Deploy with Virtual Appliance

You can run an Insight Point on the virtual machine service of your choice with a Veza-provided .OVA image. The file includes a full Linux environment within a single file that can run on VMWare vSphere, Oracle Virtualbox, or another other VM manager.

Compatibility

• The virtual appliance supports VMware vSphere 6.5+, and as Oracle VM Virtualbox 6.0+.

• The virtual appliance runs Alpine Linux.

Deploying the Virtual Appliance

Download the current Insight Point build from https://veza-releases.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/veza_insight_point.ova

Note: The virtual appliance is preconfigured with minimum CPU, RAM, and storage values. Unless instructed otherwise by Veza support, do not adjust the default values.

VMware

From the VMware Host Client Inventory screen, follow these steps to import the virtual appliance:

1. Right-click Host in the VMware Host client inventory and select Create/Register VM

2. In the New Virtual Machine window that appears, on the Select creation type page, select Deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA and click Next

3. On the Select OVF and VMDK files page, provide a unique name for the virtual machine (ex: veza_insight_point)

4. Click the blue pane to begin browsing to the location of the veza_insight_point.ova file on your local system storage

5. Browse to and select the veza_insight_point.ova file, then click Open

6. The file appears in the blue pane in the New Virtual Machine wizard; click Next

7. On the Select storage page, select the storage type (Standard) and choose a datastore for the virtual machine, then click Next

8. On the Deployment options page, select network mappings, disk provisioning, and power-on settings, then click Next

9. On the Ready to complete page, review the virtual machine details and click Finish

Oracle VM Virtualbox

In the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager, follow these steps to import the virtual appliance:

1. In the File menu, click Import Appliance

2. In the Appliance Import Wizard window that appears, click Choose to select the location of the veza_insight_point.ova file

3. Browse to the location of the veza_insight_point.ova file and click Open

4. Review the Appliance Import Settings displayed in the window and click Import

Generate an Insight Point Registration Key

The Insight Point requires a registration key to authenticate with the Veza platform. To generate an Insight Point registration key, follow these steps:

1. Browse to your Veza Instance and log in as an administrative user.

2. In the left navigation pane, locate Configuration, then click Insight Point in the subpane.

3. Click Generate New Key in the upper-right corner of the main pane.

4. Provide a name for the new Insight Point and set an expiration date and time.

5. Click Generate Key

6. Make note of the key value that is returned; this will be required for configuring the Insight Point below

Configuring the Virtual Appliance

Once the virtual appliance is deployed and powered on, finish completing the initial configuration from the hypervisor console or using SSH.

Default Credentials

Log in to the virtual appliance with the root account. This account has no password when initially deployed.

Configuration

From the shell prompt, run setup-veza to configure the system. The Message of the Day banner refers to this command on login.

After invoking the setup-veza command, follow the prompts:

1. Set the timezone for the virtual machine

   Note: Communication between the Insight Point and the Veza SaaS platform is sensitive to time drift. Ensure that the virtual machine's clock matches the local time.

2. Set an appropriate hostname for the virtual appliance

3. Configure the eth0 interface to use DHCP or static values

4. If using static interface values, configure DNS settings

5. Set a password for the root account

6. Enter the FQDN of your Veza instance

7. Enter the Insight Point Registration Key

   Note: This value is a long base64-encoded string; copy it from the Veza platform and paste the value here

8. The docker daemon will pull the most recent Insight Point image; this might take several seconds to initialize without screen output

9. The command will return to the shell prompt after the Insight Point deploys.

Operation and Troubleshooting

AFter the Insight Point deploys, verify that it has successfully connected to the Veza platform. Log in to the Veza platform and follow these steps:

1. On the left navigation pane, under Configuration, click Insight Point

2. Verify that a new Insight Point has registered with the platform.

Note: One Insight Point will exist by default, named "<your_organization>InCookie" (ex: vezaInCookie). Ensure at least two are present.

Verifying Container Status

If the newly deployed Insight Point does not appear on the Veza platform, verify the status of the container on the virtual machine:

1. Log into the virtual machine console or use SSH

2. List running Docker processes with the command: docker ps -a

3. Examine the output

The Insight Point's container ID should include a Status column showing Running.

Accessing Insight Point Logs

If the Insight Point does not appear to be in a running state, or if requested by Veza support, follow these steps to access the Insight Point logs:

1. Log into the virtual machine console or use SSH

2. Run the following command: docker ps -a

3. Note the value in the Container ID field

4. Run the following command to output the Insight Point logs: docker logs <container_id>, substituting the actual container ID

5. The logs are in JSON format and can be output to a file or copied from the terminal for debugging