Reference9:Concept Innovaphone Virtual Appliance
Applies To
This information applies to:
- V9
- innovaphone Virtual Appliance
- Intel/AMD CPUs
- VMware
- Workstation 7.1
- Player 3.x [1]
- vSphere 4.1
More Information
The innovaphone Virtual Appliance (IPVA) is a virtual machine to be run on a virtualization platform. Whereby, VMware[2] is is the solely supported virtualization platform to-date
The IPVA is a software-only solution. It appears as and performs as an innovaphone "hard-box" excluding DSP-, ISDN-/AB-resources.
The following core-components are contained within the IPVA:
- innovaphone PBX
- innovaphone Gateway (a.k.a Relay)
- integrated mass-storage (alike innovaphones' CF-card support)
Configuration
Download the IPVA. The IPVA is a directory containing:
- ipva.vmx: The virtual machine configuration file
- hd-boot.vmdk: The virtual boot harddisk (hd)
- hd-cf.vmdk: The hd for emulation of a Compact Flash card
- hd-flash.vmdk: The hd for emulation of flash memory
- hd-dump.vmdk: The hd serving as a store for a crash dump
VMware Player
- Copy the IPVA to e.g. your desktop
- Double-click on ipva.vmx
The IPVA is going to be started.
A shortcut (*.lnk file) to the vmx-file will start the IPVA without additional user interaction. Such a shortcut may also be copied into the Windows Autostart program folder, in order to have the IPVA started automatically on windows startup.
VMware Workstation
- Copy the IPVA to e.g. your desktop
- Double-click on ipva.vmx
The IPVA is going to be started.
The Workstation 7 directory comprises the command line utility vmrun.exe. A batch file according to the following pattern may be crafted to programmatically start the IPVA.
"D:\Programme\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmrun" start "C:\Users\Tester\Desktop\ipva\ipva.vmx"
Note: By altering start into stop a virtual machine may be stopped.
Network Configuration
Currently as DHCP client only. I.e. a DHCP server must be available.
License Configuration
The licensing procedure is the same as for other innovaphone products, except for one peculiarity: The MAC address, generated by VMware, may have been assigned already to another customer/installation. Such a conflict must be settled manually as explained below.
If, while generating licenses within my.innovaphone.com, a message (My_Innovaphone#IP-VA_MAC_exists) is displayed:
IP-VA MAC exists
then a new MAC address must be assigned manually to the affected installation.
In order to assign a new MAC address:
- Power-off the virtual machine
- Open the file ipva.vmx for editing within a text editor.
- Edit the last 3 hex-values of the lines starting with ethernet0.generatedAddress & uuid.bios from e.g.
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:f4:c6:d9" uuid.bios = "56 4d 64 b9 52 ce 38 57-66 29 e8 f2 77 f4 c6 d9"
into e.g
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:f4:c6:da" uuid.bios = "56 4d 64 b9 52 ce 38 57-66 29 e8 f2 77 f4 c6 da"
(Note: in this example just the very last hex-value d9 is going to be altered into da)
- Within my.innovaphone.com try once again to generate licenses for the virtual machine with the new MAC address.
Provision Of External Resources
External Resources are required, in order to provide:
- Access to ISDN interfaces
- DSP conferencing channels
The IP1060[3] media gateway may be considered as a suitable complement for such purposes.
Download
|
FIXME: download currently from "unofficial" |
http://download.innovaphone.com/ice/download/p/published/Firmware%20Version%209/
Troubleshooting
A new option has been added to Admistration/Diagnostics/Tracing. The option trace(crash-dump) is going to read a post-mortem log from hd-dump.vmdk, if available.
Known Issues
ESX 3.x is unsupported
The IPVA does not run under ESX 3.x and below, since virtual IDE disks aren't supported.
FAQ
Are Firmware Updates Possible?
Yes, alike the well-known *.bin firmware files for other innovaphone products (ip6000.bin, ip2000.bin,..) , there's a similar bin-file (ipva.bin) for the IPVA. The file is contained on the boot-hd and can be found by browsing to e.g. http://192.168.0.5/drive/HD-BOOT . The versioning of ipva.bin is the same as for the other products. The firmware file may exactly be uploaded as for other products:
- by Upload/Firmware
- by Upload/Dram
- by a script for the innovaphone Update Process
Do I Always Need To Download The Entire IPVA?
No, after the 1st-time deployment of an entire IPVA only the firmware file ipva.bin needs to be downloaded from download.innovaphone.com. See Are Firmware Updates Possible? for how to proceed further.
How Is The Network Connection Being Handled?
The network connection is pre-configured to: Bridged: Connected directly to the physical network
What Is The Size Of the Emulated CompactFlash?
1GB
Can The Emulated CompactFlash Be Increased In Size?
Yes, from within the Edit Virtual Machine dialog. Doing so just increases the size of the virtual harddisk. The emulated CompactFlash must be formatted afterwards and accordingly to benefit from the increased size. That step can be administrated from Administration/Compact Flash/Format. Note: This entire procedure is untested. A recommendation for an upper size limit is not given.
How Much RAM Is Required Per IPVA Instance?
The downloadable virtual appliance comes preconfigured with 64MB RAM. This amount is seen as a good trade-off for the majority of all installations. The RAM-size can be administrated by VMware-means.
How Many IPVA Instances Are Possible Per Host?
There's no worst-case estimate available. For a best-case calculation,
Where Has PPP-Functionality Gone?
PPP-scenarios (PPTP, PPPoE) are not envisaged with the IPVA, because it has only one network interface controller.
Notes
- ↑ VMware Player Download(free): http://vmware.com/download/player/
- ↑ http://www.vmware.com
- ↑ IP1060 Product Information