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Prepare Edge Hosts for Installation

In this step, you will prepare the Edge host for installation. You will copy the following items to the storage device of the Edge host.

  • The Edge Installer image.

  • The Edge Installer user data.

  • Content bundles.

info

If you need to create any of the items mentioned above, review the EdgeForge Workflow to learn how to create your own Edge artifacts.

You can ship your Edge hosts after you complete this step. Use the following steps to prepare your Edge host for installation.

Prepare Edge Host​

Pick the target environment for your Edge host.

Bare Metal​

Prerequisites​

  • Edge Installer ISO file. Check out the EdgeForge Workflow to learn how to create an Edge Installer image or use the default Edge Installer image.

  • A Bare Metal appliance with USB drives.

  • The ability to modify the boot order settings to boot from a USB drive.

  • A USB disk containing the installer ISO

The following items are optional and not required but may apply to your use case:

  • USB disk that contains a user data ISO. This is applicable in multiple user data scenarios where you want to override or provide additional configurations after the Edge host is powered on at the physical site.

  • USB disk containing the content bundle ISO. You can avoid this by creating a custom installer. Refer to the Build Edge Artifacts guide.

Installer Handoff​

  1. Insert the USB drive containing the Edge Installer ISO and potentially your user data.

  2. If you created a content bundle and loaded it to a USB disk, then insert the content bundle USB drive.

  3. Power on the Edge host.

  4. Wait for the Edge Installer to complete copying content to the hard drive. The Edge host will reboot by default upon completion unless you specify a different option in the Edge Installer configuration user data.

  5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for all Edge hosts.

  6. Remove the USB disks and ship your Edge host devices to the site for installation.

Validate​

You can validate that the Edge host is ready for the site installation by simulating a site deployment on one of the Edge hosts. The simulation process will require you to complete the installation process and reset the device after the validation.

VMware​

You will create a Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) from the Edge Installer ISO and upload it to a vCenter environment. In the vCenter environment, you will convert the VMDK to a VM template, and export it out as an OVF template.

Prerequisites​

  • Edge Installer ISO file. Check out the build images guide to learn how to create an Edge Installer image or use the default Edge Installer image.

  • vCenter environment with sufficient resources and access privileges to complete the following actions:

    • Upload files to a datastore.
    • Ability to create VMs.

Installer Handoff​

  1. Log in to vCenter Server by Using the vSphere Client.

  2. Prepare a build server by launching a VM with Ubuntu version 20.04 or greater in your VMware environment.

  3. Issue the following commands to prepare your server for VMDK creation.

    apt update
    apt install qemu qemu-kvm \
    libvirt-clients libvirt-daemon-system bridge-utils virt-manager
    systemctl enable --now libvirtd systemctl enable --now virtlogd
    mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
    curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
    echo \
    "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
    $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
    apt update
    apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io
    docker-compose-plugin

    If you need a graphical user interface (GUI), add x11-apps to the apt install command.

    apt install x11-apps

  4. You can add additional packages for content creation, compression, and preparing your workspace.

    curl -L -o - "https://github.com/vmware/govmomi/releases/latest/download/govc_$( uname -s)_$(uname -m).tar.gz" | tar -C /usr/local/bin -xvzf - govc
    mkdir -p ~/workspace/
    cd workspace/
    git clone https://github.com/spectrocloud/stylus-image-builder.git

    If you need ZSTD for compression or govc for interacting with vCenter, use the following command.

    apt install zstd govc

  5. Build the VMDK from the Edge Installer ISO to serve as a template for deploying Edge hosts to virtual machines. Issue the following commands on your build server.

    cd ~/workspace/stylus-image-builder/
    chmod +x entrypoint.sh
    export ISO_URL=[your-installer-name].iso
    export PALETTE_ENDPOINT=[your tenant].spectrocloud.com
    export REGISTRATION_URL=[QR Code registration app link]
    export EDGE_HOST_TOKEN=[token generated on Palette Portal]
    export DISK_SIZE=100000M
    EMBED=false make docker-build
    nohup make vmdk &
    info

    If you are using a Tenant Registration Token for auto-registration, you can omit the environment variable REGISTRATION_URL.

    A VMDK file was generated in the stylus-image-builder/images folder. Rename this VMDK to a preferred installer name. Ensure the VMDK file retains the .vmdk extension.

  6. Transfer the VMDK to a datastore in your VMware environment. Review the commands below and ensure you replace the placeholders with the respective values from your environment.

    export GOVC_URL=https://[IP address OR the DNS of vCenter]
    export GOVC_USERNAME=[vcenter username]
    export GOVC_PASSWORD=[vcenter password]
    govc datastore.upload -ds=[datastore name] images/[your-installer-name].vmdk [folder in datastore]]/[your-installer-name].vmdk
    govc datastore.cp -ds=[datastore name] [folder in datastore]]/[your-installer-name].vmdk [folder in datastore]]/[your-installer-name]-uncompressed.vmdk

    If you are using test or development environments, you may need to enable the following option. This environment variable is not recommended for production environments.

    export GOVC_INSECURE=1

  7. Create a VM from the VMDK by logging into your vCenter console in the UI.

  8. Navigate to the Dataceter/Folder, under the VMs and Templates section.

  9. Start the New Virtual machine deployment wizard.

  10. Choose a cluster that has access to the datastore used for storing the VMDK. Choose the datastore where VMDK is stored.

  11. Select Ubuntu Linux (64) as your guest OS version. This is required even though you will be launching an RHEL based clusters

  12. Select the Hardware settings.

  13. Delete the hard drive displayed by default. Add a new device of the type Existing Hard Disk. For this device select the option Datastore ISO file.

  14. Navigate to the datastore folder with the uncompressed VMDK and select the VMDK.

  15. Finish the creation wizard and save your virtual machine.

  16. Navigate to VMs and Templates and right-click on the newly created VM. Select Template and Convert to Template.

  17. Navigate to VMs and Templates and right-click on the newly created VM Template. Select Export to OVF Template.

You can ship this OVF template along with the Edge host to the physical site. Use the OVM template for the site installation.

Validate​

You can validate that the Edge host is ready for the site installation by simulating a site deployment on one of the Edge hosts. The simulation process will require you to complete the installation process and reset the device after the validation.

Next Steps​

Now that you have completed the staging process, you can ship the Edge hosts to the destination site. Proceed to the Perform Site Install step.