Installing IBM Spectrum Protect Plus as a VMware virtual appliance

To install IBM Spectrum Protect Plus in a VMware environment, deploy an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) template. Deploying an OVF template creates a virtual appliance containing the application on a VMware host such as an ESXi server.

Before you begin

Important: Beginning with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus 10.1.6, the hostname for the OVA deployment must not use a name that includes an underscore ( _ ).
Complete the following tasks:
  • Review the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus system requirements in Component requirements and Hypervisor (Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware) and cloud instance (Amazon EC2) backup and restore requirements.
  • Download the virtual appliance template installation file <part_number>.ova from Passport Advantage® Online. For information about downloading files, see technote 6487159.
  • Verify the MD5 checksum of the downloaded template installation file. Ensure that the generated checksum matches the one provided in the MD5 Checksum file, which is part of the software download.
  • During deployment, you will be prompted to enter network properties from the VMware user interface. You can enter a static IP address configuration, or leave all fields blank to use a DHCP configuration.
  • To reassign a static IP address after deployment, you can use the NetworkManager Text User Interface (nmtui) tool. For more information, see Assigning a static IP address.
Note the following considerations:
  • You might need to configure an IP address pool that is associated with the VM network where you plan to deploy IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. Correct configuration of the IP address pool includes the setup of IP address range (if used), netmask, gateway, DNS search string, and a DNS server IP address.
  • If IBM Spectrum Protect Plus will be used to protect Amazon EC2 workloads, the specified hostname must consist of only lowercase, alphanumeric characters.
  • If the hostname of the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus appliance changes after deployment, either through user intervention or if a new IP address is acquired through DNS, the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus appliance must be restarted.
  • A default gateway must be configured properly before deployment. Multiple DNS strings are supported, and must be separated by commas without the use of spaces.
  • For later versions of vSphere, the vSphere Web Client might be required to deploy IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliances.
  • IBM Spectrum Protect Plus has not been tested for IPv6 environments.
Note: Both the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliance and the vSnap server are closed systems and anti-virus (AV) installation is not supported on virtual or physical deployments.

Procedure

To install IBM Spectrum Protect Plus as a virtual appliance, complete the following steps:

  1. Deploy IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. Using either the vSphere Client (HTML5) or the vSphere Web Client (FLEX), from the Actions menu, click Deploy OVF Template.
  2. Specify the location of the <part_number>.ova file and select it. Click Next.
  3. Provide a meaningful name for the template, which becomes the name of your virtual machine. Identify an appropriate location to deploy the virtual machine. Click Next.
  4. Select an appropriate destination to compute resource. Click Next.
  5. Review the template details.
    Important: If you are using the vSphere Web Client (FLEX), verify that disk.enableUUID = true presents in Extra Configuration. If that is not the case or if you are using the vSphere Client (HTML5), proceed with the installation steps and enable this option from the vSphere Web Client at a later time.

    When deploying IBM Spectrum Protect Plus in a VMware vCenter 7.0 environment or later, you might receive a warning stating that the certificate is not trusted. The certificate that is supplied with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is valid. Click Ignore to close the warning in the vCenter OVA UI wizard when you deploy IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.

    If you prefer that your VMware vCenter fully validate the OVA certificate, download the chain and certificate authority (CA) certificates used for the signing of the OVA and install these in the vCenter. You must extract the chain and root certificates directly from DigiCert. The DigiCert Assured ID Root CA certificate and the DigiCert SHA2 Extended Validation Server CA certificate can be used to validate the OVA code signed image. Download the DigiCert Assured ID Root CA certificate at https://cacerts.digicert.com/DigiCertAssuredIDRootCA.crt.pem and the DigitCert SHA2 Extended Validation Server CA certificate at https://cacerts.digicert.com/DigiCertSHA2ExtendedValidationServerCA.crt.pem.

    1. Download each certificate in Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) format.
    2. Log in to the vCenter using the VMware administrator account.
    3. Navigate to Administration > Certificate Management.
    4. Locate Trusted Root Certificates and click the Add link to add the two downloaded certificates.

    After the two certificates are added, you can import the OVA without having to click Ignore in the UI.

    Click Next.

  6. Read and accept the End User License Agreement. Check I accept all license agreements for vSphere Client or click Accept for vSphere Web Client. Click Next.
  7. Select the storage to which the virtual appliance is to be installed. The datastore of this storage must be configured with the destination host. The virtual appliance configuration file and the virtual disk files will be stored in it. Ensure the storage is large enough to accommodate the virtual appliance including the virtual disk files associated with it. Select a disk format of the virtual disks. Thick provisioning allows for better performance of the virtual appliance. Thin provisioning uses less disk space at the expense of performance. Click Next.
  8. Select networks for the deployed template to use. Several available networks on the ESXi server might be available by clicking Destination Network. Select a destination network that allows you to define the appropriate IP address allocation for the virtual machine deployment. Click Next.
  9. Enter the property values for the virtual appliance: Hostname, DNS, Default Gateway, Domain, Network IP Address and Network Prefix. A static IP address can be provided. If left blank, a dynamic IP address assigned by a DHCP server will be used. The network prefix must be entered using Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation where valid values are 1 - 24. Click Next.
    Note: These properties can be configured using the NetworkManager Text User Interface (nmtui) tool. Additionally, information for the Search Domain field can be added using this command. For more information, see Assigning a static IP address.
  10. Review your template settings. Click Finish to exit the wizard and to start deployment of the OVF template.
  11. After the OVF template is deployed, power on your newly created VM. You can power on the VM from the vSphere Client.
    Important: Wait several minutes for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus to initialize completely.

What to do next

Once the virtual appliance has been deployed, complete the following actions:

Action How to
Connect to the console of the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliance by using VMware Remote Console or SSH. Set up network configurations using the NetworkManager Text User Interface (nmtui). See Assigning a static IP address.
Upload the product key. See Uploading the product key.
Start IBM Spectrum Protect Plus from a supported web browser. See Start IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.