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Installing BMC Compact RDS - Single VM

This topic describes how to install BMC Compact RDS (Single VM), which consists of a production image that you deploy to a vCenter server.

Note

You use the Deploy OVF Template wizard in the vSphere client to manually deploy BMC Compact RDS.

Follow these procedures carefully, section by section in the order listed, to deploy BMC Compact RDS.

 

Before you begin

  • Ensure that you are already familiar with the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management solution in a product environment.
  • Ensure that you have obtained a BMC Remedy license key to use the BMC Remedy AR System server. 
  • If needed, review the VMware documentation about deploying OVF templates to a vCenter.

How long does it take to deploy BMC Compact RDS?

Deployment time varies by environment. Deploying over a LAN is much quicker than installing over a WAN. LAN deployments typically range from 30-50 minutes. The following deployment took 40 minutes in the San Jose lab. 
DeployOVFTemplate2.png

Deploying through a firewall or over a WAN definitely slows deployment.

Tip

Copy the entire cloudexpress folder and its contents to the local hard drive of your computer. Performance is significantly faster than deploying the OVF from the internet or a file server.

To check the availability of DHCP and DNS

In BMC Compact RDS, the integration uses the cloudexpress hostname. Before you deploy the OVF user, perform the following steps:

  1. Make required changes in the DNS (network setting) – either configure static IP or use DHCP if you have automatic DNS registration. After deployment, do not change the IP of the server if it is DHCP-enabled.

  2. Record all static IP addresses so that, as soon as the VM is started after deployment, you can allocate them.
    For example: 

    IP address

    Virtual host name

    123.45.67.890
    Note:     This is a dummy IP address. Replace it with the correct IP address in your environment.

    cloudexpress
    Note:     The cloudexpress host name is used only internally by the BMC Compact RDS products.

Note

To access the cloudexpress application URLs from a jump box or a laptop, update the host file with the IP address and hostname. For example:

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost

172.20.142.203 cloudexpress

Otherwise, you cannot establish a proper network connection to the BMC Remedy AR System server.

To deploy the OVF template to the vCenter

Note

  • Because BMC Compact RDS was designed for quick and easy deployment, do not change the cloudexpress host name when you deploy the OVF template. Changing the host name during deployment entails that you must make manual changes at the application level. Use cloudexpress (the OVF template name) as the host name. 
    Later, you can use change the host name in the vCenter with host name scripts that are supplied with the deployment. These scripts let you safely and easily change the host name; all the required application changes occur automatically.
  • Depending on your vCenter permissions, you might see wizard panels different from those displayed in the following steps.
  1. Log on to the vCenter with the vSphere client. 
  1. Click File > Deploy OVF Template, as shown in the following figure:
    resourcepool.png 
  2. From the Source pane, select the OVF template file from your local hard drive, and then click Next.
    For example: E:\CloudExpressRDS\cloudexpress\cloudpexpress.ovf
    DeployOVFTemplate.jpg 
  3. From the OVF Template Details pane, review the details—especially the size of the VM on the disk—and then select Next. 
    OVFTemplateDetails.jpg 
  4. From the Name and Location pane, ensure that the host name is the same name as the OVF template that you are deploying—for example, cloudexpress—and then click Next. 
    NameAndLocation.jpg 
  5. From the Host/Cluster pane, select the host on which to run the OVF deployment template, and then click Next. 
    HostCluster.jpg 
  6. From the Resource Pool panel, select the resource pool on which to deploy the template, and then click Next. 
    ResourcePool.jpg 
  7. From the Storage panel, select a destination storage with enough free space to run the OVF template, and then click Next. 
    Storage.jpg 
  8. From the Disk Format pane, select the format—for example, Thin Provision to allocate storage on demand as data is written to the virtual disks instead of immediately allocating all the storage—and then click Next. 
    DiskFormat.jpg 
  9. From the Ready to Complete pane, ensure that the deployment settings are correct before you deploy any template to its environment. 
    ReadyToComplete.jpg
    • OVF file – Location from which you copied the OVF file
    • Name – Easily identifiable name that appears in the vSphere client for the VM—for example, cloudexpress
    • Host/Cluster – Host or cluster to run the deployed OVF template
    • Resource Pool – Resource pool to run the OVF template
    • Datastore – Location of datastore to store the deployed OVF template
  10. Click Finish. 
  11. In the vSphere client, ensure that the cloudexpress OVF is correctly deployed in the vCenter. The cloudexpress OVF is displayed in the left navigation tree. 
    CloudExpressDeployed.jpg
    By default, the cloudexpress VM is not powered on. 
  12. After deploying the VM, ensure that the CPU and RAM fit the BMC recommendations.
  13. Power on the BMC Compact RDS.

To use the datastore browser to copy the image (optional)

You can use the Datastore Browser within the VMware vSphere Client to copy the cloudexpress image.

  1. Connect the vSphere client to the vCenter instance that is managing the target ESX host.
  2. In the vSphere client navigation bar, click Home > Inventory > Datastores.
    datastores.png 

  3. Right-click the datastore on which to place the VM image, and click Browse Datastore.

    Note

    You can spread the VM image across multiple datastores.

     

  4. Click Upload files to this datastore to upload the folder for cloudexpress image to the datastore. 
    uploadfiles.png 
  5. After the image is successfully uploaded, add the cloudexpress VM to Inventory.
     

To verify the timezone on the ESX host

You must verify the correct timezone on that ESX host that is used in the implementation. Mismatches in date and time can cause issues with BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management processes, such as AO workflow or AO service operations.

Where to go from here

Configuring-BMC-RDS-after-deployment

 

 

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