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Deploy appliance on Proxmox

This section guides you through the steps to get the Anapaya appliance running on Proxmox Virtual Environment.

Prerequisites​

Before you can start, you need to have a Proxmox Virtual Environment (PVE) server set up. If you do not have one yet, refer to the Proxmox VE documentation for installation instructions.

Installation​

The Anapaya appliance can be deployed on Proxmox using the ISO image format. Download the latest Anapaya appliance base image according to the Installation Guide.

Creating the Virtual Machine​

  1. Upload the ISO image to the Proxmox hypervisor at /var/lib/vz/template/iso/ using scp:

    scp anapaya-appliance-base-<version>.iso root@<proxmox-host>:/var/lib/vz/template/iso/.

    Alternatively, download the ISO directly on the hypervisor using wget.

  2. Create a new virtual machine in Proxmox with the following recommended settings:

    • CPU: Minimum 4 vCPUs. CPU type needs to be set to host
    • Memory: Minimum 4GB of RAM
    • Machine Type: q35
    • BIOS: UEFI (recommended)
    • OS Type: Linux 6.x - 2.6 Kernel (l26)
    • Storage: Minimum 80GB of disk space
    • Pre-enrolled keys: Make sure to uncheck the checkbox
    • Serial Port: Add a serial port for console access in the hardware section (optional but recommended)

  3. Attach the uploaded ISO image to the VM's CD/DVD drive and start the VM.

  4. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the Anapaya appliance onto the VM's disk. Refer to the Installation Guide for detailed steps.

QCOW2

The Anapaya appliance can also be deployed using the QCOW2 image format.

Network Interface Configuration​

The Anapaya appliance is tested with the following NIC emulation modes on Proxmox:

VirtIO is the recommended paravirtualized network driver for most deployments, offering good performance with low overhead.

Configuration:

  1. Configure the VM to use VirtIO network interfaces.
  2. Configure the appliance interface driver: VPP_DPDK
note

Refer to the VirtIO user guide for more details on using VirtIO interfaces with the Anapaya appliance.

Cloud-Init​

You can use cloud-init to further customize the appliance during the launch process, for example to set SSH keys for the anapaya user.

#cloud-config
users:
    - name: anapaya
      ssh_authorized_keys:
          - ...

Refer to the cloud-init documentation for more examples and details.

warning

The Anapaya appliance will overwrite the SSH keys of the anapaya user as soon as the first configuration is applied. This means that the SSH keys you set in the cloud-init configuration will be removed. If you want to keep the SSH keys, you need to configure them in the appliance configuration during initial configuration.

Connecting to the Appliance​

Once the VM is started, you can connect to it via SSH using the anapaya user. If you configured SSH keys via cloud-init, use your private key for authentication. Otherwise, use the default credentials (username: anapaya, password: anapaya) for the initial login.

Configuration​

After connecting to the appliance, configure it by following the steps in Setup.

warning

The appliance is configured to use DHCP on initial launch. When you start changing the appliance configuration, you should first configure the interfaces section with the values for the management interface that were potentially assigned during VM boot via DHCP. Otherwise, you might lose connectivity to the appliance.

Relevant values include the IP address and routing information.