Download the VMware Blockchain OVA file and use the vSphere Client to deploy a VMware Blockchain Orchestrator virtual appliance.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Locate the VMware Blockchain OVA file on the VMware download portal.

    You can either copy the download URL or download the OVA file.

  2. In the vSphere Client, select the host or host cluster to install VMware Blockchain.
  3. Right-click and select Deploy OVA Template to start the installation wizard.
  4. Enter the download OVA URL or navigate to the OVA file and click Next.
  5. Enter a name and a location for the VMware Blockchain VM, and click Next.

    The VM name you enter appears in the vSphere and vCenter Server inventory.

  6. Assign the VMware Blockchain compute resource within the data center.
  7. Review and verify the OVA template details and click Next.
  8. Allocate a minimum of 2vCPU and 4 GB storage and 16 GB disk format and click Next.
  9. Accept the default network configuration settings for the source and destination network and click Next.
    Note:

    DHCP can be used if the appliance is deployed to network with a DHCP server. Reserve a DHCP IP address to keep the IP address static.

  10. Set a unique password for the VMware Blockchain user account.

    Your passwords must comply with the password strength restrictions.

    • At least 12 characters

    • At least one lower-case letter

    • At least one upper-case letter

    • At least one digit

    • At least one special character

    • At least five different characters

  11. (Optional) Configure the network properties and click Next.

    Option

    Description

    Host Name

    Enter the VMware Blockchain Orchestrator appliance host name.

    Note:

    Make sure that the appliance host name does not contain any underscores.

    The default host name localhost is assigned if you do not specify a host name.

    Network IP Address

    Enter the IPV4 interface address, which is the appliance static IP address.

    Note:

    After entering the network IP address, you must populate the network prefix, default IPV4 gateway, and domain name server information.

    DHCP IP address is designated when you leave this option blank.

    Network Prefix

    Enter the network prefix for the interface.

    The prefix range is between 0 and 24.

    Default IPV4 Gateway

    Enter the default IPV4 gateway for the interface.

    Domain Name Server

    Enter the IPV4 addresses for the domain name server.

    Each IP address must be separated by one space.
  12. Validate that your custom OVA specification is accurate, and click Finish to initiate the deployment.
  13. After successful deployment, you can power on the VM.
  14. Note the VM IP address of the newly deployed appliance.
  15. Connect to the Docker repositories.
    1. Create a VM that supports Docker in your vSphere environment.
    2. Verify that the vCenter Server has network connectivity to the newly created VM.
    3. Configure the VM Internet connectivity to access the public Docker repositories.
  16. Extract the vCenter Server public key for VMware Blockchain Orchestrator if vCenter Server does not have a CA certificate.

    The VMware Blockchain Orchestrator uses the vCenter Server public key to make API calls to the vCenter Server.

    1. Download the vCenter Server certificate ZIP file.

      wget --no-check-certificate https://<vCenter_URL>/certs/download.zip

      Substitute the <vCenter_URL> variable with your vCenter Server URL.

    2. Unzip the certificate file.

      unzip download.zip

    3. Locate the Linux certificate file in the lin directory.

      certs/lin/<certificate_file_with_0_as_extension>

      The Linux certificate file has a .0 as the extension.

    4. (Optional) For multiple certificate files with a .0 extension, collate the files into one file using the cat command.

      sudo cat ca034145.0 ca036789.0 ca067854.0 > certs.0

      The collated certificate file certs.0 can be used as a single certificate. For example, certs/lin/ca034145.0.

    5. Verify the certificate using the curl --cacert command.

      curl --cacert <certificate_file> https://<vCenter_URL>

    6. Convert the Linux certificate into a single line.

      awk 'NF {sub(/\r/, ""); printf "%s\\n",$0;}' certs/lin/<certificate_file>

    7. In the infrastructure descriptor file, add this single-line certificate output value for the tlsCertificateData attribute under the vCenter section.

What to do next

Configure the infrastructure and deployment descriptor files to deploy the VMware Blockchain nodes. See Configuring the Infrastructure Descriptor Parameters on vSphere, Configuring the Deployment Descriptor Parameters on vSphere, and Deploy VMware Blockchain Nodes Using VMware Blockchain Orchestrator on vSphere.

If you plan to use your private Docker container registry, you must download trusted VMware images. See Download Trusted VMware Images for Your Private Docker Container Registry for vSphere.