Installing a component from an OVF file

The instructions below provide examples of how to deploy a virtual instance of a BMC Real End User Experience component onto a VMware or Citrix platform by using an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) template file. An OVF template simplifies the installation by deploying the virtual machine resources according to the low, medium, or high traffic sizing considerations. For detailed instructions on how to deploy a VM, refer to the documentation for your hypervisor platform and management tool.

• • Before you begin
  • To deploy components on VMware
  • To deploy components on Citrix XenServer
  • Where to go from here

For information on deploying components onto a Linux KVM or Microsoft Hyper-V platform from an ISO image file, see, Installing-a-component-from-an-ISO-image-file.

Before you begin

After you have downloaded the installation files, unzip each distribution package and save its files to one of the following locations:

• A file system local to your virtualization environment
• A network server accessible to your virtualization environment

Real User Collector component

The OVF file for a Collector is preconfigured with the following network interfaces: a management port and a capture port.

• You must add the management port and the capture port to the appropriate virtual ports in your inventory. The management port requires a virtual network adapter.
• Each Collector instance can have as many as four capture ports. You must add a virtual network adapter for each capture port.
• Capture ports must have Promiscuous Mode/Accept enabled.

Real User Analyzer component

Before installing a Real User Analyzer instance, create the data disk. The OVF file for the Analyzer is not preconfigured with a storage disk. To store a large volume of data, you must configure a disk between 100 and 570 GB in size.  For storage requirements, see Storage requirements in the System requirements and Sizing-considerations.

To deploy components on VMware

1. Log on to the host via VMware vSphere Client software and select Deploy OVF template.
2. In the Source, select the OVF descriptor file and click Next. Choose the file that corresponds to the size of the component that you want to deploy. (For information on how to choose low, medium, or high traffic, see Sizing-considerations.) You can specify the path of a file storage location or the URL of a website, depending on where you saved the extracted content of the distribution package.
3. When you see the OVF template details, click Next.
4. Use the Deploy OVF Template wizard to select the host, datastore, disk format, and network on which to run the extension. For a Real User Collector instance, select the network interface for your management and capture ports. In the VMware vSphere Client or the VMware management console, the management network is listed first.
5. Confirm your selection and click Finish to proceed with the deployment.
6. After the deployment finishes, select the virtual machine from the tree, and click Power on the virtual machine.
7. In the Console tab, monitor the system boot. When you receive the System Information window in the tab, the deployment is complete.

1. Allocate resources to the component according to the level of performance that you want. (For guidance, see Deployment-architecture and Sizing-considerations.)

1. Set up the component instance. 
2.  If you are deploying the Aggregation Server,  Configure the Extended Reporting system, including the Aggregation Server.

To deploy components on Citrix XenServer

1. Start XenCenter and select File > Import.
2. In the Import Source, select of the OVF descriptor file and click Next. Navigate to the directory where you saved the extracted content of the distribution package and choose the file that corresponds to the size of the component that you want to deploy. (For information on how to choose low, medium, or high traffic, see Sizing-considerations.) 
3. Use the Import OVF/OVA package wizard to specify the host, datastore, disk format, and network on which to run the extension.
   
   • For a Real User Collector instance, select the network interface for your management and capture ports.
   • The Security section allows you to validate the checksum of the downloaded files, which is recommended.
   • You can skip the OS Fixup Settings and Transfer VM Settings, which are not applicable to this product.
4. Confirm your selection and click Finish to proceed with the deployment.
5. Click the Logs tab to monitor the import.
6. After the deployment finishes, power on the virtual machine.
7. Allocate resources to the component according to the level of performance that you want. (For guidance, see Deployment-architecture and Sizing-considerations.)

8.  To optimize network traffic capture for a Real User Collector instance, perform the following steps to properly capture traffic. 

   1. Log on to the XenServer hypervisor host with the Domain-0 account dom0.

   2. Do the following.

      To configure the	Issue the command	Instruction
      Network interface for promiscuous mode by setting the MAC aging time to 0	brctl setageing xenbr<n>  0	Replace n with the appropriate bridge index.
      Forwarding delay to 0	brctl setfd xenbr<n> 0	Replace n with the appropriate bridge index.
      Virtual capture interface TxQ len to 4096	ip link set vif<X>.<Y> txqlen 4096	Replace X and Y with the appropriate VIF indexes.
      Physical capture interface RxQ len to 4096	ethtool -G eth<n> rx 4096	Replace n with the appropriate interface index.
      Turn off Generic Receive Offload (GRO) on the virtual capture port	ethtool -K vif<X>.<Y> rx off	Replace X and Y with the appropriate interface indexes

    

9. Set up the component instance.  

Where to go from here

Setting-up-a-component-instance