Veritas Flex Appliance Getting Started and Administration Guide
- Product overview
- Release notes
- Getting started
- Initial configuration guidelines and checklist
- Performing the initial configuration
- Adding a node
- Accessing and using the Flex Appliance Shell
- Accessing and using the Flex Appliance Console
- Managing the appliance from the Appliance Management Console
- Setting the date and time for appliance nodes
- Common tasks in Flex Appliance
- Managing network settings
- Managing users
- Overview of the Flex Appliance default users
- Changing the password policy
- Managing Flex Appliance Console users and tenants
- Adding a tenant
- Editing a tenant
- Removing a tenant
- Adding a local user to the Flex Appliance Console
- Connecting a remote user domain to the Flex Appliance Console
- Importing a remote user or user group to the Flex Appliance Console
- Editing a remote user domain in the Flex Appliance Console
- Changing a user password in the Flex Appliance Console
- Expiring user passwords in the Flex Appliance Console
- Removing users from the Flex Appliance Console
- Managing user authentication with smart cards or digital certificates
- Changing the hostadmin user password in the Flex Appliance Shell
- Changing the sysadmin user password in the Veritas Remote Management Interface
- Using Flex Appliance
- Managing the repository
- Creating application instances
- Managing application instances from Flex Appliance and NetBackup
- Managing application instances from Flex Appliance
- Upgrading application instances
- Updating an application instance to a newer revision
- About Flex Appliance upgrades and updates
- Appliance security
- Monitoring the appliance
- Reconfiguring the appliance
- Troubleshooting guidelines
Performing a reimage
The purpose of a reimage is to remove and reinstall the appliance software on a node. Veritas recommends that you always try a factory reset before resorting to a reimage.
A reimage does not affect the storage data. After you perform a reimage, you can also reset the storage if desired.
Warning:
This procedure cannot be run on a Veritas 5340 Appliance. If you need to reimage a 5340 node, you must contact Veritas Technical Support. Ask your representative to reference article 100044669.
Use one of the following procedures to reimage an appliance.
To reimage an appliance from the USB drive
- Before you begin the reimage process, Veritas recommends that you record the configuration information that you entered when you performed the initial configuration.
- Verify that the following ports are connected to the network:
The remote management (IPMI) port
Used to connect to the Veritas Remote Management Interface
host0
Used to connect to the Flex Appliance Console
- Insert the USB drive into a USB port on the node that you want to reimage.
- Use the following steps to access the Veritas Remote Management Interface:
Open a supported web browser on a system that has a network connection to the appliance. Flex Appliance supports the following browsers:
Google Chrome version 94 or later recommended (minimum version 80 or later)
Mozilla Firefox version 93 or later recommended (minimum version 80 or later)
Enter the IP address that is assigned to the remote management port of the node that you want to reimage.
Log in to the Veritas Remote Management Interface. If you have not previously logged in, use the following default credentials:
User Name: sysadmin
Password: P@ssw0rd
- If you logged in with the default password, you must change the password before you can configure or recover the appliance after the reimage. Perform the following steps:
Navigate to Configuration > Users and select the sysadmin user.
Click Modify User.
Select the Change Password check box and enter a new password.
- Do one of the following to launch the Flex Appliance Shell:
Navigate to Remote Control > Console Redirection and click Launch Console.
If available, navigate to Remote Control > iKVM over HTML5 and click Launch Console over HTML5.
Note:
Availability of the HTML5 option depends on the appliance firmware version. You can check the version from the System > System Information page. The BIOS ID must show version 00.01.0016 or later.
- Return to the Veritas Remote Management interface and select Server Power Control on the left side of the Remote Control page.
- On that page, do the following:
Select the Reset Server radial option.
Click Perform Action.
- Return to the Flex Appliance Shell and wait for the system to turn on. When the splash screen appears, immediately press F6 to enter the boot menu.
Note:
You only get a window of a few seconds to perform this task. If you miss the window, the operating system loads, and you cannot access the boot menu.
- When the boot menu appears, scroll down to the USB drive and press Enter.
- The system begins to start from the USB drive. It then presents you with the following options:
Boot from local drive
Install Veritas Optimized Operation System (Thunder Cloud)
Rescue a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system
Select Install Veritas Optimized Operating System (Thunder Cloud) and press Enter.
- When the installation of the new appliance package is complete, you receive a Welcome message in the Flex Appliance Shell. The hostadmin user password resets to the default password (P@ssw0rd), so use the default password to log back in to the Flex Appliance Shell. Then run the following command to change the password:
set user password
- Restart the node with the system restart command.
- Proceed to the next steps that are listed at the end of this topic.
To reimage an appliance from an ISO image
- Before you begin the reimage process, Veritas recommends that you record the configuration information that you entered when you performed the initial configuration.
- Verify that the following ports are connected to the network:
The remote management (IPMI) port
Used to connect to the Veritas Remote Management Interface
host0
Used to connect to the Flex Appliance Console
- From a computer within your appliance domain, download the appropriate ISO image from the Download Center on the Veritas Support website.
- Save the ISO image to a local drive of the computer.
- If a firewall exists between the appliance and the remote devices that manage the appliance, make sure that the following ports are open:
627 RMM ISO/CD
5902 RMM CLI
- Turn off the appliance.
- Use the following steps to access the Veritas Remote Management Interface:
Open a supported web browser on a system that has a network connection to the appliance. Flex Appliance supports the following browsers:
Google Chrome version 94 or later recommended (minimum version 80 or later).
Mozilla Firefox version 93 or later recommended (minimum version 80 or later). Note that reimaging over HTML5 is not supported on Firefox.
Enter the IP address that is assigned to the remote management port of the node that you want to reimage.
Log in to the Veritas Remote Management Interface. If you have not previously logged in, use the following default credentials:
User Name: sysadmin
Password: P@ssw0rd
- If you logged in with the default password, you must change the password before you can configure or recover the appliance after the reimage. Perform the following steps:
Navigate to Configuration > Users and select the sysadmin user.
Click Modify User.
Select the Change Password check box and enter a new password.
- Do one of the following to launch the Flex Appliance Shell:
(Recommended) Navigate to Remote Control > Console Redirection and click Launch Console.
If you are using Google Chrome and the option is available, navigate to Remote Control > iKVM over HTML5 and click Launch Console over HTML5. Note that the performance of HTML5 is significantly slower.
Note:
Availability of the HTML5 option depends on the appliance firmware version. You can check the version from the System > System Information page. The BIOS ID must show version 00.01.0016 or later.
- If you clicked Launch Console, perform the following steps:
When the shell launches, click on the Device drop-down menu on the console and select Redirect ISO.
From the Open pop-up window that appears, choose the ISO image that you want to install and click Open.
- If you clicked Launch Console over HTML5, perform the following steps:
Navigate to Virtual Media > Virtual Media over HTML5 and click Launch virtual media over HTML5.
In the pop-up window that appears, click Choose file and select the ISO image that you want to install, then click Open.
From the Virtual Media > Virtual Media over HTML5 page, click Mount.
- Return to the Veritas Remote Management interface and select Server Power Control on the left side of the Remote Control page.
- On that page, since the server is currently off, the only available option is Power ON Server.
Click Perform Action.
- Return to the Flex Appliance Shell and wait for the system to turn on. When the splash screen appears, immediately press F6 to enter the boot menu.
Note:
You only get a window of a few seconds to perform this task. If you miss the window, the operating system loads, and you cannot access the boot menu.
- When the boot menu appears, scroll down to Virtual CDROM and press Enter.
- The system begins to start from the ISO image you selected earlier. It then presents you with the following options:
Boot from local drive
Install Veritas Optimized Operation System (Thunder Cloud)
Rescue a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system
Select Install Veritas Optimized Operating System (Thunder Cloud) and press Enter.
Note:
The remote management ISO installation is sensitive to the quality of the network connection. If an installation failure occurs, try the installation again. If the problem persists, try to improve the quality of the remote management network connection. You can also burn the ISO image onto a DVD and install it with a USB DVD-ROM drive that you physically connect to the appliance.
- When the installation of the new appliance package is complete, you receive a Welcome message in the Flex Appliance Shell. The hostadmin user password resets to the default password (P@ssw0rd), so use the default password to log back in to the Flex Appliance Shell. Then run the following command to change the password:
set user password
- Restart the node with the system restart command.
- Proceed to the next steps that are listed at the end of this topic.
After the reimage is complete, do one of the following:
If you want to delete the existing storage data, perform a storage reset and then perform the initial configuration again to reconfigure your settings.
This option is not available if your appliance is in lockdown mode.
If you do not want to delete the storage data, you can recover the appliance with the existing storage data.
See Recovering storage data after a factory reset or a reimage.
If the node was never configured with the configure-console command, proceed with the initial configuration.
After the reimage is complete, do one of the following:
If you reimaged only one of the nodes, remove the node from the appliance and then add it back to the appliance. If the node was previously updated, reinstall the update after you add it back.
See Removing a node.
See Adding a node.
If you reimaged both nodes and want to delete the existing storage data, perform a storage reset and then perform the initial configuration again to reconfigure your settings.
This option is not available if your appliance is in lockdown mode.
If you reimaged both nodes and do not want to delete the storage data, you can recover the appliance with the existing storage data.
See Recovering storage data after a factory reset or a reimage.