Virtual Machine Installation

Overview

In addition to the set of instructions on this page, Vocera will provide the FTP site and login credentials to access the appliance. The virtual machine (VM) is provided as an .ovf file containing the entire VM and application.

Requirements

A virtual machine host is required. This document contains instructions for installing the Vocera VM on a host system running VMWare using the vSphere client program. Please refer to the instructions for your facility's VM host program.

Browser Requirements

• Microsoft Internet Explorer version 10 or later
• Firefox version 47 or later
• Apple Safari version 10.10 or later
• Chrome version 53 or later

Network Requirements

All network segments from the monitor to the fixed or mobile communication device should have a network latency for an 8000 byte packet of no more than 70 milliseconds, or an end-to-end latency of no more than 500 milliseconds.

The following table describes the firewall requirements which should be configured in order to successfully install, update, and support the Vocera Engage application and its operating system.

VM Requirements

The Vocera VM requires the following resources.

The allocation of resources for the Vocera VM server (i.e., processor, memory, etc.) for optimal performance will depend on factors such as the volume of inbound data, processing overhead of the data type, and the complexity of the solution implemented. It is not always practical to conduct a detailed analysis at the start of every project to determine the correct hardware selection. The table below provides recommendations for the VM resource allocation. It uses two factors as criteria for the resource allocation based on information that must be known at the time the customer quote is completed:

1. Number of Beds – As an indicator of the volume of inbound data to be processed

2. Number of PS Days for Implementation – As an indicator of the complexity of the implemented solution, (i.e., number of workflows, number of integrations, etc.)

Using the Number of Beds and Number of PS Days information for a project, find the server type recommendation in the able below. The server types will be defined in another table further below.

When a deployment is expected to have multiple phases, the VM selection generally should allow for the computing requirements in all phases, not just the requirements expected in the first phase.

The ideal target for resource utilization when the server is running in steady state should be the CPU load at one or below, and the disk input/output average wait time per transaction should be less than 100 milliseconds. When the CPU load number approaches or exceeds the number of cores allocated to the server, it is an indication of an overloaded condition; possible overload causes can be either too low disk input/output throughput or under-powered CPUs for the given workload.

Resource Specifications

The following table of information is provided as a recommendation based on observations of existing customer installations. The installed hardware infrastructure in a customer's data center may not allow for an exact match to the specification below. When an exact match is not possible, the selected hardware should approach the performance of the recommended setup. The website http://www.cpubenchmark.net provides performance information on a wide span of processors, making it possible to compare a given customer's hardware against the recommendations listed below.

For photo storage information and resource specifications on the Media appliance, see the Media appliance and adapter documentation.

Appliance Sizing Calculation

Active customer sites may want to calculate the database size that will work best for them, given their space and time parameters. The following information is provided to calculate High Availability (HA) capacity of the appliance's database size per active bed per unit time, and historical archive appliance needs.

Downloading the VM

Using a web browser, navigate to the FTP site and log in with the provided credentials.

Download the VM files to a location that can later be accessed by your VMWare vSphere client.

• The VM consists of three files; *.vmdk, *.mf, and *.ovf.
• Note that the download of these files could take several hours as they will total over 3 GB.
• Use an FTP client that supports “resuming downloads” due to the large size of the files to be downloaded.

Installing the VM

Install the Vocera VM via the virtual machine host program supported by your facility. The following steps describe importing the VM using VMWare's vSphere client.

1. Launch the VMWare vSphere client and log into the ESX host on which you plan to install the Vocera Engage VM.
2. From the vSphere client, navigate the following path: File > Deploy OVF Template > Deploy from File.
3. Using the Browse button, navigate to the *.ovf file previously downloaded, select the file, and then select Next.
4. Enter an appropriate name for the Vocera appliance, such as "Vocera", and then select Next.
5. Select the appropriate networking options, and then select Next.
6. Revise the deployment settings to the required disk size, memory, and number of cores shown in the table above.
7. Select Finish.
8. Power on the VM.

Conclusion

The appliance is now ready for configuration by the Vocera Implementation Engineer (IE). Please reach out to your designated IE who will set the static IP address of the VM and enable your administrator login capabilities.