Before setting up a NIOS virtual appliance as a Grid member, you must deploy the virtual appliance in your Red Hat OpenShift environment. For information about Red Hat OpenShift, see the OpenShift Container Platform documentation.

Information about deploying a vNIOS on Red Hat OpenShift instance and steps to deploy it are described in the following sections:

Prerequisites

Complete the following prerequisites before deploying vNIOS for Red Hat OpenShift:

• Set up additional interfaces on the bare metal worker node to enable bridged networking for virtual machines. 

• Set up bridges and network attachment definitions for MGMT and LAN1 interfaces on the Red Hat OpenShift server for a standalone deployment. If you are configuring a HA configuration, set up another bridge and network attachment definition for the HA interface.

• Use the following versions of software:

  • OpenShift Container Platform 4.12.13

  • OpenShift Virtualization 4.12.3

Downloading the NIOS Virtual Image from the Infoblox Support Site

You must download the qcow2 image file from the Infoblox Support site for the vNIOS for Red Hat OpenShift virtual appliance model, and then proceed to deploy the image in the Red Hat OpenShift environment. To download, complete the following steps:

1. Log in to the Infoblox Support site.

2. On the Downloads tab, complete the following steps to download the image:

   1. Infoblox Software: Select NIOS/vNIOS.

   2. Select release type: Select the release type as General maintenance products with full engineering support for routine patches and bug fixes on all significant issues.

   3. Select version: Select the vNIOS version.

   4. vNIOS for Red Hat OpenShift section: Download the qcow2 image of vNIOS for Red Hat OpenShift.

Deploying the NIOS Virtual Image on Red Hat OpenShift

You can deploy a virtual machine instance by using a preconfigured YAML file or from the catalog option that is available in the Red Hat OpenShift web console UI.

Deploy Using a YAML File

You can type or paste a preconfigured YAML file to deploy a virtual machine instance in the Red Hat OpenShift environment.

To deploy a virtual machine, complete the following steps:

1. Log in to the RedHat OpenShift Container Platform web console.

2. In the left navigation panel, click Virtualization -> VirtualMachines.

3. On the VirtualMachines page, click Create and choose With YAML.

4. Either type or paste the virtual machine configuration in the YAML editor. For information about the supported vNIOS appliances and their specifications, see About Infoblox vNIOS for Red Hat OpenShift.
   You may copy the content in the sample YAML file and customize the settings described in the Key parameters to configure a virtual machine table.

5. Click Create.
   Wait for the status to show as Running before accessing the virtual machine.

6. From the Console tab, you can access the virtual machine using virtual network computing (VNC) or the serial console.

Key parameters to configure a virtual machine

Deploy from the Catalog (OpenShift Web Console UI)

To deploy a virtual machine instance using the From catalog option, you must clone and modify one of the preconfigured Red Hat virtual machine templates available in the OpenShift web console to suit your requirement.

Cloning the Template

Only limited settings can be modified in a preconfigured template. To customize a preconfigured template for deploying the vNIOS instances, you must clone it. You can use the cloned template to customize and reuse it each time you deploy a virtual machine. Note that cloning a template is a one-time activity.

To clone the template, complete the following steps:

1. Log in to the RedHat OpenShift Container Platform web console.

2. In the left navigation panel, click Virtualization -> Templates.

3. In the Project drop-down list, choose All Projects.
   List of templates of all projects is displayed.

4. Search for fedora-desktop-large.

5. Click the three dots menu on the template and select Clone.

6. In the Clone template dialog box:

   1. Template name: Specify a name for the template.

   2. Template project: Specify the project in which you want the template cloned.

   3. Template display name: Specify a display name for this template.

   4. Template provider: Specify a name for the provider.

   5. Click Clone.
      The cloned template is displayed.

Deploying the Virtual Machine

To deploy a virtual machine from the UI using the From catalog option, complete the following steps:

1. In the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform web console, click Virtualization -> VirtualMachines in the left navigation panel.

2. On the VirtualMachines page, click Create and choose From catalog from the drop-down list.

3. On the Create VirtualMachine from Catalog page, in the Filter box, search for the template that you cloned.

4. Click the template to open it.

5. Click the Customize VirtualMachine button.

6. On the Customize Template parameters page:

   1. Name: Specify a name for the virtual machine.

   2. Storage: Expand Storage and complete the following:

      1. Disk Source: Click the drop-down list and choose URL (creates PVC).

      2. Image URL: Select or enter the URL of the location where you downloaded the vNIOS qcow2 image.

      3. Disk size (GiB): Specify 250.

      4. Click Next.

7. On the Review and create VirtualMachine page -> Overview tab, complete the following:

   1. CPU | Memory: click the Edit (pencil) icon and complete the following:

      1. In the Edit CPU | Memory dialog box, depending on the vNIOS appliance, specify the CPU cores and memory that you want to allocate to the virtual machine.
         Example: For an IB-V2225 appliance, specify 8 cores for CPUs and 64 GB for Memory.
         For more information on supported models, see About Infoblox vNIOS for Red Hat OpenShift.

      2. Click Save.

   2. Boot mode: Click the Edit icon and complete the following:

      1. In the Boot mode dialog box, choose BIOS from the Boot mode drop-down list. This setting is required for NIOS to boot.

      2. Click Save.

8. On the Network interfaces tab, add the required number of interfaces: MGMT and LAN1 interfaces for a standalone deployment or MGMT, LAN1, and HA interfaces for a HA setup.
   In the HA setup, you must ensure that the LAN1 and HA interfaces are on the same subnet.
   Complete the following:

   1. The default interface added for pod networking can be removed. Click the three dots menu and choose Delete to delete it. When prompted, click Delete.

   2. Click Add network interface and complete the following in the Add network interface dialog box:

      1. Name: Specify a name for this interface.

      2. Model: Retain virtio as the model.

      3. Type: Retain the type as Bridge.

      4. Network: Select a network attachment definition from the drop-down list.

      5. Click Save.

   3. Add one or two more interfaces depending on whether you will use a standalone or a HA deployment respectively.

9. Click Create VirtualMachine.
   Wait for the status to show as Running. The VM is added to the Virtualization -> Virtual Machines tab. 

10. From the Console tab, you can access the virtual machine using virtual network computing (VNC) or the serial console.