---
title: "NIOS-X on VMware vCenter using ovftool"
canonical: "https://docs.infoblox.com/space/BloxOneInfrastructure/204800914/NIOS-X%20on%20VMware%20vCenter%20using%20ovftool"
format: markdown
---
You can deploy a NIOS-X server on VMware vCenter using the VMware OVF Tool (ovftool) command-line utility by completing the following steps:

1. Create or edit the **network-config.json** file to assign a static IP address and nameservers. For OVA deployments, the network configuration must be provided in **JSON format** only. YAML format is not supported.
  1. Download the `network-config.json` template provided in <u>*[Appendix B: YAML and JSON Templates](https://docs.infoblox.com/space/BloxOneThreatDefense/35408412)*</u>.
  2. **Note**: If your environment provides a DHCP server that assigns an IP address to the NIOS‑X VM, this file is optional.
2. Create or edit the **user-data** file to include information, such as the join token for connecting the NIOS-X server to the Infoblox Portal. To obtain a join token, see <u>*[Creating Join Tokens](https://docs.infoblox.com/space/BloxOneInfrastructure/87556657)*</u>.
  1. Download the `user-data` template provided in <u>*[Appendix B: YAML and JSON Templates](https://docs.infoblox.com/space/BloxOneThreatDefense/35408412)*</u>.
3. Open any Linux terminal and use the VMware OVF Tool to execute the following commands to encode the cloud configuration for user data in base64 format:
  - **For Linux systems**:
  - **For Mac systems**:
4. <span style="color: #000000">Optionally, if you want to add multiple network interfaces to the NIOS-X server, you can modify the VMX configuration, as follows. For information about multiple interfaces, see </span><span style="color: #000000">*[Multiple Network Interfaces for Servers](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BloxOneInfrastructure/pages/184582963)*</span><span style="color: #000000">.</span>

- Then add the required interface configuration to the VMX configuration:
- After you modify the VMX configuration, execute the following commands:
- You can pack the image back to OVA by executing the following command:

If you do not provide metadata for the interfaces, only the first Ethernet interface is enabled with the DHCP mode. You must add interface configuration using the metadata network-config.

8. To deploy the NIOS-X server, execute the following commands:

```
ovftool --acceptAllEulas --skipManifestCheck --allowExtraConfig --sourceType=OVA
 --powerOn --datastore="<datastore name>" --name="<name for the proxy>"
 --net:"lan"="<port group name>"
 --extraConfig:guestinfo.cloudinit.userdata="${userdata}"
 --extraConfig:guestinfo.cloudinit.metadata="${metadata}" nios-x_vx.x.xx.ova
 vi://<username>:<password>@<ESXi server IP>
```

where,  
***datastore name*** = The name of your datastore on which you want to deploy the NIOS-X server.  
***name for the proxy*** = The name of the NIOS-X server.  
***standard switch ID*** = The name of the vSphere standard switch that provides connectivity between the NIOS-X server and external networks.  
***nios-x_vx.x.xx.ova**** *= The name of the NIOS-X server OVA file; x.x.xx is the version number of this file.  
***username password*** = This is the username and password for logging in to the ESXi server.  
***ESXi server IP*** = The IP address of the ESXi server on which you have configured the VM for deploying  
the  NIOS-X server.

You have now successfully deployed the NIOS-X server. It might take a couple minutes for the proxy and NIOS-X Cloud to connect. Once connected, the proxy starts collecting information from your on-premises devices and transmits the data to NIOS-X Cloud.

9. For the NIOS-X server to function properly in OVA deployments on ESXi servers, ensure that you enable the **Synchronize guest time with host** option during the deployment and that your NIOS-X server is synchronized with the NTP server. If you do not select the **Synchronize guest time with host** option (or if this option is disabled), the NIOS-X server synchronizes with the Ubuntu NTP servers: ntp.ubuntu.com and ubuntu.pool.ntp.org. When you disable this option, ensure that you open the UDP 123 port for time synchronization with the Ubuntu NTP servers. For more information, see <u><span style="color: #0000ff">*[Synchronizing Time on the ESXi Servers](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BloxOneThreatDefense/pages/35437920)*</span></u>.
10. To check the current status of the NIOS-X server, you can go to **Network > Services & Servers > Servers** in the Infoblox Portal. For more information about the server status, see *[Viewing Host Status](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BloxOneInfrastructure/pages/119210967)*.