Prepare a VMware ESXi Machine

Overview

This procedure explains how to prepare a VMware ESXi machine for TOS. Any existing data on the machine will be deleted.

Prerequisites

General Requirements

  • This procedure must be performed by an experienced Linux administrator with knowledge of network configuration.

  • Make sure the TufinOS release you are going to install, supports your target TOS release - see TufinOS 4 Supported Upgrade Paths.

  • To ensure optimal performance and reliability, the required resources need to always be available for TOS. If resources become unavailable, this will affect TOS performance. Do not oversubscribe resources.

  • Verify that you have sufficient resources (CPUs, disk storage and main memory) to run TOS. The required resources are determined by the size of your system. See Sizing Calculation for a Clean Install.

  • IP tables version 1.8.5 and above. IP tables must be reserved exclusively for TOS Aurora and cannot be used for any other purpose. During installation, any existing IP tables configurations will be flushed and replaced.

  • The Virtual Machine Operating System guest family must be Linux, and the operating system guest version must be RHEL 8.x

VMware Requirements

  • The ESX host must be running VMware ESXi 6.5, 6.7, 7.0 or 8.0 only. ESXi 8.0 requires TufinOS 4.20 or later
ESXi 6 is already EOL (end of life). ESXi 7 is planned to reach EOL in April 2025
  • Disks:
    • Select a storage type of SSD. Take into consideration that TOS requires 7,500 IOPS and the throughput expected will average 250MB/s with bursts of up to 700MB/s.
    • Storage size of disk is determined by the sizing calculation. Minimum: 400 GB.
    • Data nodes require an additional disk for etcd. Size: 50 GB.

  • Secure boot must be disabled.

Network Requirements

  • Tufin Orchestration Suite must only be installed in an appropriately secured network and physical location. Only authorized users should be granted access to TOS products and the operating system on the server.

  • You must allow access to required Ports and Services.

  • All TOS nodes need to be on the same subnet.

  • Network configurations for your interface must be set to manual IPv4 with gateway and DNS Servers set to the IPs used by your organization.

    The system will use a reverse DNS lookup (PTR record) to resolve the DNS IP addresses with the domain name during the TOS installation. Therefore you have to add these PTR records to the DNS server. If you do not, the TOS installation will fail.

  • Allocate a 24-bit CIDR subnet for the Kubernetes service network and a16-bit CIDR subnet for the Kubernetes pods network (10.244.0.0/16 is used by default).

    The pods and services networks must be inside the following private networks: 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16. In addition, ensure that the dedicated CIDR for the service network and pods network don't overlap with each other, and:

    • The physical addresses of your TOS servers (see below)

    • Your primary VIP, Syslog VIP or external load balancer IP (see below)

    • Any other subnets communicating with TOS or with TOS nodes

  • If a proxy is configured on your system make sure this network is excluded.

  • You must have available the following dedicated IP addresses:

    • For on-premise deployments, a primary VIP that will serve as the external  IP address used to access TOS from your browser. The primary VIP will not be needed in the installation of the operating system, except in the final step - the installation command.
    • The physical network IP address of the first network interface used by the administrator for CLI commands. This is the IP address you will use in most steps of the procedure.

    • If additional nodes are subsequently added to the cluster, each node will require an additional dedicated physical network IP address.

    • Additional syslog VIPs can be allocated as needed.

    • The VIP, all node physical network IP addresses and all syslog VIPs must be on the first network interface.

    • Make sure your first physical interface is correctly configured and all other interfaces are not on the same network.

      To find the first network interface, run the following command:

      [<ADMIN> ~]$ sudo /opt/tufinos/scripts/network_interface_by_pci_order.sh | awk -F'=' '/NET_IFS\[0\]/ { print $NF }'
      sudo /opt/tufinos/scripts/network_interface_by_pci_order.sh | awk -F'=' '/NET_IFS\[0\]/ { print $NF }'

      Otherwise network errors such as connectivity failures and incorrect traffic routing might occur.

The Install Procedure

Before you proceed, read and understand Prerequisites to avoid risk of failure.

Download TufinOS 4.50

  1. Download the TufinOS 4.50 installation package from the Download Center to your local machine.

    2. Make sure the TufinOS release you are going to install, supports your target TOS release - see TufinOS 4 Supported Upgrade Paths.

  2. Extract the TufinOS image from its archive.

    [<ADMIN> ~]$ sudo tar xzvf <FILENAME>.tgz
    sudo tar xzvf <FILENAME>.tgz

    The run file name includes the release, version, build number, and type of installation.

    TufinOS USB file example: TufinOS-4.50-4368238-x86_64-Final.usb.img

  3. Verify the integrity of the TufinOS installation package.

    [<ADMIN> ~]# sha256sum -c TufinOS-X.XX-XXXXXX-x86_64-Final.usb.img.sha256
    sha256sum -c TufinOS-X.XX-XXXXXX-x86_64-Final.usb.img.sha256

    The output should return OK

Install TufinOS 4.50

  1. Place the TufinOS ISO image file on the datastore of vSphere. For local installation on a VMware machine, locate the extracted ISO image file.

  2. Confirm that in your virtual machine settings, Boot Options is configured to use BIOS. If you are using EFI, the procedure will not work.

  3. Edit the properties of the virtual CD/DVD drive, and do one of the following:

    Using vSphere:

    • As Device Type select Datastore ISO file, and browse to the TufinOS ISO image.

    • Under Device Status, select Connect at power on.

    Using a workstation:

    • Under Device Status, select Connect at power on.

    • Under Connection, select Use ISO image file, and browse to the TufinOS ISO image.

  4. Set the VM to boot to BIOS configuration

    1. Navigate to VM settings > VM options.
    2. Check: During the next boot, force entry into the BIOS setup screen.

  5. In BIOS > Boot, select CD-ROM Drive.

  6. In BIOS > Exit, select Exit Saving Changes. Click Yes.

  7. Save the settings.

  8. Restart the VM. TufinOS installation begins.

  9. Select TufinOS 4.50 Installation for TOS Aurora.

  10. When prompted, select Install TufinOS 4.50 for Data Node:

  11. When prompted, confirm and choose Yes.

  12. When the installation is complete, reboot the virtual machine.

  13. When BIOS launches, change the Boot option to Hard Drive.

  14. In BIOS > Exit, select Exit Saving Changes. Click Yes.

  15. Log in using the default admin user credentials:

    username: tufin-admin

    password: admin (you will be prompted to change this on first log in)

    IP address: assigned by DHCP

Set Up TufinOS 4.50

  1. If you want to reset the host name or IP of the machine, do so now. It cannot be done at a later stage. See Changing IP Address/Host Names.

  2. Configure the server timezone.

    [<ADMIN> ~]$ sudo timedatectl set-timezone <timezone>
    sudo timedatectl set-timezone <timezone>

    where <timezone> is in the format Area/Location. Examples: America/Jamaica, Hongkong, GMT, Europe/Prague.

    To view a list of the time-zone formats that can be used, run:

    [<ADMIN> ~]$ sudo timedatectl list-timezones
    sudo timedatectl list-timezones
    Ukraine only. Since the change in timezone name from Kiev to Kyiv, not all software products have been adjusted. We therefore recommend avoiding these names and instead using an alternative city in the same timezone such as Europe/Tallinn.

  3. Synchronize your machine time with a trusted NTP server. Follow the steps in Configuring NTP Using Chrony. In an HA deployment, all servers need to be synchronized to the same time.

  4. Configure the IP address and DNS, where <Interface Name> is the name of the interface you are using (for example, ens32). If you have several network interfaces, configure the first one.

    Run the command: 

    [<ADMIN> ~]$ sudo /opt/tufinos/scripts/network_interface_by_pci_order.sh | awk -F'=' '/NET_IFS\[0\]/ { print $NF }'
    sudo /opt/tufinos/scripts/network_interface_by_pci_order.sh | awk -F'=' '/NET_IFS\[0\]/ { print $NF }'

  5. To assign a static IP address:

    1. Run the command: 

      2. [<ADMIN> ~]$ sudo nmtui edit <Interface Name>
      sudo nmtui edit <Interface Name>

      and set the following parameters in the window:

      • Set IPv4 CONFIGURATION to Manual
      • Set Addresses for the physical IP, together with the chosen subnet
      • Set Gateway and DNS Servers to the IPs used by your organization
    2. Restart the network service. 
      3. [<ADMIN> ~]$ sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service
      sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service

  6. Run:

    [<ADMIN> ~]$ sudo nslookup <DNS SERVER IP>
    sudo nslookup <DNS SERVER IP>

    If the name of the server appears, the DNS server can resolve its own address using a reverse lookup.

    Example Output

    [<ADMIN> ~]$ sudo nslookup  1.2.3.4
4.3.2.1.in-addr.arpa	name=EXAMPLE.company.com

    If the name of the server does not appear, set it using a reverse lookup entry at /etc/hosts.

    Example Output where 1.2.3.4 4.3.2.1.in-addr-arpa was added.

    [<ADMIN> ~]$ sudo cat /etc/hosts 
127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4
::1 localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6
1.2.3.4 admin.company.com admin
2.3.4.5 5.4.3.2.in-addr-arpa