Installing an Actifio

Sky 7.1 Appliance on

a VMware Server
Copyright, Trademarks, and other Legal Matter
Copyright 2010 - 2017 Actifio, Inc. All rights reserved.
Actifio, AnyIT, Dedup Async, OnVault, and VDP are registered trademarks of Actifio, Inc.
Actifio Sky, Actifio One, CDS, Copy Data Storage Platform, Manage Data Simply, Protection and
Availability Storage Platform, PAS, and Virtual Data Pipeline are trademarks of Actifio, Inc.
All other brands, product names, goods and/or services mentioned herein are trademarks or property of their
respective owners.
Actifio, Inc., is a provider of data protection and availability products. Actifios technology is used in products sold
by the company and products and services sold and offered by its commercial partners. The current list of Actifio
patents is available online at: http://www.actifio.com/patents/
Actifio believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. Actifio reserves the right
to make changes to information published in this document, including without limitation specifications and
product descriptions, at any time and without notice. This document supersedes and replaces all information
supplied prior to the publication hereof.
THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED AS IS. ACTIFIO, INC. MAKES NO
REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS
PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS
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This software and the associated documentation are proprietary and confidential to Actifio. Use, copying, and
distribution of any Actifio software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. Any
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liability.
Actifio strives to produce quality documentation and welcomes your feedback. Please send comments and
suggestions to docs@actifio.com.

ii Installing a VMware Actifio Sky 7.1 Appliance | actifio.com |

 Preface

This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to install Actifio Sky.

Your Actifio appliances Documentation Library contains detailed, step-by-step, application-specific instructions on how
to capture and access your data. Each guide is in PDF format and may be viewed, downloaded, and printed on
demand. The following guides will be of particular interest:
Getting Started with Actifio Enterprise Appliances
Setting Up Users and Roles With the Domain Manager
Configuring Resources and Settings With the Domain Manager
Planning and Developing Service Level Agreements
Virtualizing and Protecting Copy Data with the Application Manager
Managing Copy Data with the Application Manager

The Actifio Now Customer Portal

During the configuration and initialization of your Actifio appliance your Actifio representative provided you with a user
name and password for the Actifio Now customer portal.
From the customer portal you can obtain detailed reports about your Actifio appliance, access the Actifio product line
documentation set, including release notes, and search the portals knowledge base for answers to specific questions.
To log into the Actifio Now customer portal:
1. Go to: https://now.actifio.com
2. When prompted, enter the user name and password provided by your Actifio representative.

Actifio Support Centers

To contact an Actifio support representative, you can:
Send email to: support@actifio.com
Call:
From anywhere: +1.315.261.7501
US Toll-Free: +1.855.392.6810
Australia: 0011 800-16165656
Germany: 00 800-16165656
New Zealand: 00 800-16165656
UK: 0 800-0155019

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iv Installing an Actifio Sky 7.1 Appliance on a VMware Server | actifio.com |
Contents

Preface ......................................................................................................................................... iii

The Actifio Now Customer Portal....................................................................................................................iii
Actifio Support Centers ...................................................................................................................................iii

Chapter 1 - Best Practices for Installing Actifio Sky on VMware .......................................... 1

Actifio Sky on VMware Requirements and Capabilities.................................................................................2
Actifio Sky Appliances on Licensed/Unlicensed ESX Servers.......................................................................3
Licensing ............................................................................................................................................................4
ESX and vCenter 5.0 for 30TB and 50TB Licenses ..........................................................................................................4
Actifio Sky VMware Configuration...................................................................................................................5
Storage Requirements.......................................................................................................................................................5
ESX Power Management Off ............................................................................................................................................7
Ballooning Driver Off .........................................................................................................................................................7
NTP......................................................................................................................................................................................7
Networking .........................................................................................................................................................................8

Chapter 2 - Deploying the Actifio Sky OVA .............................................................................. 9

Deploying the Actifio Sky OVA.......................................................................................................................10
Configuring the Actifio Sky VMs Memory, CPUs, and Cores...................................................................... 11
Configure SCSI Controllers ............................................................................................................................13
Configuring the Actifio Sky VMs Disks .........................................................................................................14
Adding Network Interfaces .............................................................................................................................15
Worker Thread Errors ......................................................................................................................................15

Chapter 3 - Configuring Actifio Sky ........................................................................................ 17

Chapter 4 - Installing the Actifio Sky Desktop ...................................................................... 21

Chapter 5 - Adding an SSD to an Actifio Sky Appliance ...................................................... 23

Adding an SSD to an Actifio Sky Appliance..................................................................................................24
Adding a SSD From the Actifio Desktop ........................................................................................................................24
Adding an SSD From the Actifio CLI ..............................................................................................................................26

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vi Installing an Actifio Sky 7.1 Appliance on a VMware Server
1 Best Practices for Installing
Actifio Sky on VMware

The following sections provide the best practices for configuring an Actifio Sky VM on VMware:
Actifio Sky on VMware Requirements and Capabilities on page 1
Actifio Sky Appliances on Licensed/Unlicensed ESX Servers on page 1
Licensing on page 1
o ESX and vCenter 5.0 for 30TB and 50TB Licenses on page 1
Actifio Sky VMware Configuration on page 1
o Storage Requirements on page 1
o ESX Power Management Off on page 1
o Ballooning Driver Off on page 1
o Networking on page 1

CAUTION! At this point the VM must be powered down. Later on, you will be instructed to power on the VM.

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 Actifio Sky on VMware Requirements and Capabilities
The following table allows you to quickly compare the requirements and capabilities of Actifio Sky licenses.
s

License

1TB 5TB 10TB 30TB 50TB

* Cores 1 2 4 8 12
required. Requires ESX and Requires ESX and
Minimum 2 vCenter 5.0 or vCenter 5.0 or
GHz per core. later. later.

* Cores 2. 4. 6 10 15
required for Requires ESX and Requires ESX and
encryption at vCenter 5.0 or vCenter 5.0 or
rest. later. later.
Minimum 2
GHz per core.

Minimum 6GB 10GB 16GB 48GB 72GB

Memory

**Minimum 400GB (Thick 400GB (Thick 400GB (Thick 400GB (Thick 400GB (Thick
Disk Space for Provision Eager Provision Eager Provision Eager Provision Eager Provision Eager
Primary Pool. Zeroed) Zeroed) Zeroed) Zeroed) Zeroed)

**Minimum 10GB (Thick 10GB (Thick 10GB (Thick 10GB (Thick 10GB (Thick
Disk Space for Provision Eager Provision Eager Provision Eager Provision Eager Provision Eager
Snapshot Pool. Zeroed) Zeroed) Zeroed) Zeroed) Zeroed)

**Minimum 1TB (Thick 1TB (Thick 1TB (Thick 1TB (Thick 1TB (Thick
Disk Space for Provision Eager Provision Eager Provision Eager Provision Eager Provision Eager
Dedup Pool. Zeroed) Zeroed) Zeroed) Zeroed) Zeroed)

AWS AMI M3.XLarge M3.XLarge C4.2XLarge M4.4XLarge R3.4XLarge

***SSD Optional: 11GB Optional: 53GB Optional:103GB Required: 308GB Required: 512GB
Minimums

Maximum 1000 1000 1000 3000 5000

Actifio VDisks

*Required cores can be spread across multiple CPUs, with multiple CPUs providing slightly better
performance.
Sockets have a multiplying effect on the number of cores. Depending on how your VMware license is
configured, select a combination of sockets and cores to achieve the required number of cores.
** See: Storage Requirements on page 1.
***See Adding an SSD to an Actifio Sky Appliance on page 12 for details on adding SSDs.

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Actifio Sky Appliances on Licensed/Unlicensed ESX Servers
If an Actifio Sky appliance is installed on an unlicensed (free) ESXi server, the Policy Templates for that Actifio Sky
appliance CANNOT capture other VMs and applications installed on that ESXi server.
If an Actifio Sky appliance is installed on an unlicensed (free) ESXi server, the Policy Templates for that Actifio Sky
appliance CAN capture and access VMs and applications on licensed ESX servers and applications on physical servers.
If an Actifio Sky appliance is installed on a licensed ESX server, the Policy Templates for that Actifio Sky appliance CAN
capture VMs and applications on the ESX server on which the Actifio Sky appliance is installed. Policy Templates for
that Actifio Sky appliance can also capture VMs and applications on other licensed ESX servers and applications on
physical servers.

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 Licensing
Actifio Sky appliance license keys are generated internally at Actifio and are based on the Actifio appliances UUID. The
UUID is displayed during the Actifio Sky installation process. The Actifio Sky appliances UUID must be passed on to
the Actifio representative responsible for generating licenses. Adjust the memory and CPUs and cores to meet one of
the Actifio Sky appliance licenses:

License Minimum *Cores

Memory

1 TB Sky 6 GB 1 for a Non-Encryption License

2 for an Encryption License
Minimum 2 GHz per core

5 TB Sky 10 GB 2 for a Non-Encryption License

4 for an Encryption License
Minimum 2 GHz per core

10 TB Sky 16 GB 4 for a Non-Encryption License

6 for an Encryption License
Minimum 2 GHz per core

30 TB Sky 48 GB 8 for a Non-Encryption License

Requires ESX and vCenter 5.0 or later 10 for an Encryption License
Minimum 2 GHz per core

50 TB Sky 72 GB 12 for a Non-Encryption License

Requires ESX and vCenter 5.0 or later 15 for an Encryption License
Minimum 2 GHz per core

Note: The 5TB license is used for evaluations. If you decide to purchase an Actifio Sky appliance you can either
keep the current 5TB appliance, have your Actifio representative increase the capacity of the appliance, or install a
new, separate, larger Actifio Sky appliance.

Ensure the ESX server has sufficient memory and CPUs/Cores reserved for the Actifio Sky appliance. Do not share
The Actifio Sky appliances resources with other VMs.
*Required cores can be spread across multiple CPUs. Sockets have a multiplying effect on the number of
cores defined. Multiple CPUs providing slightly better performance over multiple cores.

ESX and vCenter 5.0 for 30TB and 50TB Licenses

To accommodate more than 7 processors/cores, VMware requires ESX and vCenter 5.0 or later. As a result, Actifio
Sky appliances with 30TB and 50TB licenses must be installed ESX servers and vCenters running 5.0 or later.

Note: VMwares ESX and vCenter 5.0 requirement is not limited to the Actifio Sky appliance. All VMs with more
than 7 processors/cores must run on ESX and vCenter 5.0 or later. Not adhering to this requirement may result in
the failure of capture and access operations.

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Actifio Sky VMware Configuration
The following sections detail the best practices for configuring the Actifio Sky VM.

Storage Requirements
The Actifio Sky appliance uses three storage pools; Primary Pool, Snapshot Pool, and the Dedup Pool. Each pool
MUST:
Reside on separate RAID-6 arrays
Reside on a RAID-6 array that supports at least 100 IOPS per disk
Use 7200 RPM disks, 10,000 RPM disks are preferred.

Note: Run the IOPerf tool prior to sky installation to ensure adequate performance. Actifio representatives
have access to a document that details how to run IOPERF.

Use Thick Provision Eager Zero disks.

Caution: Using thin provisioned disks can cause data loss.

To size an Actifio Sky appliance, you must consider the amount of data to be captured, its type, change rate, growth
and how long it would be retained. These variables and others are considered in the Actifio solution sizing tool.

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 The Actifio solution sizing tool will recommend how to allocate space for at least three Thick Provisioned Eager Zero
disks:
Primary Pool: One 400 GB disk used by the Actifio Sky appliance.
Snapshot Pool: Accommodates the full copies (snapshots) to be retained, plus enough space for future
growth. A minimum of 10 GB is required. You can at a later date, add additional disks in VMware to
accommodate growth. The Snapshot Pool requires its own SCSI controller set to VMware Paravirtual. See
Configure SCSI Controllers on page 13 for details.
Dedup Pool: Accommodates the deduplicated data to be retained, plus enough space for future growth. A
minimum of 1TB is required. You can at a later date, add additional disks in VMware to accommodate.
growth. The Dedup Pool requires its own SCSI controller set to VMware Paravirtual. See Configure SCSI
Controllers on page 13 for details.

Caution: Do not resize disks for Snapshot and Dedup Pools. If additional storage is needed, add disks.

When creating disks, ensure that the Mode is set to Independent and the default of Persistent.

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ESX Power Management Off
ESX power management can interfere with the operation of an Actifio Sky appliance. Ensure that power management
is turned off.

Ballooning Driver Off

You must turn off ballooning for the Actifio Sky appliances VM.
To turn off ballooning you must set the maximum balloon size to zero:
1. Log into the ESX server as a user with administrative rights.
2. Shut down the Actifio Sky appliance.
3. Right-click the Actifio Sky appliance listed on the Inventory panel and click Edit Settings.
4. Click the Options tab, then under Advanced, click General.
5. Click Configuration Parameters.
6. Click Add row and add the parameter sched.mem.maxmemctl in the text box.
7. Click on the row next to it and add 0 in the text box.
8. Click OK to save changes.

NTP
Do not use VMware Tools periodic time synchronization for the Actifio Sky appliances VM. You must use NTP instead.

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 Networking
Actifio Sky appliances require the following network settings:
Static IPs: You must provide static IPs for all NICs on Actifio Sky appliances.
VMXNET2 and VMXNET3: Actifio Sky appliances that use 30 TB licenses and greater must use the
VMXNET2 or VMXNET3 Ethernet adapters. These adapters enable 10GB performance.
Adding NICs: By default, the Actifio Sky appliance comes with a single NIC. To add additional NICs, see
the Actifio Sky System Management Tech Brief. This tech brief is available through your Actifio
representative.
iSCSI: The Actifio Sky appliance uses iSCSI to mount data. Ensure that iSCSI is turned on for the Actifio
Sky appliances ESX server and the servers that host the data the Actifio Sky appliance will capture and
manage.
When capturing an entire VM, iSCSI does not need to be configured on the ESX server that hosts the VM
to be captured. Once the VM has been captured, to present the VM to another ESX server, including the
ESX server from which it was captured, the ESX server must have iSCSI configured.
When capturing applications on a VM, iSCSI must be configured on the VMs ESX server.
The Actifio Snapshot pool and the Actifio Dedup pool must each have their own SCSI controller set to
VMware Paravirtual.

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2 Deploying the Actifio Sky OVA

This chapter provides instructions for deploying and configuring the Actifio Sky OVA using the best practices detailed
in Best Practices for Installing Actifio Sky on VMware on page 1.
Deploying the Actifio Sky OVA on page 10
Configuring the Actifio Sky VMs Memory, CPUs, and Cores on page 11
Configure SCSI Controllers on page 13
Configuring the Actifio Sky VMs Disks on page 14
Adding Network Interfaces on page 15
Worker Thread Errors on page 15

CAUTION! At this point the VM must be powered down. Later on, you will be instructed to power on the VM.

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 Deploying the Actifio Sky OVA
The Actifio OVA is deployed like any other VMware OVA:

Note: 30TB and 50TB licenses require ESX and vCenter 5.0 or later.

1. In vSphere, select File > Deploy OVF Template:

2. Browse to or enter the path to the Actifio OVA:

3. Complete the Actifio OVA deployment like any other OVA.

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Configuring the Actifio Sky VMs Memory, CPUs, and Cores
Once the VM has been deployed, configure its memory, CPUs, and cores according to license requirements. To
configure the VMs memory, CPUs, and cores:
1. Select the newly-deployed VM and click Edit Settings. The Virtual Machine Properties dialog appears:

2. Adjust the memory, CPUs, and cores to meet one of the Actifio Sky appliance licenses:

License Minimum *Cores

Memory

1 TB Sky 6 GB 1 for a Non-Encryption License

2 for an Encryption License
Minimum 2 GHz per core

5 TB Sky 10 GB 2 for a Non-Encryption License

(Evaluation only, not increasable) 4 for an Encryption License
Minimum 2 GHz per core

10 TB Sky 16 GB 4 for a Non-Encryption License

6 for an Encryption License
Minimum 2 GHz per core

30 TB Sky 48 GB 8 for a Non-Encryption License

Requires ESX and vCenter 5.0 or later 10 for an Encryption License
Minimum 2 GHz per core

50 TB Sky 72 GB 12 for a Non-Encryption License

Requires ESX and vCenter 5.0 or later 15 for an Encryption License
Minimum 2 GHz per core

*Required cores can be spread across multiple CPUs, providing slightly better performance. Sockets have a
multiplying effect on the number of cores. Depending on how your VMware license is configured, select a
combination of sockets and cores to achieve the required number of cores.
3. Review the Hardware Summary to ensure you have properly configured memory, CPUs, and cores:

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 :

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Configure SCSI Controllers
The VMs operating system and the Actifio Performance pool use the 0:0 controller.
The Actifio Snapshot Pool and Dedup Pool each require their own SCSI controller set to VMware Paravirtual.
The Actifio Snapshot Pool uses the 1:0 controller and disks assigned to the Snapshot Pool will use 1:x
The Actifio Dedup Pool uses the 2:0 controller and disks assigned to the Dedup Pool will use 2:x.
A controller can accommodate up to 15 disks. If you find it necessary to create more than 15 disks for a Snapshot or
Dedup Pool, you will need to define a new controller.
To define the SCSI controller as VMware Paravirtual.
1. From the Hardware list, select the SCSI controller and the options for the SCSI controller are displayed:

2. In the upper right-hand corner of the display, click Change Type and the options for changing the SCSI
controller are displayed.
3. Select VMware Paravirtual and then click OK.
4. Click OK to close the VM Properties page.
Once you have defined the controllers, you can define the disks and assign them to their respective controller.

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 Configuring the Actifio Sky VMs Disks
Once the memory, CPUs, and cores are configured, configure the VMs disks as follows.

Note: The disks defined in the following procedure will be placed into storage pools later on in this guide.

1. On the Hardware tab, select Add:

2. In the Add Hardware dialog, select Hard Disk:.

Caution: Disks MUST BE THICK PROVISION EAGER ZERO. Thin provisioned disks will cause capture
operations to fail and loss of data.

3. Your Actifio appliance requires at least three Thick Provision Eager Zero disks.
To size your Actifio appliance, your Actifio representative considered the amount of data to be captured, its
type, change rate, growth and how long it would be retained, This same information is required to allocate
space for the Actifio appliance's disks.
o One 400GB disk for the Primary Pool. This disk is used by the Actifio Sky appliance.
o One disk for the Snapshot Pool. Allocate enough space to accommodate the full copies
(snapshots) to be retained, plus enough space for future growth. A minimum of 10 GB is required.
You can at a later date, add additional disks in VMware to accommodate growth.
o One disk for the Dedup Pool. Allocate enough space to accommodate the deduplicated data to be
retained, plus enough space for future growth. A minimum of 1TB is required. You can at a later
date, add additional disks in VMware to accommodate growth.

Caution: Do not resize disks for Snapshot and Dedup Pools. If additional storage is needed, add disks.

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 Note: The pool names associated with these disks will be used in Configuring Actifio Sky on page 17.

4. For the disks that will be assigned to the Snapshot Pool and Dedup Pool, from the Virtual Device Node
drop down menu, select the SCSI controller you created to which this disk will be assigned.
o Disks for the Snapshot Pool use 1:x
o Disks for the Dedup Pool use 2:x.
5. Under Mode, check Independent and accept the default of Persistent.
6. Click OK and the disk is configured.
Once you have finished configuring all of the disks, you can power up the VM.

Adding Network Interfaces

Once the Actifio Sky appliance is up and running, you can add additional network interfaces. For environments that
require multiple NICs i.e. one NIC for data storage and another NIC for management, you must manually add NICs.
Actifio representatives have access to a document that details how to add NICs to an Actifio Sky appliance.
For Actifio Sky network requirements, see Networking on page 8.

Worker Thread Errors

Worker Thread errors such as:
2016-05-26 13:21:39.138 INFO Worker_Thread_Job_0593710 SC6164: Error: 1732: Worker thread
failed: write failed for "\\?\C:\Windows\act\Staging_584181\SPARK CRM04\F_2016-03-
01T211433.vhd": The storage device is unresponsive [0x8003020a]
Indicate either:
Memory for the Actifio Sky appliance has been incorrectly allocated.
The bandwidth for the network on which the Actifio appliance resides is consumed by other devices

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16 Installing an Actifio Sky 7.1 Appliance on a VMware Server | actifio.com |
3 Configuring Actifio Sky

After the VM is configured and powered up, it is ready to be configured as an Actifio Sky appliance.

Note: For the following procedure you will need the IP address of the VM. The VMs IP may be found on the VMs
Summary page.

1. Open a browser and in the address space, enter the IP of the newly configured VM:
http://<VM IP address>/.
2. The installer opens the first of three tabs:

3. If your Actifio Sky appliance will sit behind a firewall, i.e. installed in a cloud instance, in the spaces
provided enter the Public IP.
4. Ensure that the auto discovered Actifio Sky appliance IP address is correct.

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 5. In the space provided, enter a name for the Actifio Sky appliance.
6. Ensure that the auto discovered network IP addresses are correct.
7. From the Infrastructure drop down menu, select either VMware or AWS as needed.
8. Set the time zone as needed.
9. If you are installing the Actifio Sky appliance as an evaluation:

Note: The 5TB license is used for evaluations. Once selected it cannot be increased. If you decide to
purchase a Actifio Sky appliance you will either keep the current 5TB appliance or install a larger Actifio Sky
appliance.

o Leave the License Number field set to the default setting.

o Click Next and the Step 2 tab contents are displayed. See page 16.
10. If you are not installing this Actifio Sky appliance as an evaluation, capture the System UUID and pass it on
to the Actifio representative. The Actifio representative will use the UUID to generate the Actifio Sky
appliance license key.
11. In the space provided, paste a copy of the license key you obtained from the Actifio representative.
12. Click Validate License to ensure the validity of the license entered.
If the license is valid, the Managed Data License (MDL) size will be displayed in a popup window. If there
are any optional add-ons included in the license they will also be shown here.
13. If you are using an encryption license, a Pass phrase field is displayed. Enter a pass phrase, record the pass
phrase and keep it in a secure location.
14. In the spaces provided enter (create) a password for the first Admin user of the Actifio Sky appliance.
15. Click Next and the Step 2 tab contents are displayed:

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Note: Step two allows you to assign the disks created for the Primary, Dedup, and Snapshot pools to their
respective pools.

16. Select and drag the Available Disks to the pools for which they were created.
17. Click Validate Installation. The Actifio Sky installer validates the settings and if no issues are encountered,
advances to the third tab. Any issues will appear in a yellow field at the top of the page 2.
18. The third tab provides the opportunity to review choices and go back and make changes as needed.
.

19. Once choices are verified, click Complete Installation and the Actifio Sky appliance will reboot.

Note: The reboot may take several minutes. The Actifio user interface will become responsive before the appliance
is ready for use. Do not attempt any operations until the Dedup light on the Dashboard shows green.

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20 Installing an Actifio Sky 7.1 Appliance on a VMware Server | actifio.com |
4 Installing the Actifio Sky Desktop

This chapter provides step-by-step instructions for installing the Actifio Sky Desktop.
Once the Actifio Sky appliance has been installed and it has rebooted, refresh your browser window and the Actifio
Resource Center is displayed. To display the Actifio Resource Center in a new browser window, enter the IP address
you defined for the Actifio Sky appliance in Configuring the Actifio Sky Appliance on page 13.

1. From the Actifio Resource Center, download and install the Adobe Air Player. The Adobe Air Player is
needed to display the Actifio user interface.
2. Once Adobe Air Player is installed, from the Actifio Resource Center, download and install the Actifio
Desktop Air File.
3. When the Actifio Desktop is installed the Actifio Desktop is displayed:

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 In the spaces provided, enter:
4. The user name and password you defined in Step 1 of the Installer.
5. The IP address of the Actifio Sky appliance you defined in Step 1 of the Installer.
6. Click Sign in and the Actifio Desktop Dashboard is displayed.

Actifio One Desktop Dashboard

The Actifio One Desktop Dashboard displays a high-level view of your Actifio One appliances status. Once the Actifio
One Dashboard is displayed, you are ready to begin using the Actifio One appliance.
Before you begin, consult the Getting Started with Actifio Copy Data Management guide. A copy of this guide can
be obtained by clicking the book icon in the lower left-hand corner of the Actifio One Desktop Dashboard.

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5 Adding an SSD to an Actifio Sky
Appliance

Actifio Sky appliances that have licenses of 30 TB and greater must use an SSD. As specified in Adding an SSD to an
Actifio Sky Appliance on page 24, each Actifio Sky license type has its own SSD requirement:

Actifio Sky Appliance SSD Requirements

License SSD Size Optional/Required

50TB 512GB Required

30TB 308GB Required

10TB 103GB Optional

5TB 53GB Optional

1TB 1GB Optional

An SSD already assigned to an Actifio Sky appliance from a release prior to Actifio 7.0 cannot be used. If you have an
SSD from a release prior to Actifio 7.0 it does not have to be removed. However, if you feel that the SSD must be
removed, contact your Actifio representative for assistance.

Note: If the dedup pool is built entirely from an SSD, then there is no need to add an SSD.

Use the hypervisor vendors best practices to physically add an SSD to a hypervisor. Once the SSD has been added,
see Adding an SSD to an Actifio Sky Appliance on page 24

Note: The procedures specified in this document apply to Actifio Skys Dedup Pool and are separate from the way
SSDs are used with Actifio CDS.

VMware Versions
Sky Appliances are delivered with VMware Virtual Machine Compatibility Level 7. This allows Actifio Sky to work with
older versions of ESX.
For an Actifio Sky appliance to identify SSDs automatically, both of the following need to be true:
The ESX hosting environment needs to be version 5.5.0 or greater.
The VM Compatibility has to be updated to version 10.
If one or both of these conditions is not true, then you will not be able to add an SSD to the Actifio Sky appliance via
the Actifio Sky Desktop. Instead, you will have to use the Actifio CLI to add the SSD to the Actifio Sky appliance. See
Adding an SSD From the Actifio CLI on page 26 for details.

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 Adding an SSD to an Actifio Sky Appliance
SSDs can be added to a Actifio Sky appliance either via the Actifio Desktop or via the Actifio CLI. For details see:
Adding a SSD From the Actifio Desktop on page 24
Adding an SSD From the Actifio CLI on page 26

Adding a SSD From the Actifio Desktop

Once a hypervisor has been updated with the required SSD, modify the Actifio Sky appliances Dedup Pool as follows:

Note: If the SSD you added to your hypervisor does not appear in the Actifio Sky Desktop, then you will have to add
the SSD to the Actifio Sky appliance via the Actifio Sky CLI. See Adding an SSD From the Actifio CLI on page 26 for
details.

1. Open Domain Manager > System > Configuration > Storage Pools.
2. Select the Dedup tab. The Dedup Pool information page opens.

3. Click the pencil icon next to the Dedup Pool name and the Manage Dedup Pool page is displayed:
If necessary, scroll down until the SSD section of the window is displayed.
4. In the Unmanaged SSDs column, click the plus sign next to the SSD you added for the Actifio Sky
appliance and it will move to the Selected SSD(s) column.

Note: If the SSD you installed is listed under unmanaged MDisks and not under Unmanaged SSDs, select
the SSD and then click the Tag link. This will tag the selected disk as an SSD and it will appear in the
Selected SSD column.

24 Installing an Actifio Sky 7.1 Appliance on a VMware Server | actifio.com |

 5. Click Submit and the SSD is added to the Actifio Sky appliance.

Note: Only SSDs large enough to meet your Actifio Sky appliances license requirements will appear in this
dialog box.

| actifio.com | Installing an Actifio Sky 7.1 Appliance on a VMware Server 25

 Adding an SSD From the Actifio CLI
If you cannot add the SSD to your Actifio Sky appliance via the Actifio Sky Desktop, then use the following CLI
procedure.

Note: The following procedure requires access to the Actifio CLI. Detailed instructions for accessing the Actifio CLI
can be found in the Setting Up Users and Roles with the Domain Manager guide. A copy of this guide can be
found in the Actifio Desktops online library and on the Actifio Documentation Portal (now.actifio.com).

After adding an SSD to your virtual server, add the SSD to your Actifio Sky appliances Dedup Pool.
1. Identify the SSD:
# udsinfo lsssd
id wwid slot status
- pci-0000:00:10.0-scsi-0:0:4:0 None None
2. Add the SSD to the Actifio Sky appliances Dedup Pool:
# udstask addssd -component act_ded_pool000 pci-0000:03:00.0-scsi-0:0:3:0
If the SSD still does not appear in the Actifio Sky appliances Manage Dedup Pool dialog box, manually add the SSD to
the Dedup Pool.
1. Identify the Dedup Pool to which the SSD will be added:
# udsinfo lsdiskpool
id warnpct modifydate name safepct mdiskgrp
71 80 2015-07-30 17:19:25.459 act_pri_pool000 90 act_pri_pool000
72 88 2015-07-30 17:19:25.462 act_ded_pool000 100 act_ded_pool000/
act_ded_vdk0000
73 80 2015-07-30 17:19:25.463 act_per_pool000 90 act_per_pool00
2. Assign the SSD to the Actifio Sky appliances dedup pool:
# udstask addssd -component act_ded_pool000 pci-0000:03:00.0-scsi-0:0:3:0
3. Verify the changes under slot status:
# udsinfo lsssd
id wwid slot status
- pci-0000:00:10.0-scsi-0:0:40 None act_ded_pool000

26 Installing an Actifio Sky 7.1 Appliance on a VMware Server | actifio.com |