After you’ve deployed a virtual product on to a virtual machine, it’s time to configure it. You’ll need to complete a one-time, initial configuration process. After that, you’ll need to apply licenses, configure connectivity, and configure the features you want to use.

For the initial configuration, you can choose to configure the new appliance through a controller, such as SCC, or to use a configuration wizard (the wizard may not be available on all platforms). The configuration wizard operates through a command-line console and typically appears immediately after you deploy the product and start it.

If you choose to use a controller, you’ll need to know its hostname or IP address. After you enter one of those pieces of information, you can continue by configuring the appliance through the controller.

After you complete the initial configuration, you can further configure the appliance through its Management Console. At a minimum, you’ll need to license the appliance and configure interfaces. You may also want to upgrade to a higher capacity model and update the system software.

You’ll need to restart the appliance after performing those configuration steps.

The initial configuration wizard may not be available on all platforms.

When using the wizard, you can restart it by running the configuration jump-start command. These helpful short cuts are also available:

This table describes each configuration step.

After you complete the configuration steps, the wizard displays your settings. Press Enter to confirm and save your settings, or enter a step number to return to that step and change your setting for that item.

Enter the exit command to close the wizard. After you complete the initial configuration, you can further configure the appliance through its Management Console. For details, go to the product’s user guide.

If you choose to use the wizard, you’ll need the default credentials for the default administrator account: username admin, and password <instance-id>.

We recommend that you change the default password when you perform the initial configuration.

The Management Console is a web interface for managing your appliance. You can log in using an administrator or monitor user account, a sign-in from a RADIUS or TACACS+ database, or any local accounts created using the Role-Based Accounts feature. Users with administrator privileges can configure and administer the appliance. Users with monitor privileges can view reports, user logs, and change their own password. A monitor user can’t make configuration changes.

The Management Console and all configuration options are described in the product’s user guide.

Feature-tier licensing is available for models VCX30 through VCX110. A flexible licensing model is available for cloud models. For details about all appliance models, go to the family product specification sheet for details.

The first time you purchase a license you receive a customer key, which is used across all subsequent purchases. Licenses are tied to your customer key and are provided for model performance tier, WAN acceleration, and optional add-on features. Some features may require a challenge-response to activate the license.

In addition, a support identification code is provided for included or purchased support services.

Virtual appliances with subscription licenses must run in connected mode, which requires daily connectivity to the Cloud Portal. Virtual appliances with evaluation licenses or perpetual licenses can run in disconnected mode and do not require a connection to the internet. When a virtual appliance with a subscription license cannot connect to the Cloud Portal, an email alert is sent daily for two weeks, or until connectivity is restored, to the address that is configured on the appliance to receive event notifications. If connectivity is not restored after two weeks, the license expires and the functionality associated with it stops.

One-year, three-year, and five-year subscription licenses are available. When an appliance is licensed for a capacity that exceeds the capacity of the underlying virtual machine’s hardware configuration, it will operate at the maximum capacity allowed by the underlying virtual machine’s hardware configuration.

To use automatic licensing, the appliance must be able to connect to the internet.

To activate a license that requires a challenge-response, click Generate under Generate Challenge in the License Validation section. Copy the challenge string.

Go to the Licensing page > Manage Licensing section of the Support site at https://support.riverbed.com/content/support/licensing.html, and paste the challenge string into the Enter Unique Product Identifier text field. Click Next.

Copy the response string. Return to the appliance interface and paste the response string into the text field in the License Validation section.

Click Submit. Your license is now activated.

You can switch among models from the Licenses page in the Management Console. Before you change models, ensure that you have purchased licenses appropriate to the model and functionality you want to use and that the appliance can connect to the Riverbed Licensing Portal.

All models are listed under the Appliance Specifications section. Only those models with specifications supported by your currently installed licenses and your underlying virtual machine hardware are selectable. By default, your SteelHead runs the highest capacity hardware specification that your license and underlying virtual machine hardware configuration allows.

If you require a model that is not selectable, ensure that you purchase a license for that model and that the underlying virtual machine hardware is sufficient to run that model’s hardware specification.

If you need to change the hardware configuration of the underlying virtual machine, ensure that you stop the acceleration service by using the no service enable command. After reconfiguring the hardware, activate the correct licensed capabilities by using the hardware spec activate <model-name> command, and then restart the SteelHead.

If you attach a new data store disk, you must run the restart service clean command.

To choose a different model and automatically license it, log in to your SteelHead and display the Management Console. Choose Administration > Maintenance: Licenses to display the Licenses page.

Click Stop Services. In the Appliance Specifications section, choose an available model. Click Update.

New licenses are fetched from the Riverbed Licensing Portal and applied. Old licenses are removed. Click Restart Services.

To choose a different model and manually license it, log in to your SteelHead and display the Management Console. Choose Administration > Maintenance: Licenses to display the Licenses page.

Remove the current license, and add the new license. Click Stop Services.

Reconfigure the virtual machine hardware to at least the minimum required resources for the model you want to run. Click Restart Services.

The SteelHead should operate with the capabilities of the new license. If the SteelHead does not reflect the capabilities of the new license, open a command prompt and issue these commands:

Some model upgrades require additional virtual hardware. When the appliance has the required virtual hardware, activating the hardware specification upgrades the appliance to the new model number. When the existing hardware is not adequate, the message “hardware required” appears after the hardware specification description.

When the existing virtual hardware is sufficient for the target model you want to run, you only need a license for the new model. The appliance specification description includes the potential bandwidth and connection counts. The current specification appears in bold. You might see specifications listed but grayed out. After the license or required hardware for a specification is installed, it become available.

In the Management Console, choose Administration > Maintenance: Licenses. Click Stop to stop the acceleration service, and log out of SteelHead. Right-click the name of the virtual machine that you want to upgrade, select Power, and select Power Off.

In the vSphere Client, right-click the name of the virtual machine that you want to upgrade and select Edit Settings. Check the memory, CPU, and hard disk settings. Change any setting necessary to accommodate the model upgrade. For more information about changing memory, CPU, and hard disk settings, see Downgrade limitations.

Right-click SteelHead, select Power, and select Power On. Log in to SteelHead and display the Management Console.

Choose Administration > Maintenance: Licenses to display the Licenses page. The bottom of the screen lists the available appliance specifications. The current specification appears in bold. The hardware specification description includes the potential bandwidth and connection counts. Appliance specifications that will be available after the license or required virtual hardware have been installed are included in the list but are grayed out.

Select the hardware specification that you want to activate. If a hardware specification requires a reboot after activation, you see the message “activation reboots appliance.” Click Apply.

SteelHead reboots and the acceleration service restarts. When the upgrade is complete, the new model number appears on the SteelHead banner in the upper-right corner of the screen.

After using flexible licensing to upgrade, you cannot return the appliance to a lower model using the Management Console; however, you can use the CLI to perform a downgrade operation.

At the system prompt, enter these commands where <spec> is the lower VCX model:

Your new RiOS software is backward compatible with previous RiOS versions. However, to obtain the full benefits of the new features in this version, you must upgrade the client-side and server-side SteelHeads on any given WAN link. After you have upgraded all appliances, all the benefits of the new RiOS features and enhancements are available.

If you mix RiOS software versions in your network, you might not be able to take full advantage of new features that are not part of earlier software versions.

After you deploy an appliance, you might want to verify disk usage performance before using the appliance in a production environment. You can run tests that benchmark your appliance’s performance against that of other Riverbed products.

Test results indicate the highest virtual appliance that can be run on the hardware supporting the tested appliance.