Getting Started with the SIRIS Imager

Topic

This article describes the SIRIS imaging tool used for creating SIRIS Imaged deployments.

Environment

• SIRIS Imaged

Description

• Background
• System Requirements
• Recommended Configurations for Imaged Datto Appliances
• Next Steps

Background

The SIRIS imager allows a partner to convert compatible hardware to a SIRIS continuity appliance. 

System Requirements

Hardware Requirements

• BIOS capable of USB Boot. UEFI Boot is not currently supported.
  
  • The following BIOS setting must be enabled:
    • VT-x (Intel Virtualization Technology for IA-32 and Intel 64 Processors)
  • The following BIOS setting must be disabled:
    • Secure Boot
• NIC card with 1GbE DHCP-enabled Internet connectivity. Dual NICs are recommended.
• Quad-core 64-bit processor 
• Minimum amount of RAM as determined by local storage capacity (see Required Configurations for Imaged Datto Appliances)
• If converting a single-drive device, the conversion should only be done with a non-NVM Express (NVMe) solid-state drive (SSD) of at least 1 TB in capacity. 60 GB of free space will be allocated to the OS partition.
• For multiple-drive devices, Datto recommends a non-NVM Express (NVMe) 120 GB SSD for the OS drive, and either non-NVM Express (NVMe) SSDs or 7200 RPM HDDs for the storage array
  • For multiple-drive devices, the OS drive must have at least 60 GB free space for the Datto OS. The total capacity of the drive should not exceed 1 TB.
• All SATA hardware to be imaged must have the External Device option for its port set to Disabled in the device BIOS.

Unsupported Hardware

• Pre-existing RAID configurations, both hardware and software, are unsupported. The SIRIS imager will create its own software RAID configuration during the conversion process. If the target hardware is equipped with hardware RAID, disable it. If possible, enable HBA mode (sometimes called Initiator-Target mode or Integrated RAID mode; see Oracle's documentation on the subject (external link) for more information.
• External SAN configurations
• Removable media cannot be used as the device's OS drive.
• Versions of the SIRIS Imager on media other than a USB stick (CDs)

Network Requirements

• The target system's networking environment must meet the SIRIS, Alto & DNAS Networking And Bandwidth Requirements.

Recommended Configurations for Imaged Datto Appliances

For best performance, Datto recommends that the target hardware meet or exceed the following configurations. Allocating fewer system resources than recommended can result in performance limitations during restore and disaster recovery. The imager can create RAID configurations up to RAID 10.

Datto supports all Ubuntu Server Certified Hardware that meets these requirements.

Next Steps

If the target system meets the minimum system requirements for imaging, proceed to the Converting Hardware to a SIRIS With Datto Utilities article.