Installation & Setup
Last updated
Last updated
Before beginning your installation of the ExaVault appliance, ensure that you will be able to provision a virtual appliance that meets our and that you will be able to comply with our required .
If you are planning to use SSH to connect to your appliance, you must update your networking rules to allow inbound TCP 10022 from the addresses that should manage the appliance prior to starting.
You will need a static (or rarely-changing) IP address because your installation's . We recommend assigning an Elastic IP address, which prevents IP changes due to instance resizes, stops, and restarts. Frequent updates to the appliance's IP address will invalidate your license.
You will need to know the internal IP Address the appliance will be using as well as the public IP Address to be used for Network Address Translation (NAT).
ExaVault requires that the server has a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) set as the server's hostname.
We recommend not using the word ftp in this domain. We suggest using files.yourdomain.com (E.g. files.example.com)
Obtain an SSL certificate for your domain name from a trusted vendor. It will be used to secure HTTPS and FTPS connections. Your appliance will not run successfully without an SSL certificate.
If you are using VMWare, and use your hypervisor system to import the ExaVault image and launch the VM. Make sure to add the secondary drive for data storage and attach it to the VM as part of this step.
If you are using VMWare, the image comes shipped with a default username and password. Power on the virtual machine and login via the VMWare console as admin with the password DefaultPassChangeMe1!
ExaVault is distributed as a .ova file for VMWare.
Connect to the appliance using your VM console or via SSH. The VM uses a nonstandard port for SSH, so you must specify port 10022 for an SSH connection.
By default, ExaVault's cloud marketplace listings do not open inbound traffic to port 10022 from the Internet. If you are planning to use SSH to connect to your appliance, you must update your networking rules in your cloud provider to allow inbound TCP 10022 from the addresses that should manage the appliance prior to starting.
Run the bootstrap command to mount your data drive and launch the Appliance Manager.
The --device option can be omitted if using the default /dev/nvme1n1. Otherwise replace <device> with the device of your data disk drive.
After you've bootstrapped the appliance, the exavault-admin-dashboard container should be running. Use a web browser to visit the IP address for your appliance on port 9002 - https://<your-appliance-ip-or-hostname>:9002/. There will be a security warning because the SSL certificate is not yet configured.
When you connect for the first time, you'll need to set a password for the Appliance Manager. Save this password in a secure location.
You need to do some configuration before you can run the appliance - adding the license information, updating the server configuration and installing the SSL certificate. All of the steps must be completed before the appliance will start successfully.
Complete the form to automatically generate your free license for ExaVault. No payment information is required, and your contact information is stored securely.
On the Configuration page, you'll need to enter information about your network environment.
Hostname: This is the hostname (URL) the application will use. It must be set to the Fully Qualified Domain Name URL that you will use to access the service.
IP Address: This is the IP address matching the DNS record used in the Hostname field of the appliance. It is used for FTP/SFTP to ensure NAT is handled properly.
External FTP IP Address: This is typically the same as IP Address; however, it can be different if the appliance has an internal IP and ports are being forwarded from an external IP address via a router.
Email Host: The address of the server that will deliver email messages generated by your ExaVault appliance.
Email Port: The port used for connecting to your mail service for sending.
Email SSL: If your mail sender requires the use of SSL, check this box. Typically, this will be the case when using port 465 for your email port.
Email Username & Email Password: The credentials used to authenticate with your mail service for sending.
Email From: The from email address that will be used for emails generated by the ExaVault appliance.
Visit the SSL Certificate page of the Appliance Manager and upload your SSL Certificate.
If you have already obtained your SSL certificate, upload it on the Upload Certificate tab. You will supply a single file which contains the certificate, its intermediate certificates, and its private key, in that order.
The form on this tab will generate a self-signed cert. This is the least preferred option.
This tab allows you to generate a brand new Certificate Signing Request (CSR) that you can submit to your SSL Certificate Provider.
Once your SSL Certificate Provider has provided you with your renewed SSL Certificate, use the Upload Certificate tab to import the certificate, its intermediate certificates, and its private key.
The appliance can trust a CA Certificate under the Trusted CA tab. Organizations with their own Certificate Authority should add their CA.crt to this section.
The settings under the System tab should not need to be changed unless ExaVault Support has directed you to update them.
Once you have configured your certificate, visit the appliance manager using your fully qualified domain name and verify that your certificate is being used for the connection.
For example, if your domain is files.example.com, visit https://files.example.com:9002
When the web page loads, you should not see a browser security warning, if everything has been configured correctly.
Complete all of the steps to Configure the ExaVault Appliance, including verifying that SSL is properly configured before moving on to the next step.
At this point, you've done everything you need to do at this time.
Using your VM console or SSH, run the command to start the appliance:
It may take several minutes for all of the containers to start. When the command has completed, you will be able to access the web interface for your ExaVault installation.
Use a web browser to access your server at the address you configured for the appliance's hostname. Log in with the default username administrator and the password password. Change your password immediately upon logging in.
Refer to the instructions.
After obtaining the ExaVault .ova image, follow the steps to configure the , then continue to Bootstrap the Appliance.
If you are installing the appliance from the AWS Marketplace, bootstrapping is unnecessary. Refer to the instructions.