ExtremeCloud IQ Multi-VM Virtual Appliance QuickStart Guide

About this Guide

This guide describes the installation of Hierarchical ExtremeCloud IQ virtual appliance; a solution designed for large-scale deployments of many thousands of devices controlled and managed by your organization. The solution runs on multiple VMs (virtual machines), and is supported by ExtremeCloud IQ.

Extreme Networks also supports a smaller capacity solution on a single VM that can manage up to 2,000 devices. For more details, see HiveManager NG Virtual Appliance QuickStart Guide.

Before you can install Hierarchical ExtremeCloud IQ virtual appliance, you must first install VMware vCenter 6.0 or later. This application is required to configure your IP address, DNS, and host name for your virtual appliance.

In addition, you must download, in an .ova (Open Virtual Appliance) file format, a basic image package from Extreme Networks, and deploy the VMware ESXi hypervisor running on a physical device on your corporate network. Also, you must install VMware vSphere Client on your management system in order to access vCenter and the Hierarchical ExtremeCloud IQ virtual appliance.

Features

• Hierarchical ExtremeCloud IQ Virtual Appliance System Management
• VMware vSphere, vCenter client
• Hadoop Cluster Managed by Cloudera

Hardware and Software Requirements

This deployment procedure assumes that you have already installed VMware vCenter 6.0 or later on hardware that meets the minimum requirements below.

Note

Use the vSphere Essentials Kit which includes vCenter Server Essentials. You can obtain it by visiting the VMware web store: http://store.vmware.com. Screen shots appearing in this topic reflect the vCenter 5.5 hypervisor.

Software Requirements

• VMware vSphere Suite:

  vCenter 6.0 or later

  ESXi Server

  vSphere Client

• Cloudera Manager
• Six virtual machine OVA (Open Virtual Appliance) image files (IDM cluster is optional):
  1. pc-system-manager-signed.ova
  2. pc-core-signed.ova
  3. pc-load-balancer-signed.ova
  4. pc-messaging-signed.ova
  5. pc-cache-signed.ova
  6. pc-db-signed.ova
  7. pc-idm-signed.ova

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

High-Capacity Virtual Machine Recommendations

The OVA defaults to the high-capacity version.

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

Recommended Server Hardware

Although scalability depends on the number of devices, the number of clients per devices, 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.

Recommended minimum hardware requirements for deploying up to 20,000 APs and switches:

Recommended dedicated physical hosts: two or more for better load balancing and high availability.

Installation Checklist

The FQDN (fully qualified domain name) is how the DNS server resolves the IQ Virtual Appliance address. The DNS server and FQDN are specified in the OVA package. After installation, you can use vCenter to modify the IQ Virtual Appliance settings through vApp Options.

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

	Items	Notes
	.ova file	Download the files from the link provided
	Network Setup for your OVA deployment
	IP address defined for the ExtremeCloud IQ Virtual Machine
	IP address of the default gateway
	FQDN (fully qualified domain name)
	IP address for the DNS server
	Domain name or IP address of an SMTP server

Deploy Virtual Machines to vCenter

The system is grouped into eight clusters plus the hadoop cluster managed by Cloudera Manager. Each of the eight clusters requires at least one virtual machine. Extreme Networks recommends that each cluster contains a minimum of two virtual machines, except for the load balancer cluster. The OVA Deployment Plan below provides an example deployment scenario.

OVA Deployment Plan

The tables below show an example deployment plan. In this scenario, you plan on deploying two virtual machines in each of the clusters except for one virtual machine for the load balancer cluster.

OVA Summary

The specific number of required OVAs are listed below.

Deploying the Hierarchical ExtremeCloud IQ Virtual Appliance in vCenter

Login to the VMware vCenter Single Sign-On page. vCenter is required to configure your IP address, DNS, and host name for your virtual appliance. The Hierarchical ExtremeCloud IQ virtual appliance consists of multiple VMs (virtual machines) that you can download in an .ova (Open Virtual Appliance) file format and deploy on VMware ESXi hypervisor. You also need to install VMware vSphere Client on your management system, and use it to access the vCenter and the Hierarchical ExtremeCloud IQ virtual appliance.

Use the VMware vSphere Web Client to install the Hierarchical ExtremeCloud IQ virtual appliance onto your virtual machines. The process is similar to that of deploying the IQ Virtual Appliance. The main task is to use the .ova files provided by Extreme Networks to set up and deploy the OVF Template in vCenter.

Note

You deploy an OVF (Open Virtualization Format) template from an OVA (Open Virtual Appliance) directory copied from the Customer Support Portal. An OVF template is a distribution package of several files contained in a single directory that comprises an XML descriptor, metadata, and other information for the OVF package. This directory is distributed as an OVA package that contains the OVF directory within a .tar archive file. An .ova file contains a virtual machine that is prepackaged and ready for deployment.

To view more details on the initial set up and OVF template deployment, select HiveManager NG Virtual Appliance QuickStart Guide.

Hierarchical ExtremeCloud IQ Virtual Appliance System Organization

The following list describes the OVA files that must be deployed using VMware vSphere Web Client. Each node has a corresponding IP address that is visible on the Summary page of the vSphere Web Client console. You must first deploy the system manager, or pc-system-manager.ova to vCenter. After you have deployed this first image, enable the virtual machine. After the virtual machine starts, continue to deploy the remaining OVA images.

Note

The clusters do not need to be set up in sequence. For example, you can start at the top of the table and set up the Load Balancer first, or you can start at the bottom of the table and set up Rdb.

1. System Manager and Web UI: pc-system-manager-signed.ova (or alternatively, "pc-controller-signed.ova".
2. Front End: pc-core-signed.ova
3. Load Balancer: pc-load-balancer-signed.ova
4. Back End: pc-core-signed.ova
5. Messaging: pc-messaging-signed.ova
6. Cache: pc-cache-signed.ova
7. Rdb: pc-db-signed.ova
8. IDM: pc-idm-signed.ova (Optional)

Configuring the HiveManager Multi-VM Virtual Appliance

VMware provides detailed steps that describe how to deploy OVAs to vCenter.

Enter the IP address associated with each node as displayed on the vSphere web client page. The first OVA you must install is the System Manager and Web UI. In the screen capture below, the OVA name is, "haitian-pc-controller-gigned-0".

Note

Alternatively, "pc-system-manager-signed.ova".

1. In the vSphere Web Client console, view the IP address for the controller (or system manager) in the Summary tab.

1. Enter the IP address of the controller (system manager) in a web browser, and enter your credentials to view the Hierarchical ExtremeCloud IQ Virtual Appliance System Console login screen. After you login, the My System page appears. The remaining clusters and nodes in "My System" can then be set up, one-by-one on the dashboard.

Note

You can change the default password after you log in. At the top right of the My System page, select Change password. After you enter the information, select Save.

 

1. Initially, the system has empty nodes. The following steps show you how to add the proper nodes to each cluster.

1. To add a node to a specific cluster, select Add Node. In the dialog box, enter the IP Address, the optional Label description, and then select Save.

Note

If you inadvertently added a wrong node, you can remove it and then add it to the correct cluster. To remove the node from a cluster, select the cluster title, and then select Action. After the dialog box appears, select Remove.

1. Starting from the top of the OVA Deployment Plan table, continue to add nodes to each of the ExtremeCloud IQ clusters. Add the Load Balancer node. Enter the IP address of the Load Balancer, "pc-load-balancer-signed-0", in the IP address field, and then select Save.

Note

You must wait for up to a minute before the node is added. Once the dialog box disappears, you can continue with adding each subsequent node in the same way.

After the Load Balancer node is added, you can see the IP address that you entered appear beneath the Load Balancer title. Continue to add nodes to the appropriate cluster until you have completed this process.

Note

As you hover your cursor over each of the vertical segments (representing system components), you can see a brief description where previously, there was none. This means that the components are communicating properly. Each of the nodes can be added by copying the IP addresses from their corresponding .ova images.

1. Next, add the Front End node by navigating to "pc-core-signed-0". Copy the IP address in the Summary tab page in vSphere, to the IP address field in the dialog box. Select Save after you are done.

Continue with adding nodes in sequence. For the Front End, copy the IP addresses corresponding to pc-core-signed-0 and pc-core-signed-1. Continue adding nodes until you are finished with Rdb. For Hadoop, enter the Hostname, User name and Password. This is the last node to add.

1. Navigate to the System page, and then select Start System. The message, "System starting...", then appears meaning that system components are being started. After all the components have successfully started and ready, the component icons become green in color. The System status also turns green and displays, GOOD.

Note

It might take up to 60 minutes for all the components added in My System to be ready, depending on the speed of the server.

Configuring the Hierarchical ExtremeCloud IQ Virtual Appliance

Once the system components are set up and running normally; indicated by the color green on the individual components, and the System status displays: GOOD, you can configure ExtremeCloud IQ. Simply use the IP address of the Load Balancer and enter your login credentials to set up your account.

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

Accessing the Hierarchical ExtremeCloud IQ Virtual Appliance GUI

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

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

1. After you are done, you can deploy devices in ExtremeCloud IQ. Click Manage > Devices to start.