As second part of the series this article covers the NetApp VSC 9.7 setup on a VMware environment. The first part covers the first deployment steps. Booting the appliance will start the setup process. The process is pretty much wizard driven and uses the values as per the OVA Template wizard customization. Built-in the NetApp VSC 9.7 setup process also the VMware Tools. Also these ones are automatically installed. On the first boot it should also appear a message in the VMware vCenter console to mount and install the VMware Tools.
Setup NetApp VSC 9.7 on VMware
The NetApp VSC 9.7 setup is a fast process and requires only a few inputs. The most important thing at the beginning is to make sure to install the built-in VMware tools. Upon booting the appliance, the appliance looks for a configuration file. In reality the setup process will run the wizard using the values provided in the first step.
In order to make things right it is recommended to install the VMware Tools. Among other reasons, the VMware Tools facilitate the execution of the values provided in the previous step. On top of this they also provide great tools/drivers to enhance the performance of the virtual appliance. Possibly the most important one here is the enhanced memory management through the VMware Tools. In this case it is just a matter of following the screen instructions.
When the ISO with the VMware Tools is properly mounted, it is automatically detected and run to complete this preliminary step. Once completed it will reboot the appliance.
At this point on the first reboot the NetApp VSC 9.7 appliance shows the boot mode. Standard is loaded by default.
This is the time where the installer applies the configuration values and also generates and initiates the self signed certificate. Before proceeding it is a good idea to check the values are correct as for example the certificate is based on these too. Also DNS resolution is fundamental especially when using the FQDN names.
Depending on the appliance allocated memory and performance it might take some time to start and allocate services in memory. So it might happen some of the administrations pages might not be readily available. A good and quick way to test the services, logs, commands and more is to visit the control panel accessible from a web browser. Default address is https://NetAppVSC_IP:9083. This is also a convenient way to quickly check the running version.
Next step is to register the NetApp VSC 9.7 appliance with VMware vCenter. This step is fundamental and is about registering the plugin which allows the communication between the vCenter and NetApp VSC. It requires the name or IP of the NetApp VSC, the vCenter and the vCenter credentials. In case of firewall between the vCenter and NetApp VSC, the default Network Port 443 should be open. Or a different one if configured.
As soon as the plugin registration is successful, the vCenter console shows a notification.
Likewise in the list of recent tasks it is possible to see also the action of accessing, downloading and installing the plugin files for the VMware Web Console.
Now browsing the Client Plug-Ins section in the VMware vCenter console it shows there as well with pertinent details.
At this point the NetApp VSC 9.7 setup is complete and ready for the next step about the configuration and adding storage to the VMware vSphere environment.
Add Comment