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VMware vSphere configuration

VMware vSphere configuration

General guidelines for all hypervisors

  • SSH access to OVA cluster nodes is not permitted for security purposes. Nodes are built on Ubuntu LTS.

  • Configure NTP time servers to UTC on all nodes.

General guidelines

Follow these steps to download, import, and deploy the OVA, then create VMs and configure the cluster.

Download the OVA

  1. Download the Apporto VM file from Step 1 of the installer. For VMware, download the .OVA image (other formats are available for different hypervisors).

  2. From the vSphere console, import the .OVA file as an OVF template. Alternatively, you can unzip the file and import the .VMDK disk image file.

    image-20250401-165848.png

     

    Both URL and local file options are provided onscreen. At this time, select the local file option to import the .OVA file. In the future, we may offer a public URL.

    image-20250401-165908.png

Import the OVA into vSphere

  1. Create a new VM in vSphere.

    image-20250401-165952.png

  2. Select the appropriate compute resource.

    image-20250401-170001.png

  3. Review and confirm the template details.

    image-20250401-170012.png

  4. Select the appropriate storage container.

    image-20250401-170021.png

  5. Select your destination network.

    image-20250401-170035.png

  6. Confirm all values, and click Finish to deploy the OVA.

    image-20250401-170044.png

 

Once uploaded, convert the OVA into a Template by right-clicking the VM and selecting Convert to Template.

  1. VMWare_Tempate.png

  2. Create VMs from the Template for all nodes:

    1. Right-click the template and select New VM from This Template.

    2. Supply a specific name for each node (e.g., Apporto-Control, Apporto-Worker1).

    3. Select the Datacenter/folder where the VM will reside.

    4. Select the storage location for VM placement.

    5. Adjust CPU and RAM as needed for each node type (Control vs. Worker).

    6. Select the network. DMZ placement is not required — standard network is sufficient.

    7. Review and click Finish to deploy.

    8. Repeat for all remaining nodes.

First boot and network configuration

  1. Once the VM has been created, view its details from your resource list.

    image-20250402-130841.png

  2. Power on the first VM for your controller/manager to access the Network Config screen. Update the network config values to accommodate the Apporto VM, including the control plane FQDN (your Apporto instance domain). Typical Production customers will have 4 nodes, where the first node is designated as the manager\control node and the remaining nodes will serve as workers. The image below shows sample values.

    image-20250530-202228.png

    1. Repeat the process for the additional nodes in your cluster.

      image-20250530-202531.png

    2. Click Save at the bottom of the screen.

  3. Open https://[your_manager_node] in a browser window. This will launch the On-Premises Cluster Management tool that was included with the Apporto VM file.

    Any nodes that are detected in your container will appear in the Node Discovery list.

image-20260803-105439.png

The nodes in this image show greater resources than the minimum requirements. See the Components section for information on those requirements.

Launch cluster management and create the cluster

Review the following:

Prerequisites for Cluster Install

  1. Select all nodes that you want to be connected to Apporto, then click Create Cluster to be transferred back to the Apporto NextGen control plane to continue cluster installation.