Replibit - Deploying Axcient Replibit as a Virtual Machine

VMware is the only supported platform for deploying Axcient Replibit devices in a virtual environment.

Axcient Replibit leverages a Type-1 hypervisor engine to enable protected system virtualization for boot testing and instant recovery.

In order to operate as a virtual machine, Axcient Replibit requires support for nested virtualization. VMware ESXi 5.1 supports nested virtualization using both AMD and Intel processors, but ESX 5.5 and newer has support only for Intel processors. It is recommended to use Intel processors when setting up virtual instances of Axcient Replibit.

Prior to deploying Axcient Replibit as a virtual machine, it is recommended that you schedule a call with Axcient Replibit Support to assist with the deployment.

Note: It is possible to enable nested virtualization in KVM-based Hypervisor solutions (such as Redhat Enterprise Virtualization) in order to run Replibit as a virtual machine.  Set up and configuration for these platforms is not supported by Axcient Replibit.

IMPORTANT: Axcient Replibit does not recommend or support the deployment of appliances or vaults as virtual devices in a production environment.  Use at your own risk.

It is supported to deploy a management portal as a virtual device provided sufficient resources are allocated to the device. A management portal should have at least 4GB of RAM, and a 100GB operating system disk.  Disks may be thin provisioned.

To deploy Axcient Replibit on VMware:

1. Use the VMware client to create a new virtual machine with sufficient resources for the device being provisioned.

2. When the virtual machine has been created, customize the virtual machine definition file for use as an Axcient Replibit device.

3. Gracefully shut down the Axcient Replibit guest.

4. With the VM off, download the .vmx file and open it in WordPad.

5. Copy and paste the four entries below into the .vmx file and save it:

hotadd = "FALSE"
featMask.vm.hv.capable = "Min:1"
vhv.enable = "TRUE"
disk.EnableUUID = "true"

6. Upload the modified .vmx file back to its original location on the ESX host.

7. Remove the virtual machine from inventory.

Note: Do not delete the virtual machine.

8. Browse to the .vmx file from storage and open it to add the machine back to inventory.

9. Start the virtual machine.