Version 9.2 of SteelHead-v provides support for Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM).

See Setting Up SteelHead-v on KVM.

Version 9.2 of SteelHead-v includes a virtual hardware benchmarking tool. The tool enables you to test the optimization and disk usage performance of the appliance’s underlying virtual hardware. Test results indicate the highest virtual appliance that can be run on the hardware supporting the tested appliance.

See Verifying Hardware Capabilities of Virtual Appliances.

When you deploy a hypervisor, follow this guideline:

When you deploy SteelHead-v on ESX or ESXi, follow these guidelines:

Follow these configuration tips to improve performance:

Typically you deploy SteelHead-v on a LAN with communication between appliances taking place over a private WAN or VPN. Because optimization between SteelHeads typically takes place over a secure WAN, it is not necessary to configure company firewalls to support SteelHead-specific ports.

For optimal performance, minimize latency between SteelHead-v appliances and their respective clients and servers. Place the SteelHead-v appliances as close as possible to your network endpoints: client-side SteelHead-v appliances as close to your clients as possible, and server-side SteelHead-v appliances as close to your servers as possible.

Ideally, SteelHead-v appliances optimize only traffic that is initiated or terminated at their local sites. The best and easiest way to achieve this traffic pattern is to deploy the SteelHead-v appliances where the LAN connects to the WAN, and not where any LAN-to-LAN or WAN-to-WAN traffic can pass through (or be redirected to) the SteelHead.

For detailed information about deployment options and best practices for deploying SteelHeads, see the SteelHead Deployment Guide.

Before you begin the installation and configuration process, you must select a network deployment.

You can deploy SteelHead-v in the same scenarios as the SteelHead, with the following exception: SteelHead-v software does not provide a failover mechanism like the SteelHead fail-to-wire. For full failover functionality, you must install a Riverbed NIC with SteelHead-v.

Riverbed bypass cards come in four-port and two-port models. For more information about NICs and SteelHead-v, see NICs for SteelHead-v.

For deployments where a Riverbed bypass card is not an option (for example, in a Cisco SRE deployment) Riverbed recommends that you do not deploy your SteelHead-v in-path. If you are not using a bypass card, you can still have a failover mechanism, by employing either a virtual in-path or an out-of-path deployment. These deployments allow a router using WCCP or PBR to handle failover.

Promiscuous mode is required for in-path deployments.

In a virtual in-path deployment, SteelHead-v is virtually in the path between clients and servers. Traffic moves in and out of the same WAN interface, and the LAN interface is not used. This deployment differs from a physical in-path deployment in that a packet redirection mechanism, such as WCCP or PBR, directs packets to SteelHead-v appliances that are not in the physical path of the client or server. In this configuration, clients and servers continue to see client and server IP addresses.

On SteelHead-v models with multiple WAN ports, you can deploy WCCP and PBR with the same multiple interface options available on the SteelHead.

For a virtual in-path deployment, attach only the WAN virtual NIC to the physical NIC, and configure the router using WCCP or PBR to forward traffic to the VM to optimize. You must also enable in-path Out-of-Path (OOP) on SteelHead-v.

The SteelHead-v is not in the direct path between the client and the server. Servers see the IP address of the server-side SteelHead installation rather than the client IP address, which might have an impact on security policies.

For a virtual OOP deployment, connect the primary interface to the physical in-path NIC and configure the router to forward traffic to this NIC. You must also enable OOP on SteelHead-v.

The following caveats apply to server-side OOP SteelHead-v configuration:

The tables in this section list the platform models available for SteelHead-v and SteelHead-v CX (VCX). Each SteelHead-v has a primary and an auxiliary interface. Confirm that you have the resources required for the SteelHead-v model you are installing before you download and install SteelHead-v.

This table lists the SteelHead-v xx50 models.

This table lists the SteelHead-v CX xx55 models.

The platform families are independent. You cannot upgrade a xx50 model to a xx55 model. The xx55 virtual models require RiOS 8.0 or later.

The data store size per model allocates extra disk space to accommodate hypervisor overhead. As of 9.0, the size of the management disk for new open virtualization appliance (OVA) deployments for the VCX models is 38 GB. Older models that upgrade still use a 50-GB management disk.

As of RiOS 9.0, the flexible data store feature for VCX models supports a smaller data store size, down to a minimum 12 GB.

To change the disk size of a running SteelHead-v, you must first power off the VM. From the Settings section, you can expand or remove the RiOS data store (second) disk, and replace it with a smaller disk. (Reducing the disk size will not work.) Modifying the disk size causes the RiOS data store to automatically clear.

If you provide a disk larger than the configured RiOS data store for the model, the entire disk is partitioned, but only the allotted amount for the model is used.

Memory and CPU requirements are a hard requirement for a model to run. Flexible RiOS data store is not supported for the older Vxx50 models.

As of RiOS 8.6, SteelHead-v models VCX5055, and VCX7055 support up to 14 RiOS data stores using Fault Tolerant Storage (FTS). Riverbed recommends that all RiOS data stores on an appliance be the same size.

To add additional data stores, you must power off the VM.

SteelHead-v models are not limited to a fixed number of NIC interfaces. However, the in-path pair limit is four (four LAN and four WAN interfaces), including bypass cards. If you want to use the SteelHead-v bypass feature, you are limited to the number of hardware bypass pairs the model can support.

Each SteelHead-v requires a primary and auxiliary interface, which are the first two interfaces added. If you add additional interface pairs to the VM, they are added as in-path optimization interfaces. Total bandwidth and connection limits still apply.

Riverbed NICs provide hardware-based fail-to-wire and fail-to-block capabilities for SteelHead-v. The configured failure mode is triggered if the ESX or ESXi host loses power or is unable to run the
SteelHead-v guest, if the SteelHead-v guest is powered off, or if the SteelHead-v guest experiences a significant fault (using the same logic as the physical SteelHead).

Riverbed NICs are available in two-port and four-port configurations:

You must use Riverbed NICs for fail-to-wire or fail-to-block with SteelHead-v. NIC cards without a bypass feature from other vendors are supported for functionality other than fail-to-wire and fail-to-block, if supported by ESX or ESXi.

To successfully install a NIC in an ESXi host for SteelHead-v, you need the following items:

For ESXi 4.1, you also need the following items:

For more information about Riverbed NICs installation, see the Network and Storage Card Installation Guide. The installation procedure in this manual assumes you have successfully installed a Riverbed NIC following the instructions in the Network and Storage Card Installation Guide.

The number of hardware bypass pairs (that is, one LAN and one WAN port) supported is determined by the model of the SteelHead-v:

The following configurations have been tested:

For more information about installing and configuring SteelHead-v with a Riverbed NIC, see Completing the Preconfiguration Checklist.

In addition to standard ESX and ESXi, you can run SteelHead-v on a Cisco server blade, using the SRE platform, based on ESXi 5.0.

This table lists the SteelHead-v models supported on each supported Cisco SRE model and the required version of RiOS, disk configuration, and RAM.

For more information about deploying SteelHead-v on a Cisco SRE blade, search the Riverbed knowledge base at
https://supportkb.riverbed.com/support/index?page=home.

You can find more information about the Cisco SRE platform on the Cisco website:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/modules/ps10598/data_sheet_c78-553913.html.