Prerequisites

Before bootstrapping a VMware vSphere-based management cluster, complete the following prerequisite steps:

1. Verify that your planned cloud configuration meets the reference hardware bill of material and software requirements as described in Requirements for a VMware vSphere-based cluster.

2. Verify that your planned cloud configuration meets the deployment resources requirements.

3. Configure Ubuntu or RHEL on the bootstrap node:

   • For Ubuntu:

     1. Log in to any personal computer or VM running Ubuntu 20.04 that you will be using as the bootstrap node.

     2. If you use a newly created VM, run:

        sudo apt-get update
        

     3. Install the current Docker version available for Ubuntu 20.04:

        sudo apt install docker.io
        

     4. Grant your USER access to the Docker daemon:

        sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
        

     5. Log off and log in again to the bootstrap node to apply the changes.

     6. Verify that Docker is configured correctly and has access to Container Cloud CDN. For example:

        docker run --rm alpine sh -c "apk add --no-cache curl; \
        curl https://binary.mirantis.com"
        

        The system output must contain no error records. In case of issues, follow the steps provided in Troubleshooting.

   • For RHEL:

     1. Log in to a VM running RHEL 7.9 or 8.7 ^TechPreview that you will be using as a bootstrap node.

     2. If you do not use RedHat Satellite server locally in your infrastructure and require all Internet access to go through a proxy server, including access to RedHat customer portal, configure proxy parameters for subscription-manager using the example below:

        subscription-manager config \
            --server.proxy_scheme=$SCHEME \
            --server.proxy_hostname=$HOST \
            --server.proxy_port=$PORT \
            --server.proxy_user=$USER \
            --server.proxy_password=$PASS \
            --server.no_proxy=$NO_PROXY
        

        Caution

        In MITM proxy deployments, use the internal Red Hat Satellite server to register RHEL machines so that a VM can access this server directly without a MITM proxy.

     3. Attach the RHEL subscription using subscription-manager.

     4. Install the following packages:

        sudo yum install yum-utils wget vim -y
        

     5. For RHEL 7.9, verify that the extras repository is enabled:

        sudo yum-config-manager --enable rhel-7-server-extras-rpms
        

     6. Add the Docker mirror according to the operating system major version (7 for 7.9 and 8 for 8.7 ^TechPreview). Provide the proxy URL, if required, or set to _none_.

        sudo cat <<EOF > /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ee.repo
        [docker-ee]
        name=Docker EE
        gpgcheck=0
        enabled=1
        priority=1
        baseurl=https://repos.mirantis.com/rhel/RHEL_MAJOR_VERSION/x86_64/stable-20.10/
        proxy=PROXY
        EOF
        

     7. Install and configure Docker:

        sudo yum install docker-ee -y
        sudo systemctl start docker
        sudo chmod 666 /var/run/docker.sock
        

     8. Verify that Docker is configured correctly and has access to Container Cloud CDN. For example:

        docker run --rm alpine sh -c "apk add --no-cache curl; \
        curl https://binary.mirantis.com"
        

        The system output must contain no error records. In case of issues, follow the steps provided in Troubleshooting.

        Note

        If you require all Internet access to go through a proxy server for security and audit purposes, configure Docker proxy settings as described in the official Docker documentation.

4. Prepare the VMware deployment user setup and permissions.