Installing a DataStax Enterprise cluster using Lifecycle Manager

Use LCM to easily provision, configure, and install DSE clusters.

Lifecycle Manager (LCM) in OpsCenter enables you to easily provision, configure, and install DataStax Enterprise (DSE) clusters.

The workflow when using LCM is to first install OpsCenter on a dedicated server, then use LCM to configure and install the DSE on the nodes in the clusters.

Prerequisites

These steps assume that:
  • All target machines are running a supported platform.
  • Authentication credentials (either username and password, or an SSH key) exist for each machine on which DSE will be installed.
  • The machine on which OpsCenter will be installed can access the target machines where DSE will be installed.
  • Target machines have access to either the public DSE repository or to an internal mirror set up by your organization.

The topology of your clusters is important. Before you begin, determine how many clusters, datacenters, and nodes are needed. Decide how to arrange workloads within the clusters; for example, using a single workload per datacenter or a mixed workload cluster.

After satisfying these prerequisites, complete the following tasks in the specified order to install DSE clusters using LCM:

Procedure

  1. Access Lifecycle Manager using a web browser.
  2. Optional: Create custom data directories if not using the default directories.
  3. Add SSH credentials so that LCM can remotely log in to target machines when performing installation and configuration activities.
  4. Add a configuration profile that defines the required DSE configuration on the development, test, and production clusters for your organization. If the configuration of a cluster is intentionally heterogeneous and not uniform at all levels, create multiple configuration profiles to apply individually at the cluster, datacenter, or node levels.
  5. Add a repository so that LCM can download DSE software onto target machines from either the public DataStax repository or an internal repository mirror set up by your organization.
  6. Define the topology of the cluster:
    1. Add a cluster.
    2. Add datacenters.
    3. Add nodes.
  7. Run an installation job at the cluster level. LCM installs and configures DSE on all datacenters and nodes within the cluster.
  8. View job summary and details to monitor the progress of pending and running jobs.