Hi Josh,

Sorry about that. We are using CentOS 8.1.1911. Not version 7. Is that the
likely reason?

Thanks.

On Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 11:30 AM Josh Thompson <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Hi Vader,
>
> Please make sure to cc the [email protected] list so that other people
> can
> learn from the problems you work through.
>
> You do not need to use the VCL DHCP server.  That's why the script asks if
> you
> want to configure it.  The script can set it up for you, but if you
> already
> have DHCP provided, the script can skip that part.
>
> What version of CentOS are you using?  I just ran the script on an updated
> CentOS 7 system and was able to install all needed packages.
>
> Josh
>
> On Thursday, April 23, 2020 4:30:17 PM EDT you wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Thanks for this info, it really helps a lot. I tried just a test run of
> > installing the VCL components on CentOS using the automated installation
> > script and I have a question regarding the need for a DHCP server for the
> > private network. We already have a DHCP server in our network and would
> > like to know if the VCL based one is necessary. I'm concerned about
> having
> > potential conflicts between the two.
> >
> > The other question is an issue encountered using the installation script,
> > it fails with
> >
> > "Warning: failed to install Linux package: perl-Expect"
> > "Warning: failed to install Linux package: perl-Frontier-RPC"
> > "Warning: failed to install Linux package: perl-Mo"
> > "Warning: failed to install Linux package: perl-Net-Jabber"
> > "Warning: failed to install Linux package: perl-RPC-XML"
> >
> > for perl-Expect for example it says
> >
> > Error:
> > Problem: conflicting requests
> > - nothing provides perl (IO::Tty) needed by
> perl-Expect-1.35-10.el8.noarch
> >  - nothing provides perl (IO::Tty) >= 1.11 needed by
> > perl-Expect-1.35-10.el8.noarch
> > (try to add '--skip-broken' to skip uninstallable packages or '--nobest'
> to
> > use not only best candidate packages)
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 23, 2020 at 9:44 AM Josh Thompson <[email protected]>
> >
> > wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > Thanks for your interest in using VCL!  We're happy to help you get it
> > > installed and running.
> > >
> > > 1) vCenter is supported.  However, I don't know that any of the more
> > > active
> > > contributors are using it.  So, it's possible it could be a little
> buggy.
> > > I
> > > do know people are actively using ESXi as standalone hosts.
> > >
> > > 2) Each VM will need 2 NICs.  When VCL was originally written, that was
> > > part
> > > of the setup.  We'd like to move away from requiring 2 NICs, but we
> > > haven't
> > > fully gotten it coded out.  One NIC is used for VCL to manage the VM,
> the
> > > other is used for users to connect to it.  The ESXi hosts themselves
> would
> > > only need one NIC, but you would need two vswitches on them so that the
> > > VMs
> > > can still have 2 NICs.  You don't actually have to have public IPs for
> the
> > > user connection side.  You can set up one or more NAT hosts that have
> > > public
> > > IPs.  Then, the VMs themselves can be on an internal network and then
> > > users
> > > connect through the NAT hosts.  Once the NAT hosts are set up, VCL will
> > > manage
> > > the port forwarding through them to the reserved VMs.
> > >
> > > There are 3 software components to the VCL infrastructure - the web
> > > portal,
> > > the backend processing daemon (vcld), and a mysql/mariadb database.
> These
> > > can
> > > all be run on the same system or on different systems.  If you run the
> web
> > > portal on its own system that you put in a DMZ, it would need access to
> > > the
> > > database, and the management node system running vcld would need to be
> > > able to
> > > access the web portal for a few API calls.  If you run all 3
> components on
> > > the
> > > same system in a DMZ, vcld would need ssh access to the ESXi hosts and
> to
> > > the
> > > VMs on them.
> > >
> > > 3) Your web portal system could be your NAT host which would allow you
> to
> > > only
> > > have one public IP.  User connections would all be tunneled through
> that
> > > one
> > > host.
> > >
> > > Here is a simple configuration that could work for you using only one
> ESXi
> > > host.  Create 3 vswitches on the host, I'll call them Control,
> Connection,
> > > and
> > > DMZ.  Create 1 VM on it that will be your management node on which all
> 3
> > > components of VCL will be installed.  That VM will have 3 NICs, one on
> > > each
> > > vswitch.  Configure the ESXi host so that vcld on the management node
> can
> > > ssh
> > > to it.  Configure VCL to deploy VMs on the host, each having 2 NICs,
> one
> > > on
> > > Control, and one on Connection.  Set up httpd on the management node to
> > > listen
> > > on the NIC on the DMZ vswitch, which would have a public IP address.
> > > Configure VCL to use the maangement node as the NAT host.
> > >
> > > VCL is very flexible in how it can be set up, which sometimes can make
> it
> > > seem
> > > more complicated to set up.  Please feel free to ask further questions
> as
> > > you
> > > start working through the installation.
> > >
> > > Josh
> > >
> > > On Wednesday, April 22, 2020 2:44:12 PM EDT Vader 860 wrote:
> > > > Hello,
> > > >
> > > > We are looking into implementing VCL on premise and have a general
> > >
> > > question
> > >
> > > > regarding the architecture and network setup.
> > > >
> > > > 1) if using VMware ESXi, is the use of vCenter supported or do we
> need
> > > > to
> > > > just have standalone ESXi hosts?
> > > >
> > > > 2) The documentation says there should be a public and private
> network
> > >
> > > and
> > >
> > > > that all components need to have two NICs, one for each segment. If
> we
> > > > wanted to isolate the VCL Web Portal in a DMZ and have the remaining
> > > > components in the internal network, what ports would be required from
> > > > the
> > > > VCL Web Portal to the internal network?
> > > >
> > > > 3) If a setup as described above is supported, can we just have a
> public
> > >
> > > IP
> > >
> > > > on the Web Portal and just internal IPs in the backend?
> > > >
> > > > Thanks
> > >
> > > --
> > > -------------------------------
> > > Josh Thompson
> > > Systems Programmer
> > > Virtual Computing Lab (VCL)
> > > North Carolina State University
> > >
> > > my GPG/PGP key can be found at www.keyserver.net
> > >
> > > All electronic mail messages in connection with State business which
> > > are sent to or received by this account are subject to the NC Public
> > > Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.
> --
> -------------------------------
> Josh Thompson
> Systems Programmer
> Virtual Computing Lab (VCL)
> North Carolina State University
>
> my GPG/PGP key can be found at www.keyserver.net
>
> All electronic mail messages in connection with State business which
> are sent to or received by this account are subject to the NC Public
> Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.

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