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Deploy the ExtraHop Command Appliance with VMware

The ExtraHop Command appliance (ECA) is a virtual appliance that provides centralized management and reporting across multiple ExtraHop appliances distributed across data centers, branch offices, and the public cloud. For most large ExtraHop deployments, a dedicated ECA is the most efficient way to manage and report across the remote nodes.

The following procedures explain how to deploy an ExtraHop Command appliance with the vSphere client running on a Windows machine. You must have experience administering your VMware ESX and ESXi environments to complete these procedures.

Virtual machine requirements

You must have an existing installation of VMware ESX/ESXi server version 5.5 or later capable of hosting the Command virtual appliance. In addition, you need a vSphere client to deploy the OVF file and to manage the virtual machine.

The ECA is distributed as an OVA package that includes a preconfigured virtual machine (VM) with a 64-bit, Linux-based OS that is optimized to work with VMware ESX and ESXi version 5.5 and later.

The preconfigured virtual appliance has the following default settings:
  • 2 CPUs
  • 4 GB RAM
  • One 4 GB disk
  • One 40 GB disk
  • One bridged network interface
Note:You might need to adjust the preconfigured virtual appliance to scale to your environment. For more information, see the Performance guidelines section.

The following ESX/ESXi server hardware is required:

Processor
One Intel processing core with hyper-threading support, VT-x or AMD-V technology, and a processing speed of 2.5 GHz or higher
Memory
4 GB or higher
Disk
44 GB or higher
Network
One 1 Gbps Ethernet network port
Place in network
Near one of the managed ExtraHop appliances, but accessible on port 443 to all managed ExtraHop appliances

Performance guidelines

The following table provides guidelines that can help you optimize the performance of the Command appliance. These guidelines are minimum requirements that you might need to adjust based on the size and needs of your environment.

Scalability Connected ExtraHop Appliances 1-4 5-16 17-64 65 or more
Provisioning Requirements CPU Cores 2 4 8 16
RAM 4 GB 8 GB 16 GB 24 GB
Boot Disk 4 GB 4 GB 4 GB 4 GB
Datastore Disk 40 GB 48 GB 64 GB 80 GB
Disk Total 44 GB 52 GB 68 GB 84 GB

Deploy the Command appliance

Before you begin

If you have not already done so, download the ExtraHop Command appliance virtual machine package for VMware from the ExtraHop Customer Portal
  1. Start the VMware vSphere client and connect to your ESX server.
  2. Go to the File menu and select Deploy OVF Template.
  3. Follow the Virtual Machine wizard prompts to deploy the virtual machine. For most deployments, the default settings are sufficient.
    1. Browse to the location of the downloaded OVA file, select the file, and then click Next.
    2. Review and verify the OVF template details and click Next.
    3. Type the VM name and location. Give the VM a unique and specific name for the ESX Inventory and then click Next.
    4. For Disk Format, select Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed and then click Next.
    5. Map the OVF-configured network interface labels with the correct ESX-configured interface labels and then click Next.
    6. Verify the configuration, select the Power on after deployment checkbox, and then click Finish to begin the deployment.
      When the deployment is complete, you can see the unique name you assigned to the ExtraHop VM instance in the inventory tree for the ESX server to which it was deployed.
  4. The Command appliance contains a preconfigured bridged virtual interface with the network label, VM Network. If your ESX has a different interface label, you must reconfigure the network adapter on the Command virtual appliance before starting the appliance.
    1. Select the Summary tab.
    2. Click Edit Settings, select Network adapter 1, select the correct network label from the Network label drop-down list, and then click OK.
  5. Click the Command virtual appliance in the ESX Inventory and then select the Console tab.
  6. Click the console window and then press ENTER to display the login prompt.
  7. Log in with the shell user account and the password default.
  8. Run the show ipaddr command to display the IP address of the ECA.
    Note:If you need to manually configure an IP address, see the Configure a static IP address section.
  9. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to exit the window.

Configure a static IP address through the CLI

The ExtraHop appliance is delivered with DHCP enabled. If your network does not support DHCP, no IP address is acquired, and you must configure a static address manually.

  1. Establish a console connection to the ExtraHop appliance.
  2. At the login prompt, type shell and then press ENTER.
  3. At the password prompt, type default, and then press ENTER.
  4. To configure the static IP address, run the following commands:
    1. Enable privileged commands: 
      enable
    2. At the password prompt, type default, and then press ENTER.
    3. Enter configuration mode: 
      configure
    4. Enter the interface configuration mode: 
      interface
    5. Run the ip command and specify the IP address and DNS settings in the following format: ip ipaddr <ip_address> <netmask> <gateway> <dns_server>
      For example:
      ip ipaddr 10.10.2.14 255.255.0.0 10.10.1.253 10.10.1.254
    6. Leave the interface configuration section: 
      exit
    7. Save the running config file: 
      running_config save
    8. Type y and then press ENTER.

Post-deployment actions

After you configure an IP address for the Command appliance, log into the appliance with the following URL: https://<command_ip_address>. You will be prompted to accept a EULA and enter the product key to license the appliance.
Note:Log into the Web UI with the setup user account and type default for the password.
Published 2021-04-13 10:05