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HiveManager NG Virtual Appliance QuickStart Guide

ExtremeCloud IQ Virtual Appliance QuickStart Guide

About this Guide

This guide describes how to install a IQ Virtual Appliance.

Introduction to IQ Virtual Appliance

The IQ Virtual Appliance is a VM (virtual machine) that you can download in an .ova (Open Virtual Appliance) file format and deploy on VMware ESXi hypervisor running on a physical device on your corporate network.

You also need to install VMware vSphere Client on your management system, and use it to access the ESXi host and IQ Virtual Appliance. Note that computers running Windows support vSphere Client.

Server Hardware Requirements

Although scalability depends on the number of devices, the number of clients per device, the number of applications that are accessed, and other factors, the values stated here provide sufficient performance margin to allow for additional devices in a typical deployment.

Low-Capacity Virtual Machine Recommendations

Recommended minimum hardware requirements for deploying a total of 500 APs or switches:

Low-capacity Virtual Machine Recommendations(up to 500 devices)
Xeon E3-1220 v5, 3.0GHz, 8MB cache or better CPU
4 CPU Cores, and 4 Threads
24 GB RAM
SSD (solid state drive)
300 GB of Storage Capacity

High-Capacity Virtual Machine Recommendations

The IQ Virtual Appliance OVA defaults to the high-capacity version.

Recommended minimum hardware requirements for deploying a total of 5000 APs or switches:

High-capacity Virtual Machine Recommendations(up to 5000 devices)
Xeon E5-2620 v4, 2.1GHz, 20MB cache or better CPU
8 CPU Cores, and 16 Threads
32 GB RAM
SSD (solid state drive)
300 GB of Storage Capacity
Note

Note

IQ Virtual Appliance does not support storage area networks (SAN).

ExtremeCloud IQ Virtual Appliance

The 64-bit IQ Virtual Appliance software is available for Extreme Networks customers on the Extreme Networks Support Portal. After you log in, navigate to Software Downloads > Current Software Releases to find the current version of IQ Virtual Appliance.

Log in and download the IQ Virtual Appliance OVA (Open Virtual Appliance) package to your local directory, and then follow the VMware documentation for instructions on how to import the .ova file to your virtual machine.

Installation Checklist

The FQDN (fully qualified domain name) is how the DNS server resolves the IQ Virtual Appliance address. After installation, you can use the management system to modify the IQ Virtual Appliance settings.

Before you begin, use the following checklist to make sure that you have all the items needed to complete your virtual appliance installation:

On initial setup, IQ Virtual Appliance is a DHCP client and requests an IP address from your DHCP server. You can change this address—and the other information below—later in the Management System (see ExtremeCloud IQ Virtual Appliance Management Console).

Deploy the ExtremeCloud IQ Virtual Appliance

The procedure for deploying the Hierarchical ExtremeCloud IQ Virtual Appliance is the same as in deploying the IQ Virtual Appliance.

Use the VMware vSphere Client to install the OVA package onto your virtual machine.

  1. Select Log in to your VMware vSphere Web Client, and then enter the ESXi host.

  1. Select File > Deploy OVF Template.

The Deploy OVF Template wizard launches and guides you through the following steps for deploying an OVF template or an OVA package.

  1. Source: Browse to the source location of your OVA package, verify that the path to your .ova file is correct, and then select Next.
  2. OVF Template Details: Verify that the OVF template details (OVA package) are correct. Make sure that the virtual disk format size is thick provisioned. Select Next.

  1. Name and Location: You can accept the current name or change the unique name of the .ova file, select a folder where the file will be located, and then select Next.

Accept or change the current datastore disk format and disk space in gigabytes, select the provisioning option, and then select Next.

Make sure you select a data store that is large enough for the virtual machine and all of its virtual disk files. You can also choose whether you want the storage to be thin provisioned or thick provisioned.

After you make your selection, select Next.

  1. Ready to complete. Confirm that your deployment settings are correct, select Power on after deployment to start the IQ Virtual Appliance after you have deployed the VM, and then select Finish. Monitor the progress of your OVF (OVA) deployment from the VMware vSphere task window located in the right panel.
  2. Set Static IP Address (Optional): To set up an IQ Virtual Appliance appliance with a static IP address, log in to the VMware console using the user name netcfg and the password aerohive, and then enter the following commands: network ip <ip_address>, network netmask <netmask>, and network gateway <default_gateway_address>
  3. To launch the IQ Virtual Appliance, enter the IP address from your Web browser. After the VM start-up process begins, a start-up message appears, after which the login prompt appears.
Note

Note

It might take up to 30 minutes for the ExtremeCloud IQ login prompt to appear, depending on the speed of the server. Please note that a progress bar is not displayed while the server is starting up.

Configuring the ExtremeCloud IQ Virtual Appliance

Log in to IQ Virtual Appliance through your Web browser using the following default credentials:

ExtremeCloud IQ: admin

Password: aerohive

Accessing the ExtremeCloud IQ Virtual Appliance GUI

After the IQ Virtual Appliance processes have started, you can proceed to the IQ Virtual Appliance four-step workflow that includes the following:

  1. Configuring Organization and User Information
  2. Configuring Password Setup
  3. Configuring Initial System Settings
  4. Choose a Configuration Activity

For detailed information about the above workflow, see Configuring the IQ Virtual Appliance online Help.

Use the procedure contained in the entitlement key email to install the entitlement key into ExtremeCloud IQ.

Upgrading ExtremeCloud IQ Virtual Appliance with Auto Check

You can either upgrade IQ Virtual Appliance manually (as described above) or use the Auto Check method which is on by default. When IQ Virtual Appliance uses the auto check method, the software checks for upgrades every night. When an upgrade is available, it is downloaded onto your virtual machine and a notice appears on the banner indicating a new release is available.

Note

Note

This upgrade method is available on software version 11.9.3.3 and later.

To upgrade with the auto check method, do the following:

  1. Navigate to Administration > System Settings > Upgrade HiveManager. Make sure that the Nightly check for Upgrade field (located at the top of the page) is set to ON. This is the default setting.
  2. Take a VMware vSphere client snapshot of your IQ Virtual Appliance. See the "Upgrading ExtremeCloud IQ Software" section on how to perform a snapshot.
  3. Select Upgrade. The upgrade takes approximately 30 minutes to complete.
  4. The notification is refreshed every 30 seconds. The virtual machine reboots automatically when the upgrade is complete. You will need to log in to IQ Virtual Appliance again.

Copyright © 2020 Extreme Networks. All rights reserved. Published March 2020.