Installing the CloudBoost virtual appliance

This simple post provides the steps needed to install the CloudBoost virtual appliance in vSphere.

Prerequiste

Before you can install the CloudBoost virtual appliance, you must ensure proper integration with the DHCP, DNS, and Active Directory.

  • Obtain a static IP address for the CloudBoost server, and determine the subnet mask and the gateway.

  • Register the CloudBoost hostname/IP address in DNS.

  • If necessary for integration with Active Directory, create a new username in the domain for the CloudBoost administrator, register a Service Principal Name (SPN) for it, and generate a keytab file for that SPN. NOTE: Integration with Active Directory for centralized credential management and authentication is not required for CloudBoost, but is highly recommended for production deployments. The CloudBoost virtual appliance can operate without authentication and AD integration, which is useful for evaluation and test deployments.

  • Determine the location of the OVA file which must be downloaded. This could be a URL, or a location accessible from the computer, such as a local hard drive or a network share.

  • For the target data store, identify an available SSD with at least 700 GB of available space.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere client, click File > Deploy OVF Template, browse to the location of the OVA package, and then click Next.
  2. Select the Inventory Location (the ESX cluster and host that will run the VM), and then enter the name of the VM.
  3. Select the data store for the VMDK files, and then click Next. For optimal performance, select Thick Provisioned Eager Zeroed when selecting the target data store.
  4. On the Ready to Complete page of the wizard, review the deployment settings.
  5. Select the Power on after deployment checkbox, and then click Finish.
  6. To ensure that the CloudBoost virtual appliance has 16 GB of memory reserved, right click on the VM and click Edit Settings.
  7. On the Resources tab, click Memory and ensure that Reservation is set to 16384 MB, and then click OK.
Results

The CloudBoost virtual appliance is installed

After you finish

You must use the CLI to initially configure the VM before you can start it and complete the CloudBoost deployment.