2.4 Deploying the Appliance

Whether you are deploying CloudAccess or MobileAccess, the appliance is an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) virtual appliance. You must deploy the appliance to your VMware or Hyper-V server.

The appliance must obtain an IP address through DHCP or have an assigned static IP address. NetIQ provides two different OVF files for each appliance, to accommodate DHCP and non-DHCP environments:

  • DHCP environment: Use the *.ovf file for environments that have a DHCP server.

  • Non-DHCP environment: Use the *-vcenter.ovf file for environments that do not have a DHCP server and need to use a static IP address.

To deploy the appliance in a VMware environment:

  1. Download the appropriate file from the NetIQ Downloads web page.

  2. (Conditional) If you are using Windows, extract the VMware image to access the available OVF file.

  3. (Conditional) If you are using Linux, use the following command to extract the image:

    tar -zxvf vmware_image.tar.gz
    
  4. (Conditional) If you have a DHCP server in your environment, deploy the *.ovf file to a specific ESXi host. For more information, see the VMware documentation.

  5. (Conditional) If you do not have a DHCP server in your environment:

    1. Deploy the *-vcenter.ovf file to a VMware vCenter Server, using either the command line tool ovftool or the VMware vSphere client.

    2. Configure the appliance properties, ensuring that you change the use_dhcp property to false. Other required properties include the static IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, DNS server, and NTP server name.

      HINT:If you deploy the appliance using the ovftool, you can configure the appliance properties from the command line and auto-start the VM so you do not have to use the vSphere client to configure the properties before starting the VM.

  6. Power on the appliance, then proceed to Section 2.6, Initializing the Appliance.

    The initial boot configures the appliance. This process could take between five and twenty minutes to complete. When the appliance is ready, it displays a welcome message with the initialization URL https://appliance_ip_address/appliance/Init.html.

NOTE:Whether you have a MobileAccess-only license or a full CloudAccess license, you need to install only one virtual appliance to access all features. The CloudAccess appliance includes all MobileAccess features.