Ravello Cloud Lab
As a vExpert for 2018 I get access to Ravello cloud services, what better to do then then continue the home-lab build I started last year.
I’m by no means finished putting the lab together, however I have spent some spare time over the easter weekend starting to pull it together.
The first component of this lab will be the Virtual Center Server Appliance. Not content with running it on-top of an ESX host, I decided to try and follow the guide below put together by @ian0x0r;
The process to deploy this is on the face of it simple, but there are a few components that you need to get in place to get it working.
- Deploy a Windows Server running a DNS service, doesn’t have to be AD – but does have to run DNS
- Configure the DNS zones for the lab you plan to create (forward and reverse)
- Deploy a temporary ESXi host on Ravello
- Deploy the VCSA onto your temporary ESXi host using the DNS services created above
- Exporting the VCSA to an OVF file
- Convert disks to non stream optimised (QEMU)
- Import the OVF to Ravello
- Deploy the VCSA to Ravello
- Profit!
I won’t go through this step by step @ian0x0r does a fantastic job of how this needs to work, complete with screenshots and helpful hints.
I will add a few hints of my own, for if you find yourself stuck;
- Are you sure it’s not DNS?
- Patience, these things take time!
- Don’t be impatient like me and try and troubleshoot a problem that wasn’t there because I thought the installer was stuck at 80%
- Remember older versions of TLS are no longer supported. IF you deployed from a legacy Windows OS, the browser might not be compatible with the VCSA.
- Are you really sure it’s not DNS?
Happy installing
Simon