This post is to outline the key steps to configure mNode and how to connect SolidFire storage to ActiveIQ site. This post is not intended to cover all the details in the NetApp SolidFire deploy guide, user guide documents or other NetApp official documents.

What is SolidFire mNode?

The NetApp SolidFire management node (mNode) is a virtual machine deployed in customer environment to provide below functions:

• SolidFire Element OS software upgrades;
• Remote alerting and historical data collection through Active IQ;
• Remote support tunneling for NetApp Support hands-on access; and
• Ancillary functions for NetApp SolidFire Plug-in for VMware® vCenter™ functionality and syslog aggregation.

How to deploy and configure SolidFire mNode?

To deploy and configure management node, there are a few simple steps as below:

1. Deploy the OVA file with the name ended with vcp-x.x.x.x.ova;
2. Configure the IP address/DNS/username/password through mNode console TextUI. (Note: Hit Enter to edit and hit Enter again to release.);
3. Use web browser to login to http://mNodeIP:9443 to register mNode with VMware vCenter; and
4. Use web browser to login to http://mNodeIP:442 to manage mNode. (Re-IP and etc.)

If the above steps are all completed with success, you should see the NetApp SolidFire plugin in vCenter as below:

What is NetApp SolidFire ActiveIQ and how to connect?

ActiveIQ for SolidFire is a web-based tool that provides continually updated historical views of cluster-wide statistics. It also provides the function to send email notification to customer with the pre-defined alert policy.

There are two major steps to configure mNode to send storage status and statistics to SolidFire ActiveIQ.

1. (Option) SSH to SolidFire mNode, run command “sudo sfsetproxy PROXYIP PROXYPORT” to configure proxy server if needed; and
2. SSH to SolidFire mNode, run below commands:
   1. cd /solidfire/collector
   2. sudo chmod 755 collector.py
   3. ./manage-collector.py –set-username <username> –set-mvip <mvip>
   4. ./manage-collector.py –set-password (password for SolidFire storage)
   5. sudo restart sfcollector

To validate the whether mNode could communicate with NetApp SolidFire ActiveIQ site, you have below options:

1. SSH to SolidFire mNode, run command “tail -f /var/log/sf-collector.log” to verify the log, you should notice the SolidFire storage status and statistics collection progress; and
2. Login to Website https://activeiq.solidfire.com, register a new SolidFire ActiveIQ user account to check the monitoring result. (Note, the ActiveIQ for SolidFire is a different site other than NetApp ActiveIQ, you need a separate account to login. If automatic registration is not working, open a case to NetApp and they will manually create a user account for you).