Virtual Appliance - ESX

To deploy the Plixer FlowPro virtual appliance for ESX environments, note the following system and proceed with the instructions that follow.

Note

The Plixer FlowPro virtual appliance for ESX is provided as an all-in-one OVF template to streamline the deployment process.

System Requirements

Component Minimum Specifications
RAM 4GB DDR3
Disk 20GB SATA drive
Processor 2.0 GHz Quad Core CPU
Operating System ESXi 5.5

Deploying the OVF Template

  1. After connecting to the ESX host via VMware vSphere or vCenter, select File > Deploy OVF Template.
  2. Select Deploy from File, navigate to the OVF Template, and click Next.
  3. Review the OVF template details and click Next.
  4. Provide a name for the virtual appliance and follow the deployment wizard that follows.
  5. Review the Virtual Settings and click Finish to complete importing the OVF Template.

Note

The virtual appliance is configured with 2 network adapters (mgmt and mon1), with mon1 already in promiscuous mode. By default, it will start listening for traffic on the default virtual network. A mirror port of a Virtual Distributed Switch or a mirror port using a physical NIC on the ESXi host will have to be configured if a different network needs to be monitored.

  1. Power on the Plixer FlowPro virtual machine.

  2. Navigate to the Console tab and log in using the username flowpro and password flowpro.

  3. After the machine performs a quick setup and reboots, log in again with the same credentials and enter the answers to the configuration questions that follow.

  4. After the Plixer FlowPro reboots to apply the new settings, log in with the new credentials entered during the previous step.

  5. Issue the edit license command to enter the license key.

  6. Paste the license key between the EOT markers after the label license= in the [Client] section of the plixer.ini file. The license key may span multiple lines.

  7. Press CTRL+X to save.

  8. The interface must be enabled for the Plixer FlowPro processes that will run on that interface using the enable command.

    For example, to activate Plixer FlowPro Defender montoring on mon1:

    enable defender mon1

    The commands to enable the other Plixer FlowPro processes on specific interfaces are:

    enable apm <interface> <apmMode>
    enable flowpro <interface>

Note

When adding additional monitoring interfaces to the virtual appliance, be sure to use the interface naming convention monX so that Plixer FlowPro recognizes them as monitoring interfaces (for example: mon1, mon2).

Upgrading the Virtual Machine Hardware Version

To upgrade the Virtual Machine hardware version:

  1. Shut down the virtual machine.
  2. Right-click on the virtual machine in vSphere (or vCenter) and select Upgrade Virtual Hardware.