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3. Configure your first object storage disk

Select the cloud profile to use to create object storage disk.  You can select an existing Bucket from the list or enter one manually which will create a new bucket for you.  Logical size of VHDX up to 64TB allowed by Windows

--blockCacheSize=100 

azure

google_s3

amazon_s3

Access URL for the object storage.  Must be specified for all S3 object provider other than Amazon

Azure blobs contain the storage account name in the URL.

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• Once cloud disk was setup you can Register it as service program from the right-click popup menu.
  
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  Configure object storage as VHDX
  
  
  
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  For Windows to make use of  object storage bucket  we have to initialize the object storage as VHDX image.  VHDX is preferred over VHD because of inherent journal feature to protect against unsafe shutdown and also it can support up to 64TB for a single image.  

• Mount object storage bucket
  
  For Windows to make use of  object storage bucket  we have to intialize the object storage as VHDX image.  VHDX is preferred over VHD because of inherent journal feature to protect against unsafe shutdown and also it can support up to 64TB for a single image.  This step is performed in foreground interactively to make sure it is working before configuring it as service later.  In the following example object storage bucket smbtest1 is being mounted. Please make note of the -f option for foreground.  Also for filename we chose as extension .vhdx

  Code Block
  title using bucket smbtest1 from Wasabi
  C:\Program Files\crossmeta>objbacker.exe --cacert=ca-bundle.crt --accessFile=/etc/.s3wasabi_passwd --authVersion=aws2 --baseURL=https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/ --directIO --noAutoDetect --size=10T --timeout=30 --blockCacheSize=100 --blockCacheThreads=8 --minWriteDelay=5000 --md5CacheSize=1000000 --ssl --blockSize=1024K -o no_pagecache --filename=file.vhdx  smbtest1 /mnt -f objbacker.exe: auto-detection disabled; using configured block size 1m and file size 10t INFO: s3backer process 5312 for /mnt started INFO: mounting /mnt

  Code Block
  title using bucket disk1 from Azure
  C:\Program Files\crossmeta>objbacker.exe --cacert=ca-bundle.crt --accessFile=/etc/.s3azure_passwd --s3Type=azure --baseURL=https://storageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/ --directIO --noAutoDetect --size=10T --timeout=30 --blockCacheSize=100 --blockCacheThreads=8 --minWriteDelay=5000 --md5CacheSize=1000000 --ssl --blockSize=1024K -o no_pagecache --filename=file.vhdx  disk1 /mnt -f objbacker.exe: auto-detection disabled; using configured block size 1m and file size 10t INFO: s3backer process 5512 for /mnt started INFO: mounting /mnt

  
  

  
  After the above command finishes the object storage is accessible as V:\mnt\file.vhdx as one giant file with logical capacity as 10TB.

  Code Block
  title qemu-img
  C:\Program Files\qemu>dir v:\mnt Volume in drive V is vfsroot Volume Serial Number is 0122-B5C1 Directory of v:\mnt 05/22/2019 07:48 PM <DIR> . 05/22/2019 07:48 PM <DIR> .. 05/22/2019 07:48 PM10,995,116,277,760 file.vhdx 05/22/2019 07:48 PM 1,422 stats 2 File(s) 10,995,116,279,182 bytes 2 Dir(s) 5,242,880 bytes free

• Initialize VHDX on the object storage bucket using qemu-img program available in c:\program files\qemu

  Code Block
  title qemu-img
  cd c:\program files\qemu C:\Program Files\qemu> qemu-img create -f vhdx v:\mnt\file.vhdx 10T Formatting 'v:\mnt\file.vhdx', fmt=vhdx size=10995116277760 log_size=1048576 block_size=0

  Verify VHDX information
  

  Code Block
  title qemu-img
  c:\Program Files\qemu> qemu-img info v:\mnt\file.vhdx image: v:\mnt\file.vhdx file format: vhdx virtual size: 10T (10995116277760 bytes) disk size: 10T cluster_size: 33554432

  Activate VHDX file as virtual disk in Windows from Administrator PowerShell window
  

  Code Block
  language powershell title Attach VHDX
  c:\users\Administrator> mount-diskimage -imagepath v:\mnt\file.vhdx

  with Mount VHDX
  
  

  
  
  

• Launch diskmgmt.msc to initialize disk for the first time and assign a drive letter.  You may create a file system within Disk Management GUI or from Command Prompt.
  
  
  
  

• Create a file system NTFS or ReFS. Use the actual drive letter that was assigned from the above command and allocation size of 1MB is chosen to match with the block size used while configuring cloud disk.

  Code Block
  language powershell title Format
  c:\users\Administrator> format /fs:ntfs /A:1M /q F:

  Warning
  title NTFS allocation size
  Windows 2019 supports allocation size of 1MB for NTFS file systems while earlier version limited to 64KB only.  This means NTFS created with 1MB allocation size may not be recognized by older Windows.

  
  
  

• Detach the virtual disk
  

  Code Block
  language powershell title Detach VHDX
  c:\users\Administrator> dismount-diskimage -imagepath v:\mnt\file.vhdx

  
  
  

  
  
  

• Stop the objbaker program to proceed configuration as service

  From Desktop → Crossmeta command shell running as administrator

  Code Block
  language powershell title Stop objbaker
  V:\>mount /dev/loop0 on / type ufs (local, read-only) devfs on /dev type devfs (local) \fuse.chan3596 on /mnt type fuse V:\> umount /mnt

  The above command would stop the objbacker program that is running inside another Command Prompt Window.
  

4. Register as NT service

• Create service using sc.exe

  If everything worked out fine so far we are ready to make this object disk as service now.  Pick a service name to start this object disk as NT service program automatically from now on. In this example we register objdisk1 as NT service program.

  In the following command line for sc.exe please note that binPath=  and displayName= has no space character before = but space character after =

  Code Block
  language powershell title Create service
  C:\Program Files\crossmeta>sc create objdisk1 start= delayed-auto binpath="\"c:\program files\crossmeta\objbacker.exe\" --cacert=\"c:\program files\crossmeta\ca-bundle.crt\" --accessFile=/etc/.s3wasabi_passwd --baseURL=https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/ --directIO --noAutoDetect --size=10T --timeout=30 --blockCacheSize=100 --blockCacheThreads=8 --minWriteDelay=5000 --md5CacheSize=1000000 --ssl --blockSize=1024K -o no_pagecache --filename=file.vhdx smbtest1 /mnt" displayName= "My first object disk smbtest1 from Wasabi" depend= cxfuse [SC] CreateService SUCCESS C:\Program Files\crossmeta>sc qc objdisk1 [SC] QueryServiceConfig SUCCESS SERVICE_NAME: objdisk1 TYPE : 10 WIN32_OWN_PROCESS START_TYPE : 2 AUTO_START (DELAYED) ERROR_CONTROL : 1 NORMAL BINARY_PATH_NAME : "c:\program files\crossmeta\objbacker.exe" --cacert="c:\program files\crossmeta\ca-bundle.crt" --accessFile=/etc/.s3wasabi_passwd --baseURL=https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/ --directIO --noAutoDetect --size=10T --timeout=30 --blockCacheSize=100 --blockCacheThreads=8 --minWriteDelay=5000 --md5CacheSize=1000000 --ssl --blockSize=1024K -o no_pagecache --filename=file.vhdx smbtest1 /mnt LOAD_ORDER_GROUP : TAG : 0 DISPLAY_NAME : My first object disk smbtest1 from Wasabi DEPENDENCIES : cxfuse SERVICE_START_NAME : LocalSystem

sc start objdisk1
powershell  mount-diskimage  -imagepath v:\mnt\file.vhdx

Stopping the objdisk service

From Desktop → Crossmeta command shell running as administrator

v:\> umount /mnt

v:\> sc stop objdisk1

5. Automatic Startup

Create startup script

net start objdisk1
powershell mount-diskimage -imagepath v:\mnt\file.vhdx

Schedule the above as task

schtasks.exe /create /tn "Start Cloud Disks" /ru SYSTEM /Sc ONSTART /tr
"\"C:\program files\s3disks.cmd\""

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