This article provides the steps resolve issues that arise from the ForumOS Virtual Appliance NICs (MGMT, LAN and WAN) changing interfaces upon reboot.
Please note the following:
- This applies to OVA distributions prior to 8.3.521 and 8.5.116. If your Virtual Appliance was created from an OVA built prior to those releases then these instructions are relevant to you. The version of the OVA is in the OVA filename.
- Upgrading the Sentry firmware on your Virtual Appliance to 8.3.521/8.5.116 or greater will not fix the issue.
There are 3 methods to ensure that the ForumOS Virtual Appliance NICs ( MGMT, LAN and WAN) will stick to their assigned interfaces:
1. Modify the existing NICs on your Virtual Appliance to the "e1000" type.
2. Recreate NICS as "e1000" type by deleting all non-"e1000" NICs from your Virtual Appliance and adding the same number of "e1000" NICs back to the Virtual appliance.
3. Redeploy your VMs using the OVA images for 8.3.521/8.5.116 or greater where the fix is already in place. This will involve re-licensing your images and could take some time.
1. Modify your existing NICs:
a. Modify using the VMware GUI
i. Take a snapshot of your Virtual Appliance VM.
ii. Edit the Settings for the Virtual Appliance VM.
iii. Change all of the NICs to the "e1000" type.
iv. Save the changes and restart the Virtual Appliance.
b. Using a text editor modify all entries for ethernetX.virtualDev to have the value "e1000"
i. Take a snapshot of your Virtual Appliance VM.
ii. Change the contents of the .vmx file using this example:
'ethernet1.virtualDev = "vlance"' becomes 'ethernet1.virtualDev = "e1000"'.
Note that if you do not see ethernetX.virtualDev for each interface then you will need to add these – see sample at the end of this article.
iii. Save the file and restart the Virtual Appliance.
2. Recreating NICs as "e1000" type:
a. Modify using the VMware GUI:
i. Take a snapshot of your Virtual Appliance VM.
ii. Edit the Settings for the Virtual Appliance VM.
iii. Remove all NICs that are not the "e1000" type.
iv. Add the same number of NICs of the "e1000" type as were removed in the previous step.
v. Save the changes and restart the Virtual Appliance.
3. Redeploying your VMs from a newer OVA:
a. Get approval to move your existing Virtual Appliance through Forum Systems Support.
b. Export the configuration of your existing Virtual Appliance (FSX file).
c. Shutdown your existing Virtual Appliance.
d. Follow the procedures for deploying the original Virtual Appliance, but use the OVA for 8.3.521 / 8.5.116 or above.
e. Email the licensing team "licenses@forumsys.com" requesting a license transfer.
Provide the following:
i. Original PO number for the purchase of the Virtual Appliance.
ii. Serial number of the current Virtual Appliance.
iii. Server ID of the new Virtual Appliance.
iv. Helpdesk ticket number noting transfer approval.
v. Wait for approval from the licensing team and the new license.
vi. Install your new license and validate that the Virtual Appliance is working.
vii. Import the configuration from your prior Virtual Appliance.
viii. Validate that the configuration works properly on the new Virtual Appliance.
ix. Destroy your prior Virtual Appliance.
The following is a sample of what the NIC definition portion should look like in the .VMX file:
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet0.connectionType = "custom"
ethernet0.startConnected = "TRUE"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
ethernet1.present = "TRUE"
ethernet1.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet1.connectionType = "custom"
ethernet1.startConnected = "TRUE"
ethernet1.addressType = "generated"
ethernet2.present = "TRUE"
ethernet2.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet2.connectionType = "custom"
ethernet2.startConnected = "TRUE"
ethernet2.addressType = "generated"
ethernet3.present = "TRUE"
ethernet3.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet3.connectionType = "custom"
ethernet3.startConnected = "TRUE"
ethernet3.addressType = "generated"
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