Public, private, and hybrid cloud environments all face the same performance limitations of today’s applications and networks. To maximize the flexibility and savings of the public cloud, you must first overcome the same latency and bandwidth constraints that challenge distributed IT infrastructure environments.

Riverbed cloud services help transform the cloud into an extension of the data center. SteelHead-c virtual appliances accelerate the migration of data and applications to the cloud, while speeding access to that data from anywhere. Compatibility with industry leading cloud environments eliminates vendor lock-in.

As you migrate services to the cloud, and later broaden your application and data footprint there, SteelHead-c virtual appliances ensure you will meet application performance service level agreements (SLAs), regardless of network latency and enterprise bandwidth limitations, to ensure seamless public-cloud integration through features like:

This section provides an overview of the Riverbed cloud services system and its components. Figure: Riverbed cloud services shows an overview of Riverbed cloud services.

The Riverbed cloud services system consists of these components:

This section illustrates the client-server deployments that Riverbed cloud services support.

Figure: Servers in the cloud behind a SteelHead-c in a NATed environment shows a deployment in which the server-side servers are behind a SteelHead-c in a network address translated (NATed) environment.

Figure: Servers in the cloud behind a SteelHead-c shows a deployment in which the servers in the cloud are behind a SteelHead-c. In this case, the network does not have NAT: for example, when you use an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

Figure: Clients in the cloud behind a SteelHead-c shows a deployment in which the clients in the cloud are behind a SteelHead-c. In this case, the network does not have NAT: for example, when you use an Amazon VPC. In this deployment, you must use a Discovery Agent in the network.

This section lists available SteelHead-c models, their supported maximum limits, and the minimum virtual machine resources required for each model.

This table lists SteelHead-c models and their supported maximum limits.

Each SteelHead-c instance requires at least two virtual disks. One disk stores the SteelHead-c configuration and management resources (this disk is automatically deployed when you create the virtual appliance); the other disk serves as the data store (you must manually add this disk). In AWS, virtual disk drives are referred to as Elastic Block Stores (EBS). Hard disk drives (HDDs), also known as magnetic drives, can be used for most models, but solid state drives (SSDs) can provide higher performance.

This table lists SteelHead-c models and the disk capacities needed for each.

This table lists SteelHead-c models and the minimum instance type, or minimum virtual machine CPU and RAM, required to run each.

SteelHead-c images can be installed on AWS, VMware ESX/ESXi, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) virtual machines. The Riverbed Cloud Portal supports licensing and simple management for SteelHead-c virtual appliances on all virtual machine platforms.

All SteelHead-c virtual appliances, including virtual appliances intended for AWS China or AWS GovCloud regions, must be manually deployed. However, SteelHead-c virtual appliances can be automatically licensed through the Riverbed Cloud Portal providing they have web access to the portal.

Hybrid networking features such as path selection and secure transport are not supported. Also, SCPS licenses are not supported.

This section describes the deployment and feature options that the SteelHead-c for AWS does not support.

This section describes the deployment and feature options that the ESX SteelHead-c does not support.

In SteelHead-c versions before 1.2, you must allocate a data store volume of exactly 440 GB for the virtual appliance; otherwise, the SteelHead-c does not function correctly.

The reduced data store support feature in SteelHead-c 1.2 first checks if 440 GB of disk space is allocated for the data store. If less than 440 GB of disk space has been provisioned, the SteelHead-c software creates a 30-GB data store. This allows you to create SteelHead-c that require less disk space but still provide WAN optimization. The optimization performance is impacted when you do not use a 440-GB disk for the data store. Performance depends on the size of your working data set.

The SteelHead-c uses either 440 GB or 30 GB. If you allocate a disk space that is less than 440 GB, but later than 30 GB (such as 250 GB), the SteelHead-c uses only 30 GB; it disregards 220 GB. If you allocate less than 30 GB, the SteelHead-c does not function correctly.

After you create a disk, if you resize it to 440 GB, the SteelHead-c still uses only 30 GB. To increase the data store size to 440 GB, you must delete the original disk and create a new 440 GB disk. Doing this reverts the data store to a “cold” state; performance improves as the SteelHead executes subsequent data transfers over the WAN.

These limitations apply to the SteelHead-c for Azure:

Licenses for SteelHead-c virtual appliances are stored on the Riverbed Cloud Portal. Each license is associated with a one-time token unique to it. Applying a one-time token to a SteelHead-c enables the virtual appliance to contact the portal and to associate the token’s license with the SteelHead-c. To obtain a one-time token, you must have an account on the Riverbed Cloud Portal. Typically, Riverbed will establish a user account on the portal for you after you purchase a cloud product, and Riverbed will send you an email with details and login information about your account. After your account is established, you can log in and view your purchased licenses. Select a license to view details about it, including the one-time token associated with it.

To upgrade a SteelHead-c virtual appliance to a model that does not require a higher-capacity virtual machine, simply purchase a license for the new SteelHead-c model. Downgrading a SteelHead-c model is as simple as downgrading the license to that of a lower-end model. The SteelHead-c detects any change in the license associated with it when it communicates with the Riverbed Cloud Portal.

Downgrading a SteelHead-c model is as simple as downgrading the license to that of a lower-end model.

You can upgrade and downgrade the operating system software on your SteelHead-c for AWS virtual appliances through the Riverbed Cloud Portal by performing the task described in this section.

You can upgrade and downgrade the operating system software on your SteelHead-c virtual appliances hosted on other cloud platforms in the same manner as physical SteelHead appliances by using the Software Upgrade page in an appliance’s management console. For details, see the SteelHead User Guide and To upgrade a SteelHead-c for Azure or ESX/ESXi to RiOS 9.2 or later.

With RiOS 9.2 and later, SteelHead-c images use a partition layout for the data store disk that is different from the layout of SteelHead-c images using previous versions of RiOS.

Because of this change, upgrading through the virtual appliance’s console or the CLI will not work. For Azure and ESX/ESXi environments, you must first create SteelHead-c running RiOS 9.2 or later and then manually transfer the license, configuration file, and data store disk from a pre-RiOS 9.2 or later SteelHead-c to the RiOS 9.2 or later SteelHead-c.