2.1 Virtual Appliance

2.1.1 System Requirements - Virtual Appliance

Virtualization platform

The appliance is installed using an OVF (Open Virtualization Format) file and therefore requires a virtualization platform that supports OVF, such as VMWare ESXi.

NOTE:The appliance is not supported in public cloud environments.

Minimum CPU and memory requirements

Each virtual appliance VM requires:

  • 8 CPU Cores

  • 16 GB RAM

  • 100 GB disk space (SSD)

Fast storage

To ensure optimal performance and reliability, the use of a solid-state drive (SSD) or other fast storage solutions is required. Not using SSD based storage may lead to inconsistent behaviors and errors.

Fixed IP address

A fixed, non-changing IP address is required for each node. DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is supported but the IP must be reserved and cannot change.

Network ports

The following ports must be exposed and available between all nodes.

Port

Purpose

6443

Kubernetes API Server

8472

Virtual LAN

10250

Kubernetes metrics

2379-2380

etcd

The following port must be exposed internally for administrator access.

Port

Purpose

9443

Appliance Administration Console

The following ports must be exposed for outside access:

Port

Purpose

443

Product access

3000

Security Proxy Server*

8001

AJP**

* The Security Proxy port use is optional.

** The AJP port is used when optionally integrated with Microsoft's IIS web server.

Supported web browsers

The following web browsers are supported:

  • Google Chrome (recommended)

  • Mozilla Firefox (recommended)

  • Microsoft Edge

Other Reflection for the Web requirements

Check the requirements for the Reflection for the Web clients and SDK.

Terminal session (client)

When clients are centrally managed by MSS, only Windows is supported.

An MSI file (Windows only) is provided to install the RWeb Launcher on Windows workstations, from which the RWeb client is launched.

NOTE:You will use the MSS Assigned Sessions list and the Reflection for the Web Launcher to launch Reflection for the Web sessions.

RWeb SDK

The RWeb SDK is supported on any platform.

2.1.2 Installing the Appliance

NOTE:A license entitlement file (activation file) is required to install products in the appliance and is available from the product Downloads site. Make sure you download the current version of the activation file for your product.

Installation steps

To install the appliance, be sure the System Requirements are met before you proceed.

  1. Download and unzip the Appliance ZIP file.

    The ZIP file contains the files necessary to install the appliance. All files must reside in the same directory during deployment.

  2. Gather the necessary information from your network administrator.

    If using a Static IP Address, gather the following:

    • Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)

    • IP

    • Netmask

    • Gateway

    • DNS Server

    If using DHCP IP Address (With a fixed IP):

    • Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)

  3. Import the OVF file into your virtualization system to create a new appliance template. Create a new VM instance from the new template.

  4. Start the VM. Read and accept the license file.

  5. Start to configure the appliance by specifying a password for the root user on the appliance.

  6. Click Next to configure the hostname and network options.

    • Specify a fully qualified DNS hostname for the appliance; then select whether to use a Static IP address or DHCP. Click Next.

    • If you use a static IP address, you must specify the IP address assigned to your virtual machine, the netmask, the gateway, and DNS server(s).

    • If you are using DHCP, the IP address must be fixed; it cannot change over time.

  7. Click Next and wait for the initialization to complete.

    During initialization, progress messages appear on a console screen. Initialization will take 5-15 minutes. Once a login prompt is displayed, initialization is complete.

  8. After a login prompt displays, access the appliance console by using the supplied URL. For example: https://:9443.

Accessing the appliance console

The appliance console provides a comprehensive set of capabilities, including configuring clusters, adding/removing programs, system configuration, and support and maintenance tasks.

  • The Appliance Console is accessed on port 9443, for example: https://hostname:9443

  • The root account is used to access the console by default. Use the password specified during appliance configuration.

  • Log in to the console and browse around to explore the different options and capabilities.

Installing Reflection for the Web into the appliance

A license entitlement file (activation file) is required to install products in the appliance.

  1. Download the current version of the activation file for each product from the Downloads site (where you downloaded this appliance).

  2. Log in to the appliance console using the root account at https://hostname:9443.

  3. Register your appliance and apply updates.

  4. Click Products.

  5. Click Choose Files and browse to the activation files for the products you want to install.

    NOTE:At least one activation file for a product, such as RWeb, must be included in the selection.

  6. Click Install.

  7. Next step: After you install Reflection for the Web and create your cluster, you can migrate the data from your legacy installation. After your legacy data is migrated, you are ready to configure your cluster.

While it may take several minutes for your product to start up and become accessible, you can monitor the cluster status in the appliance console Cluster view. Proceed when the status is Ready.

Next step:

After you install Reflection for the Web, it’s time to Configure your Cluster.

2.1.3 Update the Virtual Appliance

What’s required for updates?

  • An activation key for update channel registration.

  • Each node in the cluster must be in a ready state before you attempt to upgrade.

Registering the appliance for software updates

To receive online updates, which reduce the overhead of managing security patches and bug fixes, first register the appliance.

  1. Log in to the Appliance Administration console using the root account at https://hostname:9443.

  2. Click Online Update.

  3. The Registration dialog should display. If not, click Register.

  4. Select Micro Focus Customer Center as the service type.

  5. Specify the following information about the account for this appliance:

    • Email address of the account in Customer Center.

    • Activation key. To obtain the key:

    1. Log in to Software Licenses and Downloads (SLD) portal.

    2. Click the Activations tab.

    3. Locate your product.

    4. Click Download <Appliance Update Channel Activation Key.txt>

    5. Open the file to view the activation key.

  6. Select an option to share information with Open Text:

    • Hardware profile

    • Optional information

  7. Click Register.

  8. Wait while the appliance registers with the service; then click OK.

    You can now view a list of the needed and installed updates. You can use manual or automatic options to update the appliance.

Manage appliance software updates

Software updates are delivered through two mechanisms in the appliance:

  • Online Update: Delivers regular security patches to the OS and installed products.

  • Upgrade: Delivers more significant upgrades to the OS and installed products.

NOTE:

  • To supervise system changes, we recommend manually updating your appliance and not using the automatic scheduling feature.

  • Both Online Updates and Upgrades occasionally require rebooting the appliance. A "Reboot Needed" option is displayed in the upper right corner of the Appliance Administration console when this is called for.

  • Some product updates involve an OS upgrade. This ensures the availability of OS security updates. In this case, both the Online Update and Upgrade tools are used when updating.

Preparing to update

  • Be prepared to supply the email address and activation key that were used during initial registration.

  • To ensure easy recovery in case of errors, take a snapshot of the current configuration before updating.

CAUTION:During the update process, the cluster will be unavailable for end users. Plan your maintenance window accordingly.

Installing updates and upgrades

To update your appliance, first ensure all nodes in the deployment are in a Ready state by clicking Cluster in the Appliance Administration console. Then perform these steps.

  1. On each node in the cluster, update one node at a time by repeating the following steps:

    1. In the Appliance Administration console, click Online Update.

    2. Click Update Now to install the updates.

    3. After the updates are installed, click Close.

    4. If the Upgrade button shows a badge indicating an Upgrade is available, click Upgrade.

      • Click Start. Then review the license.

      • Register using the same email address and activation key as used during initial registration.

      • Click OK on the Update Now dialog. Wait while the upgrade is performed.

    5. Click Reboot. After reboot finishes, in the Appliance Administration console click Cluster. Under Cluster Status, wait until the updated node shows a STATUS of Ready. It can take up to 15 minutes for the node to become Ready.

      NOTE:Throughout the cluster update process, it is normal to see warnings and errors in the lower sections of the Cluster view. These will clear once the entire update process is complete.

    6. Click Online Update again to check for and install any new updates that are available. If updates were installed and a reboot was required, wait for the node to show `Ready` again in the Cluster View.

    7. Move on to the next node in the cluster.

  2. Once all of the nodes in the cluster have been updated, enable SSH on any node in the cluster.

    1. In the Appliance Administration console, click System Services.

    2. Click SSH.

    3. Click Action > Start.

  3. On a node in the cluster that has SSH enabled, ssh into the appliance shell (command line interface) as the root user and run: cspctl cluster scale

  4. In the Appliance Administration console, click Cluster.

    Wait for the cluster to return to a healthy state with all nodes showing Ready. This process can take up to 15 minutes.

Using the Subscription Management Tool (SMT) to manage appliance updates

You can use the Micro Focus Subscription Management Tool (SMT), version 2.0, to provide HACloud appliance updates on SLES 15 SP4 or OpenSUSE Leap 15 SP5 platforms.

  • Learn about SMT

  • Installing the SMT server

  • Creating a certificate

    SMT 2.0 does not automatically create TLS certificates to be used by Apache. You can create certificates manually before configuring SMT.

    For example:

    openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout /etc/ssl/servercerts/serverkey.pem -out /etc/ssl/servercerts/servercert.pem -sha256 -days 3650 -nodes -subj "/C=US/ST=WA/L=Tacoma/O=OpenText/OU=CompanySectionName/CN=sles15.microfocus.com"

    Replace CN with your own value.

After successfully installing the SMT server locally and creating the certificates:

  1. In the Appliance Console, click Online Update.

  2. Select Local SMT as the service type.

  3. Specify the fully-qualified SMT hostname, such as smt11.microfocus.com.