VMware Edition installation

This section applies to installing Dash Enterprise Single Server in a local VMware environment. VMware Edition is intended for use only by customers who cannot use Docker containers directly. Support for this edition is limited and the latest version of Dash Enterprise is not always available as a VM. If possible, we strongly recommend using the regular Dash Enterprise release.

The below walkthrough assumes that you are using VMware ESXi managed by the VMware vSphere client. If that is not the case, please consult the documentation for your hypervisor.

Hypervisor requirements

Dash Enterprise requires a hypervisor (also known as virtualization player or virtualization host) that supports OVA/OVF files. This release was tested on VMware vSphere 6 (ESXi) Hypervisor 6.0.0 (managed by VMware vSphere Client), but any other hypervisor that supports OVA/OVF should also work.

The virtual machine to be provisioned requires the following system resources:

• 4 CPU cores

• 16 GB RAM

• 2 TB free disk space

  • This number may be increased or decreased depending on the size of the active team, but should never be lower than 200 GB

Provision virtual machine

1. Create a new virtual machine using the plotly-on-premise-3.1.0.ova file provided to you by Plotly:

   1. Go to File > Deploy OVF Template

   2. Select plotly-on-premise-3.1.0.ova and click Next

   3. On the Details screen, click Next

      1. The description is incorrect; this is known and is to be fixed in a later release

   4. Name the machine (we suggest Dash Enterprise 3.1) and click Next

   5. On the Summary screen, leave Power on after deployment disabled and click Finish

      1. The virtual machine will now be deployed

      2. This may take some time if you have a slow network connection, since the OVA file is being uploaded to your hypervisor

2. Configure the virtual machine

   1. Click the new virtual machine in the Inventory and select Edit virtual machine settings

   2. Increase memory to 16 GB (or more if desired)

   3. Increase CPUs to the maximum available

   4. Click Add > Hard Disk > Create a new virtual disk and add a 2 TB disk

   5. Do not change any advanced options

3. Power on the virtual machine and continue configuration using the console (see next section)

   1. The virtual machine may take up to two minutes to boot

Configure using the VM’s console

To visit the console of your new VM, right-click on the Dash Enterprise entry in your virtual machine inventory and choose Open Console. If the virtual machine has finished booting, the Dash Enterprise banner will be displayed in the console. You will then be taken to the First Boot menu to configure the system as follows.

1. Set shell password: this is for the plotly user account, which has root access via sudo for system administration

   • The default password is plotly

2. Set root password: this password will be for the root user and is recommended for emergency repairs to your system

   • If you do not set this password, the root user will be unable to log in

3. Install Replicated: this begins the installer for the Server Manager

   • If you have more than one network interface, select the one that will be used to access the server from your network

   • When asked if this machine uses a proxy to access the Internet, enter y if this is the case or if it uses a proxy to access your internal networks; otherwise, enter n

4. Prepare storage: this attempts to automatically locate and prepare data storage for Dash Enterprise, as follows:

   • If there is an existing formatted partition labelled plotly, it will be added to fstab, mounted, and used for data storage (this supports upgrades)

   • If not, any unpartitioned drives will be partitioned, then the largest unformatted partition will be formatted, labelled as plotly, added to fstab, and mounted to be used for data storage

     1. If you added a second hard disk or block device meeting these criteria, it will automatically be prepared for use as data storage

   • If you are unable to use the Prepare storage option, see the next step

5. Perform shell-based configuration if needed: if you are not able to use the automated installer, you can use the Run a shell utility for configuration tasks

   • To prepare storage manually:

     1. Create a partition and format it

     2. Mount the partition on /plotly

     3. To support upgrades, add the partition to /etc/fstab and label it plotly

6. Continue to web-based configuration: choose Exit installer to continue the rest of the installation in a Web browser; see Configuration to continue.