Prepare an Azure VM

For additional help, refer to the Microsoft Azure official documentation - Create a Linux virtual machine in the Azure portal

1. Log in to your Azure portal.

2. Navigate to Marketplace and create a VM.

3. Under the Basics tab, enter/select the following information:

   • Subscription - your Azure subscription name

   • Resource Group - your Azure resource group name

   • Virtual Machine Name - a name of your choice to identify the VM e.g. myVirtualMachine-0

   • Region - select from the list

   • Image - select one of the following from the list:

     • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.10

     • Rocky Linux 8.10

     The image must include Logical Volume Management (LVM), which is required to enlarge the volumes.

   • Size - select CPUs and memory as advised by your account team

   • Authentication type - select SSH public key

   • User name - enter azureuser

   • SSH public key source - select generate new key pair

   • Key pair name - use the default name provided

4. Under the Disks tab, enter/select the following information

   • OS disk type - select Premium SSD
   • Encryption - default

5. Select Create and attach a new disk.

6. Enter the disk details:

   • Enter a Name of your choice.

   • Set Host caching to Read/write.

   • Select a storage type Take into consideration that TOS requires 7,500 IOPS and the throughput expected will average 250MB/s with bursts of up to 700MB/s.

   • Set Storage Size GiB to the disk space sizing requirement given to you by your account team.

7. Save the disk defintions.

8. If you want a public IP:

   • Select the Networking tab

   • Under Public IP, click Create new.

   • Enter a name.

   • Select SKU - Standard.

9. Under the Tags tab, create two tags, replacing <your name> and <your environment name> with names of your choice:

   • owner: <your name>

   • env: <your environment name>

10. Click Review and Create

11. Click Create. The generate new key pair prompt appears.

12. Generate a new key pair. Click Download private key and create resource. The private key will be downloaded to your PC as a file with suffix .pem. It will be needed to log into the VM console.

13. Navigate to the directory on your PC that contains the .pem file just downloaded (<pem_key_name>) and change its permissions to prevent other users from running it.

    If your PC is running on a Linux-like operating system:

    [<ADMIN> ~]# chmod 400 <pem_key_name>

    chmod 400 <pem_key_name>

14. You can now log in to the VM console whenever required.

    Log in to the Azure VM console where <pem_key_name> is the name of the .pem file downloaded previously from the Azure portal, <azureuser> is the name of your Azure user on the VM and <IP> is its private or public IP. The private and optional public IPs can be seen on the Networking tab.

    [<ADMIN> ~]# ssh -i <pem_key_name> <azureuser>@<IP>

    ssh -i <pem_key_name> <azureuser>@<IP>

15. In the portal, select the newly created VM and then select the Networking tab.

16. Select Add inbound port rule and create a rule with the properties below:

    • Source: Any

    • Source port ranges: *

    • Destination: Any

    • Destination port ranges: 31443, 31617, 31514, 31099, 31843, 30161, 30514, 31161 - see Ports and Services to see why

    • Protocol: Any

    • Action: Allow

    • Priority: 310

    • Name: TOS_Aurora or other name of your choice

    • Description: TOS_Aurora or other description of your choice

For additional help, refer to the MicrosoftAzure official documentation - Create a public load balancer to load balance VMs using the Azure portal and Configure port forwarding in Azure Load Balancer using the portal

1. Log in to your Azure portal.

2. Navigate to Load Balancers.

3. Select Create. The Create load balancer window appears.

4. Enter the following details:

   • Resource Group - the Azure resource group specified for your VM
   • Name - a suitable name for the load balancer
   • Type: Public if you want a public IP address, otherwise Internal.
   • SKU: Standard
   • Public IP address: (When type is Public). This is different from the public IP address of your VM. If you already have an IP address for the load balancer, select Use existing and enter the IP, otherwise leave the default Create new.
   • Public IP address name : (When type is Public). Enter a suitable name to refer to the public IP address.
   • IP Address Assignment: (When type is Internal). Select Dynamic.
   • Availability zone: Select Zone redundant.

   • Tags. Specify two tags, replacing <your name> and <your environment name> with names of your choice. It is recommended to use the same values used for your VM:

     • owner: <your name>
     • env: <your environment name>

   Leave the default values for all other fields.

   Click Create.

5. Select the load balancer you just created.
6. Select Overview and note the public IP address; you will need this shortly.

7. Configure the load balancer backend pool:

   1. Select Backend pools.
   2. Select Add. The Add backend pool window appears.

   3. Enter details:

      • Name - a suitable name of your choice for the backend pool
      • Virtual Network - your virtual network
      • Virtual Machines - add the VM you created previously

   4. Click Add at the bottom of the page. The pool will be added.

8. Configure the load balancer health probe:

   1. Select Health Probes.
   2. Select Add. The Add health probe window appears.

   3. Enter details:

      • Name - a suitable name of your choice for the health probe
      • Protocol: TCP
      • Port: 31443
      • Interval: 5
      • Unhealthy threshold: 2

   4. Click Add at the bottom of the page. The health probe will be added.

9. Configure load balancing rules:

   1. Select Load Balancing Rules.
   2. Select Add The Add load balancing rule window appears.

   3. Add a load balancing rule with the following values:

      • Name: Any name of your choice
      • Frontend IP address: Enter the public IP address of the loadbalancer, noted above from the overview
      • Protocol: TCP
      • Port: 443
      • Backend port: 31443
      • Backend pool: Select the backend pool added above
      • Health probe: Select the health probe added above
      • Leave other fields with their default values.

   4. Click Add at the bottom of the page. The rule will be added.

   5. Repeat steps b. to d. for additional load balancing rules, entering a suitable name for each, with protocol, port and backend port. All rules are listed below - see Ports and Services for more information.

      Protocol	Source	Target	Purpose
      TCP	443	31443	Mandatory
      TCP	61617	31617	Remote collector connectivity
      TCP	9099	31099	OPM devices
      TCP	8443	31843	Remote collector connectivity
      TCP	9090	31090	Remote collector connectivity
      TCP	601	32514	Unencrypted TCP syslogs
      TCP	6514	31514	TLS encrypted TCP syslogs
      UDP	514	30514	UDP syslogs
      UDP	161	30161	SNMP monitoring
      UDP	10161	31161	SNMP monitoring

   6. Click OK.

If not done already, set up partitions according to the Prerequisites.

1. If you are not currently logged in as user root, do so now.

   [<ADMIN> ~]$ su -

   su -

2. If you want to change the host name or IP of the machine, do so now. Once TOS has been installed, changing the host name or IP address will require reinstalling - see Changing IP Address/Host Names. To change the host name, use the command below, replacing <mynode> with your preferred name.

   [<ADMIN> ~]# hostnamectl set-hostname <mynode>

   hostnamectl set-hostname <mynode>

3. Modify the environment path to run TOS CLI commands without specifying the full path (/usr/local/bin/tos).

   [<ADMIN> ~]# echo 'export PATH="${PATH}:/usr/local/bin"' | sudo tee -a /root/.bashrc > /dev/null

   echo 'export PATH="${PATH}:/usr/local/bin"' | sudo tee -a /root/.bashrc > /dev/null

4. Synchronize your machine time with a trusted NTP server. Follow the steps in Configuring NTP Using Chrony.

5. Configure the server timezone.

   [<ADMIN> ~]# timedatectl set-timezone <timezone>

   timedatectl set-timezone <timezone>

   where <timezone> is in the format Area/Location. Examples: America/Jamaica, Hongkong, GMT, Europe/Prague. List the time-zone formats that can be used in the command.

   [<ADMIN> ~]# timedatectl list-timezones

   timedatectl list-timezones

6. Upgrade the kernel:

   [<ADMIN> ~]# dnf upgrade

   dnf upgrade

7. Disable SELinux:

   • If file /etc/selinux/config exists, edit and change the value of SELINUX to disabled:

     SELINUX=disabled

   • If the file doesn't exist or SELINUX is already set to disabled, do nothing.
8. Reboot the machine and log in.

9. Install Wireguard. This is needed to encrypt communication between nodes (machines) within the cluster. The wireguard version must match the operating version you are installing.

[<ADMIN> ~]# sudo yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm https://www.elrepo.org/elrepo-release-8.el8.elrepo.noarch.rpm

sudo yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm https://www.elrepo.org/elrepo-release-8.el8.elrepo.noarch.rpm

[<ADMIN> ~]# sudo yum install kmod-wireguard wireguard-tools

sudo yum install kmod-wireguard wireguard-tools
10. Reboot the machine and log in.

11. Install tmux and rsync:

    [<ADMIN> ~]# dnf install -y rsync tmux

    dnf install -y rsync tmux

12. Disable the firewall:

    [<ADMIN> ~]# systemctl stop firewalld

    systemctl stop firewalld

    [<ADMIN> ~]# systemctl disable firewalld

    systemctl disable firewalld

13. Create the TOS load module configuration file /etc/modules-load.d/tufin.conf. Example using vi:

    [<ADMIN> ~]# vi /etc/modules-load.d/tufin.conf

    vi /etc/modules-load.d/tufin.conf

14. Specify the modules to be loaded by adding the following lines to the configuration file created in the previous step. The modules will then be loaded automatically on boot.

    br_netfilter
    wireguard
    overlay
    ebtables
    ebtable_filter

    br_netfilter wireguard overlay ebtables ebtable_filter

15. Load the above modules now:

    [<ADMIN> ~]# cat /etc/modules-load.d/tufin.conf |xargs modprobe -a 

    cat /etc/modules-load.d/tufin.conf |xargs modprobe -a

    Look carefully at the output to confirm all modules loaded correctly; an error message will be issued for any modules that failed to load.

16. Check that Wireguard has loaded correctly.

    [<ADMIN> ~]# lsmod |grep wireguard

    lsmod |grep wireguard

    The output will appear something like this:

    wireguard              201106  0
    ip6_udp_tunnel         12755  1 wireguard
    udp_tunnel             14423  1 wireguard
    

    If Wireguard is not listed in the output, contact support.

17. Create the TOS kernel configuration file /etc/sysctl.d/tufin.conf. Example using vi:

    [<ADMIN> ~]# vi /etc/sysctl.d/tufin.conf

    vi /etc/sysctl.d/tufin.conf

18. Specify the kernel settings to be made by adding the following lines to the configuration file created in the previous step. The settings will then be applied on boot.

    net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-iptables = 1
    fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 1048576
    fs.inotify.max_user_instances = 10000
    net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

    net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-iptables = 1 fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 1048576 fs.inotify.max_user_instances = 10000 net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

19. Apply the above kernel settings now:

    [<ADMIN> ~]# sysctl --system

    sysctl --system

The etcd database should be on a separate disk to improve the stability of TOS and reduce latency. Moving the etcd database to a separate disk ensures that the kubernetes database has access to all the resources required to ensure an optimal TOS performance.

See Move etcd - New Azure VM.