quickstart

Quickstart guide

Minimum system requirements

RockStor is available as a complete Linux distribution (iso) to be installed
directly on hardware or as a VM with the following minimum system requirements.

• 64-bit Intel or AMD processor
• 2GB RAM
• 8GB hard disk space for the OS
• One or more additional hard drives
• 1Gbps Ethernet interface (with internet access -- for updates)
• CD/DVD drive or USB port for installation

Download Rockstor

Download RockStor from here. Create a bootable CD or USB drive from the downloaded iso and proceed to the next section for installation.

Installation

Installing Rockstor is quick and straight forward. Since Rockstor is based on
CentOS, the anaconda installer looks similar to installation of CentOS, Redhat or
Fedora.

To find out how the installation process looks like, watch a 5 minute video by clicking here.

Important! Installing RockStor deletes existing data on the system drive(s) selected as installation destination.

If you need further assistance during or post install, you can contact us by sending an email to support@rockstor.com

• Boot your machine with the Rockstor CD and the splash screen will appear. Press enter and the graphical installer will start momentarily and display the Installation Summary screen

• Installation Summary screen
  On this screen, multiple parameters can be configured together.

  • Click on the Date & Time to change the default timezone.

  • A network connection is required and the installation will not proceed otherwise. The default is dhcp which the installer automatically picks up. You can configure the network manually, but make sure your system has a working ip address for the installation to proceed.

  • Under the Installation Destination, there may be further action required. By default, the first hard drive is selected if there is no data on it. Otherwise, click on the amber icon for the device selection screen. For the default automatic partitioning, just click DONE. On the next window, Reclaim space and follow directions to configure it as the installation destination.

  • If you are an advanced user, you can go with a custom partitioning scheme. However, note that Rockstor only supports BTRFS even for root filesystem. Important! Installing RockStor deletes existing data on the system drive(s) selected as installation destination.

  • Once the installation configuration is complete and there are no amber icons, click on Begin Installation button to start the package installation.

• Package Installation
  On the next screen, package installation begins in the background and you must set the root password. You can optionally create an additional user.

• Boot into Rockstor
  Package installation takes a few minutes and once it's complete you can reboot, remove the install cd and boot into Rockstor. Once the system boots up, the url for web-ui is displayed above the login prompt. The url is simply https://<IP_ADDRESS_OF_THE_SYSTEM>

• Setup Rockstor
  Go to Rockstor's web-ui from your web browser and complete the initial setup.