2.2 Deploying the Appliance and Configuring the Virtual Environment

Use the instructions in this section to prepare your VMware host server for the appliance. Before you begin, ensure that you understand the Section 1.2, Appliance Requirements.

  1. On the VMware host server, deploy the appliance:

    1. In the vSphere client, click File > Deploy OVF Template.

      If the virtualization software you are using does not support .ovf, you must convert the .ovf file to .vmx using the VMware OVF Tool available on the VMware Website.

    2. Browse to and select the .ovf file in the PlateSpinTM-version file folder, then click Next.

    3. Review the settings, then click Next.

    4. In the Name field, rename the appliance to a name of your choosing, then click Next.

    5. Select the datastore (Hard Disk 1, the Boot partition) where you want to store the virtual machine files, then click Next.

    6. Review the default disk format setting, then click Next to accept it.

    7. Click Finish.

  2. Create a separate VMware hard disk (Hard Disk 2) for the appliance.

    This hard disk stores your PlateSpin Transformation Manager files. It also stores configuration files that are used for appliance upgrade.

    1. In the vSphere client, right-click the virtual machine that you just created and for which you want to create secondary storage, then click Edit Settings to open the Virtual Machine Properties page.

    2. On the Hardware tab, click Add.

    3. On the Add Hardware dialog, select Hard Disk, then click Next.

    4. Select Create a new virtual disk, then click Next.

    5. In the Capacity section, specify the amount of hard disk space that you want to allocate.

    6. In the Disk Provisioning section, select either of the following disk formats, depending on the VMware version that you are running:

      • Thick Provision Eager Zeroed

      • Support clustering features such as Fault Tolerance

    7. In the Location section, select Specify a datastore or datastore cluster, then click Browse.

    8. Select a datastore, then click OK.

    9. Click Next.

    10. In the Virtual Device Node section, select SCSI (1:0) from the drop-down list.

      NOTE:Do not change the controller to VMware Paravirtual at this point of the installation process. You can optionally modify this setting as a post-installation task. See Section 2.5.2, Change the SCSI Controller to VMware Paravirtual SCSI for Hard Disk 2.

    11. In the Mode section, select Independent and Persistent, then click Next.

      These settings allow the appliance to be updated.

    12. Click Finish.

  3. Increase the amount of memory that VMware allocates for the appliance.

    1. In the Virtual Machine Properties window, select Memory, then increase the setting to a suitable size for your environment.

    2. Click OK to exit the Virtual Machine Properties window.

  4. (Optional) Upgrade the virtual machine hardware version to the latest that your infrastructure can support. To do so, in the vSphere client, right-click the virtual machine that you just created, and for which you want to upgrade the hardware, then click Upgrade Virtual Hardware.

  5. Power on the appliance (virtual machine).

  6. (Optional) Install VMware Tools on the host server.

  7. Continue with Section 2.3, Configuring the Appliance.