How to use the vME Microweb

Overview

For casual use that doesn't require automation, vME has a web frontend.

Pools

A pool is a combination of one or many disk drives. A pool can have one or more sources. Sources created within the pool see all the pool's capacity and can grow up to the available space for the whole pool.

Creating a Pool

Navigate to the Pool screen.

To create a new pool, click on the “+ Pool” button.

On click a new popup form will be shown which has the following inputs.

Field Name	Description
Pool Name	Name of the pool.
Pool Size	Size of the pool drive to be allocated (In MBs).
Device Path	The volume path of the disk(s) to be utilised by the pool.

Disk Details

Navigate to the Pool screen and below the Manage Pool table, the details of the disks listed on the vME server are present.

Sources

A source is created in the boundaries of a pool. A source file can only belong to one pool, but pool can contain more than one source.

Creating a Source

Navigate to the Source screen.

To create a new source, click on the “+ Source” button.

On click a new popup form will be shown which has the following inputs.

Field Name	Description
Pool Name	Name of the pool.
Database Method	Choose container (default), network_iscsi (Network - iSCSI), or network_nfs (NFS).
Database Type	Database type, select from dropdown. For iSCSI sources, Database Type is set to Microsoft SQL automatically.
Source Name*	Enter your Source Name.

When selecting the iSCSI method for source creation, the below fields will have to be configured.

Field Name	Description
iSCSI volume size (GB)	Optional. Leave blank for auto-grow (thin provisioned iSCSI LUN). Enter a value only to set a fixed maximum size.
iSCSI Network Settings	Configure portal bind IP and NFS compatibility fields; use "Edit Settings" to open the dialog.

By default, the database type is set to "Microsoft SQL". After this select the "Edit Settings" option in the iSCSI Network Settings field.

iSCSI Network Settings

Field Name	Default	Description
Client Address*	0.0.0.0	For iSCSI this is the portal bind IP. Use 0.0.0.0 to listen on all vME interfaces, or set specific IPv4 address(es).
anonuid*	65534	anonuid/anongid are for NFS anonymous user/group mapping. They are stored for compatibility but not used by iSCSI LUN creation.
anongid*	65534	anonuid/anongid are for NFS anonymous user/group mapping. They are stored for compatibility but not used by iSCSI LUN creation.

iSCSI Source Form Instructions

When creating an iSCSI source from the Source form, fill the fields as follows:

1. Set Database Method to network_iscsi.
2. Select Pool Name, Database Type, and enter Source Name.
3. In iSCSI volume size (GB), leave blank for auto-grow (thin provisioning), or enter a fixed GB value for a hard cap.
4. Open iSCSI Network Settings (cog icon) and confirm:
   • Client Address: 0.0.0.0 to listen on all vME interfaces, or specific IPv4 address(es).
   • anonuid / anongid: compatibility values stored with network settings.
5. Click Save to create the source and apply iSCSI network settings.

Auto-Grow Behavior

When vsize is blank, vME creates thin-provisioned iSCSI storage:

• Logical capacity is capped by platform policy.
• Physical usage grows only as data is written.
• Pool free space must still be monitored.

For network_iscsi sources, continue with the iSCSI connector workflow: iSCSI (SQL Server) Connector. For network_nfs sources, ensure your NFS client access is configured for the vME export before use.

Snapshots

Snapshots are point-in-time snaps of the source's state. Creating a snapshot means recording source vnodes and keeping track of them. Once the data on that inode is updated, the old block of data is retained. You can access the old data view by using said snapshot, and only use as much space as has been changed between the snapshot time and the current time.

For network_iscsi sources, you still create snapshots in vME, but you will export clones as iSCSI targets and mount them on a SQL Server via the connector workflow. For network_nfs sources, snapshots and clones are consumed via NFS mounts.

Creating a Snapshot

Navigate to the Snapshots screen.

To create a new source, click on the “+ Snapshot" button.

On click a new popup form will be shown which has the following inputs.

Field Name	Description
Source	Source to create snapshot from.
Snapshot Name	Name of snapshot to be created.

Clones

Snapshots are read-only. If you want to mount a snapshot and make changes to it, you'll need to create a clone.

Each clone works just like a normal database, but takes only a few seconds to create.

For network_iscsi sources, clones are consumed via iSCSI targets rather than container mounts. See the connector workflow: iSCSI (SQL Server) Connector. For network_nfs sources, clones are consumed via NFS mounts rather than container mounts.

Creating a Clone

Navigate to the Clones screen.

To create a new clone, click on the “+ Clone" button.

On click a new popup form will be shown which has the following inputs.

Field Name	Description
Source	Source to create clone from.
Snapshot	Snapshot to create clone from.
Clone Name	Name of clone to be created.

Container Images

Container Images are the docker database images for serving the source or clone databases.

Pull Image

Navigate to the Containers screen.

To pull a new container image, click on the “+ Pull Image" button.

On click a new popup form will be shown which has the following inputs.

Field Name	Description
Database Type	Type of database, image is for.
Repository URL	Repository URL to pull image from. Note: URL must be accessible from the VME Server.
Tag	Image Tag. Default is latest.
Repository Username	Username for repository to authenticate if required.
Repository Password	Password for repository to authenticate if required.

Container

Run a container

Navigate to the Containers screen.

To run a new container, click on the “+ Container" button.

On click a new popup form will be shown which has the following inputs.

Field Name	Description
Database Type	Type of database container to create.
Container Name	Name of the container to create.
HostPort:ContainerPort	Ports to bind inside the container. It is a string in the format "host_port:container_port" where the container port is an exposed port. For example: "12345:3306" for MySQL. Several host and container port pairs can be assigned by seperateing with a comma.
Image	Container Image to use.
Source Directory	Source or Clone volume which will be mounted on the container.
Environment Variables	Environment variables to be used for the database inside the container.
Data Directory	Path of the data directory.

Access Management

List Users

Navigate to the Access Management screen.

Add User

To add a new user, click on the "+Add User" button on the top right.

On click a new popup form will be shown which has the following inputs.

With LDAP Authentication selected:

With Local Authentication selected:

Field Name	Description
Username	Login name for the new user.
Full Name	Display name of the user.
Email	Email address for the user.
Authentication Type	LDAP or Local authentication.

Modify User

To modify an existing user, click on the pen icon next to any existing user

On click a new popup form will be shown which has the following inputs.

With LDAP Authentication selected:

With Local Authentication selected:

Field Name	Description
Username	Login name of the user to modify.
Full Name	Updated display name of the user.
Email	Updated email address for the user.
Authentication Type	LDAP or VME Server (Local).
Rotate API Key	If true, invalidates the user's current API key and issues a new one.

**Note: If modifying the user from LDAP to Local authentication, the current password and new password are needed for update.

Configure LDAP

To set the required field values for the LDAP server, click on the "Configure LDAP" screen for this.

On click a new popup form will be shown which has the following inputs.

Field Name	Description
LDAP Server	Hostname or IP address of the LDAP server.
Port	Port on which the LDAP server listens (e.g. 389 for LDAP, 636 for LDAPS).
Bind DN	Distinguished Name (DN) used to bind/authenticate to the LDAP server.
Bind Password	Password for the bind DN account.
User Search Base	Base DN under which user entries are searched (e.g. ou=people,dc=example,dc=com).
User Filter	LDAP search filter for users; 0 is replaced by the login name (e.g. (uid=0)).
Username Attribute	LDAP attribute mapped to VME username (default: uid).
Name Attribute	LDAP attribute mapped to VME display name (default: givenName).
Mail Attribute	LDAP attribute mapped to VME email (default: mail).