How to Deploy Ceph Offline on ZTE NewStart Linux: Step‑by‑Step Guide

About ZTE NewStart System

ZTE NewStart operating system is based on a stable Linux kernel and includes three variants: embedded (NewStart CGEL), server (NewStart CGSL), and desktop (NewStart NSDL). After nearly ten years of development, it offers security hardening, autonomy, and easy management, and is used by telecom operators, large state enterprises, and e‑government solutions.

Background

Amid national digital transformation and domestic substitution, especially for government projects, Chinese‑made CPUs and operating systems are preferred for security and independence. This article demonstrates offline Ceph deployment on ZTE NewStart CGSL with a HaiGuang CPU, a method also applicable to Longxi and CentOS 8.

Creating an Offline Installation Package

Use a network‑connected ZTE NewStart machine to build an offline RPM repository for Ceph. Choose a minimal installation to avoid dependency conflicts with default components such as libvirt and qemu.

Yum Repository Configuration

ZTE NewStart does not provide an official online yum source; use mirrors from AnolisOS and EPEL instead.

AnolisOS.repo
[AppStream]
name=AnolisOS-8.6 - AppStream
baseurl=http://mirrors.openanolis.cn/anolis/8.6/AppStream/x86_64/os
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CGSL-V6
[BaseOS]
name=AnolisOS-8.6 - BaseOS
baseurl=http://mirrors.openanolis.cn/anolis/8.6/BaseOS/x86_64/os
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CGSL-V6
... (additional repo sections omitted for brevity) ...

epel.repo
[epel]
name=Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - $basearch
# It is much more secure to use the metalink, but if you wish to use a local mirror
# place its address here.
baseurl=https://mirrors.aliyun.com/epel/8/Everything/$basearch
metalink=https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=epel-8&arch=$basearch&infra=$infra&content=$contentdir
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
countme=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/yum.repos.d/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-8

ceph.repo
[Ceph]
name=Ceph packages for $basearch
baseurl=http://download.ceph.com/rpm-pacific/el8/$basearch
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
type=rpm-md
gpgkey=https://download.ceph.com/keys/release.asc
[Ceph-noarch]
name=Ceph noarch packages
baseurl=http://download.ceph.com/rpm-pacific/el8/noarch
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
type=rpm-md
gpgkey=https://download.ceph.com/keys/release.asc
[ceph-source]
name=Ceph source packages
baseurl=http://download.ceph.com/rpm-pacific/el8/SRPMS
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
type=rpm-md
gpgkey=https://download.ceph.com/keys/release.asc

Configure yum cache:

[main]
gpgcheck=1
installonly_limit=3
clean_requirements_on_remove=True
best=True
skip_if_unavailable=False
cachedir=/data/yum
keepcache=1

Install Ceph

yum install ceph -y

Create Offline Repository

find /data/cache -name "*.rpm" -exec cp {} /mnt ;
createrepo /mnt
tar -zcvf offline.tar.gz mnt/

Install Ceph from Offline Package

Extract and install the RPMs without dependency checks:

tar -zxvf offline.tar.gz
cd mnt
rpm -ivh *.rpm --nodeps --force

Deploy Monitor Nodes

Each Ceph cluster needs at least one monitor (mon). The guide creates three monitors on node1, node2, and node3.

Add Monitor on node1

Generate a unique FSID and create the initial configuration:

uuidgen

Edit /etc/ceph/ceph.conf to include the FSID, monitor members, network settings, and authentication options.

vim /etc/ceph/ceph.conf
[global]
fsid=9c079a1f-6fc2-4c59-bd4d-e8bc232d33a4
mon initial members = node1
mon host = 192.168.2.16
public network = 192.168.2.0/24
auth cluster required = cephx
auth service required = cephx
auth client required = cephx
osd journal size = 1024
osd pool default size = 3
osd pool default min size = 2
osd pool default pg num = 8
osd pool default pgp num = 8
osd crush chooseleaf type = 1

Create monitor keyrings:

ceph-authtool --create-keyring /tmp/ceph.mon.keyring --gen-key -n mon. --cap mon 'allow *'
ceph-authtool --create-keyring /etc/ceph/ceph.client.admin.keyring --gen-key -n client.admin --cap mon 'allow *' --cap osd 'allow *' --cap mds 'allow *' --cap mgr 'allow *'

Generate the monitor map and initialize the monitor daemon:

monmaptool --create --add `hostname` 192.168.2.16 --fsid 9c079a1f-6fc2-4c59-bd4d-e8bc232d33a4 /tmp/monmap
sudo -u ceph ceph-mon --mkfs -i `hostname` --monmap /tmp/monmap --keyring /tmp/ceph.mon.keyring
systemctl start ceph-mon@`hostname` && systemctl enable ceph-mon@`hostname`

Copy the keyring and configuration to the other monitor nodes and adjust ownership:

scp /tmp/ceph.mon.keyring ceph2:/tmp/ceph.mon.keyring
scp /etc/ceph/* root@ceph2:/etc/ceph/
scp /var/lib/ceph/bootstrap-osd/ceph.keyring root@ceph2:/var/lib/ceph/bootstrap-osd/
# repeat for ceph3
chown ceph:ceph /tmp/ceph.mon.keyring

Start the monitors on all nodes and update ceph.conf with all monitor hosts:

vim /etc/ceph/ceph.conf
mon initial members = node1,node2,node3
mon host = 192.168.2.16,192.168.2.17,192.168.2.18
systemctl restart ceph-mon@`hostname`

Remove a Monitor

ceph mon remove {mon-id}

Add OSDs

Use the ceph-volume utility to prepare and activate OSDs on each node.

Create OSD

ceph-volume lvm create --data /dev/sdb

The process consists of preparation and activation stages:

ceph-volume lvm prepare --data /dev/sdb
ceph-volume lvm list   # view OSD FSID
ceph-volume lvm activate {ID} {FSID}

Start OSD daemons on each node:

# node1
systemctl restart ceph-osd@0
systemctl enable ceph-osd@0
# node2
systemctl restart ceph-osd@1
systemctl enable ceph-osd@1
# node3
systemctl restart ceph-osd@2
systemctl enable ceph-osd@2

Create MGR Daemon

Each monitor node should also run a manager daemon.

Create Key Directory

sudo -u ceph mkdir /var/lib/ceph/mgr/ceph-`hostname -s`
cd /var/lib/ceph/mgr/ceph-`hostname -s`

Create Authentication Key

ceph auth get-or-create mgr.`hostname -s` mon 'allow profile mgr' osd 'allow *' mds 'allow *' > keyring
chown ceph.ceph /var/lib/ceph/mgr/ceph-`hostname`/keyring

Start MGR Daemon

systemctl enable ceph-mgr@`hostname -s` && systemctl start ceph-mgr@`hostname -s`
# or
ceph-mgr -i `hostname`

Cluster Status

After completing the above steps, verify the Ceph cluster status; in this example only two OSDs were added.