Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Virtual Getting Started Guide

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Deploy the Firewall Management Center Virtual

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Overview

Learn how to deploy the Firewall Management Center Virtual on Cisco HyperFlex by using the vSphere Web Client to import OVF templates, select storage and disk formats, configure management network mappings, and set mandatory administrative credentials and DNS settings required for license registration.

Use this procedure to deploy the Firewall Management Center Virtual appliance to Cisco Hyperflex on a vSphere vCenter Server.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that you have deployed Cisco HyperFlex and performed all the post-installation configuration tasks. For more information, see Cisco HyperFlex Systems Documentation Roadmap.

  • You must have at least one network configured in vSphere (for management) before you deploy the Firewall Management Center Virtual.

  • Download the Firewall Management Center Virtual VI OVF template file from Cisco.com: Cisco_Secure_FW_Mgmt_Center_Virtual_VMware-VI-X.X.X-xxx.ovf, where X.X.X-xxx is the version and build number.

Procedure

1.

Log in to the vSphere Web Client.

2.

Select the Hyperflex cluster where you want to deploy the Firewall Management Center Virtual, and click ACTIONS > Deploy OVF Template.

3.

Browse your file system for the OVF template source location, and click NEXT

You want to select the Firewall Management Center Virtual VI OVF template:

Cisco_Secure_FW_Mgmt_Center_Virtual_VMware-VI-X.X.X-xxx.ovf

where X.X.X-xxx is the version and build number of the archive file you downloaded.

4.

Specify a name and folder for the Firewall Management Center Virtual deployment, and click NEXT.

5.

Select a compute resource, and wait until the compatibility check is complete. If the compatibility check succeeds, click NEXT.

6.

Review the OVF template information (product name, vendor, version, download size, size on disk, and description), and click NEXT.

7.

Review and accept the license agreement that is packaged with the OVF template (VI templates only), and click NEXT.

8.

Select a storage location and virtual disk format, and click NEXT.

On this window, you select from datastores already configured on the destination HyperFlex cluster. The virtual machine configuration file and virtual disk files are stored on the datastore. Select a datastore large enough to accommodate the virtual machine and all of its virtual disk files.

When you select Thick Provisioned as the virtual disk format, all storage is immediately allocated. When you select Thin Provisioned as the virtual disk format, storage is allocated on demand as data is written to the virtual disks. Thin provisioning can also reduce the amount of time it takes to deploy the virtual appliance.

9.

Map the networks specified in the OVF template to networks in your inventory, and click NEXT.

10.

Set the user-configurable properties packaged with the OVF template:

Note

You must mandatorily configure all the required customizations in this step.

  1. Password

    Set the password for the Firewall Management Center Virtual admin access.

  2. Network

    Set the network information, including the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), DNS, and network protocol (IPv4 or IPv6).

  3. Click NEXT.

11.

Review and verify the displayed information. To begin the deployment with these settings, click FINISH. To make any changes, click BACK to navigate back through the screens.

After you complete the wizard, the vSphere Web Client processes the virtual machine; you can see the “Initialize OVF deployment” status in the Global Information area Recent Tasks pane.

When it is finished, you see the Deploy OVF Template completion status.

The Firewall Management Center Virtual instance appears under the specified data center in the Inventory. Booting up the new VM could take up to 30 minutes.

Note

To successfully register the Firewall Management Center Virtual with the Cisco Licensing Authority, the Firewall Management Center requires Internet access. You need to perform additional configuration after deployment to achieve Internet access and successful license registration. DNS server configuration is mandatory for license registration.

What to do next

Initialize the virtual appliance; see Power On and Initialize the Virtual Appliance