Knowledge Base
Riverbed Steelhead EX Appliance with VMware vSphere Hypervisor (Partner Verified and Supported) (2036523)
Symptoms
This article provides information on Partner Verified and Supported Products (PVSP) for the Riverbed Steelhead EX platform supporting VMware vSphere Hypervisor. This solution consists of Steelhead EX appliances running ESXi.
Note: PVSP policy implies that the solution is not directly supported by VMware. For issues with this configuration, contact Riverbed directly. See the Support Workflow on how partners may engage with VMware. The partner is responsible for verifying configuration functions with future vSphere major and minor releases, as VMware does not guarantee that compatibility with future releases is maintained.
Disclaimer: The partner products referenced in this article are hardware devices that are developed and supported by stated partners. Use of these products is also governed by the end user license agreements of the partners. You must obtain the application, support, and licensing for using these products from the partners. For more information, see Support Information in this article.
Resolution
Product Overview
Steelhead EX appliance is a multi-service appliance that customers deploy at their branch offices to provide a myriad set of services including WAN optimization, storage virtualization (with Riverbed Granite), DNS, DHCP, AD, print, and file services. The Steelhead EX appliance provides customers with the ability to consolidate services from multiple physical services resident at the branch to one single appliance that can combine all of these services.By the nature of its services, the use of the appliance is divided between the network, storage, and server teams. The architecture separates resources to make sure that the network (WAN Optimization), storage (Granite), and server (ESXi services) are carved out as much as possible to provide for the best user experience. The Virtual Services Platform (VSP) is the feature on which customers deploy virtual machines on the Steelhead EX appliance.
VSP Architecture
VSP runs in a dedicated partition on the Steelhead EX appliance. The partition separates the Steelhead WAN optimization and Granite traffic and resources from the virtual machines. Customers manage VSP and ESXi though the primary and aux interfaces using their VMware tools such as the vSphere Client and vSphere VirtualCenter. They manage their core Riverbed WAN optimization and Granite features using Riverbed management tools.
Installation
The Steelhead EX appliance ships with the VMware vSphere Hypervisor. If running an older version of the Steelhead EX code, a customer can obtain the vSphere Hypervisor by upgrading to a version of the Steelhead EX code that has the vSphere Hypervisor (Steelhead Ex version 2.0 or above). You do not need to separately download the Hypervisor and install it on EX; it comes bundled with the appliance.Configuration
By default, while it is bundled with the Steelhead EX appliance, ESXi is not installed in the factory nor is it automatically installed upon upgrade. The user installs and configures ESXi. This section describes the steps for installing and configuring ESXi on the Steelhead EX appliance.For more information on installation and configuration, see the Steelhead Management Console User’s Guide.
Configuring the Virtual Services Platform
A configuration wizard guides you through the initial configuration of ESXi. After you run the wizard, you can customize additional settings such as the ESXi password, VNC access, and the debugging levels.
After you have configured ESXi using the wizard, the page displays a section for the ESXi wizard and also displays the current status and resources, and provides access to the additional settings.
When this installation is complete, you can connect and manage the ESXi partition with the vSphere Client or vCenter Server using the ESXi Management IP address.
For more information on installation and configuration, see the Steelhead EX appliance documentation.
Support Information
The first line of support is with Riverbed customer support. All Riverbed customers are required to have support agreements for their Steelhead EX products.You can view the Riverbed support pages at http://support.riverbed.com.
Update History
Request a Product Feature
To request a new product feature or to provide feedback on a VMware product, please visit the Request a Product Feature page.
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