Install the virtual appliance by using KVM

The use of Kernel-based virtual machine or KVM is supported. We can use KVM with the provided .iso image to run the virtual appliance.

Steps

  1. Create a new virtual machine.

    • The instructions for creating a virtual machine might differ based on the utility that we are using to manage your virtual machines. See the KVM documentation that suits your version for specific instructions.
    • Ensure the virtual machine has enough disk space that is allocated to store the configuration and log file data for the appliance. Allocate at least 100 GB of disk space for the appliance.
    • The memory size has influence over how many WebSEAL instances can be created and how many sessions can be active at a single point in time. The minimum memory size is 4096 MB.
    • A virtual appliance must have a minimum of one and a maximum of eight network adapters.
    • Each network adapter must be of the type E1000 or Virtio. Use Virtio for better performance.
    • The hard disk drive must be configured as a Virtio disk device.

    • If we use certain versions of the Virtual Machine Manager (virt-manager) software to create your virtual machines, it might by default add some CPU definitions that are incompatible with the appliance and thus cause deployment errors. To fix this issue, we can use one of the following methods:

      • From the Virtual Machine Manager console, open the VM definition. Go to Processor. Expand the Configuration option and then change the value of the Model field to Clear CPU configuration. Click Apply.

      • From the virsh shell, edit the virtual machine definition (for example, edit isva_appliance). Locate and then remove the <cpu>...</cpu> entry. Save the file.

  2. Configure the virtual machine to start from the .iso file and then start the virtual machine.

    • To run the installer in silent mode, wait 10 seconds or press Enter. After the silent installation completes, the virtual machine is shut down automatically. To continue with setting up the appliance, restart the virtual machine.

    • To run the installer in interactive mode, enter interactive and then press Enter. If the hard disk attached to the virtual machine already contains a Linux partition, the installer always runs in interactive mode.

      1. Enter YES to proceed with the installation. Alternatively if we do not want to proceed with the installation, enter NO to move to the reboot prompt.
      2. Examine the installation messages to ensure the installation was successful. After the installation process is complete, unmount the installation media and then press Enter to reboot the appliance.

  3. When the restart operation is complete, we can start the console-based appliance setup wizard by logging on as the admin user with a password of admin. Alternatively, the Appliance Setup wizard can be accessed through the local management interface.

Parent topic: Virtual appliance tasks