Use DSE OpsCenter Lifecycle Manager (LCM) to provision and deploy a DataStax Enterprise (DSE) cluster

When you use DSE OpsCenter Lifecycle Manager (LCM) to install a DataStax Enterprise (DSE) cluster, you must install OpsCenter on a dedicated server, and then use LCM to configure and install DSE on the nodes in the DSE cluster.

For demonstration purposes, this guide installs one cluster with the following characteristics:

  • Two datacenters.

  • Three nodes per datacenter.

  • One datacenter, dc1, is dedicated to transactional workloads, and the other datacenter, dc2, is dedicated to Analytics workloads.

  • Both datacenters support DSE Graph workloads.

  • Internode and client encryption are enabled on all nodes in the cluster.

  • Internal authentication and authorization are enabled.

Modify this guide as needed to fit your cluster topology and requirements.

Prepare for cluster deployment

  1. Plan your cluster topology and workloads.

    The topology of your clusters is important. You need to know the following:

  2. Prepare infrastructure based on your cluster topology, including machines for DSE and a separate machine for OpsCenter, if you haven’t already installed OpsCenter.

    All machines must be running a supported platform.

  3. Get authentication credentials (username and password, or an SSH key) for each machine where you will install DSE.

    You can use the same credentials for one or more machines.

  4. Make sure all DSE nodes are accessible from the OpsCenter machine.

    For example, if you have a firewall, make sure the firewall allows access to the DSE nodes from the OpsCenter machine.

  5. Make sure the DSE nodes have access to download DSE software files from IBM Fix Central using one of the following methods:

    • Download over the public internet.

    • Download through a proxy.

    • Download from an internal mirror repository owned and managed by your organization.

Access LCM

  1. Install and start OpsCenter, if you haven’t done so already:

  2. Connect to OpsCenter in a web browser at http://opscenter-host:8888/.

    For more information, see Access OpsCenter LCM.

  3. In the OpsCenter UI, select Create a new cluster, and then click Get Started.

    LCM opens in a separate window.

  4. Optional: Create custom data directories if you aren’t using the default directories.

Add credentials, configuration profiles, and repositories

  1. In LCM, click SSH Credentials, then click Add Credential, and then enter the credentials for the nodes in your cluster:

    • Give each user or key a descriptive, human-readable name so you can keep track of the users and keys used in your cluster.

    • For password authentication, add each node’s user credentials in Login User and Login Password, and then click Save.

    • For a private key, enter the username in Login User, select Private Key, enter the key, and then click Save.

    For more information, see Add SSH credentials.

  2. Click Config Profiles, click Add Config Profile.

    Configuration profiles define the required DSE configuration on the cluster. If your cluster configuration isn’t uniform at all levels, you can create multiple configuration profiles to apply to the cluster, datacenter, and node levels. Similarly, you can create different profiles for different environment or use cases, such as development, test, and production profiles.

  3. Enter a name for the configuration profile, such as dse68.

  4. Select the DSE version, such as dse v6.8.0.

  5. In Config Profiles, select cassandra.yaml in the left pane under Apache Cassandra, and then configure the encryption settings:

    1. Under server_encryption_options, set internode_encryption to all.

    2. Set the keystore_password and truststore_password to new values.

    3. Under client_encryption_options select enabled.

    4. Set the keystore_password and truststore_password to new values.

  6. In Config Profiles, select dse.yaml, and then configure the authentication and authorization settings:

    1. In the DSE Authenticator Options section, under authentication_options, select enabled.

    2. In the DSE Authorizer Options section, under authorization_options, select enabled.

  7. Click Save to create the configuration profile.

  8. Click Repositories, and then click Add Repository to add your DSE software repository.

    LCM uses this repository to install and update DSE on the nodes in your cluster. For more information, see Add a repository.

    1. Enter a name for the repository, such as dse.

    2. If you are using an internal mirror repository, click Access Private Repo, and then enter the repository URL and URL key.

    3. Enter the repository credentials in Username and Password.

    4. Click Save.

Define the cluster topology

To define the cluster topology in LCM, you must add the cluster, add datacenters to the cluster, and then add nodes to each datacenter.

  1. Click Clusters, and then click Add a Cluster.

    1. Enter a name for the cluster.

    2. If all machines in the cluster use the same credentials (password or key), select the name of the credentials you configured earlier in SSH Credentials.

    3. For Config Profile, select the name of your configuration profile.

    4. When you are prompted to enter passwords, enter cassandra in Old Password, and then enter the desired new password for the cassandra user on your cluster’s nodes. If this is a new installation, the Old Password is always cassandra. If DSE is already installed on this cluster, the Old Password might not be cassandra if you changed the cassandra user’s password.

    5. For Repository, select the name of your DSE repository.

    6. Click Save.

  2. Click your new cluster’s name, and then click the Add icon by Datacenters to add a datacenter to the cluster.

  3. Configure a datacenter for transactional workloads and support for DSE Graph.

    For example purposes, this guide segregates transactional and analytics workloads on different datacenters. Your cluster topology depends on your actual use cases and database workloads.

    Transactional workloads are standard Cassandra database workloads. The other workload options are for DSE advanced workloads, including DSE Search, Analytics, and Graph. The workloads enabled in a datacenter determine the capabilities of the DSE nodes in that datacenter.

    1. Enter a name for the datacenter.

    2. If you use different SSH credentials for each datacenter, select the name of the SSH credentials to use for this datacenter.

    3. For Workload, select the workloads that can run on this datacenter. For this example, use the default Cassandra option, which is for transactional workloads.

    4. Select DSE Graph to enable graph support on the nodes in this datacenter.

    5. Click Save.

  4. Add a second datacenter that supports DSE Analytics and Graph:

    1. Enter a name for the datacenter.

    2. If you use different SSH credentials for each datacenter, select the name of the SSH credentials to use for this datacenter.

    3. For Workload, select Spark to enable DSE Analytics workloads.

    4. To disallow transactional workloads, make sure Cassandra isn’t selected.

    5. Select DSE Graph.

    6. Click Save.

  5. Add nodes to the datacenters.

    1. Click the name of the first datacenter, then click the Add icon next to Nodes.

    2. Enter a name for the node, such as dse-transactional-1.

    3. For SSH IP Address, enter the node’s IP address.

    4. If you use different SSH credentials for each node, select the name of the SSH credentials to use for this node.

    5. To override the default IP address, which is the SSH IP Address, enter an IP Address in Native Transport (RPC) Address.

    6. Click Save.

    7. Continue adding nodes until you have configured all nodes in all datacenters in this cluster. This example requires six nodes because there are two datacenters with three nodes each.

Run the installation job

After adding all nodes, run the installation job to install DSE on the nodes:

  1. Under Clusters, click your cluster’s name.

  2. Click the More menu next to the cluster’s name.

  3. Click Install to open the Run Installation Job dialog, and then queue the installation job for LCM.

    Select the install job from the More menu

  4. Click View Job Summary to track the progress of the installation.

To return to the main OpsCenter interface, click OpsCenter Monitoring.

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