Installing BrickStor SP on VMware vSphere Virtual Machines About The following guide describes the process of installing the BrickStor SP on a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine. Required Items Virtual Machine (VM) configured as described in System Requirements VM console access BrickStor SP installation media A MyRackTop customer portal login BrickStor SP license entitlement serial number System Requirements BrickStor SP can be deployed on VMware vSphere version 6.7 or newer. The target virtual machine must be configured accordingly to meet the specific software and hardware requirements outlined below. Minimum Virtual Hardware Requirements Resource Specification vCPU 4 OS (Operating System) Disk 164 GB (100 base + 64 memory) Data Disk * GB vMemory 64 GB Network Adapter VMXNET3 CD/DVD drive SATA CD/DVD drive Storage Controller VMware Paravirtual Boot Mode EFI/UEFI Guest OS Oracle Solaris 11 (64-bit) Data Disk is a separate virtual disk for creating SMB/NFS shares. Allocate sufficient amount of capacity based on the application. Capacity is modifiable after install. It is strongly advised to allocate beyond the minimum recommended virtual memory. BrickStor SP uses memory for data caching, it will drastically improve sequential IO and overall performance. Installer System Prerequisites Installer system refers to the client machine performing the installation. The installer system requires internet access during the installation in order to activate the product. Supported Browser Versions Google Chrome 109 or newer Mozilla Firefox 114 or newer Microsoft Edge 114 or newer Apple Safari 16.2 or newer The BrickStor SP installer uses DHCP to establish a network connection. To configure a static IP address see the Installer System Configuration section. Once a network connection is established, the BrickStor SP installer web UI can be accessed from the network client machine (Windows, macOS, Linux) using a modern-internet-browser. Download BrickStor SP Installer ISO Using a web browser log in to the MyRackTop customer portal https://www.myracktop.com Navigate to Downloads, and download the latest Install Image (ISO). Upload the downloaded ISO to an ISO Datastore or Content Library. Create a New Virtual Machine Using vSphere or vCenter client create a new VM. Assign a name to the created VM and select optimal compute and storage resources. Accept default compatibility or select the most recent version available. Choose Guest OS. Guest OS Family: Other Guest OS Version: Other (64-bit) Customize hardware Select VM Options tab Expand Boot Options and pick EFI Select Virtual Hardware tab Set CPU to 4 or more Set Memory to 64 GB or more Set New Hard disk to 100 GB + memory. This is OS disk. To add an additional disk, select ADD NEW DEVICE at the top-right corner and choose Hard Disk. Then, configure size for this disk based on required storage capacity and/or storage license. Change New SCSI controller to VMware Paravirtual Expand New Network and change Adapter Type to VMXNET 3 Attach BrickStor SP ISO using New CD/DVD Drive and check Connect At Power On checkbox. Click NEXT and FINISH to create this VM. Power on this VM. To power on, right-click on the VM and choose Power > Power On or with the VM selected, click the Play button on the action bar. Launch VM Console. To launch the VM Console, right-click on the VM and choose Open Remote Console or with the VM selected, click LAUNCH WEB CONSOLE button. Once the VM is booted note the IP Address and the Access Code. Now continue with the Installation. Installation Install BrickStor SP. Using a client machine, open a modern internet browser and enter https://<BrickStor IP address or hostname>/ into the browser’s address bar. Press Enter. A screen will prompt for input of an Access Code. The Access Code is displayed on the VM Console screen. Once the Access Code has been entered, click the Login button. The installer Home page will show. Begin installation by clicking the Install button. On successful completion of each stage a green checkmark will be shown next to the step in the list. Next, read and accept the End User License Agreement. The Activate screen will show. Click the Activate Now button. This will redirect to the MyRackTop customer portal. Log in. Next, a prompt will appear for selecting the order entitlement to activate this installation. Click the Activate button. A prompt will show successful activation. Click the Continue Installation button to be redirected back to the installer. The installer wizard will show a green check mark and a message confirming successful activation. Next, Select a boot device. Select the Primary boot device from the provided device options. If a new device is introduced after booting into the installer, click the Refresh Devices button to refresh selection. For Virtual Machine installations only Primary boot device is sufficient. When a secondary disk is selected, a drive mirror (RAID-1) will be created for redundancy. Secondary drives must be of the same type and capacity. SAS, SATA and NVMe device types are supported, but cannot be mixed. Once the correct boot device(s) has been selected, click the Next button to continue. Next, set default admin user password. The default admin username is bsradmin and cannot be changed. Enter a strong password using the Password field. Password must be at least 8 characters long. Re-enter the password in the Confirm field. Click the Next button to continue. Upon successful completion of all steps the Install screen will show. Click the Install button to begin the installation. A progress bar and description of the installation process will be displayed. Closing or refreshing the page will not interrupt the installation. Once the installation is completed a prompt will ask to reboot the system. Click Reboot. Remove the installation media from the VM. Using VMware vSphere client select desired target VM then choose Actions > Edit Settings. In the VM Edit Settings, expand CD/DVD drive 1. Using the dropdown menu, select Client Device option. Click OK.