Hardware Appliance Physical Installation
The VSM hardware appliance is a 19’’ rack mount 1 U server. The make and model change from time to time. Specifications for the current model are shown below:
Table 1 – Appliance Specifications
Item | Specification |
Model | IBM x3250 M4 |
CPU | Xeon 4C E3-1220 80W 3.1GHz/1333MHz |
RAM | 6GB |
HDD | 2 x 500GB Simple-Swap SATA II 7200RPM |
OS | Windows 2008R2 Core, Hyper-V |
Figure 1 – The VSM Hardware Appliance
The appliance needs to be rack mounted in an air-conditioned environment and requires only a single power and single LAN connection. The LAN connection needs to be configured as per VSM Connectivity requirements allowing access to both the Internet and all UC components being managed on the appropriate ports.
- Determine a suitable location for the appliance in a rack with suitable power and LAN connections
- Connect the appliance NIC 1 (labelled with a MAC address) to an Ethernet switch using a standard Cat 5 LAN cable
- Plug the power in
- Power on the appliance
Hardware Appliance Administration
Introduction
The VSM appliance runs virtualized services within the same hardware configuration. An initial setup for configuration is to set network details of the host machine. This configuration is performed by direct connecting the appliance maintenance port to the engineer’s computer. To perform this step the engineer will require:
- Physical access to the appliance
- Ethernet crossover cable
- Engineer computer e.g. laptop with browser
Connecting engineer computer to appliance
Appliance has two built in network cards. First connect the crossover cable to the engineer computer.
Locate the Ethernet ports on the back of the appliance. Connect the crossover cable to the NIC 2 Ethernet port labelled with http://169.254.95.254(WM)
Web browser and VSM appliance configuration
On the engineer computer, start-up the preferred web browser.
Enter into the address bar the address http://169.254.95.254 - this address should be labelled on the front of the appliance.
When a connection is established the following logon screen will appear:
Figure 2 – Hardware Appliance Logon
The default username/password is user/123.
Login to the appliance and a number of configuration settings are shown as part of the home page (see below)
- Administration
- Current Status
- Change IP Address
- Setup Proxy
- Ping Test
Figure 3 – Hardware Appliance Home
Configuration of the appliance occurs through the Change IP Address and Setup Proxy options.
If there is configuration for a proxy server, enter this first. This can be done using the Setup Proxy option (show below).
Figure 4 – Hardware Appliance Setup Proxy
Fill in the form to configure the use of Proxy then click Submit.
Next change the network adapter settings to match the customer’s network requirements. Select option “Change IP Address”.
The following web page is shown. Enter appropriate values for the fields displayed and submit the request to the appliance.
Figure 5 – Hardware Appliance Change IP Address
Click Submit
At this point the appliance is configured.
Administration
To maintain secure access to the appliance, please change the default password to the User account using the “Change User Password” option (shown below).
Figure 6 – Hardware Appliance Administration - Change Password
Testing Connectivity
Ping test
To establish if the appliance has been successfully integrated into the customer’s network, a simple ping test is provided in the Ping Test option (shown below).
Figure 7 – Hardware Appliance Ping Test
VSM Connectivity test
Finally, select Current Status to check the connection of the appliance to the Virsae Cloud Computing Service. If everything is correct the Connection Status will show as connected, and the Last VSM Heartbeat will show a recent date and time.
Figure 8 – Hardware Appliance Current Status
To check the connectivity from the Virsae Cloud Computing Service end, log in to the Virsae web portal and choose Equipment Locations from the Service Desk menu. The Last Heartbeat Message will show a recent date and time.
Figure 9 – VSM Web Portal Equipment Location