To set up an air-gapped repository, your environment must have the prerequisites listed in this section.

General Prerequisites

  • DHCP service must be available inside the system for assigning a private IP address.
  • DNS service must be available for resolving FQDN names.
  • Proxy service must be available for routing network requests from the air-gapped repository to the Internet. In an air-gapped environment, only the air-gapped repository server can access the internet through the proxy service. The other components can only communicate within the isolated network.
    Note: If you are using the Activation Server for activating VMware Telco Cloud Automation hosts, ensure that you enable the ports 443 and 9443. Skip this step if you use the Standalone mode for activation. For information about activating your VMware Telco Cloud Automation appliance in the Standalone mode, see the Activating Your Appliances section of the VMware Telco Cloud Automation Deployment Guide.
  • A virtual machine with Photon OS 3.0 Rev 3 must be available for providing repository services in the air-gapped environment. Download the OVA template from here.
  • Air-gapped virtual machine hardware requirements:
    • CPU - 4
    • RAM - 8 GB
    • NIC - 1 or 2
    • Disk Space - A total of 200 GB. 100 GB for the guest operating system, Docker repository, and Harbor repository. 100 GB for the Photon repository.
  • For security reasons, some services running on the air-gapped repository require certificates. You can either create self-signed certificates or use commercial certificates directly.
  • You can set up the air-gapped server with both DHCP and static IP addresses. For more information, see the Preparing Your System section.
    Note: When setting up the air-gapped server, you must edit the virtual machine settings from vCenter Server. The default CD drive can display an error while saving the settings. If you face this issue, remove the CD drive from the virtual machine.
  • Open the communication ports. On an enterprise firewall, enable Internet access to your air-gapped server by opening the communication ports. For the air-gapped server to pull images from the Internet repositories, it requires HTTP port 80 and HTTPS port 443 to be opened.