Deploying to VMware vSphere 6.7

Deploying the OVA to vSphere

From the home page of the vSphere Client, highlight the target host cluster in the left side of the screen, then select Deploy OVF Template... from the Actions menu at the top of the portal.

When the Deploy OVF Template wizard opens, click the Choose Files radio button, then locate and select the igneous-vm.ova file that you downloaded.
When ready, click Next.

Provide a name for the virtual machine. The default is igneous-vm but this can be customized as needed for your environment. Select a target host cluster for the virtual machine.
When ready, click Next to continue.

Choose the target host and click Next.

Review the details of the OVF package, and click Next to continue.

Choose a datastore with at least 100GB of free disk space for the virtual machine. Optionally, and depending on your specific environment standards, assign a virtual disk format and/or VM Storage Policy at this time as well. Click Next.

On the Setup networks page, select the appropriate Destination network to ensure connectivity from the Igneous DataProtect to your NAS environment, and click Next.

On the Ready to complete page, review and confirm all settings as configured. Click Finish.

Monitor the status of the deployment in the Recent Tasks pane at the bottom of the vSphere client portal. Once the Deploy OVF template task status shows Completed, the virtual machine has been successfully created.

Configuring the Igneous DataProtect Virtual Machine

From the navigation panel on the left side of the VMware vSphere Client, click to highlight the new virtual machine, then click the green Play button in the Actions ribbon at the top of the portal to power on the virtual machine.

The Igneous DataProtect virtual machine may reboot during the initial startup. This is normal. Once the initial boot process is complete, a Network Configuration menu will appear on the virtual machine’s console screen.

If the VM’s IP address settings will be managed via DHCP, then use the Tab key to advance through the menu, without changing any of the provided fields, to the Save option and press Enter.

To enable manual IP address management, press the Spacebar to clear the X from the Use DHCP option, then use the Tab key to advance through each field and provide the appropriate value for each.

If your network requires outbound access
The configuration will be saved and the Igneous DataProtect virtual machine will reboot again. At this time, the system will download updates to the Igneous software, after which it will reboot again.

Once the virtual machine has updated and is ready for use, the console menu will display Visit cloud.igneous.io to sign in and start managing your data!

Please complete the following steps before connecting to the Igneous portal and registering the new virtual machine.

Configuring Host Time Synchronization

From the Igneous DataProtect virtual machine’s Summary tab of the vSphere Client, click the Actions button, then select Edit Settings from the drop-down menu.

Next, click the VM Options button along the top of the Edit Settings window.

Expand the VMware Tools line item, and then check the Synchronize guest time with host box in the Time category.
Click OK to save the new setting.

Additionally it is highly recommended that the guest OS is configured to use an NTP server to improve time synchronization. Igneous defaults to using pool.ntp.org for time source. Please provide an internal NTP server to your Igneous team if you have one.

Igneous leverages SMTP to send notifications of tasks statuses as well as enhanced Data Discover sharing capabilities. It would be necessary to provide the SMTP server host and credentials (if necessary) for Igneous to send emails.

Conclusion

The virtual machine is now ready to begin scanning the environment. To add NAS systems to Igneous DataProtect for data discovery, refer to the "Managing Systems and Exports" section.