This section provides a list of prerequisites required for deploying the VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance.

Prerequisites for Deploying VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance

Following requirements have to be met before deploying VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance:
  • For deployment host:
    • A Linux x86/64bit host with Docker installed.
    • This machine must have connectivity to:
      • The public internet to download the VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance package from VMware Customer Connect.
      • The Kubernetes cluster.
      • The Container Registry.
    • Verify that you meet the Deployment Container prerequisites for the deployment host.
    • The deployment user home partition must be a minimum of 40 GB.
  • If using Harbor, create a project named tcx. This project must be used to store VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance artifacts.
  • If you are deploying VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance on VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, verify that you meet the VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid specific prerequisites.
  • If you are deploying VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance on AKS, verify that you meet the AKS specific prerequisites.
  • If you are deploying VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance through VMware Telco Cloud Automation, verify that you meet the VMware Telco Cloud Automation specific prerequisites.

Prerequisites for Setting up Deployment Container

  • Familiarity with Linux and Docker commands is required.
  • Any Linux based platform which has the Docker installed, preferably RHEL and CentOS.
    • Allocate 40 GB of hard disk space for storing VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance files.
    • To download the VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance tar.gz file and the Deployment Container, verify that the host has internet access.
    • Verify that the host time zone, date, and time settings correspond to the zone where VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance is installed. For example, in AKS, it must match the East-US and West-US time zones.
    • Verify that NTP service is configured on the deployment host.
  • Install Docker on the deployment host. Make sure you use Docker version 20.10.14 or later.
  • Ensure that your deployment host is authenticated with your Container Registry. Run the following command on your deployment host and type in the credentials to your registry.
    docker login <harbor-registry-fqdn>
    Note: Make sure that DNS is enabled for the Harbor FQDN.

    After you login to the Docker, it prompts you for the registry username and password. Ensure that you enter the Harbor or ACR registry username and password so that you do not have to update registry username and password in deploy.settings file.

    Note: Verify that the config.json file is present on your host. Typically, the config.json must be under ~/.docker. If not, then use the following command to create the file: 
    Create an empty config file
$ mkdir -p ~/.docker
$ echo {} > ~/.docker/config.json

    After the config.json file is created, you must perform Docker login.

  • Verify that your Kubernetes clusters <config> is copied to the $HOME/.kube/<config> directory on your deployment host.

Prerequisites for Deploying VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance on VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid

  • Deployment files provided by VMware Customer Connect from where you can download the deployer package and Deployment Container.
  • Harbor must be deployed and a project must be created in the Harbor with a public access.
  • Ensure that you have <config> for deploying VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance in VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid workload cluster. For more information, see Obtaining KUBECONFIG File from VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Workload Cluster.
  • Verify that you have VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid workload cluster with available vsphere-sc storage class. For example, vSAN.
  • Kubernetes workload cluster virtual IP must be noted post deployment of workload cluster. Use the virtual IP when updating deploy.settings file.
  • The recommended registry for VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid is Harbor.

Prerequisites for Deploying VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance on Azure

  • To deploy VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance, configure AKS cluster.
    • If deploying AKS cluster in a private network:
      • Create an Azure Virtual Network (VNet) on AKS with required IP address. For private AKS cluster creation, see Create a private AKS cluster.
        Note: For AKS, the recommended network plug-in is Kubenet. While creating AKS cluster, use --pod-cidr option to ensure that pods get the private IP addresses. The --pod-cidr option must be provided with the private IP address specifying /16 subnet.

        Public Network: A Kubernetes cluster deployed in a public network using a cloud provider like AKS or EKS is reachable through the public internet. Deploying VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance on such a cluster indicates that it can be accessed from any location with internet connectivity. Public IPs provided can be created using the cloud provider to access VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance.

        Private Network: A Kubernetes cluster deployed in a private network using a cloud provider like AKS or EKS is reachable only within that network. Deploying VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance in such a cluster means it can be accessed only from a machine that is already in that network. The actual IP address used to access VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance needs to be in the same private network.

      • Configure the firewall for communicating between IP addresses in a subnet.
      • Verify that all configured networking resources in Azure, such as VNet, subnet, and Route Table are available in the same resource group as the Kubernetes cluster.
      • Verify that there is connectivity between the network to provide access to external clients or devices that are not part of the same network.
      • By having the ports open, verify that the Kubernetes cluster is sending outward traffic. For more information on the list of open ports, see AKS Global Network Rules.
        Note:
        • The VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance and the Domain Manager (IP, SAM, and ESM) deployment is tested when the VNet, subnet, and Route table are provided and configured to ensure connectivity to the on-premises test infrastructure.
        • You can also deploy the VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance and Domain Manager without the VNet, subnet, and Route Table. AKS provides a default for the same. Verify that there is connectivity between VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance and Domain Manager and the infrastructure that monitor VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance and Domain Manager.
  • Ensure you run a docker login to the Azure Container Registry (ACR) before invoking the installer.
  • Create an ACR instance in the same region and resource group as the AKS cluster.

Prerequisites for Deploying VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance on AWS

  • To deploy VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance on AWS, configure EKS cluster.
  • For private network:
    • Install Amazon EBS CSI driver for EKS 1.23.x or later versions. For more information, see Amazon EBS CSI Driver documentation.
    • The recommended network plug-in is Amazon VPC CNI. For more information, see
    • Ensure that AWS loadbalancer is deployed. For more information, see Installing the AWS Load Balancer documentation.
    • Make sure that you create two subnet IDs for the VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance deployment.
  • Verify that AWS credentials and configuration file with profile information and access key are present in the deployment host at ~/.aws/config and ~/.aws/credentials.

Prerequisites for Deploying VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance through VMware Telco Cloud Automation

  • Perform the common prerequisites tasks specified for deploying VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance.
  • A VMware Telco Cloud Automation cluster and supported VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid template images for VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid version.
  • Harbor must be deployed and a project must be created in the Harbor with a public or private access.
  • A secure Harbor registry that is registered as a partner system with the VMware Telco Cloud Automation setup.
    Note: Chartmuseum package must be installed in the Harbor setup.
  • A VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid workload cluster that is configured with the VMware Telco Cloud Automation setup and connected to the secure Harbor registry.