volume to the File IQ Appliance, follow this procedure:

1. Log in to the Nasuni Management Console associated with the File IQ Appliance.

2. Set up remote access for the Volume by following this procedure:

   1. Click Volumes.

   2. Click Remote Access. The Volume Remote Access Setting pane appears.

   3. Select the volumes that you want to share. These should match the volumes in the Volumes List section in the 1. Before you Begin section.

   4. Click Edit Volumes. The Edit Volume Remote Access Settings dialog box appears.

   5. Ensure that the Enabled toggle is set to On.

   6. For Remote Access Permissions, select Custom.

      Caution: Be sure to change ONLY the Remote Access entry for the File IQ appliance to Read Only. Be sure to leave the Remote Access entries for the other volumes as they were.

   7. For the File IQ Appliance entry in the Custom Remote Access Permissions section, select Read Only.

   8. Click Save Remote Access Settings. The Volume Remote Access Setting pane appears.

   9. Wait until the Status for each selected volume changes to a checkmark before proceeding.

3. Connect the Volumes to the File IQ Appliance by following these steps:

   1. Click Volumes.

   2. Click Connect Volume. The Remotely Accessible Volumes pane appears.

   3. Click Refresh Connections and wait for it to finish.

   4. For the volumes for which you set up remote access to the File IQ Appliance (step 2 above), click Edit Connections. The Connect/Disconnect Volume dialog box appears.

   5. In the Filers section, enable the File IQ Appliance checkbox.

   6. In the Storage Access section, select Skip creating storage access point.

   7. In the Inherit Setting section, untick the three inherit setting checkboxes.

   8. Click Save Connections. The dialog box closes and returns to the Remotely Accessible Volumes pane.

   9. Wait until the volume Status column changes to a checkmark before proceeding.

4. Disable Snapshot Schedule for the FILE IQ Appliance and Volumes pairs by following these steps:

   Note: If GFA manages the volume you are connecting to FILE IQ, follow these steps:

   1. Click Volumes Snapshot Schedule. The Volume Snapshot Schedule pane appears.

   2. Select the volumes that you configured remote access for in step 2.

   3. Click Edit Volumes. The Snapshot Schedule dialog box appears.

   4. Set the Enablement Window to On.

   5. Deselect all until all the Days turn from color to grey.

   6. Click Save Configuration. The changes are saved.

      Note: The changes might take up to 10 minutes to apply.

5. Disable Sync Schedule for the File IQ Appliance and Volumes pairs by following these steps:
   Note: If GFA manages the volume you are connecting to File IQ, skip this step (disabling snap and sync schedules). GFA does not send snapshot or sync recommendations to File IQ for these volumes.

   1. Click Volumes.

   2. Click Sync Schedule. The Sync Schedule pane appears.

   3. Select a volume that you configured remote access for in step 2.

   4. Expand the volume's list to display the associated NEAs and File IQ Appliances.

   5. De-select each item that is not an File IQ Appliance.

   6. Click Edit Volumes. The Snapshot Schedule dialog box appears.

   7. Click Select/Deselect until all the Days turn from color to grey.

   8. Click Save Schedule. The changes save.
      Note: The changes might take up to 10 minutes to apply.

6. (Optional) Repeat steps 1-5 in this section for each Volume to be connected to File IQ.

6. Disabling Quality of Service (QoS) for the File IQ Appliance

To disable the Quality of Service for the File IQ Appliance, follow these steps:

1. Log in to the Nasuni Management Console associated with the File IQ Appliance.

2. Click the Filers tab.

3. Click Quality of Service. The Filer Quality of Service pane appears.

4. Select the File IQ Appliance entry in the table and click Edit Filers. The Quality of Service Settings dialog box appears.

5. For all existing Quality of Service rules, click Delete.

6. Click Save Rules. The dialog box closes and returns to the Filer Quality of Service pane.

7. Enabling the File IQ and Configuring File IQ Service

By default, the File IQ service is turned off on the File IQ Appliance. Additionally, the File IQ Service on the Nasuni Edge Appliance (NEA) is off and is not configured to use any File IQ Appliance.

This section outlines how to enable your File IQ service on the File IQ Appliance and configure one or more NEAs to send activity information to the File IQ Appliance using the Nasuni Orchestration Center (NOC) user interface.

Use this section to perform the following:

1. Enable the File IQ on the new File IQ Appliance.

2. Enable File IQ Service and Assign the File IQ Appliance for the NEA.

Before getting started, ensure that the following items from the 1. Before You Begin section are complete:

• NOC Login

• NMC Login

• NEA(s) List

Note: Before proceeding, confirm that the NMC, File IQ Appliance, and NEA(s) are all started and running.

a. Enable the File IQ on the new File IQ Appliance

To enable the File IQ Appliance from the NOC UI, follow these steps:

1. Log in to https://account.nasuni.com.

2. Click the File IQ Config tab. The File IQ pane appears.

3. In the Configuration section, select the Disabled toggle for the new File IQ Appliance. The toggle becomes enabled, and the label changes to Enabled.

4. Click Save.

The configuration change is stored.

b. Enable File IQ Service and Assign the File IQ Appliance for the NEA

Important: The Nasuni Edge Appliance(s) used for data migration or third-party integration purposes should not be enabled to send events to File IQ Appliance(s).

In this section, enable the File IQ Service for each of the Nasuni Edge Appliances (NEA) that you have chosen to report activity to the File IQ Appliance. You should have defined each NEA as part of the NEAs List entry in the 1. Before you Begin section.

To enable the File IQ Service and assign the File IQ Appliance for each of the Nasuni Edge Appliances, follow these steps:

1. Log in to https://account.nasuni.com.

2. Click the File IQ Config tab. The File IQ pane appears.

3. In the Enable File IQ Service on appliances section, select the Disabled toggle for the specific NEAs. The toggle becomes enabled, and the label changes to Enabled.

4. For the same NEAs, select the new File IQ appliance from the Assign File IQs to NEAs drop-down menu.
   The drop-down shows the new File IQ Appliance assigned to the NEAs.

5. Click Save.

The configuration change is stored.

c. Forcing the Configuration to be Applied to the File IQ Appliance and Nasuni Edge Appliance

After saving the configuration, it can take up to 1 hour to become active on the File IQ Appliance and NEAs. To expedite this process, use the Refresh License feature in the NMC. Afterward, move on to 8. Accessing the File IQ Dashboard.

To force the configuration to become active, follow these steps:

1. Log in to the Nasuni Management Console associated with your account.

2. Click Filers.

3. Click Refresh License. The Refresh Subscription License pane appears.

4. Select the File IQ Appliance and NEAs you used in steps a. and b. above and click Update Filers. The Refresh Subscription License dialog box appears.

5. Click Refresh License. The dialog box closes, and you return to the Refresh Subscription License pane. Wait until the Status column for the values you selected in Step 4 changes to a checkmark before proceeding.

Important: The initial scanning of your volume files begins immediately. This process can take a while, depending on the number of files and directories that must be initially scanned. The first scan can take approximately one hour per million files and directories. Subsequent scans occur every 24 hours after the initial scan and are much faster because they only scan changes to the existing files.

8. Accessing the File IQ Dashboards

The results of scanning the selected volumes appear in numerical and graphical form on the File IQ Dashboards. For more information about File IQ Dashboards, see File IQ Dashboards.

The File IQ Dashboards contain all the information for NEA activity and volume metadata that the File IQ Appliance receives and produces. To access the File IQ Dashboards, follow this procedure:

1. Open a new browser window.

2. Enter the address in this form:

https://<File IQ Appliance IP address>:3000

where <File IQ Appliance IP address> is the IP address of the File IQ Appliance, assigned in 3. Running the File IQ Appliance First Boot Wizard. The File IQ Dashboard user interface appears.

3. In the Email or username field, enter “Viewer”.
   Caution: Do not rename the Grafana viewer account. The Initialization program expects the viewer account to be present. If the viewer account is not present, the Initialization of the viewer account recreates the viewer account with the default password.

4. In the Password field, enter “nasuni_IQ_2024!”.

   Note: Nasuni highly recommends updating the default password for the Grafana viewer account during the first usage.

5. Click Log in. The system logs you into the File IQ Dashboard, and the Homepage is displayed.

6. It is important to change the default password. To change the password, follow this procedure:

   1. Click the avatar icon at the top right of the File IQ Dashboard. A context menu is displayed.

   2. In the context menu, click Change password. The Change Password pane appears.

   3. in the Old Password textbox, enter the original default password “nasuni_IQ_2024!”.

   4. Enter the new password text into the New password and Confirm password text boxes. Click Change Password.

      The password is saved, and a dialog appears in the top right corner with the text User password changed.

   5. Click Home in the top left corner to return to the Home page.

Appendix A: Firewall Configuration

The File IQ Appliance and Nasuni Edge Appliance both require access to the Microsoft Azure Event Hub API. For configuration instructions, see Nasuni Firewall and Port Requirements.

Appendix B: Controlling the Nutanix VM

Virtual platforms can control various aspects of your File IQ Appliance. This chapter presents procedures for these control functions. Because these controls depend on third-party virtual platforms, you should follow the procedures for your specific virtual platform.

Note: Vendors change their interfaces occasionally with little notice to the users. The exact screens and text on these platforms might change at any time.

Starting the Nutanix VM

Start a stopped Nutanix VM of the File IQ Appliance using the Prism Web Console.

To start a stopped Nutanix VM, follow these steps in the Prism Web Console:

1. Click the Explore dropdown menu at the top. The Entities list appears.

2. In the Entities list, click VM, followed by Table. A list of VMs appears.

3. From the list of VMs, select the File IQ Appliance virtual machine.

4. Right-click on the File IQ Appliance virtual machine, and from the Actions dropdown menu, select Power On.

The File IQ Appliance virtual machine powers on.

Status of the Nutanix VM

Using the Prism Web Console, view the status of the Nutanix VM of the File IQ Appliance.

To view the status of the Nutanix VM of the File IQ Appliance, follow these steps:

1. Click the Explore dropdown menu in the upper left corner. The Entities list appears.

2. In the Entities list, click VM, followed by Table. A list of VMs appears.

3. From the list of VMs, select the File IQ Appliance virtual machine.

4. On the Summary tab, the VM DETAILS panel displays the VM power status.

Shutting Down the Nutanix VM

It is recommended to always shutdown the Nutanix VM of the File IQ Appliance using the Nasuni Management Console UI.

To shut down the File IQ VM, follow these steps:

1. Log in to the Nasuni Management Console associated with the File IQ Appliance.

2. Click the Filers menu item.

3. Click Shutdown & Reboot. The Shutdown and Reboot pane appears.

4. For the File IQ Appliance, click the associated Shutdown/Reboot action.

5. The Initiate Shutdown/Reboot of File IQ Appliance pane appears.

6. Enter ‘Change Filer Power State’ into the Confirmation Phrase textbox.

7. Select the Option to Shut down immediately. Click Shutdown.  

8. The Shutdown and Reboot pane appears. Wait until the Status column for the File IQ Appliance changes to a ticked value before processing; at that point, the File IQ Appliance shuts down.

Appendix C: Resizing the Cache and File IQ DB Disks

This section describes the resizing steps for the File IQ Appliance on the Nutanix platform. Resizing is necessary to adjust the storage used by the File IQ Appliance.

The inputs for this task were defined as Sizing Tool Outputs in the 1. Before you Begin section.

Warning: Never delete the File IQ DB or cache disk.

Warning: You must shut down the virtual machine to change the size of the disks.

Warning: Virtual machine snapshots are not supported.

Do Not attempt to restore from a virtual machine snapshot or backup.

Attempting to restore from a virtual machine snapshot or backup puts the File IQ Appliance in an unknown state in relation to the Nasuni Orchestration Center (NOC) and is not recoverable.

Note: There must be sufficient disk space in the datastore to increase the size of the disk.

To change the size of a disk on the Prism Web Console, follow these steps:

1. Power off the File IQ Appliance. See Shutting Down the Nutanix VM.

2. Click the Explore dropdown menu at the upper left. The Entities list appears.

3. In the Entities list, click VM and then click Table. A list of VMs appears.

4. From the list of VMs, select the File IQ Appliance virtual machine.

5. Right-click on the File IQ Appliance virtual machine and from the Actions dropdown menu, select Update. The Update VM dialog box appears.

6. Scroll down to the Disks section.

   • The OS disk is Address scsi.0.

   • The cache disk is Address scsi.1.

   • The copy-on-write (COW) disk is Address scsi.2.

   • The File IQ DB disk is Address scsi.3.

7. Select the disk you want to edit by clicking on the edit pencil for that disk. The Update Disk dialog box appears.

8. Enter the disk Size in GiBs. Size the disk as per the File IQ Sizing Tool requirements for the edited disk.

9. Click Update. The Update Disk dialog box closes and returns to the Update VM dialog box.

10. Click Save. The Update VM dialog box closes.

11. Power on the File IQ Appliance. See Starting the Nutanix VM.

Appendix D: Uninstalling the Nutanix VM

This section describes uninstalling the File IQ Appliance from the Nutanix platform. Uninstallation might be required if you are upgrading the system hardware.

Note: Vendors change their interfaces occasionally with little notice to the users. The exact screens and text on these platforms might change at any time.

Uninstalling the File IQ Appliance

To uninstall the Nasuni Edge Appliance on the Nutanix platform using the Prism Web Console, follow these steps:

1. Shut down the File IQ Appliance. See the section Shutting Down the Nutanix VM.

2. Click the Explore dropdown menu at the upper left. The Entities list appears.

3. In the Entities list, click VM and then click Table. A list of VMs appears.

4. From the list of VMs, select the File IQ Appliance virtual machine.

5. Right-click on the File IQ Appliance virtual machine, and from the Actions dropdown menu, select Delete. A verification dialog box appears.

6. Click OK.

The virtual machine is deleted.