Planning for the procedure

Background knowledge

This procedure assumes that:

  • You are installing into an existing VMware vSphere deployment which has pre-configured networks and VLANs; this procedure does not cover setting up a VMware vSphere deployment from scratch.

  • You have knowledge of VMs and familiarity with the VMware vSphere Web Client.

  • You know the IP networking information (IP address, subnet mask in CIDR notation, and default gateway) for the custom nodes.

Reserve maintenance period

This procedure does not require a maintenance period. However if you are integrating into a live network then it’s recommended to implement measures to mitigate any unforeseen events.

Plan for service impact

This procedure does not impact service.

People

You must be a system operator to perform the MOP steps.

Tools and access

You must have access to a local computer (referred to in this procedure as the local computer) with a network connection and the VMware vSphere Client Integration Plug-in installed. You can use various versions of VMware vSphere, including V5.5 through to V6.7.

For more information on installing the VMware vSphere Client Integration Plug-in, see the VMware vSphere documentation.

Installation Questions

Question More information

Do you have a list of the IP addresses that you intend to give to each node?

Each node requires three (two if not clustered) IP addresses - one for management traffic, one for signaling traffic, and one for Rhino clustering traffic.

Do you have DNS and NTP Server information?

It’s expected that the system will integrate with the IMS Core NTP and DNS servers.

Installation Steps

Repeat the following steps for each custom VM that you are creating.

Step Information

1 - Deploy your custom OVA

Deploy the OVA into VMware vSphere

Method of procedure

Step 1 - Deploy your custom OVA

This description tells you how to deploy a custom VM using the VMware vSphere GUI. There are equivalent mechanisms than can be used to deploy the same VM via command line tools, as would be used for scripted deployment scenarios.

  1. Start VMware vSphere client.

  2. Navigate to the datacenter in which you want to deploy the VMs.

  3. Select [Actions] → [Deploy OVF Template].

  4. Check [local file] and select the OVA template.

  5. Click Next to continue.

  6. Enter the hostname for the virtual machine, for example [image name]-1, and select the datacenter or VM folder to create the new virtual machine in.

  7. Click Next to continue.

  8. Select a compute resource to run the new virtual machine.

  9. Click Next to continue.

  10. Review the settings and click Next to continue

  11. Select a deployment configuration.

  12. Click Next to continue.

  13. Set the Select virtual disk format: field to Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed (for a lab trial deployment, you can use thin provision instead).

  14. Select the desired datastore.

  15. Click Next to continue.

  16. Ensure that the correct network connections are selected to allow your custom node to connect to your management and signaling networks.

  17. Click Next to continue.

  18. Customize the deployment properties. See Bootstrap parameters for detailed information. Optional properties can be left blank.

    Important

    Note: The Custom installation will fail to bootstrap if an incorrect property is used, rendering the VM unusable. Refer to the bootstrap troubleshooting section for more information in the event that the Custom doesn’t bootstrap successfully.

  19. Click Next to continue.

  20. The next panel summarizes the deployment settings. Review the settings to check you have entered all settings accurately.

  21. Click Finish to complete the process.

  22. Start the node by right clicking on the VM and select Power On.

Results

A custom VM has been created and powered on. The bootstrap script will run automatically once the VM has booted.

Repeat the above steps for each custom VM you are creating.

Troubleshooting

In some systems, the above procedure may fail with the following error message:

"Transfer failed: The OVF descriptor is not available"

If this happens, take the following steps:

  • Create a temporary directory on the local computer on which you are running the browser.

  • Copy the OVA template to this directory.

  • Restart the procedure, selecting the copy of the OVA template from this temporary location.

  • Once the OVA template has been successfully uploaded, delete the temporary directory.

In the event of any other failure, refer to the Backout Procedure.

Next step

Once all custom VMs have been created using the procedure above, configure them by uploading configuration to CDS. Follow the links from this page.

Backout Procedure

If you need to delete a VM that failed to create properly or has the wrong bootstrap parameters, follow these steps.

  • Find the VM you wish to delete under its datacenter / host.

  • If the VM is powered on, power it off by right-clicking on its entry in the list of VMs and choosing [Power] → [Power Off].

  • Delete the VM and its associated resources by right-clicking on its entry in the list of VMs and choosing [Delete from Disk].

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