Create a Static Route in Windows for Unmetered Bandwidth to the Storage Platform for Dedicated Servers

Overview

Our HPE dedicated servers by default have a dedicated port for provisioning and storage. 

To utilize this port for storage traffic, you'll need to create static routes inside the operating system of the server. 

This tells the operating system to send traffic to/from the storage platform via the storage port, instead of via your default gateway (primary/monitored interface).

Requirements

• A HPE Dedicated Server ( Blaze or Enterprise Server ).
• You must already know your storage IP address, netmask, and gateway. To find those, please follow the guide here: Find Your Storage IP Address
• Administrator access to your server via Remote Desktop or IPMI remote console.

Steps

Ensure that your Storage IP is configured on your storage port.

1. Click on the network icon in your taskbar, then click 'Network & Internet Settings'.
   
2. Click on 'Change Adapter Options'.
   
3. Find the provisioning/storage network interface. If you haven't already configured it, it should say 'Unidentified network'. If you have Nimble storage, you may have two additional dedicated Nimble ports, which will already have IP addresses configured on them. Make sure you don't change any configuration on the Nimble ports if you have them.
   
4. Right-Click the interface, and select 'Properties'.
5. Select 'Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP /IPv4) and then click 'Properties'.
   
6. Configure your Storage IP address, Subnet Mask, and Gateway
   IMPORTANT

   Do not change anything here if there is already an IP address configured, or you may take your server offline.
   
   Note that we use a netmask of 255.255.255.240 in this example. We've found that Windows sometimes behaves strangely with smaller subnets e.g. 255.255.255.252 or 255.255.255.248, so if you're having trouble with the IP working correctly, try set the netmask to 255.255.255.240 instead.
   
   
7. Click OK -> Close.
8. Make sure to choose 'No' when the option pops up to allow your PC to be discoverable on the network.
   

Create a permanent static route to the storage subnets

1. Run a command prompt 'As Administrator'. One easy way to do this is to right-click the start menu, choose 'run', then type cmd.exe and press Enter.
   
   
   
2. Obtain the storage gateway IP address and note it down. You'll use it in the next steps.
   Make sure you use the correct storage gateway IP for your own server.

   Make sure you substitute 100.64.24.77 in these examples for your own storage gateway IP address.
   You can find this by typing 'ipconfig' into the command prompt. The storage gateway will be a 100.x.x.x IP address.
   e.g.
   
3. Depending on what storage product you are using, choose the relevant static routes to add. See below for the options.

Storage Subnets

Ceph or RBD Volumes (Block Storage): 100.64.15.0/24

S3 Compatible Object Storage: 27.50.66.224/28

Create the static route for S3 compatible storage. 

#Syntax: ROUTE -p ADD <IP> MASK <SUBNET> <GATEWAY>  

ROUTE -p ADD 27.50.66.224 MASK 255.255.255.240 100.64.24.77

You should see an 'OK!' message if the route applied correctly.

Create the static routes for Ceph or RBD storage.

#Syntax: ROUTE -p ADD <IP> MASK <SUBNET> <GATEWAY> 

ROUTE -p ADD 100.64.15.0 MASK 255.255.255.0 100.64.24.77

You should see an 'OK!' message if the route applied correctly.

Verify that the static routes applied correctly.

ROUTE PRINT

Under the persistent routes section, you should see the two routes you just created.


Do a traceroute and make sure the next hop is via your storage gateway.

If the static route is not working correctly, you'll see your public IPv4 gateway as the first hop. In this case, check your static routes are correct.