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Step 6. Install and configure the Lenovo XClarity Administrator virtual appliance (Red Hat KVM)

Install the XClarity Administrator virtual appliance on the Red Hat KVM host, and configure Lenovo XClarity Administrator.

Before you begin

You must be logged in to Red Hat KVM as a user with root authority to install the virtual appliance.

Ensure that the virtual network virbr0 is configured before installing XClarity Administrator.

When connecting to Red Hat KVM console, you have a choice of connecting to serial or graphical console. To see and change the IP address during the startup of XClarity Administrator, you must be connected to the graphical console. To use the graphical console, click View > Text Consoles > Graphic Console VNC from the Virtual Machine Manager.

When installing Lenovo XClarity Administrator virtual appliance using the Red Hat KVM user interface, the video output might not display through the console, resulting in a black console screen when you powered the XClarity Administrator virtual machine instead of the virtual-machine banner with XClarity Administrator IP info. To see video output through the console, ensure that the video device is set to Cirrus by .opening the XClarity Administrator virtual hardware details screen and clicking Video in the left navigation. By default, the RedHat KVM user interface sets the video device to QXL.

Procedure

To install the XClarity Administrator virtual appliance, complete the following steps.

  1. Download the XClarity Administrator virtual-appliance image from the XClarity Administrator download webpage to a client workstation. Log on to the Web site, and then use the access key that was given to you to download the image.

    For Red Hat KVM, download the image in qcow2 format.

    Note
    Ensure that the client workstation is on the same network as the host.
  2. Install and configure the virtual appliance on the host.
    1. Download the XClarity Administrator virtual appliance image to a client workstation from the XClarity Administrator download webpage.

      Log in to the Web site, and then use the access key that was given to you to download the image.

      Note
      Ensure that the client workstation is on the same network as the host.
    2. Log in to the server.
    3. Copy the virtual disk image to the server.
    4. From the Virtual Machine Manager window, click QEMU/KVM, and then click New. The New VM dialog is displayed.
    5. Select Import existing disk image, and click Forward.
    6. Browse to the location where you copied the XClarity Administrator image. Select that image.
    7. Select Generic for the OS type and version.
    8. Click Forward.
    9. Select at least 8192 MB for the memory.
    10. Select at least 2 processors.
    11. Click Forward.
    12. Enter a name for the new virtual machine, such as XClarity Administrator.
    13. Select Customize configuration before install
    14. Expand Advanced options and configure the following settings:

      1. Specify virbr0 for the bridge name.

      2. Select kvm as the virtual type.

      3. Select x86_64 for the architecture.

    15. Click Finish. A customization dialog is displayed.
    16. Configure the second virtual network:

      1. Select Network in the menu.

      2. Select Bridge virbr1: Host device vnet2 for the network source.

      3. Specify the MAC accress for the second virtual network.

      4. Select Hypervisor default for the device model.

    17. If you are not using a DHCP server, mount the configuration ISO image:

      1. Select Storage in the left menu. The Storage page is displayed.

      2. Select Select managed or other existing storage, and select the ISO image that you created in step 1.

      3. Select VirtIO for the disk bus.

        Note
        For XClarity Administrator 1.4.0 and earlier, select IDE for the disk bus.

      4. Select None for the cache mode.

    18. Click Finish.

      When the virtual machine is started, the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are listed for each interface, as shown in the following example.

      The XClarity Administrator eth0 management port uses a DHCP IP address by default. At the end of the XClarity Administrator boot process, you can choose to set a static IP address for the eth0 management port by entering 1 when prompted, as shown in the example below. The prompt is available for 150 seconds, until the login prompt is displayed. To proceed to the login prompt without delay, enter x at the prompt.

      Important

      • When changing the static IP address settings, you have a maximum of 60 seconds to enter the new settings. Ensure that you have the required IP information before continuing.

        • For IPv4 settings, you must have the IP address, subnet mask, and gateway IP address

        • For IPv6 settings, you must have the IP address and prefix length

      • If you are not using a DHCP server, you can use a configuration file to specify the IP settings for the XClarity Administrator eth0 management port. that you want to use to access the XClarity Administrator. For more information, see the What to do next section below.

      • If you change the IP address settings from the console, XClarity Administrator is restarted to apply the new settings.

      • No action is required to log in. Ignore the console login message. The console interface is not for customer use.

      • You might see the message TCP: eth0: Driver has suspect GRO implementation, TCP performance may be compromised on the console. The performance of the virtual machine is not impacted, and you can ignore this warning.

      Attention
      Changing the IP address of the XClarity Administrator management port after managing devices might cause the devices to be placed in offline state in XClarity Administrator. If you choose to change the IP address after XClarity Administrator is up and running, ensure that all devices are unmanaged before changing the IP address.
      ------------------------------------------
      Lenovo XClarity Administrator  Version x.x.x
      ------------------------------------------

      eth0   flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500  metric 1
               inet 192.0.2.10  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.0.2.55
               inet6 2001:db8:56ff:fe80:bea3  prefixlen 64   scopeid 0x20<link>
               ether 00:15:5d:0c:d1:92    txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
               RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0

      eth1   flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500  metric 1
               inet 192.0.2.20  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.0.2.130
               inet6 2001:db8:56ff:fe80:bea3  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>

      ===========================================================================
      ===========================================================================

      You have 150 seconds to change IP settings. Enter one of the following:
        1. To set a static IP address for Lenovo XClarity virtual appliance eth0 port
        2. To use a DHCP address for Lenovo XClarity virtual appliance eth0 port
        x. To continue without changing IP settings
        ... ...

(Optional) Using a configuration file to set the IP settings

If you are not using a DHCP server, you can optionally use a configuration file to specify the IP settings that you want to use to access the XClarity Administrator web interface using the Eth0 network interface.

The configuration file (eth0_config) is contained in an ISO file that you create and mount to the virtual machine before XClarity Administrator is started for the first time. When XClarity Administrator starts the first time, it configures the IP address for the Eth0 network using the static IP address that is defined in the eth0_config file and displays the web interface to set up initially and configure the appropriate settings (see Configuring Lenovo XClarity Administrator).

Restriction: Only the Eth0 network can be configured using this method. Creating a configuration file named eth1_config does not configure the Eth1 network.

To use a configuration file, perform the following steps before powering on the virtual appliance

  1. Create a file named eth0_config (with no file extension) that contains the following IPv4 parameters that you want the virtual machine to use at startup.

    • IPV4_ADDR=
    • IPV4_NETMASK=
    • IPV4_GATEWAY=
    • IPV6_ADDR=
    • IPV6_GATEWAY=
    You can use the echo command to create the file, for example:
    ECHO IPV4_ADDR=1.1.1.1 > ./eth0_config
    ECHO IPV4_NETMASK=255.255.255.05 >> ./eth0_config
    ECHO IPV4_GATEWAY=1.1.1.5 >> ./eth0_config
    ECHO IPV6_ADDR=1001:1002:1003:1004::2 >> ./eth0_config
    ECHO IPV6_GATEWAY=1001:1002:1003:1004::1 >> ./eth0_config
    Note
    The IPV6_ADDR and IPV6_GATEWAY parameters are supported in XClarity Administrator v1.1.1 and later.

  2. Create an ISO image that contains the eth0_config file.

    To create an ISO image on Windows, use your favorite ISO software. On Linux, use the mkisofs command, for example:

    mkisofs -V IP4ADDR -J -o ./boot.iso ./eth0_config

    where -V is the volume label, -J is for Joliet format, -o is the output file name, and ./eth0_config is the file to be included in the ISO image.

  3. Upload the ISO image to a suitable location using the Datastore Browser.

  4. Mount the .ISO image to the virtual machine. The ISO file must reside in the datastore of the ESXi host so that it can be mounted as a CD/DVD drive on the XClarity Administrator virtual machine.

    1. Right click the virtual machine, and click Edit Settings.
    2. Click Add to display the Add Hardware wizard.
    3. Click CD/DVD Drive, and click Next.
    4. Select Use ISO image, and click Next.
    5. Select the ISO image, and click Next.
    6. Select the virtual device node, and click Next.
    7. Click Finish.
    Note
    You can unmount the drive and delete the ISO image after you log in to the XClarity Administrator web interface and finish configuring the appropriate settings.

After you finish

Log in and configure XClarity Administrator (see Accessing the Lenovo XClarity Administrator web interface for the first time and Configuring Lenovo XClarity Administrator).