Setup Guide VEVMware Clustered

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition
for VMware)
June 30, 2023
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Published on June 30, 2023
Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 2

Contents
Initial Cluster Setup 4
Fill Out Worksheets 4
Privileges for Cohesity on the Source 5
About Virtual Edition Networking 5
Install and Configure VMware VM for a Clustered Virtual Edition 6
Configure vSphere Availability for Virtual Edition for VMware 18
Log In and Start Cluster Creation 18
Initial Cluster Creation 18
Configure Settings 23
Default Gateway for Virtual Edition 38
Configure the Primary or Secondary Network in Cohesity Cluster with Multicast
Disabled 39
Cohesity Support 41
Reach Cohesity Support 41
Reach Cohesity Support by Email 41
Support/Service Assistance 41
Cohesity Software Running on Partner Hardware 42
Documentation Feedback 43

Initial Cluster Setup Fill Out Worksheets
Initial Cluster Setup

Note:
l Cohesity recommends powering off all Cohesity VMs before shutting down
or rebooting the host ESX server.
l Cohesity recommends that multi-node clusters are not configured as RF1

(replication factor one), due to a high risk of data loss in case of either disk
or underlying hardware failure.
Virtual Edition for VMware and Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware is supported on the
following versions of VMware vSphere ESXi:
l 8.0
l 7.0
l 6.7
l 6.5
The following steps document the initial setup of a Cohesity cluster.

Fill Out Worksheets 4
Privileges for Cohesity on the Source 5
About Virtual Edition Networking 5
Install and Configure VMware VM for a Clustered Virtual Edition 6
Configure vSphere Availability for Virtual Edition for VMware 18
Log In and Start Cluster Creation 18
Initial Cluster Creation 18
Configure Settings 23
Default Gateway for Virtual Edition 38
Disabled 39
Fill Out Worksheets

Cohesity provides a Worksheet PDF that contains a checklist of network requirements
and a worksheet with the information required to install and configure the Cohesity cluster.
Fill out the worksheets in the PDF prior to setting up the Cohesity cluster. You can enter
values in the fields and save the filled out PDF.

Initial Cluster Setup Privileges for Cohesity on the Source
Privileges for Cohesity on the Source

The Cohesity cluster must perform various actions on the source. For the Cohesity cluster to
perform these actions, the user specified to connect to the source (the one used to register
the source) must have adequate privileges. Refer to Ensure Adequate Privileges for
Cohesity on the Source for the user requirements of each hypervisor type.
About Virtual Edition Networking

Virtual Edition supports the following types of network configurations:
l single-homed—This Virtual Edition network configuration has a single network using

the Data (Primary) Network for all traffic.
l multi-homed—This Virtual Edition network uses both Data (Primary) Network and
Secondary Network. The Secondary Network is required in the following scenarios:
l When the management network is segregated or occurs over a non-routed
network segment. The Data (Primary) Network is unreachable from the
management network.
l When the replication traffic needs to be segregated or routed over a non-routed
network segment.
Default Gateway
If a Secondary Network interface is configured during the Clustered Virtual Edition
installation procedure, the Secondary Network is used as the default gateway for the
Cohesity cluster.
Cohesity
Secondary
cluster
Data (Primary) Network (If
Default Notes
Network Specified, must
Gateway
be Static)
Used
DHCP IP Static Secondary The static IP is set for the Data (Primary) Network interface
Address Network when the Cohesity cluster is created.
Static Static Secondary If you need to set the Data (Primary) Network as the default
(Manual) IP Network gateway for the Cohesity cluster, use the Cohesity CLI to change
Address the default gateway to the Data (Primary) Network interface.

Initial Cluster Setup Install and Configure VMware VM for a Clustered Virtual Edition
Cohesity
Secondary
cluster
Default Notes
Gateway
be Static)
Used
DHCP IP Not Set Data If the Secondary Network was not set during the initial install of
Address or (Primary) the Virtual Edition, it can be configured after the install using the
Static Network Cohesity CLI.
(Manual) IP If you need to set the Secondary Network as the default gateway
Address for the Cohesity cluster, set it using the Cohesity CLI.
Install and Configure VMware VM for a Clustered Virtual

Edition
A Clustered Virtual Edition runs on multiple VMware Virtual Machines. Create a Virtual
Machine for each node in the cluster by deploying the Clustered Virtual Edition OVA file
using a VMware vSphere Client. Cohesity supports two different deployment configuration
types; Small and Large.
Cohesity recommends the following deployment configurations for best results:
In 6.3.x and earlier versions:
l Small (8 TB) Configuration: The small (8 TB) configuration supports Virtual

Machines with at most two Metadata Tier disks (of exactly same size) and at most a
single Data Tier disk (maximum 8 TB) for each Cohesity node. The minimum
configuration of each Virtual Machine is 4 vCPUs, 38 GB of memory and 64 GB of
virtual disk to store the operating system. The size of each metadata disk must be
between 512 GB to 1 TB. The total metadata size cannot go beyond 1 TB. The size of
the data disk must be between 1 TB to 8 TB. Metadata Disk size must be less than
data disk size. For more information, see Small Configuration (8 TB) Settings for
Virtual Edition VMware.
l Large (16 TB) Configuration: The large (16 TB) configuration supports Virtual
Machines with at most two Metadata Tier disks (of exactly same size) and at most two
Data Tier disks (each of maximum 8 TB) adding to a total of 16 TB for each Cohesity
node. The minimum configuration of each Virtual Machine is 8 vCPUs, 64 GB of
memory and 64 GB of virtual disk to store the operating system as the minimum
configuration. The size of each metadata disk must be between 512 Gb to 1 TB.
Overall total metadata size cannot go beyond 1 TB. The size of the data disk must be
between 1 TB to 8 TB. The total data disk size cannot go beyond 16 TB. Metadata disk
size must be less than data disk size. For more information, see Large Configuration
(16 TB) Settings for Virtual Edition VMware.

In 6.4 - 6.6 versions:
l Small (8 TB) Configuration: During cluster creation and node addition, Cohesity
supports a maximum of single metadata disk and single data disk. The size of each
metadata disk must be between 256 GB to 1 TB. The size of each data disk must be
between 512 GB to 8 TB. The Metadata disk size must be less than data disk size.
After cluster creation, you can expand disk sizes by extending the disks or adding a
new metadata or data disks to the node/cluster. For more information, see Small
Configuration (8 TB) Settings for Virtual Edition VMware.
l Large (16 TB) Configuration: During cluster creation and node addition, Cohesity
supports a maximum of single metadata disk and two data disks. The size of each
metadata disk must be between 256 Gb to 1 TB. The size of each data disk must be
between 512 GB to 8 TB. The Metadata disk size must be less than data disk size.
After cluster creation, you can expand disk sizes by extending the disks or adding new
metadata or data disks to the node/cluster. For more information, see Large
Configuration (16 TB) Settings for Virtual Edition VMware.
In 6.8 and later versions:
l Small (8 TB) Configuration: During cluster creation and node addition, Cohesity
supports a maximum of single metadata disk and single data disk. Each VM can have
12 vCPUs, 32 GB of memory and 64 GB of virtual disk to store the operating system.
The size of each metadata disk must be between 256 GB to 1 TB. The size of each
data disk must be between 512 GB to 8 TB. The Metadata disk size must be less than
data disk size. After cluster creation, you can expand disk sizes by extending the
disks or adding a new metadata or data disks to the node/cluster. For more
information, see Small Configuration (8 TB) Settings for Virtual Edition VMware.
l Large (16 TB) Configuration: During cluster creation and node addition, Cohesity
supports a maximum of a single metadata disk and two data disks. Each VM can have
24 vCPUs, 64 GB of memory and 64 GB of virtual disk to store the operating system.
The size of each metadata disk must be between 256 Gb to 1 TB. The size of each data
disk must be between 512 GB to 8 TB. The Metadata disk size must be less than data
disk size. After cluster creation, you can expand disk sizes by extending the disks or
adding new metadata or data disks to the node/cluster. For more information, see
Large Configuration (16 TB) Settings for Virtual Edition VMware.
Note: For Cohesity 6.8 or later versions, the configurations recommended

above are not minimum requirements.
Small Configuration (8 TB) Settings for Virtual Edition VMware

Settings 6.3 and earlier versions 6.4 - 6.6 versions 6.8 and later versions
Minimum Metadata disk 512 GB 256 GB (preferred 256 GB (preferred

size size is 512 GB) size is 512 GB)
Maximum Metadata disk 1 TB 1 TB 1 TB

size
During cluster creation, 2 (Both metadata disks must be of the 1 (the metadata disk 1 (the metadata disk
maximum number of same size and each disk size must be size must be less than size must be less than
metadata disks allowed less than the data disk size) the data disk size) the data disk size)
After cluster creation, 2 2 2
Maximum total number of

disks allowed to be
attached to the node
Total Matadata disks 1 TB 1 TB 1 TB

maximum size
Minimum Data disks size 1 TB 512 GB (preferred 512 GB (preferred

size is 1 TB) size is 1 TB)
Maximum Data disk size 8 TB 8 TB 8 TB
During cluster creation, 1 (the metadata disk size must be less 1 (the metadata disk 1 (the metadata disk
maximum number of data than the data disk size) size must be less than size must be less than
disks allowed the data disk size) the data disk size)

maximum total number
of data disks allowed
Total Data disks 8 TB 8 TB 8 TB

maximum size
Data disk size (x) to x/y<=20 x/y<=20 x/y<=20

Metadata disk size (y)
maximum ratio:


preferred ratio:
Minimum number of 4 4 12
vCPUs
Minimum Memory 38 GB 32 GB 32 GB
Required
Large Configuration (16 TB) Settings for Virtual Edition VMware
Minimum Metadata disk 512 GB 256 GB (preferred 256 GB (preferred

size size is 512GB) size is 512GB)
Maximum Metadata disk 1 TB 1 TB 1 TB

size
During cluster creation, 2 (Both metadata disks must be of the 1 ( the metadata disk 1 ( the metadata disk
maximum number of same size and each disk size must be size must be less than size must be less than
metadata disks allowed less than the data disk size) the data disk size) the data disk size)
Maximum total number

of disks allowed to be
attached to the node
Total Matadata disks 1 TB 2 TB 2 TB

maximum size
Minimum Data disks size 1 TB 512 GB (preferred 512 GB (preferred

size is 1 TB) size is 1 TB)
Maximum Data disk size 8 TB 8 TB 8 TB
During cluster creation, 1 ( the metadata disk size must be less 1 (the metadata disk 1 (the metadata disk
maximum number of than the data disk size) size must be less than size must be less than
data disks allowed the data disk size) the data disk size)


maximum total number
of data disks allowed
Total Data disks 16 TB 16 TB 16 TB

maximum size

maximum ratio:
Data disk size (x) to x:/y<=16 x:/y<=16 x:/y<=16

preferred ratio:
Minimum number of 8 8 24
CPUs
Minimum memory 64 GB 64 GB 64 GB
required
Install at least three VMs using the Clustered Virtual Edition OVA file on a single or multiple
inter-connected ESXi hosts. These three VMs would make up the Virtual Edition of Cohesity
cluster. Select the same configuration type for all nodes that will make up the cluster. When
the OVA file is deployed, the deployment process configures the memory, number of CPUs
and a hard drive to store the Cohesity cluster software. In addition, you must create and
attach Metadata and Data Tier disks to the Virtual Machine. The required settings for the
Virtual Machine and the attached disks are summarized in the following table.
Cohesity recommends using a High IOPS Performance disk for the Operating System.
See the procedure for importing an OVA file using a VMware vSphere Web Client after the
table below.
Settings Value
General VM Settings

Settings Value
Virtual When you create a new Virtual Machine, you must specify a unique Virtual
Machine Machine name for each node in the cluster. Each name must be unique to
Name distinguish it from the existing VMs in the parent folder or Datacenter and
must not exceed 80 characters. Save the unique name of each Virtual
Machine to the Worksheet PDF .
High IOPS Performance Metadata Disk Settings - You must create and attach a High
IOPS Performance Metadata disk to the Virtual Machine that is used to store metadata about the
data stored on the Cohesity cluster.It is recommended to use SSD disks as Metadata disks. All
disks should be attached to different SCSI controllers.
Metadata Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed is recommended

Disk Format
Size of For both small and large configuration see the table above.
Metadata
The maximum allowed Metadata to Data Tier size ratio is 1:20. Cohesity
Disk
recommended ratio is 1:16.
At most, allocate 16 times more disk space to the Data Tier drive than the
Metadata drive. The Metadata drive size must be smaller than the Data Tier
drive size.
Mode of Independent - Persistent

Metadata
Disk
Data Tier Hard Disk Settings - You must create and attach a Data Tier disk to the Virtual
Machine that is used to store data on the Cohesity cluster. All disks should be attached to
different SCSI controllers. You can choose to use the two extra SCSI controllers pre-created
using the OVA template.
Data Tier Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed is recommended

Disk Format

Settings Value
Size of Data For both small and large configuration see the table above.
Tier Disk
The maximum allowed Metadata to Data Tier size ratio is 1:20. Cohesity
recommended ratio is 1:16.
At most, allocate 16 times more disk space to the Data Tier drive than the
Metadata drive. The Metadata drive size must be smaller than the Data Tier
drive size.
Mode of Independent - Persistent

Data Tier
Disk
The following procedure describes how to use the vSphere Web Client 6.5.0 to deploy and
configure the Clustered Virtual Edition. The procedure you use may be different depending
on the vSphere release and the vSphere Client type.
Note: Cohesity recommends that multi-node clusters are not configured as RF1
(replication factor one), due to a high risk of data loss in case of either disk or
underlying hardware failure.
To deploy the Virtual Edition using the VMware vSphere Web Client:
1. Obtain the Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware OVA file from the Cohesity Download
Site. The OVA package file contains the Virtual Edition OVF template and VMDK file. It
can be imported into a vCenter Server like an OVF template file. For more
information, contact Cohesity Support.
2. Using a VMware vSphere Web Client, log in to a vCenter Server that will host the
Virtual Edition Virtual Machines:
1. Enter the IP address or host name of the vCenter Sever in to the address bar of
a browser.
2. If prompted, select the vSphere Web Client (Flash) option.
3. In the Inventory located in the left panel, navigate to your vCenter server, right-click
on the vCenter root and select Deploy OVF Template....

4. Under Local file, click Browse and find the CohesityVirtual Edition OVA file and click
Next and Open.
5. In the Select name and location panel, enter a unique name for the Virtual
Machine such as Virtual_Edition1 in the Name field. Get the unique Virtual
Machine names that were saved in the Worksheet. When you create a new Virtual
Machine, you must specify a unique Virtual Machine name for each node in the
cluster. Each name must be unique to distinguish it from the existing VMs in the
parent folder or Datacenter and must not exceed 80 characters. Click Next.
6. In the Select a resource panel, select where the VM should run and click Next.

7. In the Review details panel, click Next.

8. From the deployment Configuration drop-down, select an appropriate deployment
configuration provided by Cohesity:
Cohesity recommends the following deployment configurations for best results:
In 6.3.x and earlier versions:
l The small (8 TB) configuration supports Virtual Machines with at most single
Metadata Tier disk and at most single Data Tier disk (maximum 8 TB) for each
Cohesity node. The minimum configuration of each Virtual Machine is 4 vCPUs,
38 GB of memory and 64 GB of virtual disk to store the operating system as the
minimum configuration.
l The large (16 TB) configuration supports Virtual Machines with at most single
Metadata Tier disk and at most two Data Tier disks (each of maximum 8 TB)
adding to a total of 16 TB for each Cohesity node. The minimum configuration of
each Virtual Machine is 8 vCPUs, 64 GB of memory and 64 GB of virtual disk to
store the operating system as the minimum configuration.
In 6.4 - 6.6 versions:
l The small (8 TB) configuration supports Virtual Machines with 4 vCPUs, 32 GB of
memory and 64 GB of virtual disk to store the operating system as the
l The large (16 TB) configuration supports Virtual Machines with 8 vCPUs, 64 GB
of memory and 64 GB of virtual disk to store the operating system as the
In 6.8 and later versions:
l The small (8 TB) configuration supports Virtual Machines with 12 vCPUs, 32 GB
of memory and 64 GB of virtual disk to store the operating system.
l The large (16 TB) configuration supports Virtual Machines with 24 vCPUs, 64 GB
of memory and 64 GB of virtual disk to store the operating system.
Note: For Cohesity 6.8 or later versions, the configurations

recommended above are not minimum requirements.
The Metadata drive size must be smaller than the Data Tier drive size. A single Virtual
Cohesity cluster must contain all nodes of small configurations or all nodes of large
configuration only.
Click Next.
9. In the Select storage panel, select a VMFS datastore to store the new virtual
machine files. Set the Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed virtual disk format. Click
Next.

10. In the Select networks panel, for the Destination drop-downs, select networks.
Select the type of IP Address allocation, either dynamic DHCP or Static - Manual.
11. Click Next.
12. In the Customize template panel, if you are using static (manual) networking,
provide values for the following Data Network Properties:
l Network IP Address
l Network Netmask
l Default Gateway—If a Secondary Network interface is configured using the
Cohesity CLI during the Virtual Edition installation procedure, the Secondary
Network is used as the default gateway for the Cohesity cluster. For more
information, see Default Gateway for Virtual Edition.
If you are using DHCP networking, leave these three fields blank.
Note: If the VM is deployed over ESXi without vApp support, then the
network information such as IP address, gateway, netmask for both primary
and secondary network provided cannot be applied to the VM.
13. In the Customize template panel, you can optionally specify a Secondary Network
interface. For more information, see About Virtual Edition Networking. To configure a
Secondary Network, you must specify static manual settings for the following
properties:
l Network IP Address
l Network Netmask
l Default Gateway—If a Secondary Network interface is configured using the
Cohesity CLI during the Virtual Edition installation procedure, the Secondary
Network is used as the default gateway for the Cohesity cluster. For more
information, see Default Gateway for Virtual Edition.
If you are using DHCP networking, leave these three fields blank.
14. Click Next.
15. Click Next and then Finish.
The process to deploy the VM starts.
16. Wait until the VM is deployed before continuing to the next procedure. Wait until all
the following tasks complete:
l Upload disk
l Reconfig VM
l Import VAPP
To create and attach a High IOPS Performance Metadata Disk (such as a SSD) to
the Virtual Machine using the VMware vSphere Web Client:

1. In the left panel, browse for the new Virtual Machine. Right-click the new Virtual
Machine and select Edit Settings....
2. Select Virtual Hardware.
3. At the bottom of the panel in the New device drop-down, select New Hard Drive
and click Add.
A new hard disk is created.
4. Specify an appropriate disk size for the Metadata disk:
l For small configuration (8 TB), see Small Configuration (8 TB) Settings for
l For large configuration (16 TB), see Large Configuration (16 TB) Settings for
5. To view and edit the rest of the hard disk settings, expand the New Hard disk.
6. In the Location drop-down, select Browse... .
7. Select a datastore and click OK.
8. For Disk Provisioning, select the Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed option.
Note: If the disks are created as thin LUNs or thin-provisioned disks, the
Cohesity software will consume the total provisioned capacity over time,
with no means for shrinking or reclaiming space.
9. Ensure that the new disk is connected to a different SCSI controller than the ones
already used by other disks. The SCSI controller is indicated under Virtual Device
Node.
10. For Disk Mode, select the Independent - Persistent option and click OK to create
the Metadata disk.
To create and attach a Data Tier Disk (such as a HDD) to the Virtual Machine
using the VMware vSphere Web Client:
1. In the left panel, browse for the new Virtual Machine. Right-click the new Virtual
Machine and select Edit Settings....
2. Select Virtual Hardware.
3. At the bottom of the panel in the New device drop-down, select New Hard Drive
and click Add.
A new hard disk is created.
4. Specify an appropriate disk size for the Data Tier disk.
For the small configuration, Cohesity supports attaching one Data Tier disk with size
between 1 TB to 8 TB.In 6.4 and above versions, for small configuration, Cohesity
supports attaching multiple Data Tier disks with overall disk capacity size 1 TB to 8

TB. However, the minimum capacity of each disk must be 1 TB.The total Data Tier
disk size (including all data disks if multiple) on a node cannot be more than 8 TB.
For the large configuration, Cohesity supports attaching two Data Tier disk with a size
1 TB to 8 TB.In 6.4 and above versions, for large configuration, Cohesity supports
attaching multiple Data Tier disks with overall disk capacity size 1 TB to 8 TB.
However, the minimum capacity of each disk must be 1 TB.The total Data Tier disk
size (including all data disks if multiple) on a node cannot be more than 16 TB.
5. To view and edit the rest of the hard disk settings, expand the New Hard disk.
6. In the Location drop-down, select Browse... .
7. Select a datastore and click OK.
8. For Disk Provisioning, select Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed.
Note: If the disks are created as thin LUNs or thin-provisioned disks, the
Cohesity software will consume the total provisioned capacity over time,
with no means for shrinking or reclaiming space.
9. Ensure that the new disk is connected to a different SCSI controller than the ones
already used by other disks. The SCSI controller is indicated under Virtual Device
Node.
10. For Disk Mode, select the Independent - Persistent option and click OK to create
the disk.
To power on the new Virtual Machine if not already powered on:
1. In the left pane, find the new Virtual Machine.

2. Right-click the Virtual Machine and select Power On.
Wait until the VM is powered on.
To get the IP address assigned to the Virtual Machine:
1. In the left pane, double-click on the new Virtual Machine.

2. Select the Summary tab.
3. Copy the IP address.
Repeat this steps for all the VMs that will make up the Cluster. A clustered Virtual
Edition supports three to twenty four nodes.
Note: Currently, Cohesity does not support cloning of Virtual Edition VM's
instance or its VMDK disks.

Initial Cluster Setup Configure vSphere Availability for Virtual Edition for VMware
Configure vSphere Availability for Virtual Edition for

VMware
For the Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware, Cohesity recommends the following vSphere
Availability Settings for the vSphere cluster containing the VMs that are hosting the
Clustered Virtual Edition:
l Turn On vSphere HA
l Set the Host Failure Response to Restart VMs
l Enable VM Monitoring of the heartbeat
To enable these vSphere Availability Settings, follow the Configure vSphere Availability
for Virtual Edition for VMware procedure in the Setup Guide (Cohesity Virtual Edition
for VMware) and complete the appropriate procedure for your vSphere version.
Log In and Start Cluster Creation
Note: From 6.4 release onwards, the Promiscuous mode must be enabled in the
vSwitch (or PortGroup if using dvSwitches) of all the ESXi hosts since OVS bridge
is used over the bond interfaces. To enable the Promiscuous mode, see the
VMware article.
To start the Cluster Creation process:
1. Open a Microsoft Edge, Chrome or Firefox browser window and paste the IP address
assigned to the Virtual Machine that was created in an earlier step. Do not use the
Internet Explorer browser to create a Virtual Edition.
2. When the Cohesity cluster login page appears, log in using the default System Admin
account called admin and the default password, admin.
3. The first page shows the number of nodes that were discovered. This page also lists
requirements for setting up the Cohesity cluster.
4. Select at least three nodes. A clustered Virtual Edition supports three to twenty four
nodes.
5. Ensure that you have all the necessary information and click Get Started.
The Virtual Edition of Cohesity cluster VMs can take upto 5 minutes to be fully functional.
Cohesity recommends you to wait for some time to observe a browser message indicating
connection failure or similar error.
Initial Cluster Creation

Create the Cohesity cluster as described in the following procedure.
To complete the initial creation of the Cohesity cluster:

Initial Cluster Setup Initial Cluster Creation
1. Enter the initial Cohesity cluster settings:
Cluster Name Specify a unique name for the Cohesity cluster. Only alphanumeric characters and hyphens
are allowed. A hyphen cannot be the first or last character. Length cannot exceed 32
characters. No other characters are allowed.
Cluster Domain The domain name(s) for the Cohesity cluster.

Name
Cluster Subnet Specify the IP address of the subnet gateway for the Data (Primary) Network.
Gateway
Cluster Subnet Specify the subnet mask for the subnet that the Cohesity cluster is a part of. Specify the IP
Mask address of the subnet gateway for the Data (Primary) Network.
Search Domains Specify a domain search list for hostname lookup.
DNS Servers The IP addresses of the Domain Name System (DNS) servers that the Cohesity cluster
should use. Separate multiple IPs with commas. Ensure that the Active Directory DNS IP
address (if applicable) is listed first. Verify that the specified DNS server can resolve the
NTP servers and other entities in the system.
NTP Servers Cohesity recommends using the external Google Public Network Time Protocol (NTP)
server and specifying multiple servers ( time1.google.com, time2.google.com,
time3.google.com, time4.google.com). Avoid using the pool.ntp.org or
time.nist.org NTP servers, as they are sometimes unavailable and their IP addresses
tend to change. If using an internal NTP server, use only one server (and no external
servers). Specify the IP address or the Fully Qualified Domain Name of the NTP server(s).
The Cohesity cluster uses the specified NTP server to synchronize the time on all nodes in
the cluster.
Note: To use a Windows NTP server, follow the instructions in this

Knowledge Base article.
Also, toggle on Use Authentication Key to secure the communication between the
NTP server and the Cohesity cluster. In the Key ID field, enter the Key id associated with
the SHA-1 key and in the Key field, enter the SHA-1 key.
Note: Only SHA-1 Keys are supported.

Configure Apps Specify the private IPv4 address for the app subnets. The default IP 192.168.0.0/16 is used
management for app subnets. If the default IP 192.168.0.0/16 is allocated to a node network, cluster
network (From network, or any other network, provide any other private network IP range.
7.0 release
Only a private IP range with a minimum subnet size /24 and a maximum subnet size /12 is
onwards)
supported.
2. A default Storage Domain is created automatically.

l Specify a FQDN. For a Clustered Virtual Edition, specify a fully qualified domain
name (FQDN) that DNS round robin resolves to the specified VIPs.
If you do not have the FQDN yet, enter the IP address of node 1. After the
cluster is created, you can add the FQDN to the Settings > Networking
> VIPs page in the Cohesity UI.
l Complete VIP Address fields. Specify individual virtual IP addresses or ranges
of virtual IP addresses for the Cluster. Specifying a VIP range means network
traffic to the Cluster can be routed to a range of IP addresses instead of a single
IP address. For better load balancing, Cohesity recommends specifying the
same number of VIPs as there are nodes in the Cohesity cluster. Click Add VIP
or VIP Range.
If you do not have VIP addresses yet, leave these fields empty. After the
cluster is created, you can add the VIP addresses.
3. For enhanced security, turn the Encryption toggle on. If Encryption is enabled at
the cluster level, all Storage Domains are encrypted.
Note: Encryption can be enabled at the cluster level only when creating the
cluster and cannot be disabled or modified later. However, encryption can
be enabled at the Storage Domain level after the cluster has been created.
Cohesity clusters use AES-256 encryption in the CBC mode in releases earlier than
7.0.1. For enhanced security, the 7.0.1 or later clusters use Galois/Counter Mode
(GCM) encryption. Once you upgrade the Cohesity cluster to version 7.0.1, all data
newly generated within the Cohesity cluster is automatically encrypted using GCM.
Data that existed prior to the upgrade will remain encrypted using the previous
method. You can apply GCM at the cluster level during cluster creation or at the
storage domain level after the cluster is created.
The Cohesity cluster provides a built-in Key Management Service (KMS) that
automatically generates keys. After Encryption is turned on, the following options
are available:

a. The Rotation Period is how often the Cohesity cluster's encryption key is
rotated. After the time period is reached, the old encryption key is replaced by
a new key and the data on the Cohesity cluster remains as it was originally
encrypted. The Rotation Period default value is 90 days. You can change this to
the desired value.
b. Toggle FIPS on to operate the Cohesity cluster under Federal Information
Processing Standard 140-2 certification.
Note: From 6.3.1 release onwards, Federal Information

Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certification is enabled by default
and cannot be disabled.
4. (From 6.6.0d release onwards) Select the Cohesity recommends disabling

downstream caching of all disks of nodes to ensure high availability.
Please click this check box to accept the requirement: Selecting this checkbox
does not automatically ensure high availability, it only prompts you to either disable
caching or enable write through caching. You must either enable write through
caching or disable caching to ensure high availability from the underlying hypervisor.
Cohesity does not control caching on nodes.
Note: This is a mandatory field and you need to select this checkbox to
proceed with the cluster creation.
5. Click Create Cluster.

The page displays the Cohesity cluster creation progress.
6. Wait several minutes to allow services to restart, and then click the displayed URL
and log in to the Cohesity cluster using the default System Admin account called
admin, and the default password, admin.
7. Read the EULA Agreement and click Agree.
l On 6.5.1 and 6.6 releases, select SaaS or On-Prem configurations and click
Connect. For details, see Cohesity Licensing.
l On the 6.8 release, select Manage in Helios SaaS or Manage on Cluster
and click Connect. For details, see Cohesity Licensing.
8. If the Cohesity node or cluster supports the Self Encrypting Drive (SED) drives,
enable the Hardware Encryption option during the initial cluster setup.
The following table lists the C-Series models that support the SED drives.

Supported C-Series
C8305 C5000
Models
Cohesity Version Cohesity version 6.8 Cohesity version 6.8 onwards

onwards
Dependencies SED drives/BIOS 3.15 By default, the SED encryption is supported on all the
and higher C5000 series models.
9. In the Change Password dialog box, enter and confirm the new password for the
System Admin account. The minimum length of the password must be 8 characters.
An Overview Dashboard page displays.
See Troubleshooting Cluster Creation if the cluster creation process is stuck or
succeeds with warnings. If Cohesity detects an issue, make corrections before
continuing.
After you see the Overview Dashboard page, the next step is to configure the Cohesity
cluster.
Troubleshooting Cluster Creation

If you encounter issues during initial Cohesity cluster creation, read the following sections
for possible resolutions:
Verify the following:
All of the following are reachable from the Cohesity cluster:
l Default gateway
l DNS server
l NTP server
Cluster Creation Process is Stuck
If the Cluster creation is stuck, investigate the listed connectivity issues.

Possible cause
l A connectivity issue with the default gateway that was entered.

l A connectivity issue with the NTP server.
Resolution
Once the connectivity issue is resolved, setup should proceed.
Cluster Creation Succeeds with Warnings
Cluster creation can succeed but still issue warnings.

Initial Cluster Setup Configure Settings
Possible warnings and resolutions
l Ping to gateway failure - If this failure is unexpected, contact Cohesity Support to

update the Cluster bond0 gateway.
l Ping to DNS failure - If this failure is unexpected, edit the Cluster DNS on the Cluster
Settings page in the Cohesity UI.
Configure Settings
In addition to the settings initially entered while setting up the Cohesity cluster, you must
provide the configuration information listed below if it is not already specified.
To continue the configuration of Cohesity cluster settings:
1. Navigate to Settings > Summary. The Summary page displays the following
details:
Field Description
Cluster Name Displays the name of your cluster.
Cluster ID Displays the unique ID of your cluster.
Creation Date Displays when you created the cluster.
Software Displays the cluster’s Cohesity release version.
Hardware Displays which hardware the cluster is on. Example, Virtual ROBO.

Field Description
Software Encryption Indicates whether encryption is enabled at the cluster level.
Note: Encryption can be enabled at the cluster level only when

creating the cluster and cannot be disabled or modified later. If
Encryption is enabled at the Cluster level, all Storage Domains are
encrypted. However, encryption can be enabled at the Storage
Domain level after creating the cluster.
For enhanced security, the 7.0.1 or later clusters use Galois/Counter Mode
(GCM) encryption. Once you upgrade the Cohesity cluster to version 7.0.1, all
data newly generated within the Cohesity cluster is automatically encrypted
using GCM. Data that existed prior to the upgrade will remain encrypted using
the previous method (CBC). You can apply GCM at the cluster level during
cluster creation or at the storage domain level after the cluster is created.
Hardware Encryption Indicates whether Encryption is enabled at the cluster hardware.
Storage Domain Displays the total number of Storage Domains you have created and their
encryption status. For details, see Manage Storage Domains.
Nodes Displays the total number of nodes in the cluster. For details, see Manage
Nodes.
Support Channel Allows you to enable the Support Channel and copy the Support Channel
token. For details, see Manage the Support Channel.
Storage Capacity for Displays the total storage capacity available for the cluster’s metadata.
Metadata
Storage Used for Metadata Displays the percentage of capacity utilized by the cluster.
Failure Domain Displays the Failure Domain. For example, Node.
2. On the Summary tab, click Configure, and provide the following configuration
information:

Required Settings
The following table lists the mandatory settings that are required for your Cohesity
cluster to be up and running.
Settings Description
Cluster Subnet Gateway Specify the IP address of the Subnet Gateway for the Data (Primary) Network.
You can either provide IPv4 or IPv6 addresses to configure the Cohesity cluster
subnet gateway.
DNS Server IPs Specify the IP addresses of the Domain Name System (DNS) Servers that the
Cohesity cluster should use. Separate multiple IPs with commas.
Multiple DNS servers are recommended for fault tolerance purposes. If the first
DNS server is down, then DNS lookup is performed on the second DNS server.
Note: Cohesity clusters will failover to the secondary DNS server only
if the primary DNS is not reachable (and not when the primary DNS
servers are reachable but fail to resolve the DNS address).
Ensure the Active Directory DNS IP address (if applicable) is listed first. Verify
that the NTP Servers and other entities in the system can be resolved by the
specified DNS Server.
You can either provide IPv4 or IPv6 addresses to configure the DNS server.
Not applicable to Virtual Edition.
Cluster Name Specify a unique name for the Cohesity cluster.
Ensure that the Cohesity cluster name
l has only alphanumeric characters and hyphens
l does not use a hyphen as the first and last character
l does not exceed more than 32 characters in length

NTP Servers If you specified an NTP Server during the initial Cohesity cluster setup, you do
not need to specify another NTP Server.
Cohesity recommends using the external Google Public Network Time Protocol
(NTP) server and specifying multiple servers (time1.google.com,
time2.google.com, time3.google.com, time4.google.com). Avoid using the
pool.ntp.org or time.nist.org NTP servers, as they are sometimes unavailable and
their IP addresses tend to change. If using an internal NTP server, use only one
server (and no external servers). Specify the IP address or the Fully Qualified
Domain Name of the NTP server(s). The Cohesity cluster uses the specified NTP
server to synchronize the time on all nodes in the Cohesity cluster. To use a
Windows NTP server, follow the instructions in this Knowledge Base article.
You can either provide IPv4 or IPv6 addresses to configure the IP addresses or
hostnames of the NTP Servers.
Also, toggle on Use Authentication Key to secure the communication between

the NTP server and the Cohesity cluster. In the Key ID field, enter the Key id
associated with the SHA-1 key and in the Key field, enter the SHA-1 key.
Note: Only SHA-1 Keys are supported.
Domain Names Enter the domain name(s) for the Cohesity cluster.
Optional settings
The following tables list the optional settings that are available for advanced Cohesity
cluster configuration.
Web Proxy settings
Use an HTTP proxy server if the Cohesity cluster does not have direct internet
connectivity to connect to Cohesity Data Cloud, support channel, or to download
upgrade software.

Configure Web Proxy settings Enable the Configure Web Proxy settings option and Enter the
hostname or IP address and port number for the server.
If the server requires a user name and password, toggle on Proxy

Requires Password and enter the user name and password.
You can either provide IPv4 or IPv6 addresses to configure the IP

addresses or hostnames of the Web proxy server.
To configure Web Proxy using the CLI commands, see Use a Proxy Server.
Note: To configure an HTTP proxy server for outbound internet connectivity

from a Cohesity cluster to external targets, Office 365, AWS, and Azure
Cloud Connector (for CloudSpin and native snapshot), see this KB article.
Security settings
Add an extra layer of security to your Cohesity cluster by changing the default
password and by enabling two-factor authentication.
Field Description Additional Notes
Enable Two- Enable this option for the users (belonging to the same AD Changing this setting
Factor domain to which Cohesity has joined) to sign in to the automatically restarts the
Authentication Cohesity cluster using a digital certificate instead of a web server.
password (Local users will continue to sign in with a
password).

Field Description Additional Notes
Encryption Encrypts metadata and data on Storage Domain on the This option is displayed
Cohesity cluster. only if the Encryption
setting is turned on during
Note: The metadata encryption impacts Cohesity Cohesity cluster creation.
cluster performance. For example, the
read/write operations could delay the Note: Once
backup/archival/replication run times. enabled during
the Cohesity
cluster creation,
you cannot
disable this
option.
Key Management Select the required Key Management Service Type. At cluster-level encryption,
Service Type DEK (Data Encryption
The available options in the drop-down are:
Key) rotation is not
l Internal Key Management Service supported for AWS KMS.
l KMIP Compliant If multitenancy is enabled
l AWS on the Cohesity cluster,
Cohesity uses the same
Note: By default, Cohesity uses Internal key to encrypt all tenants’
Key Management Type. metadata.
For KMIP Compliant , you need to select the key from the
KMIP Compliant Key drop-down.
For AWS, you need to select the key from the AWS Key
drop-down.
Storage Domain Configuration
Activate cloud tiering and set default disk-level fault tolerance for Storage Domains.

Settings Description Additional Notes
Cloud Tier Set Local Storage Utilization This is a global setting for all the Storage Domains
Threshold to activate cloud tiering created on the Cohesity cluster. Setting up
for configured storage domains. thresholds for cloud tiering at individual Storage
Domains will take precedence over the global
setting (overrides the global settings).
Custom Specify a failure domain at the global This is a global setting that sets the failure domain
Failure cluster level: to configure fault tolerance for all the storage
Domain domains created on the Cohesity cluster.
l Node—Sets node as the
failure domain and protects
the Cohesity cluster against
node failures. This is the
default setting.
l Chassis—Sets chassis as the

failure domain and protects
the Cohesity cluster against
chassis failures.
l Rack—Sets rack as the failure

domain and protects the
Cohesity cluster against rack
failures. Click Configure
Rack to add racks and assign
them to one or more chassis.
Note: Every available

chassis must be
associated with a
rack to select the
Rack option.
For more details, see

Configure a Rack.

Failures Select the number of node, chassis, or l Applied to metadata and used as the default
Tolerated rack failures that can be tolerated: setting for Storage Domains.
l 1 Failure—Can tolerate one l This setting is not supported for single Node
random node, chassis, or rack Virtual Edition.
failure at any given point in
l 2 node failure has a higher fault tolerance
time. The usable metadata
than 1 node failure.
capacity will be 50%.
l A minimum of three
nodes in a Cohesity
cluster is required to
tolerate one node
failure.
chassis is required to
tolerate one chassis
failure.
racks is required to
tolerate one rack
failure.
l 2 Failures—Can tolerate two

random node, chassis, or rack
failures in a Cohesity cluster
simultaneously. The usable
metadata capacity will be
33%.
l A minimum of five
nodes in a Cohesity
cluster is required to
tolerate two node
failures.
l A minimum of five
chassis is required to
tolerate two chassis
failures.
l A minimum of five

racks is required to
tolerate two rack
failures.
For more details, see About Fault

Tolerance.
Email Configuration
Configure the connection to the SMTP Server and verify the SMTP settings when you
save the Cohesity cluster configuration.

Enable Enable the Enable SMTP Server option to The SMTP Server is used to send emails
SMTP configure the connection to the SMTP Server. when Warning or Critical Alerts are
Server Specify the following SMTP settings: generated by the Cohesity cluster.
Cohesity recommends that you configure
l SMTP Server: Specify the name of an
the SMTP Server.
SMTP server that is used to send emails
when Warning or Critical Alerts are
generated by the Cohesity cluster. Cohesity
recommends specifying an SMTP mail
server.
l Port : Specify the port number used to

access the SMTP Server.
l SMTP Server uses SSL/TLS without

STARTTLS (typically for port 465):
Select this option if the SMTP Server uses
SSL/TLS without STARTTLS. Typically
SSL/TLS without STARTTLS uses port
465.
l SMTP Username: Specify the name of

the account used to authenticate with the
SMTP Server.
l Change SMTP Password: Specify the

password of the account used to
authenticate with the SMTP Server.
l Sender Email Address: The SMTP

server uses the email address you enter in
this field to send alert notification emails.
Note: From release 6.6.0d_u3 CPD patch

onwards, the email address you enter in
this field will take precedence over the
email address specified for the local
System Admin account (admin) of the
Cohesity cluster.

Test Email Enable the Test Email on Save option to verify

on Save the SMTP settings when you save the Cohesity
cluster configuration. In the Test Email Recipient
field, enter an email address to receive the test
email.
Multitenancy Settings
Configure multitenancy for the Cohesity cluster.
Enable Enable the Enable Organizations option to configure Enabling multitenancy

Organizations multitenancy for the Cohesity cluster. for a Cohesity cluster
cannot be undone. You
Optionally, toggle on Allow multiple organizations to use
cannot revert the
one Storage Domain to reduce storage consumption in the
Cohesity cluster to a
Cohesity cluster by providing Cohesity deduplication across all
single tenancy state.
the organizations using the Storage Domain. Organizations
will be isolated from other organizations whether this option is
on or off.
Apps Management
Manage applications from the Cohesity App MarketPlace in the Cohesity cluster.

Enable Apps Enable the Enable Apps Management option to manage applications from the Cohesity
Management App MarketPlace in the Cohesity cluster. Provide the following details:
l Subnet : Provide an unused subnet in a private address space between /12

(maximum size) and /16 (minimum size). The subnet will be used to create an
overlay network on which to run the apps. Make sure the subnet is unused to avoid
routing conflicts. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) reserves the
following IP address blocks for use as private IP addresses:
l 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255
l 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255
l 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255
l Allow external connectivity from apps: Toggle on to allow the apps network
access beyond the Cohesity cluster nodes. Not all apps require external
connectivity. For example, a backup app that needs to access a database will
require external connectivity, but the Cohesity Insight app, which searches Views
on the Cluster, does not require external connectivity.
l External Networks - To add external networks, perform the following:
l Click Add.
l Select the VLAN ID and then specify the IP Start and IP End (Optional)
IP addresses.
l Click Add.
Note: For clusters running 6.6 release version, the supported

subnet size is between /12 (maximum size) and /20 (minimum
size).
Statistics
Send anonymized data about product usage.
Setting Description
Share Product Enable this option to send anonymized data about product usage. For more
Usage Statistics information, see this Google Analytics topic.

Product Documentation
Use the documentation help that is included directly on the Cohesity cluster without
internet access.
Documentation Select the No internet The Cohesity cluster pages have context-sensitive links
access? Access Help to the online help available from the Cohesity
directly from the Cluster Documentation site or offline help from the Cohesity
option to use the . Click the icon in the upper right corner of
cluster
documentation help that is
Cohesity cluster to open the help topic for the page you
included directly on the
are currently viewing. Then, if prompted, enter your
Cohesity cluster without
MyCohesity portal credentials.
internet access.
Login Banner
Displays login banner message on the Login screen.
Enable Toggle on to see the By default, this option is turned off. To enable the Enable
Login configured login banner Login Banner feature, use the iris_cli. In the IRIS UI flag, the
Banner message on the Login screen. "loginBanner=true" must be appended to the existing flags.
In the displayed text field, Once this is set, the Enable Login Banner option is available
configure the login banner in the Cohesity cluster settings.
message.
For more information, see the How to enable a login
banner KB article.
Time Settings
Change the time zone for reports and audit logs.
Time Click Change Time Zone and select a time zone from the drop-down to change the time zone
Zone for reports and audit logs.

Throttling Background System Activities
The activities such as garbage collection, system checks, post-process storage

optimization, and other system activities run in the background on the Cohesity
cluster. These system activities utilize the Cohesity cluster resources and impact the
workloads such as file shares and backup.
Schedule the throttling of the system activities to reduce the utilization of the
Cohesity cluster resources.

Background Enable this option to schedule the throttling of the system activities running in the
System Activity background.
Time Zone Settings
To change the time zone for throttling schedules, click Change Time Zone and select a
time zone from the drop-down menu. By default, your current time zone is displayed.
Add Throttling Schedules
Important:
Cohesity recommends you to schedule the throttling in such a way that on an
average, the background system activities utilize at least 50% of Cohesity
resources in a week.
To add schedules:
1. In the Days column, select one or more week days from the drop-down menu. You
can also select Everyday to schedule throttling to run daily.
2. In the Time column, enter the time duration for throttling.
3. In the Activity Level column, select a level of throttling from the drop-down menu.
l No restriction: The background system activities will run without any

restriction.
l Moderate: The background activities will utilize 66% of the Cohesity

resources. This is the default option.
l Low: The background activities will utilize 33% of the Cohesity resources.
l No activity: Other than critical processes, all other background system
activities will be completely stopped. The background activities will not
utilize any of the Cohesity resources.
4. Click Add.
5. Optional. To configure multiple schedules for throttling the background system

activities, repeat steps a to d .

Initial Cluster Setup Default Gateway for Virtual Edition
Note:
l If there is an overlapping between the schedules added, then the latest
added schedule will take precedence over other schedules. For
example, you have added a schedule (say S1) for running the
background activities on every Monday between 9.00 am to 5.00 pm
with Activity Level set to Low . Later, you added another schedule (say
S2) for running the background activities on every day between 1.00
am to 3.00 pm with Activity Level set to Moderate. In this scenario,
on Monday from 1.00 am to 3.00 pm, there is an overlap between these
two schedules. In such cases, the recently added schedule, S2 will take
precedence during the overlap time.
l Cohesity will perform throttling of the system activities running in the

background only for the days and duration for which you have configured
the throttling.
Saving the Cohesity cluster configuration with this option disabled will clear all the existing
throttling schedules.
When you save the Cohesity cluster configuration, the following error message appears if
the Cohesity resources utilization by the background system activities is less than 50%:
Error occurred while configuring background activity schedule.

Background activity has been excessively throttled. Please
relax the throttling conditions.
Delete an Existing Throttling Schedule
To delete a throttling schedule, click the delete icon against the schedule.
3. Click Save.
Default Gateway for Virtual Edition

If a Secondary Network interface is configured during the Clustered Virtual Edition
installation procedure, the Secondary Network is used as the default gateway for the
Cohesity cluster.

Configure the Primary or Secondary Network in Cohesity Cluster with
Multicast Disabled
Cohesity
Secondary
cluster
Default Notes
Gateway
be Static)
Used
DHCP IP Static Secondary The static IP is set for the Data (Primary) Network interface
Address Network when the Cohesity cluster is created.
Static Static Secondary If you need to set the Data (Primary) Network as the default
(Manual) IP Network gateway for the Cohesity cluster, use the Cohesity CLI to change
Address the default gateway to the Data (Primary) Network interface.
DHCP IP Not Set Data If the Secondary Network was not set during the initial install of
Address or (Primary) the Virtual Edition, it can be configured after the install using the
Static Network Cohesity CLI.
(Manual) IP If you need to set the Secondary Network as the default gateway
Address for the Cohesity cluster, set it using the Cohesity CLI.
Setting the Default Gateway (Route)

If you are on a Cohesity cluster version 6.5.1 or later, follow the procedure provided in the
Configure the Default Route section, to set the Data (Primary) Network or Secondary
Network as the default gateway (route).
If you are on a Cohesity cluster version that is earlier than 6.5.1, follow these steps to set
the Data (Primary) Network or Secondary Network as the default gateway (route):
1. Run the Cohesity CLI. For more information, see Using the Cohesity CLI and List of
Cohesity CLI Commands.
admin>
2. Get the network's interface id, using the Cohesity CLI.
admin> cluster ls-ifaces
3. Using the interface id returned by the previous command, set the network as the
default gateway (route).
admin> cluster edit-ifaces ids=123456789123 is-default-route=true
Configure the Primary or Secondary Network in Cohesity

Cluster with Multicast Disabled
To configure the primary (data) network and secondary network during cluster setup or
when you add a node to the existing cluster while multicast is disabled:

Disabled
1. Configure networking on each node using the configure_network.sh script and the
iris_cli. In general, using the iris_cli is preferred if available. For more details, see
Networking Workflows.
2. Run the following command in the iris_cli to create a Cohesity cluster:
cluster cluster create name=<cluster_short_name>

domain-names= <comma separated names of the domains>
node-ips=<comma separated node IPs>
subnet-gateway=<Network-Gateway> subnet-mask=<Network-Subnet>
hostname= name=<Cluster-Name> ntp-servers=<ntp_servers>
dns-server-ips=<DNS-IP> node-ids=<comma separated node-IDs>
vips=<Comma separated VIPs> enable-encryption=<true or false>
Note: vips and enable-encryption are optional in the preceding

command.
For example:
cluster cluster create name=cluster

domain-names=eng.cohesity.com,corp.cohesity.com
node-ips=10.14.54.39,10.14.54.38,10.14.54.40
subnet-gateway=10.14.48.1 subnet-mask=255.255.240.0
hostname=TeleportCluster.eng.cohesity.com ntp-servers=10.2.1.10
dns-server-ips=10.2.0.1
node-ids=2665162566892826,2665161114193784,2665161084680682
Verify Cluster Creation

To verify that a cluster has been created when multicast is disabled, do one of the
following:
l To check the cluster creation status using the CLI, see the How to check or monitor
the status of Cluster creation KB article.
l To check the cluster creation status using the Cohesity cluster, do the following:
l Login to the Cohesity cluster and navigate to Settings>Summary.
l Verify the Cohesity cluster details on the Summary page.

Cohesity Support Reach Cohesity Support
Cohesity Support
Reach Cohesity Support

Go to Cohesity Support, to search in our knowledge base; or contact us by phone - United
States and Canada: 1-855-9CO-HESI (926-4374), option 2.
Reach Cohesity Support by Email

There are several ways to create a Cohesity support case.
l Email Cohesity Support with a brief description of the problem. If the Cohesity
software is running on a hardware platform, include your product's chassis serial
number.
l Log in to the Cohesity Support Portal. Click OPEN CASES and Create Case.
l On the Cohesity UI, click Support that appears in the footer.
Creating a customer support case for Cohesity Cloud Services (CCS)

When creating a customer support case for Cohesity Cloud Services (CCS), follow the steps
listed below:
1. Mention CCS in the subject and select CCS as the Issue Type.
2. Provide the case information.
3. Edit the Case Subject as CCS (AWS_Region): <Input Issue Subject
Information>.
4. Update the Issue Type field to CCS.
Additionally, provide the Cluster ID and the Support Token information if a SaaS
connector is involved.
Support/Service Assistance
First contact the Service Provider that you have contracted for service and support. If you
work directly with Cohesity and have a product warranty/entitlement, repair pricing or
technical support related question, see your options below:
l To find solutions to your product issues or for suggestions or best practices, visit
Cohesity Knowledge Base.
l To open a Service Request online, go to Cohesity Support Portal, log in to the portal,
and go to My Cohesity > Submit a Case.

Cohesity Support Cohesity Software Running on Partner Hardware
l To monitor your open cases, log in to the portal, click My Cases on the upper right
side of the home page. This page should have all the case statuses and updates. You
can also view individual case status.
Cohesity Software Running on Partner Hardware

For Cohesity software running on qualified third-party hardware, the following support
workflow applies:
1. The customer may contact Cohesity Support first if the issue cannot be determined as
a hardware issue.
Note: Cohesity cannot process hardware replacement requests for partner

hardware.
2. Cohesity Support triages the issue. If it is a software issue, Cohesity Support

continues to work on it.
3. If it is a hardware/firmware issue or is suspected to be a hardware/firmware issue,
Cohesity provides information about the issue to the customer and requests that the
customer open a support ticket with the appropriate partner.
4. If needed, Cohesity Support can join a three-way call with the partner and the
customer.
5. The customer informs Cohesity Support on the progress of the partner’s case.

Documentation Feedback Cohesity Software Running on Partner Hardware
Documentation Feedback
We encourage you to provide feedback so that we can improve our documentation. Click
here to send us your feedback!
Ensure that you provide the following details in your email:
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Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition

Published on June 30, 2023

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 2

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 3

Initial Cluster Setup

l Cohesity recommends that multi-node clusters are not configured as RF1

The following steps document the initial setup of a Cohesity cluster.

Fill Out Worksheets

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 4

Privileges for Cohesity on the Source

About Virtual Edition Networking

l single-homed—This Virtual Edition network configuration has a single network using

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 5

Install and Configure VMware VM for a Clustered Virtual

l Small (8 TB) Configuration: The small (8 TB) configuration supports Virtual

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 6

In 6.4 - 6.6 versions:

In 6.8 and later versions:

Note: For Cohesity 6.8 or later versions, the configurations recommended

Small Configuration (8 TB) Settings for Virtual Edition VMware

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 7

Minimum Metadata disk 512 GB 256 GB (preferred 256 GB (preferred

Maximum Metadata disk 1 TB 1 TB 1 TB

After cluster creation, 2 2 2

Maximum total number of

Total Matadata disks 1 TB 1 TB 1 TB

Minimum Data disks size 1 TB 512 GB (preferred 512 GB (preferred

Maximum Data disk size 8 TB 8 TB 8 TB

After cluster creation, 1 8 8

Total Data disks 8 TB 8 TB 8 TB

Data disk size (x) to x/y<=20 x/y<=20 x/y<=20

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 8

Data disk size (x) to x/y<=16 x/y<=16 x/y<=16

Large Configuration (16 TB) Settings for Virtual Edition VMware

Minimum Metadata disk 512 GB 256 GB (preferred 256 GB (preferred

Maximum Metadata disk 1 TB 1 TB 1 TB

After cluster creation, 2 4 4

Maximum total number

Total Matadata disks 1 TB 2 TB 2 TB

Minimum Data disks size 1 TB 512 GB (preferred 512 GB (preferred

Maximum Data disk size 8 TB 8 TB 8 TB

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 9

After cluster creation, 2 8 8

Total Data disks 16 TB 16 TB 16 TB

Data disk size (x) to x/y<=20 x/y<=20 x/y<=20

Data disk size (x) to x:/y<=16 x:/y<=16 x:/y<=16

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 10

Metadata Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed is recommended

Mode of Independent - Persistent

Data Tier Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed is recommended

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 11

Mode of Independent - Persistent

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 12

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 13

7. In the Review details panel, click Next.

Note: For Cohesity 6.8 or later versions, the configurations

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 14

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 15

Setup Guide (Clustered Virtual Edition for VMware) 16

To power on the new Virtual Machine if not already powered on:

1. In the left pane, find the new Virtual Machine.

To get the IP address assigned to the Virtual Machine: