You can install the NIOS virtual software package on a host with VMware ESX or ESXi 8.0U2, 8.0b, 7.0.3, 7.0.2, 7.0, 6.7, 6.7 Update 2 (and Upper versions), 6.5.x, 6.0.x installed and configure it as a virtual appliance. You have the option to configure the storage in one of the following ways: 250 GB for virtual appliances running on NIOS versions prior to 9.0.1, 500 GB for NIOS versions 9.0.1 and later, or a value exceeding 150 GB configured during the first boot if the vNIOS instances are set up with resizable images.

Infoblox NIOS provides core network services and a framework for integrating all the components of the modular Infoblox solution. NIOS provides integrated, secure, and easy-to-manage DNS (Domain Name System), DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) and IPAM (IP address management) services. In addition to DNS, DHCP, and IPAM, NIOS also provides TFTP, HTTP, NTP, and FTP file transfer services. vNIOS for VMware provides most of the features supported by NIOS but with some limitations. For information, see the Known Limitations section.

NIOS virtual appliances support the following features:

• Configuration as an HA pair, hybrid HA pair (for NIOS versions 8.6.x onwards), a Grid Master, Reporting server, or a Grid Master Candidate

• Anycast addressing

• OSPF

• BGP

• Static routes

• IPv6

vSphere vMotion is also supported. You can migrate NIOS virtual appliances from one ESX or ESXi server to another without any service outages. The migration preserves the hardware IDs and licenses of the NIOS virtual appliances. VMware Tools is automatically installed for each NIOS virtual appliance. Infoblox supports the control functions in VMware Tools. For example, through the vSphere client, you can shut down the virtual appliance. For information about migrating a NIOS virtual appliance, see Migrating NIOS Virtual Appliances.

Supported vNIOS for VMware Appliance Models

You can configure most NIOS virtual appliances as independent or HA Grid Masters, Grid Master Candidates, or Grid members. The table below lists NIOS virtual appliance models and their specifications. Note that each NIOS virtual appliance requires a unique hardware ID. Infoblox does not support cloned VM instances as NIOS virtual appliances.

Basic VM disk allocations include the appliance models listed in below tables.

When choosing a vNIOS appliance, consider the following key points:

• To maintain high performance on your NIOS virtual appliances and to avoid not having enough resources to service all NIOS virtual appliances, do not oversubscribe physical resources on the virtualization host. Required memory, CPU, and disk resources must be adequately allocated for each NIOS virtual appliance that is running on the virtualization host. 

• From NIOS 8.6.x onwards, hybrid HA is supported. A hybrid HA pair can comprise a physical appliance and a virtual appliance, two physical appliances, or two virtual appliances. For more information on limitations of using HA pair combinations, see Limitations of Using a Combination of a Physical Appliance and a Virtual Appliance for HA.

• For the new vNIOS for VMware models supported from NIOS 9.0.1 onwards, Infoblox recommends that you use SSDs for storage for better performance. See the tables in this topic for the supported models.

• The performance of a vNOIS VM instance deployed on a VMware host is impacted by the huge page sizes configured on the instance and on the host, and also by the services enabled on the instance.

  Although, huge page sizes configured on the host and the VM instance are independent of each other, the following behavior is observed:

  • When the host is configured to allocate huge pages to the instance, performance issues are reduced as it minimizes disk fragmentation, which otherwise has a significant impact on the performance. However, if the host is over provisioned with VM instances, performance of the VM will be impacted. To avoid it, refer to the best practices recommended by the Hypervisor.

  • When the host is not configured to allocate huge pages to the instance, performance issues can elevate due to increased possibility of disk fragmentation, which often leads to non-contiguous physical memory blocks being allocated to the VM. In some cases, this may also lead to memory allocation failures.

vNIOS for VMware Appliance Models

The below table lists the models of vNIOS for VMware appliances supported in NIOS 9.0.1 and later. These models support the cloud platform feature. To use the feature, you must install the Cloud Platform license. For more information, refer to the Managing Licenses in NIOS 9.0.1 topic in the Infoblox NIOS Documentation.

The following models of vNIOS for VMware appliances are supported in NIOS 9.0.1 and later:

* If a vNIOS instance is running on a NIOS version prior to 9.0.1, the disk size will be set to 250 GB.

Requirements

The requirements to install the NIOS virtual appliance on a VMware ESX/ESXi server are as follows:

• NIOS software package:

  • You can download the NIOS software from the Infoblox Technical Support site. To download the software, you must have a valid login account on the Infoblox Support site. Register your product at https://support.infoblox.com if you do not already have an account. The NIOS software package consists of a template file with .ova extension for all supported NIOS appliance models. Make sure that you download the file with .ova extension.

  • After you download the .ova file, you can run the tar -xvf nios-xxx.ova command to untar the .ova and separate .ovf and .vmdk files.

  • You can deploy the NIOS virtual appliance from a remote web server or from a local file system accessible from your management system.

• A management system that has an installed vSphere client. To manage multiple hosts, the vSphere client must be connected to the vCenter server system.

Known Limitations

NIOS virtual appliance for VMware support most of the features of the Infoblox NIOS appliances, with the following limitations:

• If you are using NIOS versions earlier than 8.6.x, if you configure an HA pair, both nodes in the HA pair must be NIOS virtual instances. You cannot configure a physical NIOS appliance and a NIOS virtual instance in an HA pair in versions earlier than 8.6.x.

• NIOS virtual appliances run on virtual hardware. They do not have sensors to monitor the physical CPU temperature, fan speed, and system temperature.

• Changing the NIOS virtual appliance settings through the VMware vSphere or vCenter console may violate the terms of the NIOS virtual licensing and support models. The NIOS virtual  appliance may not join the Grid or function properly.

• vNIOS for VMware instances with mixed interfaces (SR-IOV non SR-IOV) are not supported.