Setting Up Virtual Appliances Using the VMware ESXi Host Web Client

If you are using a proxy, configure the proxy prior to doing the registration. Additionally, it is recommended that you configure the time zone and network time protocol (NTP Network Time Protocol. NTP is a protocol for synchronizing the clocks of computers over a network.) prior to registration if you plan on changing them.

To set up a virtual appliance using the VMware ESXi Host Web Client:

  1. Go to a web browser and enter the IP address for the VMware ESXi server.
  2. Press Enter. The VMware ESXi Welcome window appears.

  3. Click the Open the VMware Host Client link under Getting Started. The VMware ESXi Host Client Log In window appears.
  4. Log in to the VMware ESXi server.
  5. Click the Create/Register VM icon. The New virtual machine- Select creation type window appears.
  6. Select Deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA file for creation type.
  7. Click Next. The New virtual machine- Select OVF and VMDK files window appears.
  8. Enter the following:
    1. Enter a name for the virtual machine.
    2. Browse for the ova file and select it.

  9. Click Next. The New virtual machine - Select storage window appears.
  10. Select the datastore.

  11. Click Next. The New virtual machine - Deployment options window appears.
  12. Enter the following:

    You must assign a management network and optionally a data network to the virtual machine network adaptors. A virtual machine has network adaptors 1 through 4 to which you can assign the management network, data network, and SPAN networks. You must identify the network adaptor with the lowest MAC Media Access Control. A MAC address is a unique identifier assigned to network interfaces for communications on a network. address and assign the management network to this network adaptor. If you have a separate data network, the network adaptor with the second lowest MAC address must be assigned to the data network. You can assign the rest of the network adaptors to the SPAN networks.

    1. Select the Network mapping for mgmt1.
    2. Select the Network mappings for data1, data2, and data3.

    3. ClearPass ClearPass is an access management system for creating and enforcing policies across a network to all devices and applications. The ClearPass integrated platform includes applications such as Policy Manager, Guest, Onboard, OnGuard, Insight, Profile, QuickConnect, and so on. Device Insight supports one management network mapping and one data network mapping.

      HPE Aruba Networking IoT Operations supports one management network mapping and one data network mapping.

      Select the Disk provisioning option. Options are Thin or Thick. Thin appears by default.
    4. Click the Power on automatically check box to have the machine automatically power-on. This check box appears selected by default.

  13. Click Next. The New virtual machine - Additional settings window appears.

  14. Click Next. The New virtual machine - Ready to complete window appears to display the selections you made in the previous windows.

  15. Click Finish. The creation of the virtual machine is initiated. Under Recent tasks you can view the results of the new virtual machine tasks by monitoring the Result field status bar for each task. Wait until the Result field displays Completed successfully for each task. When this occurs, you have created the virtual machine.

  16. Select the new virtual machine that you created. In the upper region of the window and click the Console icon. The Collector CLI appears.
  17. Log in to the HPE Aruba Networking Central Data Collector for the first time using the following credentials:
    • localhost login= aruba
    • Password= aruba

    After logging for the first time, you have to change the password.

  18. To configure the newly created virtual appliance using the Collector CLI, do the following:
    1. Configure the hostname for the appliance, see Configuring Hostname.
    2. Configure the network interfaces for the appliance, see Configuring Network Interfaces.
    3. Configure the Domain Name System (DNS Domain Name System. A DNS server functions as a phone book for the intranet and Internet users. It converts human-readable computer host names into IP addresses and IP addresses into host names. It stores several records for a domain name such as an address 'A' record, name server (NS), and mail exchanger (MX) records. The Address 'A' record is the most important record that is stored in a DNS server, because it provides the required IP address for a network peripheral or element.) for the appliance, see Configuring DNS.
    4. Configure routes for the appliance, see Configuring Routes
    5. Test the connectivity of the appliance to the Cloud URL Uniform Resource Locator. URL is a global address used for locating web resources on the Internet., see Testing Aruba Cloud Reachability.
    6. Register the appliance, see Registering the Appliance.
    7. Test the connectivity of the appliance to the HPE Aruba Networking cloud, see Testing Aruba Cloud Reachability.
    8. Configure the proxy server, see Configuring Proxy Server.
    9. Change the time zone for the appliance, see Changing Time Zone.
    10. Configure the Network Time Protocol (NTP) server, see Configuring NTP Server.

For more information about the different command line options, see Using Command Line Interface Options.