Installation Notes

  • The automated installer tool (DataCore Deployment Wizard) is recommended to assist and guide Administrators through the process of configuring and deploying DataCore Servers in a variety of environments (explained in the following section). To bypass the DataCore Deployment Wizard, click Exit and double-click the DataCoreServer.exe in the installation folder. See Manual Server Installation for detailed instructions.
  • For new installations only, the wizard verifies that the servers meet the software, hardware, and operating system (including .NET version) requirements necessary before installation. Hardware requirements include the number of ports, port connectivity, and the availability of at least one available unformatted disk on the server to create a pool. System requirements are not checked when selecting the upgrade template.
  • Network adapters present on the servers are configured during installation.
    • Servers must be able to connect to each other over Network Interface Cards (NICs). A minimum of three NIC or Fibre Channel (FC) ports are required in each server. One port must be a NIC and two can be either NIC or FC. NICs must be connected with a valid IPv4 address.
    • Other TCP/IP settings that can be configured for ports are DHCP, DNS server, and gateway.

  • If a DataCore Server has no Internet access, software installation can take a significant amount of time. To correct this problem: Open Internet Explorer. Select the Tools menu and choose Options. Scroll down to the Security section and clear the Check for Publisher's Certificate Revocation check box in the Advanced tab. Click OK. This setting may be changed at any time during the installation of the software; there is no need to cancel an installation already in progress. It will take effect immediately.

  • Disable firewalls between servers while using the wizard to assure the connection.
  • Servers must be a member of the same domain or workgroup.
  • Login with a local administrator account to deploy a single server using the self-guided installation or High Availability pair or Virtualized SANsymphony server. Log in with a domain administrator account when running the wizard to configure a cluster solution.
  • If the wizard is exited before it has been completed or the server is restarted during the installation process, the wizard will continue at the point where it left off when it is restarted.
  • Warnings and errors received while the wizard is running will be logged in a file named log.txt in the DataCore Deployment Wizard installation folder, as well as the operating system Event Viewer>Windows Logs>Application Logs.
  • Although steps may continue when warnings have been flagged, care should be taken that a valid configuration is created. Steps with errors may not be continued. The error should be corrected, and the wizard resumed.
  • During the installation of this software on new nodes, a DataCore Administrator password will be created. This is the default account for the DcsAdmin service. This password must be identical to the DcsAdmin password being used by all existing or new DataCore Servers in the server group. Remember the password.
  • When deploying two DataCore Servers in a highly-available configuration, the wizard will refer to these two servers as “Server One” and “Server Two”. Server One will be the local server that the wizard is running on. The installation of Server Two will be performed remotely from Server One. When deploying a single DataCore Server, the wizard will refer to this server as Server One.
  • When adding nodes to a server group, for best performance in Server Groups with a large number of servers, check the Disable iSCSI auto-login check box.
  • In the wizard, a cache size may be required to be entered. Be mindful of RAM consumption by other applications running on this server.

    Cache size may be changed after installation. See Changing Cache Size in the DataCore SANsymphony Help for more information.