NIOS comes with its own hardware box (appliance) on which NIOS will be installed.  Ensure that you verify the hardware that you receive. You can also install NIOS on virtual appliances.

Verifying the Hardware

To verify secure delivery of the hardware:

• Use the tracking number of the order to review the status of the shipment.

• Inspect the tamper-evident seals for any signs of tampering.

• Verify the product by comparing the shipping slip with the invoice.

Prerequisites

Before you begin the configuration, ensure that you have all the necessary components. The following are needed and must be acquired before continuing with this guidance:

• Supported NIOS appliances

• A management station or computer from which you configure and manage the NIOS appliance. See the NIOS Release Notes on the Infoblox support portal for system and browser requirements.

• The IP address of the appliance on your network.

Supported Appliances

For the list of supported physical appliances and virtual appliances that NIOS is supported on, see the NIOS Release Notes on the Infoblox support portal.

Downloading the NIOS Software

You can download NIOS from the Infoblox Support web site at https://support.infoblox.com/. You must be a registered user to access this web site. 

To download the software for vNIOS:

1. Log on to the Infoblox Support web site at https://support.infoblox.com/

2. Click the Downloads tab.

3. Select NIOS/vNIOS from the Infoblox Software drop-down list.

4. Select the General maintenance products with full engineering support for routine patches and bug fixes on all significant issues option.

5. Select NIOS 9.0.5 from the Select version drop-down list.

The NIOS installer files are available for download. The installer files are of two sizes:

• Files of size 500 GB

• Files of size 150 GB

Infoblox recommends using a minimum size of 150 GB for any of these files that has resizable as part of the file name and you can resize them depending on your requirement and deployment.

If you download the resizable files, a default disk size is defined on the VM. You then change the default disk size using the VMware UI. When you start the VM for the first time, NIOS detects how much disk space has been reserved for the virtual disk and allocates partitions within that space. You can increase the disk size upto a maximum of 2.5 terabytes. 

If you want to resize the disk space from the current 250 GB to a lower size, remove the member from the Grid and add a replacement member with the required disk size. If you want to resize a smaller disk to a higher size, back up the Grid database, and deploy the new instance with the required disk size. After the deployment, restore the backed up database. Infoblox recommends configuring a scheduled backup so that if the disk limit is reached and the system is unresponsive, the earlier backup can be restored.

Infoblox recommends configuring instances of only 250 GB and higher as Grid Master and Grid Master Candidate.

VM Disk Partition

Infoblox uses an "A/B" upgrade scheme. There are two root partitions and two storage partitions. On an upgrade, the "alternate" partitions are populated must be rebooted. They flip back and forth for successive upgrades. (This is also what allows a revert to the previous version when necessary.)

 The 500 GB disk size partition is as follows:

The formula for storage size is: (disk - (2*8+2*1+24))/2

That is, the disk size minus the space for root1, root2, boot, config, and swap, divided by half.

For a 500 GB disk: (500-(2*8+2*1+24))/2 = 229

For a 250 GB disk, (250-(2*8+2*1+24))/2 = 104. That is, each storage partition will be 104 GB.

Limitations of Using the Scalable Image File

The following are the limitations of using the scalable NIOS image:

• You can use the scalable image only on the following appliances:

  • IB-V926, IB-V1516, IB-V1526, IB-V2326, IB-V4126, IB-V5005

  • IB-V805, IB-V1405, IB-V2205, IB-V4005, IB-V815, IB-V825, IB-V1415, IB-V1425, IB-V2215, IB-V2225, IB-V4015, IB-V4025, IB-FLEX, CP-V805, CP-V1405, CP-V2205.

• If you use ovftool to deploy the OVA image, there is no command line option to increase the disk-size. As a workaround, you can use ovftool to upload the image but before powering on the VM, you will need to use the UI to change the disk size based on your requirement.

• The Parental Control feature fails to start because of no space left on the device when downloading ZVELO data.

• The primary disk size is full if you enable the bloxTools service on the member provisioned with the lower disk size.

• Infoblox recommends to not run DNS/DHCP/updates on the member provisioned with the lower disk size.

• Do not try to join a resizable disk image to a Grid running an NIOS version earlier than 8.5.

• Infoblox does not recommend auto-synchronizing or downgrading resizable disk images to NIOS versions earlier than 8.5.

• If you have resizable members whose provisioned disk space is lower than 85 GB, disable the rsync-batch mode by running the set upgrade_dist rsync_batch disable command on Grid Master.

• If you have a reporting member as part of your Grid, then you must have a minimum disk space of 250 GB by default.

• When you configure an X6 series appliance as TR-5005, repartitioning automatically takes place and a new partition is created for reporting.