Deploy to Google Cloud Platform - BlueCat Edge - Service Point v3.x.x

BlueCat Edge User Guide

Locale
English
Product name
BlueCat Edge
Version
Service Point v3.x.x

This section gives detailed instructions for deploying a BlueCat Edge service point to Google Cloud Platform.

Prerequisites

To launch virtual appliances using the Google Cloud Platform interface, you must have a valid Google Cloud account, and a valid license from BlueCat. You should also be familiar with Google Cloud-related settings and DNS/DHCP Server operations.
Note: BlueCat Edge for Google Cloud is a Bring Your Own License (BYOL) solution. The Google Marketplace deploys this solution, but you are responsible for purchasing and managing the license directly from BlueCat. A valid client ID and license key are required to successfully deploy a VM using this solution. Contact your BlueCat sales representative with your GCP email ID(s) to obtain your client ID and license key.
Attention: BlueCat recommends connecting to your Google Cloud using a VPN connection when working in a mixed environment where part of your DNS, DHCP, and IPAM (DDI) infrastructure is on-site and part of it is on the Google Cloud.

Enabling SSH for service points deployed to Google Cloud Platform

You must set project-wide SSH keys before deploying the service point to Google Cloud Platform. You must perform these steps to complete the service point deployment process. For more information, click here.

Deploying a service point in Google Cloud Platform
  1. Navigate to the Google Cloud Platform Marketplace.
  2. Click Explore Marketplace.
  3. Enter BlueCat in the Search for solutions search bar.
  4. Click Launch on Compute Engine to launch BlueCat Edge Proxy Service for Google Cloud. The deployment page opens.
  5. Download the service point configuration file for Google Cloud Platform.
  6. Specify a Name for your instance. See Resource naming convention.
  7. Change the Zone for this instance. Compute Engine randomizes the list of zones within each region to encourage use across multiple zones.
  8. Select a Machine configuration for your instance.
  9. Click Create button to create and start the instance.

Attaching the BlueCat Edge configuration file to the virtual machine

In the commands that follow:
  • {config-file-name} is the name of the service point configuration file that you downloaded from BlueCat Edge.
  • {server-ip} is the IP of the service point you want to configure.
  • {core@server-ip} is the core user account in the service point.
  • {private key} is the name and location of the private key file.
Type the following commands:
scp -i <private key> <config-file-name> core@<server-ip>:~/
ssh -i <private key> core@<server-ip>

base64 --decode <config-file-name> > cloudconfig.yml

sudo coreos-cloudinit --from-file ~/cloudconfig.yml

sudo systemctl restart startup-service.service
Attention: The configuration file is only valid for 48 hours. If you deploy a service point on GCP more than 48 hours after the initial configuration file was downloaded, you must download a new configuration file to use during the deployment.

It may take a few minutes for the service point to begin to resolve queries.

Attention: Once you have deployed a service point, use the service point diagnostics API to verify that the service point has successfully registered. The registrationStatus field within the service point diagnostics API response returns a value of SUCCESSFUL when the service point has successfully registered with the BlueCat Edge Cloud. If the value is not SUCCESSFUL, this may indicate that there is an issue with the service point deployment and the service point may not operate as intended.

For more information on the service point diagnostics API, refer to Service point diagnostics API.