Introduction

The VSM Hardware Appliance is a collector type that was offered in the past and is no longer available for new installations, however many customers still use existing Hardware Appliances.

The Hardware Appliance remains the property of and is managed by Virsae.


This section serves to detail configuration and log file collection steps for any Legacy Hardware Appliances.

Hardware Appliance Physical Installation

The VSM hardware appliance is a 19’’ rack mount 1 U server. The make and model changed from time to time and Ranged from IBM/Lenovo M3-6 servers to Lenovo SR250 series servers. 


All patches and security updates for the Hardware Appliances are rolled out from the Virsae Cloud Computing Service as part of subscribing to the VSM service.



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.

  1. Determine a suitable location for the appliance in a rack with suitable power and LAN connections
  2. Connect the appliance NIC 1 (labelled with a MAC address) to an Ethernet switch using a standard Cat 5 LAN cable
  3. Plug the power in
  4. Power on the appliance


The start-up time can be in the region of 1 to 2 minutes whilst a power-on self-test occurs.



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 directly 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 or standard Ethernet cable if the engineer's computer runs gigabit ethernet.
  • Engineer computer, e.g. a laptop with a browser.

Connecting Engineer's Computer To Appliance

The appliance has two built-in network cards. First, connect the ethernet cable to the engineer's computer.

Locate the Ethernet ports on the back of the appliance. Connect the ethernet cable to the NIC 2 Ethernet port labelled with http://169.254.95.254(WM)

If no label exists, use the Ethernet port furthest away from the VGA connector.


Web browser and VSM Appliance Configuration

On the engineer's 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 log on screen will appear:


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



Configuration of the appliance occurs through the Change IP Address and Setup Proxy options.

If proxy server configurations are needed, enter these first. This can be done using the Setup Proxy option (shown below).


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 the “Change IP Address” option.

The following web page is shown. Enter appropriate values for the fields displayed and submit the request to the appliance.


Click Submit.

The appliance is now configured.

Once the Change IP request is made to the appliance, the change may not be immediate.  Please allow a couple of minutes for this request to take effect.


Administration

To maintain secure access to the appliance, change the default password of the User account using the “Change User Password” option (shown below).

Testing Connectivity

Ping test

To check if the appliance has been successfully integrated into the customer’s network, a simple ping test is provided by the Ping Test option (shown below).


It is possible to test DNS functionality by using the ping service. Simply ping a URL instead of an IP address.


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.


To check the connectivity from the Virsae Cloud Computing Service end, login to the Virsae web portal and navigate to Service Desk> Equipment Locations. The Last Heartbeat Message will show a recent date and time.


Log Collection

Connect to the VSM appliance as detailed earlier in this section. Once you are logged into the VSM appliance web management console, click on the ‘Administration’ button and select ‘Windows Services’ from the dropdown box.


Expand the ‘Appliance Controller Client’ list by clicking on the + symbol:



The most recent log file will be at the bottom, click on the ‘open’ link to download and save the file for review:


Example log file below:





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