Installing Other Software

The ExaVault appliance is provided as a virtual machine image for VMWare or cloud marketplaces such as AWS, Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure, and requires minimal ongoing server maintenance.

When you install the ExaVault appliance, you have full administrator access to the virtual machine as the "root" user. This grants you access to make any changes to the virtual machine through the server console or SSH.

We don't encourage installing custom software on the ExaVault appliance. That said, we know some organizations may require specific software to be included when you add the appliance to your infrastructure.

If you must install software besides what is included on the virtual machine using your administrator access, be aware of 2 potential drawbacks:

1. Service Dependencies and Environment Stability

The appliance contains a number of services that rely upon a specific system configuration to function predictably. Installing other software could have unforeseen interactions with the ExaVault services. For example, if your custom software interferes with the required firewall configuration, this can disrupt file transfers.

2. Version-Dependent Update Process

The approach to updates depends on which version of the appliance you are running. If you are running a version prior to 18.1, updating ExaVault versions requires installing a new virtual machine. As a result, you'll have to re-install all your custom software each time you update ExaVault from a version lower than 18.1.

However, if you're already on version 18.1 or higher, ExaVault updates can be applied automatically without needing to replace the entire virtual machine, which means your custom software won't need to be re-installed repeatedly.