Brain deployment in Proxmox

How to download the Brain .OVA and deploy it in Proxmox.

Please Note:

Proxmox Brains use the same OVA source image as a VMware deployment.

Downloading the latest Brain OVA image

The current Brain OVA image can be downloaded from the Vectra Customer Support Portal after logging in.

The URL for the download page is: https://support.vectra.ai/vectra/additional-resources.

• Click on the Download tab.
• Click on the VMWare Brain OVA File (see note above) and then the File: Download link.

  • A SHA256 hash is also provided to allow you to verify the download.

Always download a current copy when you go to deploy a new Proxmox Brain for your organization. This will save time during deployment as fewer updates will need to be downloaded after deployment. Make this file available via a URL or the local filesystem where you will run the Proxmox client from.

Deploying the OVA in Proxmox

• Log into your Proxmox web interface.
• Enable imports in your storage location:

  • In the left sidebar, click Datacenter.
  • Click Storage, select the storage location, and click the Edit button:

  

  • In the Edit popup, within the Content dropdown, ensure that Import, Disk Image, and ISO Image are selected:

  
• Import the OVA

  • In the left sidebar, click the storage location you just edited.
  • Click Import, and then click the either the Upload button (for locally stored files) or the Download from URL button (for files stored remotely).
  • Select your file location or paste the URL and select Upload or Download, respectively.
  • Select the URL or Local file option depending on where you made the image available.
  • When the import completes, a text summary will appear with "TASK OK" at the bottom. Close the popup window:

• Deploy the Brain from the OVA file:

  • Double click the imported file - an Import Guest window will appear.
  • Name the VM what you'd like.
  • Change the CPU Type dropdown to host - this allows the CPU instruction sets to be passed through properly.
  • Set the total number of cores and RAM to match one of the supported sizes described in the Performance and KVM Requirements section.
  • In the Default Storage dropdown, select a thin-provision (lvmthin) device.
  • In the Default Bridge dropdown, select the bridge network you'd like the VM to be connected to.
  • Example 8 core deployment:

  

Please Note: 32 Core NUMA Configuration

This section applies to the 32 core Brain only. No changes are required for other Brain sizes.

The required Proxmox NUMA configuration cannot be reliably specified in the .ova. On some 32 core Proxmox Brains, depending on the underlying hardware platform, the CPU topology may need to be changed by the customer after VM deployment. Otherwise, the Brain may encounter errors during boot.

If the VM reboots frequently (approximately every 3 to 4 minutes), run show system-health from the Brain CLI. If the output contains a NUMA-related error, the VM may require a different CPU topology.

If you experience this issue, change the CPU configuration from 1 socket × 32 cores to 2 sockets × 16 cores.

To do this, shut down the VM and go to the Hardware section in Proxmox. Select Processors, then change the number of sockets to 2 and the number of cores to 16.

Then Start the VM again.

• Click the Import button, wait for the operation to complete:

• After the import completes, the VM is created and shown in the Virtual Machines list.
• Change the SCSI Controller type.

  • In the sidebar, select the newly created VM.
  • Click Hardware in the submenu.
  • Double click the SCSI Controller entry.
  • In the dropdown, select VirtIO SCSI Single.
  • Click OK.
• Change the Network Device type.

  • In the sidebar, select the newly created VM.
  • Click Hardware in the submenu.
  • Double click the Network Device entry.
  • In the Model dropdown, select VirtIO (paravirtualized).
  • Set Multiqueue to the number of CPU cores of the Brain. (If this is not visible, click on the Advanced checkbox.)
  • Click OK.
• Change the QEMU Guest Agent Settings:

  • In the sidebar, select the newly created VM.
  • Click Options in the submenu.
  • Double click the QEMU Guest Agent entry.
  • Check the Use QEMU Guest Agent checkbox.
  • Select the VirtIO type from the Type dropdown.
• Start the VM

  • In the sidebar, select the newly created VM.
  • At the top of the screen, click Start.