Before setting up a NIOS virtual appliance as a Grid Master or Grid member, you must install the virtual appliance on the VMware platform. The instructions in this section assume that you have configured the server on your network and are able to connect to it from your management station. For information about configuring VMware products, refer to the VMware documentation. Infoblox recommends that you back up your existing configuration before deploying a NIOS virtual appliance.
Order your NIOS virtual appliances from your Infoblox representative.
If you plan to use Elastic Scaling for deployment, obtain dynamic licenses for the features you want to use. For information about Elastic Scaling, see the About Elastic Scaling section in the Infoblox NIOS Documentation.
If you have one or more NIOS VMs already running on your server under a temporary license(s), ensure that the temporary licenses have not expired before you establish a permanent license on each VM. Should any of the respective temporary licenses be expired, the process of applying a permanent license to the VM entails a complete reset of all data and settings in the VM to factory defaults. Prior backups from a VM with an expired temporary license remain valid and restored backups from a temporary-licensed VM will not override a newly installed permanent license.
To deploy a NIOS virtual appliance, log in to the vSphere client, connect to the ESX or ESXi server, and then complete the following:
Download the NIOS virtual machine image files from the Infoblox Support site.
Install the NIOS virtual or reporting virtual appliance as described in Installing the NIOS Virtual or Reporting Virtual Appliance.
If you are using Elastic Scaling for your deployment, log in to the NIOS GUI (Grid Manager) and do the following:
Create offline Grid members that you plan to join to the Grid.
Pre-provision these Grid members.
Generate a token for each member. Copy the certification and token strings and save it for later use. For detailed instructions on how to pre-provision a member and obtain a token, see the Infoblox NIOS Documentation.
Note that Elastic Scaling for the Grid Master and HA is not supported.
As you install and start each VM, use the
show hwidcommand to obtain the hardware ID number for the new VM; then record the hardware ID number for each VM.Download and Install the license or licenses for your NIOS virtual appliance or appliances as described in Obtaining and Installing Your VM Licenses.
Configure the NICs (Virtual Network Adapters) of the NIOS virtual appliance, as described in Configuring the Virtual NICs.
Register each of your virtual appliances through the Infoblox Support portal.