VoC AWS Cluster Deployment with Polaris

Introduction

This document provides instructions for successfully deploying VAST on Cloud (VoC) on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The document covers the following areas:

Polaris UI deployment configuration
vastcloud execution tool
AWS authentication
AWS permissions validation
VoC deployment creation
Preflight readiness validation
Cluster access after deployment

Before You Begin

Before starting the VoC deployment, you need to receive an invitation email to the Polaris portal.

This invitation is sent by a VAST administrator or a colleague already registered in the Polaris portal.

The Polaris invitation looks similar to the following example:

You have been invited to join VAST Polaris.
Click the registration link to complete your account setup.

Once you click the registration link, you will be redirected to a password creation page.

Complete the password creation process.

After completing registration, you are ready to continue with the VoC deployment process.

1. Create a New Deployment in Polaris

✅ Tip
Please note that this step only creates the deployment template. It does not start the actual deployment, which must be initiated manually afterward.

https://admin.aws.polaris.vastdata.com/

After logging in, click the Deployments cloud icon on the left side of the screen.

Polaris login screen

Polaris deployment entitlement

Then click:

Create Deployment Configuration

Review and complete the following fields.

Polaris deployment configuration

Element	Notes
Entitlements	Make sure you are using the correct entitlement and that the expected capacity and resources are visible.
Deployment Name	Enter a unique name for this deployment.
AWS Account ID	Enter the AWS account ID that will be used for the deployment.
Instance Type	Choose the required ENodes instance type.
Region	Select the AWS region where the deployment will take place.
Availability Zone	Select the AWS Availability Zone inside the selected region.
Key/Value Tags	Enter key/value tags that will be added to the AWS resources.
Deployment Type	Choose either a single-node deployment or a full cluster array deployment.

Example:

Deployment name: vast-on-cloud-poc
AWS Account ID: 123456789012
Region: us-east-1
Availability Zone: us-east-1a
Deployment type: Full array
Cluster size: 8 nodes
Estimated capacity: 260 TB

Once all details are in place, click:

Create Deployment Configuration

A new window will appear with download links for the vastcloud tool and deployment hints.

Select your operating system, copy the download URL, then close the window using the Close button.

Polaris deploy screen

Run “vastcloud cluster list” to see the current status:

 ~/.vast  vastcloud cluster list                                                                                                                                                                             ok  09:04:41 
╭───────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────╮
│                               │             name             │            state             │          ip address          │        management url        │         monitor url          │           provider           │
├───────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│                               │ vast-on-cloud-poc            │ pending                      │                              │                              │                              │ aws                          │
╰───────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────╯

2. Prepare Your Laptop or Workstation

Install vastcloud and Required Tools

Open your local terminal and paste the curl command copied from the previous step.

Example:

curl https://storage.googleapis.com/polaris-vastcloud/install_vastcloud.sh | bash

The installer will install the vastcloud utility and required dependencies.

Example output:

[INFO] Detecting system...
[INFO] Detected: darwin/arm64
[INFO] Checking for cloud CLI tools...
[WARN] The following cloud CLI tools are not installed:
  - awscli
  - hashicorp/tap/terraform

Would you like to install the missing tools using Homebrew? (y/N): y

Press:

During the installation, you may be asked to enter your local sudo password in order to write the vastcloud binary into:

/usr/local/bin

Expected successful installation output:

[INFO] Downloading vastcloud...
######################################################################## 100.0%
[WARN] Cannot write to /usr/local/bin, trying with sudo...
Password:
[INFO] Installed to: /usr/local/bin/vastcloud
[INFO] Installation successful!
[INFO] Run 'vastcloud --help' to get started

Validate the installation:

vastcloud --help

3. Authenticate to AWS

The following commands must be executed to authenticate your local workstation with AWS.

AWS credentials may expire depending on the authentication method used, especially when using AWS SSO. In many environments, AWS SSO credentials need to be refreshed periodically.

If your environment uses AWS SSO, run:

aws sso login --profile <AWS_PROFILE_NAME>

Example:

aws sso login --profile AWS-Polaris-Test

 ~   aws sso login --profile AWS-Polaris-Test                                                                                                                                ok  AWS-Polaris-Test us-east-1 aws  08:47:13 
Attempting to open your default browser.
If the browser does not open or you wish to use a different device to authorize this request, open the following URL:

https://d-936770c4af.awsapps.com/start/#/device

Then enter the code:

SHDF-ZWJX

A browser window will open and ask you to complete the AWS SSO authentication process.

AWS authorization request

Allow AWS access to data

After successful authentication, validate your AWS identity:

aws sts get-caller-identity --profile <AWS_PROFILE_NAME>

Example:

aws sts get-caller-identity --profile AWS-Polaris-Test

Expected output:

{
    "UserId": "AROAXXXXXXXXXXXXX:username",
    "Account": "123456789012",
    "Arn": "arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/AWSReservedSSO_xxx/username"
}

Option 2: AWS Access Key Authentication

If your environment uses static AWS credentials, configure them with:

aws configure --profile <AWS_PROFILE_NAME>

Example:

aws configure --profile vast-on-cloud

You will be prompted to enter:

AWS Access Key ID
AWS Secret Access Key
Default region name
Default output format

Validate the configured identity:

aws sts get-caller-identity --profile vast-on-cloud

4. Create Local `vastcloud` Configuration

Run the following command:

vastcloud config init

Select AWS as the cloud provider.

Select your cloud provider

Select your cloud provider AWS-Polaris

Example output:

Configuration Wizard


Authenticating with AWS...
Authentication successful!

Using API endpoint: Production (https://api.aws.polaris.vastdata.com)

Configuration saved successfully!
  Config file: /Users/vast.user/.vast/config.yaml
  Account: production-aws-110450271409
  Context: production-aws-110450271409-ctx (set as current)
  API Endpoint: https://api.aws.polaris.vastdata.com

You can now use 'vastcloud login' to authenticate with the Polaris API.

5. Authenticate `vastcloud` with Polaris

Run:

vastcloud login

Example output:

Authenticating with AWS...
Cloud provider authentication successful!

Opening browser for authentication...
Waiting for authentication...

A browser window will open and ask for your Polaris username.

Enter VAST on Cloud username or email

Enter the username used for the Polaris portal and click:

Continue

Then enter your password and click:

Sign In

After successful authentication, return to the terminal and verify that the login completed successfully.

Expected output:

✓ Logged in as user@vastdata.com
  Token valid until: 2026-05-07 18:56:08

6. Validate AWS Permissions

Before starting the deployment, validate that your AWS account has the required permissions.

Run:

vastcloud cluster check-permissions --provider aws

Example output:

 Permission check: AWS
 Identity: arn:aws:sts::110450271409:assumed-role/AWSReservedSSO_AWS-Polaris-Test_aaf44d356dcb8d5b/eyal.rif@vastdata.com
 Region:   us-east-1

╭────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│                                                 Operation                                                  │                                                   Status                                                   │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ config/login                                                                                               │ OK                                                                                                         │
│ cluster list                                                                                               │ OK                                                                                                         │
│ cluster create                                                                                             │ OK                                                                                                         │
│ cluster delete                                                                                             │ OK                                                                                                         │
╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

  Optional permissions not granted for "cluster create":
    - ec2:CreateSecurityGroup (only needed if vastcloud auto-creates this resource)

  You can:    config/login, cluster list, cluster create, cluster delete

If any permissions are missing, review the required AWS IAM permissions before continuing.

7. Recommended Validation Before Deployment

Review AWS Permission Requirements

Run:

vastcloud docs aws-permissions

Use this command to review the AWS IAM permissions required for VoC deployment.

Run the Preflight Checker

VoC AWS Preflight Checker Walkthrough

It is strongly recommended to run the vastcloud preflight checker before deploying the cluster.

The preflight checker validates that the AWS environment is ready for deployment.

The validation may include:

AWS authentication
AWS account access
IAM permissions
VPC configuration
Subnet configuration
Security group configuration
Route table access
Internet or private endpoint connectivity
EC2 quota validation
Storage and networking prerequisites
Required AWS service access

8. Create the VoC Deployment

✅ Tip
This step uses the template created in Step 1 to deploy a VoC cluster on AWS.

Run the following command to start the deployment:

vastcloud cluster create --select <DEPLOYMENT_NAME>

Example:

vastcloud cluster create --select vast-on-cloud-poc

Follow the interactive menu instructions.

 ~/.vast  vastcloud cluster create --select vast-on-cloud-poc                                                                                                                                                ok  09:07:37 
Discovering subscription...
Using subscription: a1b2c3d4-5678-90ab-cdef-1234567890te
Discovering resource group...
Using resource group: default
Auto-selected cluster: vast-on-cloud-poc
Generating PIN...
PIN generated successfully!
Using Polaris credentials from pin 

  Initializing cluster from Polaris credentials: >  vast-on-cloud-poc

  You are about to create a cluster with the following configuration:
                                                                      
  Type                Production VAST Cluster                         
  Cluster name        vast-on-cloud-poc                               
  Instances           3 x i7ie.48xlarge (192 vCPUs, 1536 GiB memory)  
  Storage             3 x 120.0 TiB = 360.0 TiB                       
  Region              us-east-1                                       
  Availability zone   us-east-1a                                      
                                                                      

┃ Proceed with the following configuration? (y/n):                                                                                                                                                                         
┃                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
┃                   Yes!     No.

You may be prompted to select or confirm the following AWS resources:

AWS Account
Region
Availability Zone
VPC
Subnet
Security Group
Key pair
IP address range

ℹ️ Info
Since we already ran the preflight and confirmed all requirements are met, you can safely skip the preflight during install.

9. Monitor the Deployment

Once the deployment starts, the terminal will show progress information.

After the deployment passes the initial stage, the terminal should display details such as:

Cluster IP address
Management URL
Monitor URL

Example:

Cluster deployment started successfully.

Cluster IP address: 10.120.85.151
Management URL: https://10.120.85.29
Monitor URL: http://10.120.85.151:5551

Use the monitor URL to follow the deployment progress until the VAST cluster is ready.

Example:

http://10.120.85.151:5551

10. Validate Cluster Status

You can always run the following command to view existing clusters and their status:

vastcloud cluster list

Example output:

╭──────────────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┬──────────╮
│ name                 │ state         │ ip address    │ management url        │ monitor url               │ provider │
├──────────────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ vast-on-cloud-poc    │ running       │ 10.120.85.151 │ https://10.120.85.29  │ http://10.120.85.151:5551 │ AWS      │
╰──────────────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┴──────────╯

11. Access the VAST Cluster

Once the deployment is complete, access the VAST cluster using the management URL.

Example:

https://10.120.85.29

12. Useful vastcloud Commands

View Available Commands

vastcloud --help

Log in to Polaris

vastcloud login

Initialize Configuration

vastcloud config init

Check AWS Permissions

vastcloud cluster check-permissions --provider aws

Create Cluster

vastcloud cluster create --select <DEPLOYMENT_NAME>

List Clusters

vastcloud cluster list

Review AWS Permissions Documentation

vastcloud docs aws-permissions

13. Notes and Best Practices

✅ Tip
Make sure your AWS credentials are valid before running vastcloud.
If using AWS SSO, refresh the session with aws sso login when credentials expire.
Validate AWS permissions before starting deployment.
Run the preflight checker before deploying the cluster.
Confirm that the selected VPC, subnets, and security groups match the intended deployment design.
Make sure the selected AWS region and Availability Zone match the Polaris deployment configuration.
Review the vastcloud command reference for more advanced usage.
Replace all example values with the correct customer-specific values before executing commands.

Documentation Index

VoC AWS Cluster Deployment with Polaris

Introduction

Before You Begin

1. Create a New Deployment in Polaris

2. Prepare Your Laptop or Workstation

3. Authenticate to AWS

Option 1: AWS SSO Login

Option 2: AWS Access Key Authentication

4. Create Local vastcloud Configuration

5. Authenticate vastcloud with Polaris

6. Validate AWS Permissions

7. Recommended Validation Before Deployment

Review AWS Permission Requirements

Run the Preflight Checker

8. Create the VoC Deployment

9. Monitor the Deployment

10. Validate Cluster Status

11. Access the VAST Cluster

12. Useful vastcloud Commands

13. Notes and Best Practices

4. Create Local `vastcloud` Configuration

5. Authenticate `vastcloud` with Polaris