Documentation
1. About OviOS Linux
OviOS Linux came to life following a need to build a Linux storage server that was stable, secure and easy to use.
OviOS Linux excels in its simplicity and packages can be installed or upgraded easily with pacman.
This OS doesn’t provide a GUI for storage management. So far the need for such a tool didn’t arise, and such a tool would add a layer of complexity and would utilize resources which would otherwise be needed for serving data over iSCSI, NFS and / or SMB.
The goal is to keep OviOS a pure storage appliance-like OS.
To achieve this OviOS Linux uses an iSCSI target server, an SMB server with tools to easily share volumes and join a windows DC, and NFS. For storage OviOS Linux uses the advanced ZFS filesystem, providing software raid abilities, data compression and point-in-time snapshots.
2. How to install
NOTE: OviOS Linux doesn't support boot on UEFI hardware yet, only legacy BIOS. UEFI support is planned for a future release.
Please leave a message in the forum or the contact page requesting this feature (UEFI)
During the install and the first boot in the fresh system, you will need a direct connection to the server, via either console or KVM.
After the system boots up for the first time, run bondadm and netsetup to set up the network.
SSH is enabled by default and should be running during the install and after the first boot.
NOTE: The drive chosen for the install will be automatically wiped and partitioned for OviOS, any data will be permanently lost.
No swap partition will be created.
OviOS supports only x86_64 systems.
The install process is extremely simple. Watch the video tutorial on the Videos page.
Boot from the iso and log in (USER: root or ovios, PASSWORD: ovios).
If logging in with 'root', type 'linuxcmd' to reach the bash shell.
If logging in with 'ovios', type su to become root.
NOTE: 'su - ' or 'su - root' will launch the ovios shell.
Type 'setup' to start the installer (must be root to use the installer). Use UP and DOWN arrows to choose the option, follow the wizard to complete.
After the install completes, reboot into OviOS Linux.
Requirements: At least one disk 8 GB in size. The installer will partition the disk automatically and install the system.
After the installation:
‘bondadm’ - to create bonded interfaces (or aggregated links)
‘netsetup’ - to setup the network. Set static IPs or DHCP.
3. Usage
OviOS Linux can be used as a storage server for SMB, NFS and iSCSI.
It has been extensively tested with Windows, Linux and ESXi as connecting clients. The integration with AD has also been tested and proven to be solid.
The NIS client and server packages are also installed by default, as well as an FTP server.
4. The ovios shell
The ovios shell is a complete environment comprising multiple commands and tools working together to make storage administration as easy as possible.
The challenge behind the ovios shell was to make it easy for even someone who’s never used the Linux terminal, to set up easily and fast a storage server that can immediately serve data via iSCSI, NFS and SMB.
5. Options and features
Only SSH and FCRON are enabled by default:
How the two commands “services” and “options” work together.
In version 2.20 many new options have been added. See this page for a description of all options.
ovios-shell> options This will list all the available options.
You can also get groups of options by typing just parts of what you are looking for:
ovios-shell> options iscsi option iscsi.debug off option iscsi.port "34" option iscsi.enable off option iscsi.address ovios-shell> options nfs option nfs.threads option nfs.enable off option nfs.udp.disable off option nfs.tcp.disable off option nfs.idmap off option nfs4.domain option nfs.sys.log "on" option nfs.disable.vers "2 4" option nfs.port option nfs.debug off
ovios-shell> options skip option skip.import "off" option skipcheck.rootfs off ovios-shell> This way the user has absolute control over what is started during boot.
To start a service, but not enable it:
First, get a list of all services:
ovios-shell> services status-all [-] cluster NOT running [-] corosync NOT running [+] fcron running [-] iscsitarget NOT running [-] qemu-guest-agent NOT running [+] network running [-] nfs-client NOT running [-] nfs-server NOT running [-] nis-client NOT running [-] nis-server NOT running [-] nscd NOT running [-] ntp NOT running [-] pacemaker NOT running [+] rpcbind running [-] smb-server NOT running [+] sshd running [+] sysklogd running [-] vsftpd NOT running [-] snmpd NOT running [-] snmptrapd NOT runningovios-shell>
Run the services command to start the service from this list:
ovios-shell> services start snmptrapd Starting the SNMPTRAPD service... ovios-shell>
To get the status for a specific service:
ovios-shell> services status network Interface: eno16777736 ==>> up Interface: eno33554960 ==>> down Interface: eth0 ==>> up Interface: ifb0 ==>> down Interface: ifb1 ==>> down ovios-shell> services status corosync Corosync is NOT running. ovios-shell> To enable a service and make sure it’s started during boot use the options command:
ovios-shell> options smb.enable 1
The “services start | stop | restart | status” command, without the second argument as “service” starts, stops, restarts or prints status for ALL and only services enabled with the “options” command.
ovios-shell> services status SSH is running. * [ OK ] The iSCSI Target Server is NOT running. ***** [ FAIL ] The CRON service is running. * [ OK ] ovios-shell> In this example, only ssh, iscsi and fcron are enabled with “options”, but iscsi is not running.