Deploying the OVF virtual machine- Locate the .ova installation file either on your Double-Take DVD or from the location where you downloaded it.
- Replication appliance—The installation file name for the replication appliance will be similar to dtav_ra_7.0.0.1124.0.ova, depending on the Double-Take version number.
- Controller appliance—The installation file name for the controller appliance will be similar to dtav_ca_7.0.0.1124.0.ova, depending on the Double-Take version number.
- If necessary, copy the .ova file to a location that is accessible from your vSphere client.
- From your vSphere client, select the root of your tree, select File, Deploy OVF Template, and specify the replication or controller appliance .ova file. Click Next to continue.
- Review the OVF template details and click Next to continue.
- Review the Vision Solutions license agreement. You must accept the license agreement by clicking Accept. Click Next to continue.
- Specify the name of the virtual machine. This is the name that will be displayed in vCenter.
- Specify the inventory location where you want to install the appliance. If this is your source replication appliance, this should be the same datacenter where your source ESXi host is located. If this is your target replication appliance, this should be the same datacenter where your target ESXi host is located.
- Click Next to continue.
- Select the ESXi host or cluster where you want to install the appliance. If this is your source replication appliance, this should be your source ESXi host. If this is your target replication appliance, this should be your target ESXi host. Click Next to continue.
- If desired, select the resource pool where you want to install the appliance. You will not have this option if you do not have resource pools. Click Next to continue.
- Select the datastore where you want to store the appliance files. Make sure the datastore has at least 16 GB of space available. Click Next to continue.
- Select the type of disk to create. The names you see displayed will be dependent on your vSphere client.
- Flat or Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed—This disk type allocates the full amount of the disk space immediately, but does not initialize the disk space to zero until it is needed.
- Thick or Thick Provision Eager Zeroed—This disk type allocates the full amount of the disk space immediately, initializing all of the allocated disk space to zero.
- Thin Provision—This disk type does not allocate the disk space until it is needed.
- Click Next to continue.
- If your selected ESXi host or cluster has multiple networks, map the network on the appliance to a network on your ESXi host, and click Next to continue.
-
- Root password—Set a password for the root login. If you do not make a change, the default password will be used. The default password is vision.
- Time zone setting—Select the virtual machine's time zone. The default setting is UTC.
- Hostname—Specify the hostname or full qualified domain name to assign to the virtual machine.
- Default gateway—Specify the virtual machine's default gateway.
- DNS server—Specify the virtual machine's DNS server.
- Network IP address—Specify the IP address to assign to the virtual machine. You must use an IPv4 address.
- Network subnet mask—Specify the subnet mask for the assigned IP address.
If you use DNS, you must have the appliances names and IP addresses in a forward lookup zone in DNS. Additionally, you must have the subnet the appliances will be using in a reverse lookup zone in DNS. If you are not using DNS, you must configure the hosts file on each controller appliance and replication appliance to include mappings for all other replication appliances, controller appliances, vCenters, and ESXi servers.
- Click Next to continue.
- Review the Deployment settings. If you want to make any changes, click Back. If not, enable the Power on after deployment option and click Finish.
- After the appliance deployment is complete, click Close.
Once you have installed your appliances, you will need to install the Double-Take Console. See Installing the Double-Take Console. After you have installed the console, you can add the appliances to the Double-Take Console and create associations between them. See Adding controller appliances and Adding replication appliances. Then you can create your agentless vSphere job to protect your virtual machines.
Once the appliance has been installed and configured, you should not need to access or use it. However, if you need to change any network settings, you can modify them using the Configure Network menu on the appliance or by using the web interface by going to https://ip_address:5480, where ip_address is the current IP address of the appliance. Keep in mind if you change the network settings using the web interface, you will lose your connection to that interface because it will still be using the original IP address.
The appliance menu runs as root, so make sure you take advantage of VMware security to restrict access to the appliance. See your VMware documentation for details on limiting access to the appliance's console.
