Getting a New UAP Gateway

The very first thing to do to restore your system from your backups is to get a new UAP Gateway and Server hardware. This does not have to be the same has before but it will have to have at least the same hardware specifications or higher. More specifically it should have at least:

  • Modern dual core CPU with virtualisation support
  • 8 GB of RAM
  • 256 GB of SSD storage
  • 2 network ports

Nuzusys build and sells various kinds of UAP Gateway and Server for various budgets but you can also get from local partners directly in Vanuatu such as Ahapi IT Solutions. Get in touch with TRR if you are not sure how to proceed.

Preparing the UAP Gateway and Platform

The UAP Gateway and Server is a fairly complicated system with many capabilities. Luckily preparing the base platform is very easy. It can be done in two different ways both detailed below (you only need Method 1 OR Method 2). However, your likely best choice of action is to get in touch with technical experts that support this technology such as Ahapi IT Solutions as this is a rather advance process.

Method 1 - Building and configuring Proxmox platform manually

On your own workstation you can first download the proxmox platform here. Write the ISO image to a small blank newly formatted disk. On Linux this can easily be done with the following command as root. Note that /dev/sdb below could be different on your machine. Take extra care to be 100% sure you know that your USB stick is /dev/sdb.

 $ sudo dd if=/path/to/downloaded/proxmox-image.iso of=/dev/sdb

On Windows you can use unetbootin a freely available software to create bootable USB from ISO images.

It is now ready to start the installation on the new UAP Gateway hardware. Enter the BIOS and make sure you have the following configured. The exact details of this depends on what hardware you will have:

  • Enable CPU virtualisation
  • Enable auto boot after power outage
  • Disable suspension/hibernation
  • Temporarily boot from USB stick

 Once you have your USB stick ready you can boot the new hardware with it. A basic default installation of Proxmox must be done on the hardware. The following screen shows the configuration to use.

TODO SCREENSHOTS

There are two more configuration to do from the command line once the installation is complete. First you must edit the /etc/network/interfaces to be exactly like follows:

# network interface settings
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet manual

iface eth1 inet manual

# Bridge for the external network (Modem/pfSense WAN)
auto vmbr0
iface vmbr0 inet dhcp
    bridge_ports eth0
    bridge_stp off
    bridge_fd 0

# Bridge for the internal network (VE Host Interface/pfSense LAN/Local Net)
auto vmbr1
iface vmbr1 inet static
    address  172.16.1.3
    netmask  255.255.255.0
    bridge_ports eth1
    bridge_stp on
    bridge_fd 0

And then you must edit the DHCP client configuration in /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf by locating the following line and editing it like follows (don't forget to remove the # at the beginning of the line).

prepend domain-name-servers      172.16.1.2;

Reboot and you are ready to start the restoration process of the next section.

Method 2 - Deploying Proxmox pre-configured using a clone

Using a clone is easier as it already contains the configuration. However, this must be done on very similar hardware otherwise Method 1 above should be used. If you will be replace your UAP Gateway and Server with the same hardware then this is a good approach.

You will need clonezilla live which can be downloaded from here. It must also be copied to a USB, their website has instructions for doing this on various operating systems here. In addition to clonezilla you will need a copy of the clone on another USB disk drive this one much bigger. You can ask your Nuzusys local partner Ahapi IT Solutions for this clone. Now you should have a small USB stick with clonezilla live and a large USB external hard disk with a copy of the clone of a base UAP Gateway Server platform.

You can plug both in the new UAP Gateway hardware. Boot and enter the BIOS and make sure you have the following configured. The exact details of this depends on what hardware you will have:

  • Enable CPU virtualisation
  • Enable auto boot after power outage
  • Disable suspension/hibernation
  • Temporarily boot from USB stick (the small one with clonezilla)

The process for cloning to the new UAP Gateway hardware is simple and shown with the following illustrations.

TODO SCREENSHOTS





Last modified: Thursday, 23 July 2015, 9:01 AM