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Installing the Appliance

License entitlement file

A license entitlement file (activation file) is required to install products in the appliance and is available from the product download site. Make sure you download the current version of the activation file for your product.

Installation steps

To install the appliance, first make sure your system meets the system requirements, and then perform the following steps:

  1. Download and unzip the Appliance ZIP file.

    The ZIP file contains the files needed to install the appliance. All files must reside in the same directory during deployment.

  2. Gather the necessary information from your network administrator.

    If using a Static IP Address, gather the following:

    • Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)
    • IP
    • Netmask
    • Gateway
    • DNS Server

    If using DHCP IP Address (with a fixed IP), note:

    • Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)

  3. Import the OVF file into your virtualization system to create a new appliance template. Create a new VM instance from the new template.

  4. Start the VM. Read and accept the license file.

  5. Start to configure the appliance by specifying a password for the root user on the appliance.

  6. Click Next to configure the hostname and network options.

    • Specify a fully qualified DNS hostname for the appliance; then select whether to use a Static IP address or DHCP. Click Next.

    • If you use a static IP address, you must specify the IP address assigned to your virtual machine, netmask, the gateway, and DNS server(s) that you gathered.

    • If you are using DHCP, the IP address must be fixed; it cannot change over time.

  7. Click Next and wait for the initialization to complete.

    During initialization, progress messages appear on a console screen. Initialization takes 5-15 minutes. When a login prompt displays, initialization is complete.

  8. After a login prompt is displayed, the appliance console is accessed using the supplied URL. For example: https://hostname:9443.

Accessing the appliance console

The appliance console provides a comprehensive set of capabilities, including configuring clusters, adding/removing programs, system configuration, and support and maintenance tasks.

  • The Appliance Console is accessed on port 9443, for example: https://hostname:9443

  • The root account is used to access the console by default. Use the password specified during appliance configuration.

  • Log in to the console and browse around to explore the different options and capabilities.

Registering the appliance

Before installing your product, register the appliance. Registration enables you to receive online updates, which reduces the overhead of managing security patches and bug fixes.

  1. Log in to the Appliance Administration console using the root account at https://hostname:9443.

  2. Click Online Update.

  3. The Registration dialog should display. If not, click Register.

  4. Select Micro Focus Customer Center as the service type.

  5. Specify the following information about the account for this appliance:

    • Email address of the account in the Customer Center.

    • Activation key. To obtain the key:

      a. Log in to Software Licenses and Downloads (SLD) portal.

      b. Click the Activations tab.

      c. Locate your product.

      d. Click Download <Appliance Update Channel Activation Key.txt>

      e. Open the file to view the activation key.

  6. Select an option to share information with Open Text:

    • Hardware profile
    • Optional information

  7. Click Register.

  8. Wait while the appliance registers with the service, then click OK.

    You can now view a list of the needed and installed updates. You can use manual or automatic options to update the appliance.

Installing your product into the appliance

A license entitlement file (activation file) is required to install products in the appliance.

  1. Download the current version of the activation file for each product from the Downloads site (where you downloaded this appliance).

  2. Log in to the appliance console using the root account at https://hostname:9443.

  3. Click Products.

  4. Click Choose Files and browse to the activation file for each product you want to install.

    Note

    At least one activation file for a product, such as Management and Security Server, must be included in the selection.

  5. Click Install.

While it may take several minutes for your product to start up and become accessible, you can monitor the cluster status in the appliance console Cluster view. Proceed when the status is Ready.