Virtual appliance - ESX

To deploy the Plixer Replicator virtual appliance for ESX environments, note the following system requirements and proceed with the instructions that follow:

Note

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

System requirements for ESX deployments:

  • RAM: 2 GB
  • Storage: 100 GB
  • Processor: 2 CPU, 2 cores, 2 GHz+
  • OS: ESX/ESXi5+
  • VMware Tools (to shut down the machine via the VMware vSphere client)

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 provided and click Finish to complete importing the OVF Template.
  6. Right-click on the Plixer Replicator virtual machine to boot it up.
  7. Navigate to the Console tab and log in with the username root and password replicator.
  8. 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.
  9. After the Plixer Replicator virtual appliance reboots to apply the new settings, log in with the new credentials entered during the previous step.
  10. Issue the license set command to enter the license key and press CTRL+X to save all current settings.

Once the license key has been entered, the Plixer Replicator virtual appliance will be ready for configuration.

Installing VMware Tools

The Plixer Replicator package includes a script to install VMware Tools, which is not installed by default.

To run the script:

  1. Right-click on the Plixer Replicator virtual machine in the VMware vSphere client and select Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools.
  2. Navigate to the Console tab of the Plixer Replicator virtual appliance and log in as the root user.
  3. Enter the following:
/home/replicator/conf/vmwareToolsInstall.sh

Note

VMware tools is not required for the Plixer Replicator virtual appliance’s core functionality, but there are certain advantages to installing the package. For more information, refer to the VMware Tools documentation.

Upgrading the virtual machine hardware version

The Plixer Replicator virtual appliance for ESX is built on virtual machine hardware version 7 to maintain backwards compatibility with ESXi 5 hypervisors.

To upgrade the hardware version:

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