Installing the Management Node — Hyper-V hypervisors

Before installing the Management Node we recommend that you review the Hyper-V configuration prerequisites and the Installation checklist.

Installation of the Management Node is a two-step process:

  1. Deploying the VM: this creates a new unconfigured instance of a generic Management Node VM.

    The process for deploying in a Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor environment is described below.

  2. Running the installation wizard: after deploying the Management Node, the installation wizard allows you to enter the basic configuration details for your Management Node VM.

This flowchart provides an overview of the basic steps involved in deploying the Pexip Infinity platform on Hyper-V:

Deploying the Management Node

The following instructions apply when using Hyper-V directly.

To deploy a new instance of a Pexip Infinity Management Node using Hyper‑V:

  1. Download the Pexip Infinity ZIP file (Pexip_Infinity_v39_HyperV_pxMgr_<build>.zip) from the Pexip download page, and extract the files.

  2. Copy the VHDX disk image to where you store your VM images.

    We recommend a drive separate to the OS drive, for example a D:\ drive.

  3. Rename the image to something more meaningful, for example pexip-manager.vhdx

  4. Open a Powershell window and run the following command, changing the name/path of the vhdx file as appropriate:

    New-VM -Name pexip-conf1 -Generation 2 -VHDPath D:\pexip-manager.vhdx -BootDevice VHD

  5. By default, Hyper-V enables secure boot for generation 2 VMs. Pexip Infinity is not compatible with this so it must be disabled. Run the command, setting the VMName parameter as appropriate:

    Set-VMFirmware -VMName pexip-manager -EnableSecureBoot Off

  6. Open Hyper-V manager and configure the CPU and memory as required. (The default values of 1vcpu and 1GB RAM are insufficient.)
  7. It may be necessary to enable Virtual LAN identification (via the Hyper-V Manager under Network adapter settings) and provide a VLAN identifier so that the virtual machine can communicate with the network.

When the Management Node VM has been created successfully, it will appear in the list of Virtual Machines.

You can optionally rename the virtual machine (right-click > rename). Note that this does not rename the disk file.

Enabling automatic startup

By default, virtual machines deployed using Hyper-V are configured to restart automatically if they were running when the host server was shut down or powered off. We recommend that you leave this setting as is for the Management Node and all Conferencing Nodes.

Running the Pexip Infinity installation wizard

To run the installation wizard, which configures the Management Node, you must open a console window on the Management Node VM.

Opening a console window

  1. Start Hyper-V Manager.
  2. Start the new Management Node VM (if it is not already running).
  3. Right-click on the new Management Node VM and select Connect....

Running the installation wizard

  1. At the prompt, enter the username admin.

    The display reads:

    You are required to change your password immediately (administrator enforced)
    New password:

  2. Create a password for the Management Node operating system by typing the password, pressing Enter, retyping the password, and pressing Enter again.

  3. Ensure you record the password in a secure location. After you have finished running the installation wizard you will not need the password again unless you need to access the Management Node using SSH.

    You are presented with another login prompt:

    [sudo] password for admin:

  4. Log in again with the password you just created.

    The Pexip installation wizard starts.

  5. Follow the prompts to set the following configuration for the Management Node.

    If you press enter, the default value is applied:

    Setting Default value Multiple entries allowed? Can be changed via Pexip Infinity Administrator interface?
    IP address As assigned by DHCP, otherwise 192.168.0.100 * No No ‡
    Network mask As assigned by DHCP, otherwise 255.255.255.0 * No No ‡
    Gateway As assigned by DHCP, otherwise 192.168.0.1 * No No ‡
    Hostname As assigned by DHCP, otherwise <no default> No No ‡
    Domain suffix As assigned by DHCP, otherwise <no default> No No ‡
    DNS servers As assigned by DHCP, otherwise 8.8.8.8 Yes, if separated by a space or comma Yes
    NTP servers †

    As assigned by DHCP, otherwise two of the following:

    • 0.pexip.pool.ntp.org
    • 1.pexip.pool.ntp.org
    • 2.pexip.pool.ntp.org
    • 3.pexip.pool.ntp.org
    		 Yes, if separated by a space or comma Yes
    Web administration username admin No No ‡
    Web administration password <no default> No Yes
    Enable incident reporting (yes/no) <no default>   Yes
    Contact email address ** <no default> No Yes
    Send deployment and usage statistics to Pexip (yes/no) <no default>   Yes

    * The addresses entered here are assigned as static IP addresses.

    ** Shown and required if incident reporting is enabled.

    † The NTP server must be accessible by the Management Node at the time the startup wizard is run. Installation will fail if the Management Node is unable to synchronize its time with an NTP server.

    ‡ After they have been configured, do not attempt to change these settings by any other means. To change these settings on server-based deployments, you must re-run the installation wizard.

    The installation begins and the Management Node restarts using the values you have configured.

Next steps

After you have run the installation wizard, you must perform some preliminary configuration before you can then deploy a Conferencing Node. See Initial platform configuration — Hyper-V for more information.