Pre-Installation Checklist

The following checklist is provided for an initial installation or a full reinstallation of VMware ESXi and Automated Uptime Layer with Smart Exchange.

Caution: Make sure that the network switch used during the system software installation is 1 Gb or faster. Otherwise, the copy of the system software ISO to the host system may time out, resulting in a failed installation.

Check that you have the most current Release Notes and software installation topics for your distribution. To restore your installation, make sure you have the appropriate version of the release level that you will restore.

You can find the latest Release Notes and documentation updates online on the StrataDOC (ztC Endurance Version) page at https://ztcendurancedoc.stratus.com.

Install the system hardware as described in Installing and Connecting the ztC Endurance System Hardware. Ensure that the keyboard and monitor are firmly attached to the system for the installation process.

Download the VMware ESXi ISO as described in Downloading VMware ESXi and VMware vSphere Software Components and copy the ISO file to a USB device. Mount the USB device and optionally transfer the ESXi ISO to the system as described in Transferring Software ISOs to the Standby OS.

Prepare to accept the end-user license agreements (EULAs) that are presented during the installation process. To locate and read the text of the EULAs you must accept before installing Automated Uptime Layer with Smart Exchange, see End-User License Agreements and Warranty. You should not perform the installation if you cannot accept the EULAs or are not authorized to accept them. The installation process terminates if you decline any EULAs.

Consider whether or not to allow your system to automatically send system health updates to Stratus over a secure Internet connection.

You are prompted to enable or disable Support Notifications over the ASN during the software installation.

If you are reinstalling a release, back up any data files and prepare backup files to reconfigure the system for security and network operation after the installation procedure is complete.

With the ztC Endurance system halted, detach all peripheral devices from the system. Devices to detach include:

  • Unsupported PCIe adapters

  • USB devices (except the keyboard)

    Notice: The installation process cannot accommodate the presence of customer-added or unknown hardware. Add any such hardware, and configure the system to support it, only after completing the installation and verifying that the system functions as expected.

In both I/O modules, connect network cables from 10G PORT2 to a business network and from the 1G MGMT port to an out-of-band management network. For a diagram showing the location of these network ports, see System Ports.

The installation process automatically configures the 10Gb ports into a default vSwitch to support the ESXi management network and virtual machines. To prevent installation problems, avoid modifying this configuration until after you have completed the installation process and finished verifying that the installation was successful, as described in Verifying the System Software Installation. For example, do not add the ESXi host to a vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) until the installation is complete and Automated Uptime Layer with Smart Exchange is running.

If you are installing or reinstalling the software, ensure that you have a matched pair of disk drives with the same model, firmware level, and geometry for the installation process, and that the disk drives are installed in slot 1 of each storage module.

If you are reinstalling the system software, and the Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) datastore on your system disks contains virtual machines or data files, migrate or back up this data to another VMFS datastore before the installation. This data is overwritten if you reinstall VMware ESXi on your existing system disks. If you require the ability to back out to the previous release during any stage of the installation, insert a new, unused pair of disks for the installation process. (To purchase new disks, contact your authorized Stratus support representative.)

VMware ESXi cannot natively read the Stratus MPM disk format, which is supported only after you install Automated Uptime Layer with Smart Exchange. If you insert system disks that contain MPM volumes, the ESXi installation program cannot read them and does not offer the choice of preserving existing VMFS datastores.