Provision Service Point v4 on BlueCat hardware appliances - BlueCat Edge - Service Point v4.x.x

BlueCat Edge User Guide

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

This section gives detailed instructions for provisioning Service Point v4 on a BlueCat hardware appliance.

When provisioning Service Point v4 on a BlueCat hardware appliance, the BlueCat hardware appliance is reimaged with the service point software and can only be used as a service point. During this process, the installation workflow is as follows::
  1. Download a Service Point v4 installation image from the Edge Cloud.
  2. Create a new Service Point v4 configuration from the Service Point (v4) page.
  3. Once you have saved the configuration, download the configuration file that will be used to apply the configuration details to the appliance.
  4. Use the installation image to reimage the hardware appliance, either through iDRAC or by using a bootable USB drive.
  5. Reboot the appliance with the configuration file mounted.

Upon the initial boot of the reimaged appliance, the appliance reads the configuration file and applies the configurations defined in the Edge Cloud to the service point. The service point then attempts to register with the Edge Cloud. After successfully registering with the Edge Cloud, you can then proceed to install services and apply additional configurations.

Warning: Provisioning Service Point v4 on a BlueCat hardware appliance repurposes the appliance as a service point only, removing all existing DNS and DHCP configurations from the appliance. Once you have provisioned the service point on the appliance, the appliance no longer contains the BlueCat DNS/DHCP Server software and cannot be taken under Address Manager control.
Prerequisites:
The following prerequisites must be met before you begin:
  • You must have one of the following BlueCat hardware appliance models:
    • XMB4
    • BDDS-25
    • BDDS-50
    • BDDS-75
    • BDDS-125
Downloading the Service Point v4 installation 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 Hardware image to download the Service Point v4 ISO image.
    Note: You can use the same ISO image to provision multiple Service Point v4.
  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, 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 Hardware 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 will use. If you do not configure any NTP servers, the Service Point v4 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.
    • 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 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 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 Hardware (.iso) to download the service point configuration file for the appliance.
You can install Service Point v4 using one of the following methods: