Initial startup and licensing

Initial startup, provisioning proxy configuration, and licensing for VMware Brain. Licensing must be completed prior to the main UI or CLI being available.

After deploying the Brain VM into your VMware environment, it will need to be licensed during its initial boot process.

Please Note:

• The CLI of a virtual Brain cannot be logged in to until the Brain has completed provisioning which includes licensing.
• For QUX deployments, the locally served Quadrant UX Vectra UI is also unavailable until after the system is licensed and provisioning has completed.

• Power on your Brain VM.
• Once the UI is available (this will be a few minutes after power on), use your browser to connect to your Brain VM (using the IP assigned statically, via DHCP, or via hostname if your Brain is in your DNS). If watching your console and you hit ESC when you see the Ubuntu boot screen you will see system messages.

Please Note:

Occasionally you may need to switch to a different console to get the OS Kernel console shown. When this happens, you can use ALT + Arrow keys to change the console to one that allows you see the boot messages. Some deployments may not pass the Alt + Arrow keys to change console. Switching to a different browser such as Firefox has worked correctly for many customers. Please see Device Console does not show an interactive terminal during boot-up for more details.

• This particular message below means that soon the UI will be available for license configuration:

• Navigate to http://<your_brain_IP_or_hostname> and you’ll see a screen like this:

• At this point the initial boot process is paused until a valid license is entered. This process will not time out.
• If a proxy is required to communicate with Vectra for provisioning from your network, please enter the Proxy Configuration screen and enter your proxy information:

  • If this is not done now, it can be done after a license is saved but the provisioning process will time out and some time will be wasted until a proxy is configured.

Please Note:

This proxy configuration screen is only used to communicate with Vectra’s provisioning server and must utilize an HTTPS proxy.

• HTTP only proxies are not supported for this use.
• Other proxy configuration in the main Vectra UI at Configuration → COVERAGE → Data Sources → Network → Brain Setup → Proxy & Status after deployment does accept HTTP proxies and is used by non-provisioning related items.

Please Note:

If you are doing a Respond UX deployment and require a proxy for non-provisioning related services and integrations (this includes linking to Vectra’s cloud for use with the Respond UX):

• You should configure that proxy at the CLI of your Brain, AFTER you progress through this initial configuration and get to the Success! message at the end of this section.
• Please see the Respond UX Deployment Guide in the Deployment > Proxy Support section for more detail.

• Click into the License Configuration screen after saving a proxy configuration (if required):

• Copy the License Request information by clicking the Copy button.
• In another browser tab or window, navigate to https://support.vectra.ai/vectra/additional-resources and then the License tab.

  • If you are not already authenticated, you will be redirected to authenticate to your Vectra support account.
  • If you do not have a Vectra support account, you can self-register at the login screen, but licensing will not be available until your account is validated as being a Vectra customer or prospect involved in a trial.
• Paste the license information you copied into the Enter Authorization Code section of the page and click Generate License Key.

  • You should get a Success message at the top and a key in the License Key box.
  • Copy the license key using the Copy License Key button and go back to your Brain in your other tab or window.

• Paste the license key into the License Information box.

Please expand for KVM specific configuration details

If you are deploying a KVM VHE, you will have an additional input box on this page:

Please select the name of the KVM virtual machine management software you are using from the dropdown menu. This is currently used for research purposes only and does not change the behavior of the Brain.

DO NOT CLICK SAVE YET!

You must first determine if your Brain will be Online or Offline.

If your Brain will be Offline (Quadrant UX only):

• You MUST click the Offline checkbox now before clicking Save or your deployment will fail.

  • You will need to redeploy a new Brain VM into your environment and start the process over.

Please Also Note:

• Offline Brains do not communicate to Vectra’s provisioning service.
• Offline Brains are typically used in "air gapped" environments where customers do not have internet access and the ability to communicate with Vectra directly.
• For additional information regarding offline Brains, see the following Vectra Support articles:

  • Offline Updates (v8.9+)
  • Vectra Respond UX Deployment Guide or Vectra Quadrant UX Deployment Guide

• After determining if your Brain will be Online (normal for the vast majority of customers) or Offline, click Save.

  • You may need to refresh the resulting page that may still say there is no license in place.
  • After the page refresh, you should see screens like the below as provisioning completes.
• After the license is validated, the file system will be decrypted, a performance test will be run, the Brain will reboot, and the Brain will reach out to the Vectra provisioning service and complete provisioning.

  • Finally, a success message will be presented with a button to redirect to the main UI login screen.
  • Offline Brains follow a similar process but will not need to communicate with the provisioning server and can validate the license locally.
  • Status messages will be updated but you must manually refresh the browser to see new messages. Below are some examples:

• Finally, a success message will be presented with a button to redirect to the main UI login screen.

  • For RUX deployments, please see the deployment process in the Vectra Respond UX Deployment Guide.

Please Note:

When doing a RUX deployment, you should NOT login and configure anything in the Quadrant UX (which would be available at this point) before Vectra connects your Brain to the Vectra cloud. Once the Brain is connected to the Vectra Cloud, the UI for your deployment (Respond UX) will be served from Vectra's cloud and the local UI (Quadrant UX) will no longer be available.

• For QUX deployments only:

  • Initial login credentials for the UI:

    • admin / changethispassword
  • Initial login credentials for the SSH access to the CLI:

    • vectra / changethispassword
  • You will be asked to change the password after the initial login.