3 Activate the VSA
The HELIOS Virtual Server Appliance has been designed as a ready-to-deploy VM (Virtual Machine) image. This means no installation process is required, the image file just needs to be imported into the hypervisor (virtualization solution). The Virtual Server Appliance is supported on the following hypervisors:
VMware ESX 5 or newer (as part of VMware vCenter/vSphere or ESXi standalone)
Microsoft Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008 or newer
The following section describes how to import the appliance into the different hypervisors. By default, one system disk and one Ethernet network adapter are used. Customers can later add a second disk intended for the data volume group. As customers' needs may vary, the data disk image is not included.
- Note:
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Additional CPUs, memory, and network adapters can be added depending on the deployment requirements.
3.1 Virtualization platforms
The HELIOS Virtual Server Appliance is shipped in two distribution formats:
Standard OVF (Open Virtualization Format)
Exchange format which is compatible with several virtualization solutions. An OVF package consists of several files that contain configuration and disk image. HELIOS ships its Virtual Server Appliance software as an OVA file (Open Virtualization Archive = single-file format of the OVF package).VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)
Virtual hard disk image that can be used to create the virtual machine under Microsoft Hyper-V.
3.1.1 VMware ESX
VMware ESX supports the OVF/OVA standard.
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In the vCenter/vSphere client, select
Actions > Deploy OVF Template…(on ESX standalone, open the “New virtual machine” wizard from the “Host” menu, then selectDeploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA file).
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Choose the file “HELIOS VSA 3.0.ova” and follow the import dialog instructions.
3.1.2 Microsoft Hyper-V
Microsoft Hyper-V supports VHD disk images.
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Extract the file “HELIOS VSA 3.0 for Hyper-V.zip”.
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Copy the extracted file “HELIOS VSA.vhd” to the Windows machine that is running Hyper-V.
A good location to copy the image to is the default path for new virtual hard disks, which is “C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual hard disks” (on Hyper-V 2012) or “C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V\Virtual Hard Disks” (on Hyper-V 2008).
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Open the “Hyper-V Manager” program and start the “New Virtual Machine Wizard” (
Action > New > Virtual Machine).
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Choose e.g. “HELIOS VSA” as the name for the new virtual machine. In the next steps, assign virtual memory (a minimum of 1024 MB is recommended) and a network connection to your virtual machine.
- Note:
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If your server does not have a suitable virtual network yet, use the “Virtual Network Manager” to create one. See the Hyper-V documentation for details.
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In the “Connect Virtual Hard Disk” step, choose
Use an existing virtual hard diskand select the VHD image file prepared above. Then finish the wizard.
3.1.3 Other virtualization solutions
There are other virtualization solutions (VMware Workstation/Fusion, Oracle VirtualBox, etc.) that support the distribution formats listed above. While HELIOS Virtual Server Appliance will work on most hypervisors, there is only limited testing and support. Therefore these solutions can be used for tryout and testing but are not recommended for production environments.
Things to consider when using unsupported hypervisors:
Adding or removing virtual hard disks might not be recognized on-the-fly while the virtual machine is running. A reboot is then required to apply the new disk configuration.
Automatic hypervisor time synchronization might not work. However, an existing NTP server on the network can be used instead.
Shutdown or reboot via hypervisor tools might not work. Shutdown or reboot must then be triggered from inside the virtual machine after a log in.
3.2 Log in for the first time
After starting the Virtual Server Appliance you will be asked to enter your login name and password.
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Enter “root” as login name and “helios” as password.
- Important:
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It is strongly advised to change the password as soon as possible using Configuration Assistant!