Product documentation
App Layering
View PDF

Storage

May 17, 2019
Contributed by: 
E C

The appliance’s local storage is a layer repository where the appliance creates, composites, and stores layers and layered images. To check the amount of free space in the appliance’s local storage, you can see how much disk space is used in the System module of the management appliance.

  1. Log into the management console and select System > Manage Appliance.

  2. In the Services table, the Local Storage for the layering service shows how much space is used and how much is free.

    Note

    • Disk space is shown in 1024-based Gigabytes, not metric.
    • Free space is updated every time a layering service job completes. If you want to make sure the page has been refreshed, click the Refresh icon just above the Manage Appliance subtab.
    • When creating a layer or adding a Version to it, extra space is temporarily required to build the Packaging Disk. You can calculate the amount of space needed during layer creation by adding the following layer sizes:
      • The size of the OS layer version you’re using.
      • The size of the writable disk you want for the app layer.
      • The size of any prerequisite layers (if you have any).

Add a disk to locally attached storage

When you install the appliance, it comes equipped with an additional 300 GB data disk that is used as a layer repository. You can expand the appliance’s local storage by adding another disk to it.

After adding a disk to the appliance virtual machine using your hypervisor console, do the following steps:

  1. Log into your management console.
  2. Select System > Manage Appliance.
  3. Select Expand Storage. The Disk Selection tab is displayed of disks that are attached to the system and are not part of the layer repository.
  4. Select the check box for each disk that you want to use to expand the layer repository. If a check box is grayed out and a yellow icon with an ! (exclamation point) is displayed, it means that the attached disk is not eligible for use (for example, if the disk is not blank). Once the attached disk is blank and unpartitioned, you will be able to use it to expand the appliance’s local storage.
  5. On the Confirm and Complete tab, click Expand Storage.
  6. According to best practice, once the disk has been added, reboot the appliance so that the disk becomes active.

Add space to an existing disk in locally attached storage

If it is not possible to add a new disk, you can add space to an existing local storage disk as follows.

  1. Log into your hypervisor’s management console, and follow the normal procedure to increase the size of the local storage disk. (You may have more than one of these disks, and can expand each one of them.)
  2. Log into the management console and select System > Manage Appliance.
  3. Select Expand Storage. A list of expanded disks is displayed. (You might also see attached disks that are not yet part of the layer repository, but you can ignore those.)
  4. Notice that the New Size of the disk you expanded is larger than the Current Size.
  5. Select the check box for the disk that you want to expand to the New Size.
  6. On the Confirm and Complete tab, click Expand Storage.

Add storage locations for user layers

When you enable user layers on a layered image, the data and settings for each user are persisted between sessions.

When deploying with user layers enabled, you can add storage locations for those layers, rather than allowing user data to be saved on the appliance’s main file share.

When configuring user layer storage locations:

  • You can assign groups of users to each location.
  • The first storage location added to the appliance becomes the default location for user layers not associated with any other storage location.
  • Storage locations are listed in priority order.
  • If a user belongs to more than one group and those groups are assigned to different storage locations, the person’s user layer will be stored in the highest priority storage location. Once the person’s user layer is saved to the highest priority location, if you change the priority order of the storage locations that the user is assigned to, data saved up until that point will remain in the previously highest priority location. To preserve the person’s user layer, you must copy the their user layer to the new highest priority location.

Create user layer storage locations

To add a storage location:

  1. Log into the management console.
  2. Select System > User Layer Storage Locations.
  3. Select Add Storage Location. A list is displayed of file shares, except for the appliance’s main file share.
  4. Select Add Storage Location, and enter a Name and Network Path for the new location.
  5. On the User Layer Assignments tab, expand the directory tree and select the check box(es) for one or more groups to add to the new storage location.
  6. On the Confirm and Complete tab, click Add Storage Location.

Next, you must set security on the user layer folders.

Configure security on user layer folders

You can specify more than one storage location for your user layers. For each storage location (including the default location) you need to create a /Users subfolder and secure that location.

The security on each user layer folder must be set to the following values by a domain administrator:

Setting name Value Apply to
Creator Owner Modify Subfolders and Files only
Owner Rights Modify Subfolders and Files only
Users or group Create Folder/Append Data, Traverse Folder/Execute File, List Folder/Read Data, Read Attributes Selected Folder Only
System Full Control Selected Folder, Subfolders and Files
Domain Admins, and selected Admin group Full Control Selected Folder, Subfolders and Files

Set security on the user layer folders

  1. Log into the management console.
  2. Select System > User Layer Storage Locations. The file shares displayed are the storage locations defined for user layers. For example, say you’ve defined three storage locations so that you can more easily manage storage for Group1 and Group2 separate from everyone else in the organization:
    • Default location - \MyDefaultShare\UserLayerFolder\
    • Group1 - \MyGroup1\Share\UserLayerFolder\
    • Group2 - \MyGroup2\Share\UserLayerFolder
      Note: The appliance’s main file share, which is used for storing OS, app, and platform layers, is not listed as a user layer storage location.
  3. Create a \Users subdirectory under each file share:
    • \MyDefaultShare\UserLayerFolder\Users\
    • \MyGroup1Share\UserLayerFolder\Users\
    • \MyGroup2Share\UserLayerFolder\Users\
  4. Apply the security settings listed above to each /Users subdirectory.
Storage
May 17, 2019
Contributed by: 
E C
May 17, 2019
Contributed by: 
E C

In this article

Site feedback | Your privacy choices footer linkYour Privacy Choices | Privacy and legal terms | Cookie preferences | Consent settings | docs.cloud.com
© 1999- Cloud Software Group, Inc. All rights reserved.