Planning and Preparation

Before installing ZSphere, complete hardware, network, software package, and server configuration preparation to ensure that the servers can boot from the installation media and meet the deployment requirements for management nodes, compute nodes, and subsequent business resources.

This chapter describes the basic conditions that must be confirmed before deployment, including hardware requirements, network planning, software package preparation, installation media creation, and server configuration. After completing these preparations, you can start installing the management node.

Hardware Requirements

Basic Hardware Requirements

The server configuration, including CPU, memory, storage capacity and NIC performance, determines the business capacity of ZSphere.

Basic demonstration environment: The server must have at least 4 CPU cores and 8 GB of memory.
Production environment:
- Management node configuration: In small-scale scenarios, the server must have at least 8 CPU cores, 16 GB of memory, and 240 GB of storage.
  The actual hardware configuration requirements depend on your business scale. For details, contact official technical support.
- Compute node configuration: The actual hardware configuration requirements depend on your business scale. For details, contact official technical support.

Recommended Hardware Configuration

The following table lists the recommended server hardware configuration for both basic demonstration environments and production environments:

Device		Configuration
Server	CPU	x86 architecture: 64-bit. Supports Intel VT-x or AMD-V hardware virtualization features (such as Intel VMX or AMD/Hygon SVM). ARM architecture: 64-bit. Supports hardware virtualization features.
	Memory	No special requirements. DDR4 or higher specification memory is recommended.
	Motherboard	Standard dual-socket server motherboard.
	RAID Controller	Supports SAS/SATA RAID 0/1/10 and passthrough mode.
	Disk	No special requirements. Select HDD or SSD based on capacity and performance requirements.
	Network Ports	Management port: 1 × 1 GbE RJ45 Business port: 1 × 10 GbE SFP+
Network Switch		At least one 1 GbE switch. 10 GbE switch is recommended. Multiple Category 5 or higher network cables.

Hardware Planning

You need to plan your server resources according to your production needs. In a large data center with sufficient resources, we recommend deploying two servers as management nodes to control the entire virtualization platform. These two management nodes provide high availability. If one management node fails, the system automatically triggers a high availability switchover within seconds. This ensures the management service remains continuously available. In a small data center, you can use a single server as the management node.

The remaining servers act as compute nodes. In a large data center, you can select multiple compute nodes to act as image storage. This expands the total image storage capacity and improves throughput. In a small data center, the image storage can share a server with the management node.

Network Planning

A typical data center consists of several servers with different functions and two independent network environments.

The management network uses dual Gigabit networks for managing hardware resources related to the virtualization platform. The business network uses dual 10-Gigabit networks for virtual machine service traffic. You can configure network speeds based on your actual business requirements.
If you use network storage such as NFS or distributed storage, you need also plan an additional storage network to handle storage traffic.
We recommend that you maintain consistent NIC naming across all servers and use NICs with the same name to carry the same type of network traffic. For example, all management network traffic use the em1 NICs.
If you use a VLAN network, you need to configure the corresponding VLAN network communication on the switch in advance.
ZSphere automatically assigns IP addresses to virtual machines. You need to reserve an IP range that does not conflict with the system and ensure this range does not conflict with any existing DHCP services in your network environment.

Prepare Software Packages

Software Package Description

ZSphere ISO is built on Helix, a self-developed virtualization kernel that runs between the infrastructure layer and upper-layer guest operating systems. Helix integrates hardware drivers, macro kernel components, virtual agents, and other required components. When guest operating systems access underlying hardware resources, Helix masks differences across heterogeneous hardware, removes the dependency on physical hardware drivers, and improves hardware compatibility, reliability, availability, scalability, and performance in the virtualization environment.

Installing ZSphere does not require Internet access or a yum repository. The installation can be completed offline.

Software Package List

The following table lists the software packages used to install ZSphere:

Server Architecture	Software Package Name
x86	ZStack-ZSphere-x86_64-DVD-5.1.0-H84r.iso
x86	ZStack-ZSphere-x86_64-DVD-5.1.0-KylinV10SP3.iso
ARM	ZStack-ZSphere-aarch64-DVD-5.1.0-H22e.iso
ARM	ZStack-ZSphere-aarch64-DVD-5.1.0-KylinV10SP3.iso

Note: After obtaining the software, use an MD5 checksum tool to verify the checksum and ensure that the software is complete and intact.

Create Installation Media

After obtaining the ZSphere ISO image file, write the ISO image to a USB drive so that the physical server can boot the installer from the USB drive.

You can create the installation media with Rufus or Fedora Media Writer based on your local operating system and tool preference. After the installation media is created, set the USB drive as the boot media in the server BIOS or boot menu.

Create a USB Drive with Rufus

After you obtain the ISO package, you can use Rufus to burn the ISO image to a USB drive.

Procedure

Select an ISO image.
1. Connect your USB drive and open Rufus.
2. In the Boot Selection drop-down list, choose Disk or ISO image.
3. Click SELECT to open the ISO image file that you obtained.
Figure 2. Select ISO Image
Burn the image.
1. After selecting the ISO image, keep the other options at their default settings and click START.
2. Confirm the warning message.
  
  Note: Burning the image will format the data on the USB drive. If you have important data on your USB drive, make sure to back it up before formatting.
3. Click OK, and Rufus will burn the ISO image to the USB drive.
Figure 3. Burn the Image

What to do next

After the burning process completes, you can use the USB drive as a boot disk. ZStack-ZSphere supports booting in Legacy mode or UEFI mode.

Create a USB Drive with Fedora Media Writer

After you obtain the ISO package, if you are using the Kylin operating system, we recommend using Fedora Media Writer to burn the ISO image.

Procedure

Select an ISO image.
1. Connect your USB drive and open Fedora Media Writer.
2. Click Custom Image to open the ISO image file that you obtained.
Burn the image.
1. After selecting the ISO image, keep the other options at their default settings and click Write Disk.
  
  Note: Burning the image will format the data on the USB drive. If you have important data on your USB drive, make sure to back it up before formatting.

What to do next

After the burning process completes, you can use the USB drive as a boot disk. ZStack-ZSphere supports booting in Legacy mode or UEFI mode.

Configure Servers

Server Configuration Check

Based on your actual network planning, rack, cable, and power on the servers and network equipment. Then, start the servers, enter BIOS, and verify the following:

The installation process overwrites all data, so confirm that you have backed up all disks in the servers.
Enter the server BIOS and enable CPU VT and Hyper-Threading (HT) options.
Configure the appropriate RAID level in the RAID controller to provide data redundancy.
Set the USB drive as the first boot device.

For information about how to change server configurations, refer to your hardware vendor documentation.

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