Provision Service Point v4 using vCenter Server and ESXi - BlueCat Edge - Service Point v4.x.x

BlueCat Edge Deployment Guide
Locale
English
Product name
BlueCat Edge
Version
Service Point v4.x.x

This section gives detailed instructions for provisioning a Service Point v4 instance using vCenter Server and ESXi.

Prerequisites:

The following prerequisites must be met before you begin:
  • You must be running VMware ESXi v6.7
  • You have an operational vCenter Server
  • vCenter Server already has a datacenter
  • You have an operational ESXi deployment
  • vCenter Server and ESXi are able to contact each other
Downloading the Service Point v4 OVA image:
  1. Log in to the Edge Cloud Instance.
  2. In the top navigation bar, click and select Service Points (v4).
  3. Click on the Service Points (v4) page. The Download service point image window appears.

  4. From the Version menu, select the version of service point that you would like to deploy.
    Attention: Before selecting a service point version, ensure that the services that you are deploying to the service point are compatible with that version. For more information on compatibility, refer to Software support matrix.
    Note: If your Edge Cloud is deployed in an EU region, you can only provision Service Point v4.6.2 or greater.
  5. From the Images table, select name of the VMware image to download the Service Point v4 OVA image.
    Note: You can use the same OVA image to provision multiple Service Point v4 instances.
  6. Under SHA256 checksum, click to download the Service Point v4 OVA image checksum file or click to copy the image checksum value to your clipboard.
  7. Click Close to close the window.

Configuring Service Point v4 configuration details:

  1. To add a new Service Point v4 instance, click New on the Service points (v4) page.
  2. Under Setup, enter the following information:
    • Name: enter the name of the new service point.
    • Description: add a description. This is optional.
  3. Under Platform, select VMware from the drop-down menu.
  4. Under Network, enter the following information:
    • Enter the hostname of the service point.
    • Enter the IPv4 address of the service point in CIDR notation.
    • Enter the IPv4 address of the default gateway for the service point IP address.
      Attention: You must enter an IPv4 default gateway when configuring a service point.
    • (Optional) Enter the IPv6 address of the service point in CIDR notation.
    • (Optional) Enter the IPv6 address of the default gateway for the service point IP address.
      Note: If you are configuring an IPv6 address for the service point, you must also enter an IPv6 default gateway.
    • (Optional) Enter the IP addresses of any DNS servers that the service point will use. If you do not configure any DNS servers, the service point will use 8.8.8.8 as the default DNS server.
    • (Optional) Enter the IP address or FQDN of any NTP servers that the Service Point v4 VM will use. If you do not configure any NTP servers, the Service Point v4 VM will use the following default Debian NTP servers:
      • 0.debian.pool.ntp.org
      • 1.debian.pool.ntp.org
      • 2.debian.pool.ntp.org
      • 3.debian.pool.ntp.org
      Note: BlueCat recommends testing the connection between the service point and NTP servers for reachability, as some networks do not allow NTP traffic by default.
  5. Under Access, enter the following information:
    Note:
    • The SSH Public Key and VM Console Password fields are mandatory and must be filled out to provision the Service Point v4 VM.
    • The SSH Public Key and VM Console Password are applied to the operations user account.
    • SSH Public Key: Enter the SSH public key of the service point. You can use an existing key pair by entering the content of the public key in the field, or generate a new key pair and enter the content of the newly created public key in the field.

      This adds the public key to the .ssh directory of the Service Point v4 VM and allows you to SSH into the service point. Once you have provisioned the service point, you can access the service point using SSH and the associated private key to log into the operations user account.

    • VM Console Password: Enter the console password for the service point. The password must meet the following requirements:
      • It must contain lowercase characters.
      • It must contain uppercase characters.
      • It must contain numbers.
      • It must contain symbols.
      • It must not contain spaces.
      • It must contain at least 12 characters.
    • Confirm Password: Confirm the console password for the service point entered in the VM Console Password field.
  6. (Optional) Under HTTP Proxy, enter the following information:
    • Enter the hostname of the proxy that the Service Point v4 VM will use.
    • (Optional) Add the port number used to connect to the proxy server. By default, the value is 443.
    • (Optional) Enter the username and password that will be used to authenticate against the proxy server.
    Note:
    • Currently, HTTP is the only supported proxy type.
    • SOCKS proxy servers are not supported.
    • Basic authentication is supported.
    • The proxy server must be configured to allow HTTP POST traffic.
    • The proxy server must be able to resolve all BlueCat Edge Cloud addresses.
    • For proxy servers and firewalls that do SSL interception:
      • mTLS must exclude/except *.bluec.at.
      • You can't install certificates as a workaround.
    • The only tested and supported authorization is Basic authorization with username and password provided.
  7. Click Save and Download. A window appears where you can download the configuration file.
  8. Click VMware (.json) to download the configuration file.
Provisioning the Service Point v4 VM in vCenter:
  1. Log in to your vCenter UI instance.
  2. Navigate to the folder in which you would like to install the service point.
  3. Right click on the folder and select provision OVF Template.
  4. Complete the installation Wizard and create your virtual machine.
    Note:
    • It can take up to 10 minutes for the Service Point v4 OVA image to upload and for the VM to successfully provision.
    • Once the VM is provisioned, ensure that it is Powered Off before proceeding to modify the settings.
  5. Once the VM is provisioned, right click the VM instance name and select Edit Setting > VM Options > Advanced > Edit Configuration.
  6. Click Add Configuration Params.
  7. Add the following parameters:
    Name Value
    guestinfo.metadata <value of metadata field from the JSON configuration file>
    Note: The value of this field in the configuration file is already base64 encoded. Copy the value within the double quotes of the metadata field and paste it within the parameter value as is. The value must not include the double quotes (" ").
    guestinfo.userdata <value of userdata field from the JSON configuration file>
    Note: The value of this field in the configuration file is already base64 encoded. Copy the value within the double quotes of the userdata field and paste it within the parameter value as is. The value must not include the double quotes (" ").
    guestinfo.metadata.encoding gzip+base64
    guestinfo.userdata.encoding gzip+base64
  8. Press OK to save the settings.
  9. Power on the Service Point v4 VM.

Once the service point has powered on, you can verify the status of the service point by checking the details on the Service points (v4) page. The Status field on the service point details page displays Registered when the Service Point v4 VM has successfully connected to the Edge Cloud Instance.

Once you have provisioned the Service Point v4 VM, you can deploy DNS resolver service. For more information, refer to DNS resolver services.

Attention: You can use the Service Point v4 telemetry APIs to verify that the Service Point v4 VM has successfully registered. The registrationStatus field within the Service Point v4 telemetry API response returns a value of REGISTERED when the Service Point v4 VM has successfully registered with the BlueCat Edge Cloud. If the value is not REGISTERED, this may indicate that there is an issue with the service point provisioning and the service point may not operate as intended.

For more information on the Service Point v4 telemetry APIs, refer to Service Point v4 Telemetry APIs.