# VMWare Prerequisites

If you are using VMWare, [download the ExaVault image](/installing-and-upgrading-the-appliance/downloading-the-base-image.md) and use your hypervisor system to import the ExaVault image and launch the VM.

Add a secondary drive for data storage and attach it to the VM. Make it as large as your environment can support. All data on the appliance is saved to this drive. The minimum size is 500GB.

Once the new VM is created, open **Edit Settings** for it.

Change the CPU and Memory settings to match the required resources. Normally this is [4 vCPU and 16 GB of memory](/installing-and-upgrading-the-appliance/system-requirements.md).

The **Guest OS Family** must be set to Linux, and the **Guest OS Version** to Debian GNU/Linux 6 (64bit).

The root disk for the new VM must have at least 100GB of available space.

Power on the virtual machine and login via the console as `admin` with the password `DefaultPassChangeMe1!`.

Change the hostname to your desired hostname using the command:

```
hostnamectl set-hostname <existing_hostname>
```

Use the `passwd` command to change the password for the admin user.

Create and apply the appropriate netplan configuration in `/etc/netplan/`.

#### Netplan Example Configuration

Use the example template below to create a network configuration for your environment.

```
network:
  version: 2
  ethernets:
    ens192:
      dhcp4: no
      addresses:
      - 192.168.0.5/24
      nameservers:
        addresses: [8.8.8.8, 4.2.2.2]
      routes:
      - to: 0.0.0.0/0
        via: 192.168.0.1
      routing-policy:
      - from: 192.168.0.1/24
```

After the network configuration has been set, apply the changes:

```
netplan apply
```


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.exavault.com/installing-and-upgrading-the-appliance/installation-and-setup/vmware-prerequisites.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.