Deploy vCloud Availability Installer Appliance

To upgrade to vCloud Availability 1.0.1, you must first install and configure the vCloud Availability Installer Appliance.

About this task

This procedure demonstrates how to deploy and configure a vCloud Availability Installer Appliance by using the VMware OVF Tool. Alternatively, you can use the vSphere Web Client to install the vCloud Availability Installer Appliance.

The vCloud Availability Installer Appliance is deployed as an OVA file and includes the following components:

vCloud Availability scripts for installation and maintenance operations
SLES 12 SP1 image to provide Docker container hosting

You run all installation and configuration commands from the vCloud Availability Installer Appliance, unless documentation instructs otherwise.

Installation and configuration procedures contain long, single commands that should be run as one. There are breaks for better visibility marked with backslash (\). The beginning of a new command is marked with the number sign (#).

Procedure

Download the vCloud Availability Installer Appliance.
1. In a Web browser, navigate to the download page.
2. Download the vcloud-availability-release_number-xxx-build_number_OVF10.ova file.
Define deployment variables.
The VSPHERE_LOCATOR value contains the target data center name, the tag host, the name of the target cluster, and the IP address or the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the target ESXi host. The VSPHERE_LOCATOR value depends on the topology of your vSphere environment. Following are examples for valid VSPHERE_LOCATOR values.
- /data-center-name/host/cluster-1-name/fully-qualified-domain-name
- /data-center-name/host/cluster-2-name/host-IP-address
If the target ESXi host is not part of a cluster, skip the cluster-name element, as shown in the following examples.
- /data-center-name/host/fully-qualified-domain-name
- /data-center-name/host/host-IP-address
The VSPHERE_DATASTORE value is the datastore name as it is displayed in the vSphere Web Client.

For more information about the VSPHERE_LOCATOR and VSPHERE_DATASTORE values, see Specifying the Inventory Path for a Cluster, Host, or Resource Pool in the OVF Tool User's Guide.
```
# OVA_VM_NAME=vcav-installer-name

# VSPHERE_LOCATOR="vsphere-locator"

# VSPHERE_DATASTORE="vsphere-datastore"

# VSPHERE_ADDRESS=vsphere-ip-address

# VSPHERE_USER=vsphere-admin-user

# VSPHERE_NETWORK="VM-Network"

# OVA=local_client_path/vcloud-availability-installer-appliance-1.0.1.1-xxx-build_number.ova

# ROOT_PASSWORD=vcloud-availability-installer-appliance-root-password
```
Deploy vCloud Availability Installer Appliance OVA.
Note:
Password authentication is the default method for deploying the vCloud Availability Installer Appliance. You can deploy the appliance using SSH key authentication by adding the "--prop:guestinfo.cis.appliance.root.sshkey=${SSH_KEY}" argument in the installation command. You also must have a valid SSH public key to deploy vCloud Availability Installer Appliance using SSH key authentication method.

The following is a long, single command that should be run as one. There are breaks for better visibility marked with backslash (\).
```
# ovftool \
--acceptAllEulas \
--skipManifestCheck \
--X:injectOvfEnv \
--allowExtraConfig \
--X:enableHiddenProperties \
--sourceType=OVA \
--allowAllExtraConfig \
--powerOn \
--X:waitForIp \
"--net:VM Network=${VSPHERE_NETWORK}" \
--diskMode=thin \
--datastore=${VSPHERE_DATASTORE} \
--name=${OVA_VM_NAME} \
--prop:guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.pnid=${OVA_VM_NAME} \
--prop:guestinfo.cis.appliance.ssh.enabled=True \
"--prop:guestinfo.cis.appliance.root.password=${ROOT_PASSWORD}" \
${OVA} \
"vi://${VSPHERE_USER}@${VSPHERE_ADDRESS}${VSPHERE_LOCATOR}"
```
The system prints the IP address of the vCloud Availability Installer Appliance. Write down the IP address, because you are going to use it during the installation.
Create an SSH connection to the vCloud Availability Installer Appliance.
```
# ssh root@vCloud-Availability-Installer-Appliance-IP-Address
```