Installing the Double-Take replication or controller appliance

If you will be creating agentless vSphere jobs, you will need to install the Double-Take replication and controller appliances. See Agentless vSphere environment configuration for an overview of what appliances you need for your environment.

You have the choice of installing an OVF (Open Virtualization Format) pre-packaged virtual machine or installing the software on your own pre-formatted virtual machine.

Deploying the OVF virtual machine on vCenter

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.
Assign the virtual machine and network properties. If you are using DNS, make sure you are using the same IP address that you specified in DNS.
- 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. Make sure this is the same name that you specified in DNS.
- 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 Double-Take Availability on Windows using the installation wizard. After you have installed the console, you can add the appliances to the Double-Take Console and create associations between them. See Adding servers 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.

Deploying the OVF virtual machine on standalone ESXi

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 the inventory. 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.
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.
When the deployment is complete, power on the virtual machine.
After the boot process is complete, you will be prompted to 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.
After you enter and confirm the password, you will be prompted to set the time zone. The default setting is UTC.
When the boot process finishes, you will be at the appliance's main menu. Select Configure Network.
Select option 3 to specify the Hostname to assign to the virtual machine. Make sure this is the same name that you specified in DNS.
Set the network properties (options 2, 4, and 6) to assign the virtual machines default gateway, DNS server, IP address (IPv4) and the subnet mask.

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.
When your settings are complete, restart the appliance to apply the new settings.

Once the appliance has been installed and configured, you should not need to access or use it. However, if you need to make additional changes, you can use the options on the main menu or use 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.

Installing the appliance manually

Before you begin the manual appliance installation, you must have an existing VMware hosted virtual machine that meets the following requirements.

The virtual machine must be running Ubuntu 10.04.x AMD64 edition.
The virtual machine must have at least 4 GB of virtualized physical RAM.
The virtual machine must have at least two CPUS (two virtual sockets, not two virtual cores).
The virtual machine must have at least 16 GB of disk space available.
The virtual machine must have a valid, working network configuration. 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.
The virtual machine must be dedicated to Double-Take processing only. Do not use the virtual machine for any other activity (web server, database server, and so on).
Make sure you review the Agentless vSphere requirements for any other requirements not specifically defined here.

Locate and install the .deb installation file on your virtual machine. You can find the 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.deb, 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.deb, depending on the Double-Take version number.