Host Requirements

This topic lists the minimum host requirements for HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise for production environments and for non-production environments, such as for development and testing.

The minimum and recommeded host requirements vary by the following:

  • Deployment environment: Production or non-production

  • Workload type, such as ML Ops or Big Data

  • Host function, such as compute, gateway, or storage

Deployment Environments

Deployment environments include the following:

Production environments

Hewlett Packard Enterprise strongly recommends that you use the recommendations for production environments when deploying HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise for a production workload. The minimum production requirements are not appropriate for all workloads. The appropriate sizing varies by the workload type and your performance and capacity requirements. Hewlett Packard Enterprise can help you determine the best configuration for your needs.

Non-production environments

Non-production environments include demonstration environments, development environments, testing environments, and so forth.

The minimum host requirements described in this topic for non-production environment are the minimums that are required to run HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise. Minimum deployments do not meet high-availiability requirements and have performance and capacity limitations. The appropriate sizing for non-production environments varies by the workload type and your performance and capacity requirements.

For production workloads and non-production environments larger than 10 nodes, Hewlett Packard Enterprise strongly recommends that you collaborate with your Hewlett Packard Enterprise representative to design an architecture that meets your requirements based on your actual workload needs.

Workload Types

The type of workload influences the appropriate mix of CPU, memory, storage, and networking resources. Workloads such as ML Ops workloads have additional requirements beyond the platform minimum requirements described in this topic. Links to additional information for different workloads are provided as appropriate.

Host Types by Function

The term host and node are often used interchangeably. Nodes are hosts that are part of a cluster. The types of hosts, by function, are the following:

Controller hosts

The Controller host is the host where you initially install HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise. This host controls the rest of the hosts in the deployment.

In high-availability (HA) deployments, there is also a Shadow Controller host and an Arbiter host, for a total of three (3) Controller hosts.

Controller hosts are part of the HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise control plane.

Gateway LB hosts

Gateway load balancer (Gateway LB) hosts enable access to pods or container services from an external network.

In high-availability (HA) deployments, there are a minimum of two (2) Gateway LB hosts. For more information about Gateway host requirements, see Gateway Hosts.

Gateway LB hosts are part of the HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise control plane.

Kubernetes control plane hosts

The Kubernetes control plane manages the worker hosts and pods in the cluster. For detailed information about what a Kuberentes control plane does, see Control Plane Components in the Kubernetes documentation (links opens an external website in a new browser window or tab).

In high-availability (HA) deployments that implement Kubernetes, there are a minimum of three (3) Kubernetes master hosts.

Worker hosts
Worker hosts run the pods or containers that process jobs in HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise.
Data Fabric hosts

Data Fabric are the hosts are part of an implementation of HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric on Kubernetes. Data Fabric hosts are not included in the minimum requirements tables in this topic.

Requirements for Data Fabric hosts are described in Requirements for HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric on Kubernetes (for non-production environments only).

If the HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise deployment has already implemented Embedded Data Fabric instead of HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric on Kubernetes, there is no dedicated Data Fabric; worker hosts are used instead. This configuration is applicable only for existing HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric deployments in which HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise is upgraded from a release prior to 5.4.0.

General Recommendations for Hosts

The following recommendations apply regardless of host type or workload:

  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise strongly recommends that you install HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise on dedicated physical or virtual hosts. Do not use these resources for any other applications or services.
    CAUTION

    HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise performs numerous configuration changes to the controller and worker hosts during installation that are required in order for the HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise deployment to function. These changes are not completely reversible and may impact other applications and processes that are currently running on the host. It is strongly recommended that you install HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise on hosts that are not being used for any other purpose in order to avoid possible disruptions to your normal business processes.

  • You must have at least three (3) Controller hosts in order to enable platform High Availability for HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise, as described in High Availability Requirements, below.
  • For best results, Hewlett Packard Enterprise recommends installing HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise on hosts that share the same configuration (CPU, RAM, storage, GPU, OS, etc.).

  • For production workloads and non-production environments larger than 10 nodes, Hewlett Packard Enterprise strongly recommends that you collaborate with your Hewlett Packard Enterprise representative to design an architecture that meets your requirements based on your actual workload needs.

  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise strongly discourages the installation of other applications, including security software such as McAfee and Trend Deep Security, on HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise hosts. Any software that has the ability to change system-wide file ownership and filesystem mounting options can prevent HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise from working correctly.

Production Environments: Minimum Host Requirements

The following tables describe the minimum host requirements for HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise in production deployments:

  • The table entries incorporate the recommended number of Controller, Gateway, and Kuberentes Master (Kubernetes Control Plane) nodes needed for high-availability (HA) deployments. For information about other HA requirements, see High Availability Requirements.

  • In HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise deployments that implement Kubernetes, Kubernetes Master hosts are separate from and in addition to the HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise Controller hosts.

  • The tables differ based on whether Embedded Data Fabric is included in the deployment (only for existing Embedded Data Fabric deployments in which HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise is upgraded from a release prior to 5.4.0.). For new deployments of HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise 5.4.0 or later, Embedded Data Fabric is not supported.

  • The recommendations for Kubernetes hosts do not include the additional requirements for add-on applications. See Kubernetes Host/Node Requirements and Online Sizing Tool for Compute Capacity.

  • The table entries do not include host requirements for deployments that include a separate cluster for HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric on Kubernetes. For information about requirements for HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric on Kubernetes, see Requirements for HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric on Kubernetes (for non-production environments only).

  • In the tables, CPU cores are defined as the cores available to the kernel in the OS on which the HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise software is directly installed. For the complete definition, see HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE END USER SUBSCRIPTION AGREEMENT.

Table 1. Production Environments Without Existing Embedded Data Fabric
Role Controller Gateway LB Kubernetes Master Kubernetes Worker
Quantity 3 2 3 1
CPU Cores 4 2 4 4
RAM (GB) 64 16 32 32
NIC (Gbps) 1 x 10Gbps 1 x 10Gbps 1 x 10Gbps 1 x 10Gbps
Storage See Storage Requirements.
GPU1 N/A N/A N/A Optional
1 GPUs are optional; they are not required to install HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise.
Table 2. Production Environments With Existing Embedded Data Fabric
Role Controller Gateway LB Kubernetes Master Kubernetes Worker
Quantity 3 2 3 1
CPU Cores 8 2

4

(8 if this is an MFS node)

4

(8 if this is an MFS node)
RAM (GB) 64 16

32

(64 if this is an MFS node)

32

(64 if this is an MFS node)
NIC (Gbps) 1 x 10Gbps 1 x 10Gbps 1 x 10Gbps 1 x 10Gbps
Storage See Storage Requirements.
GPU1 N/A N/A N/A Optional
1 GPUs are optional; they are not required to install HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise.

Non-Production Environments: Minimum Host Requirements

The following tables describe the minimum host requirements for HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise in development, testing, or other non-production deployments:

  • The table entries are for non-HA deployments. For information about high-availability (HA) deployments, see High Availability Requirements.

  • In HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise that implement Kubernetes, the Kubernetes master host is separate from and in addition to the HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise Controller host.

  • The tables differ based on whether Embedded Data Fabric is included in the deployment (only for existing Embedded Data Fabric deployments in which HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise is upgraded from a release prior to 5.4.0). For new deployments of HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise 5.4.x and later, Embedded Data Fabric is not supported.

  • The recommendations for Kubernetes hosts do not include the additional requirements for add-on applications. See Kubernetes Host/Node Requirements.

  • The table entries do not include host requirements for deployments that include HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric on Kubernetes. For information about requirements for HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric on Kubernetes, see Requirements for HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric on Kubernetes (for non-production environments only).

  • The installation pre-check scripts are designed to check that the minimum requirements for production environments are met. For non-production environments, when you want to create a deployment that is smaller than the requirements for production environments, specify the --force option when executing the pre-check script.

Table 3. Non-Production Environments Without Existing Embedded Data Fabric
Role Controller Gateway LB Kubernetes Master Kubernetes Worker
Quantity 1 1 1 1
CPU Cores 4 2 4 4
RAM (GB) 32 16 32 32
NIC (Gbps) 1 x 10Gbps 1 x 10Gbps 1 x 10Gbps 1 x 10Gbps
Storage See Storage Requirements.
GPU1 N/A N/A N/A Optional
1 GPUs are optional; they are not required to install HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise.
Table 4. Non-Production Environments With Existing Embedded Data Fabric
Role Controller Gateway LB Kubernetes Master Kubernetes Worker
Quantity 1 1 1 1
CPU Cores 8 2 4

(8 if this is an MFS node)

 4

(8 if this is an MFS node)
RAM (GB) 64 16

32

(64 if this is an MFS node)

32

(64 if this is an MFS node)
NIC (Gbps) 1 x 10Gbps 1 x 10Gbps 1 x 10Gbps 1 x 10Gbps
Storage See Storage Requirements.
GPU1 N/A N/A N/A Optional
1 GPUs are optional; they are not required to install HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise.

Storage Requirements

The following table lists the minimum storage requirements for deployments of HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise.

The recommendations for Kubernetes hosts do not include the additional requirements for add-on applications. See Kubernetes Host/Node Requirements.

The table does not include storage requirements for deployments that include HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric on Kubernetes. See Requirements for HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric on Kubernetes (for non-production environments only).

Table 5. Storage Requirements for Production and Non-Production Environments
Role Controller Gateway LB Kubernetes Master Kubernetes Worker
OS Disk (GB) 50 or more* 20 50 or more* 50 or more*
Ephemeral Storage (GB)1 150 N/A 150 150
1 All storage must be surfaced as a raw block device; it cannot have or be a part of a partition or have any file systems mounted to the volume.

* The minimum size of the OS disk corresponds to the root / mount point. The required size depends on the existence of other mount points. See Storage Partition Requirements.

Storage Partition Requirements

The supported mount points and their minimum sizes depends on the type of host. The host file system must have at least the root mount point: /

The total minimum required size is the combination of all the mount point sizes listed in the table for a given type of host. If you choose not to configure a listed mount point, that mount point's required size must be added to the root (/) mount point.

For example, if you choose not to configure /opt as a separate mount point on the Controller host, you must add the 100GB listed for /opt to the 50GB listed for the root mount point (/). That is, if /opt is not a separate mount point, the Controller host requires 150GB for the root (/) mount point.

The storage size for the Controller and Shadow Controller hosts must match.

Table 6. Mount Point Requirements for Controller and Shadow Controller Hosts
Mount Point Minimum Size (GB) Purpose
/ 50 Root file system where the HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise components are stored
/var, or /var/lib, or /var/lib/docker 150 Stores container metadata information
/opt 100 Stores all HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise software
/srv or /srv/bluedata 20 /srv/bluedata stores all temporary runtime files, including any artifacts, such as scripts and .jar files, that have been uploaded for running jobs.
Table 7. Mount Point Requirements for Kubernetes Hosts
Mount Point Minimum Size (GB) Purpose
/ 70 Root file system where the HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise components are stored.
/var, or /var/lib, or /var/lib/containerd , or /var/lib/docker 150 Stores container metadata information. /var/lib/containerd is used for hosts running the Hewlett Packard Enterprise distribution of Kubernetes. /var/lib/docker is used for the other hosts in the deployment.
/opt 50 Stores all HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise software. /opt/ezkube (on Kubernetes hosts hosts only), /opt/bluedata, and /opt/hpe are used to install HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise software.

The preceding tables list minimum sizes. The optimum sizes for your deployment vary.

High Availability Requirements

If you plan to provide High Availability for the Controller host (see High Availability), then each of the following additional requirements must be met:

  • The deployment must consist of at least three (3) Controller hosts. You will install HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise on the Controller host and then add the hosts that will become the Shadow Controller and Arbiter.
  • If you are using a public (routable) virtual node network, then each of the three Controller hosts (Controller, Shadow Controller, and Arbiter) must have IP addresses that fall within the same subnet. Further, you must have an additional IP address available within the same subnet for use as the cluster IP address. This requirement does not apply if you are using a private (non- routable) virtual node network. See Network Requirements.
  • If both the Controller host and Shadow Controller host are in the same subnet, and you want to connect to the Controller via a cluster IP address, then the external network switch must support a “gratuitous ARP” based IP-to-MAC discovery. See High Availability.
  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise recommends not installing the Network Manager service because it conflicts with the High Availability monitoring service. If you install the Network Manager service while installing the base operating system on the nodes, then HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise will display a warning in the Config Checks tab of the Support/Troubleshooting screen (see Config Checks Tab).

Online Sizing Tool for Compute Capacity

For additional information about sizing the compute portion of your solution, see the HPE Sizing Tool for Ezmeral Container Platform (link opens in a new browser tab/window). The online sizer for HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise sizes the compute tier where the HPE Ezmeral Runtime Enterprise software is running. It includes predefined templates that can aid you in determining workload requirements based on the applications you want to run. Compute capacity can be scaled by adding more compute servers as new tenants and services are brought online, without incurring the cost of scaling storage capacity unnecessarily.

Kubernetes Host Node Requirements

See Kubernetes Host/Node Requirements.

Host Node Requirements for HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric on Kubernetes

See Requirements for HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric on Kubernetes (for non-production environments only).

HPE Ezmeral ML Ops Requirements

See HPE Ezmeral ML Ops Requirements.