At the time of writing this 9.8 is available but I’m specifically writing this for someone who is trying to install 9.7 and having problems. Before I get into the actual simulator installation we need to come cover some stuff around VMware Fusion first.

With regards to networking, VMware Fusion can provide three different interface types, they are as follows:

1. Bridged – this type puts the interface directly on the same LAN as your Mac, this is great if you want the VM to appear as though it’s on the network that your Mac is using.
2. Host-only – this is a completely isolated network, the only hosts that can access it are those on your Mac configured with this type of interface. There is no external access with this type.
3. NAT – this is similar to number two, but allows the host with this type to reach out of the Mac, such as for Internet access.
   
   If you want more details on this please go read this KB.

By default, the simulator has four network interface; the first two, e0a/e0b are for the ClusterNet network, the back-end network used by cluster nodes to communicate with each other, and should be of type host-only. The second two, e0c/e0d are for client access and management access, these are of type NAT but can also be set to bridged. If you use Nat, then VMware will assign IP addresses via DHCP based on the configuration of the VMNET8 interface settings; to view this cat the file located here:

/Library/Preferences/VMware\ Fusion/vmnet8/dhcpd.conf

Mine looks like this:

allow unknown-clients;
default-lease-time 1800;                # default is 30 minutes
max-lease-time 7200;                    # default is 2 hours

subnet 172.16.133.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
	range 172.16.133.128 172.16.133.254;
	option broadcast-address 172.16.133.255;
	option domain-name-servers 172.16.133.2;
	option domain-name localdomain;
	default-lease-time 1800;                # default is 30 minutes
	max-lease-time 7200;                    # default is 2 hours
	option netbios-name-servers 172.16.133.2;
	option routers 172.16.133.2;
}
host vmnet8 {
	hardware ethernet 00:50:56:C0:00:08;
	fixed-address 172.16.133.1;
	option domain-name-servers 0.0.0.0;
	option domain-name "";
	option routers 0.0.0.0;
}

What this means is that any interface set to NAT in my instance of Fusion will receive DHCP addresses in the subnet 172.16.133.0/24, but the DHCP pool itself is only 172.16.133.[128-254]. The subnet mask will still be 255.255.255.0 (ie: /24) and the default gateway is 172.16.133.2 as that is the internal interface of the virtual router created to do the NAT; .1 is held by the “external” interface which you can view by issuing an ifconfig vmnet8 at the command prompt. Note, this interface is created when Fusion is launched and torn down when you quit. If you set the interface type to bridged, those interfaces will get DHCP addresses from the same LAN that the Mac is connected to.

On to the actual installation…

First thing you need to do is download the OVA from NetApp:

1. Go to https://support.netapp.com/
2. login (yes, required)
3. At the top click Downloads → Product Evaluation
4. Click “Data ONTAP™ Simulator“
5. Agree to the terms
6. Download the OVA and license keys for the version you’re looking for.

Now that you have the OVA, you’re ready to import it into Fusion. Launch Fusion, then click the + sign and choose Import:

Browse for and open the downloaded OVA:

Now click continue:

Give the folder you’re going to store it in a name and click save, I like to name it after the node:

Fusion will import the OVA and present you with the settings. You can modify them if you want, but for now I’m going to leave them as default. Click Finish:

You’ll likely be asked if you’d like to upgrade the VM version, don’t bother:

At this point the vSIM will boot for its first time, I believe the official instructions tell you to hit CTRL-C, halt the boot and call for the maintenance menu then issue an option 4, but if this is the first node you do not have to do that. The root aggregate is automatically created:

Now you can open a browser and point it at the IP address listed on your screen, in my case it will be https://172.16.133.132/, but it may be different for you. You will get a certificate error, but bypass that to access the GUI to finish the configuration. IF you do not get the following screen or get no site at all, there’s something else wrong. Also, hover your mouse over the node in the Health card, if the serial number doesn’t appear, refresh the web page, otherwise configuration will fail:

It should look like this:

Now enter all the required information, since the IP addresses are being statically assigned, I’m choosing ones outside of the DHCP range, as should you:

I don’t check the “single-node” box, it will still work as a single node if you don’t but if you do, it removes the ClusterNet interfaces completely. I like having those interfaces for experimentation and teaching purposes; also it keeps the door open to adding a second node, which I will cover in a follow up post if there is anyone interested. Now click Submit:

At this point I like to start pinging either the cluster IP I specified or the node IP so I can see when the cluster gets configured since the browser doesn’t always refresh to the new IP address:

Once ping starts responding, go ahead and visit the new IP address via your browser:

Now the person I wrote this blog entry for isn’t getting the GUI above, but instead the GUI for the out-of-band interface for a UCS server, so the IP space their vmnet8 is using collides with production IP space. This can be verified at this point by disconnecting any Ethernet connections and turning off WiFi, once that is done, reload the browser and the IP conflict should be resolved until you’re connected once again. To resolve it permanently, that person will need to edit the dhcpd.conf file for vmnet8 mentioned above, using a subnet known to not conflict. Here’s an example, alternative dhcpd.conf:

allow unknown-clients;
default-lease-time 1800;                # default is 30 minutes
max-lease-time 7200;                    # default is 2 hours

subnet 10.0.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
	range 10.0.0.128 10.0.0.254;
	option broadcast-address 10.0.0.255;
	option domain-name-servers 10.0.0.2;
	option domain-name localdomain;
	default-lease-time 1800;                # default is 30 minutes
	max-lease-time 7200;                    # default is 2 hours
	option netbios-name-servers 10.0.0.2;
	option routers 10.0.0.2;
}
host vmnet8 {
	hardware ethernet 00:50:56:C0:00:08;
	fixed-address 10.0.0.1;
	option domain-name-servers 0.0.0.0;
	option domain-name "";
	option routers 0.0.0.0;
}

This changes the subnet in use to 10.0.0.0/24 with the DHCP range being 10.0.0.[128-254] and the default gateway of VMs using it to 10.0.0.2.

This is where I’m going to end this post for now as the simulator is now accessible via HTTPS and SSH and ONTAP is ready to be configured. You will still need to assign disks, create a local storage tier (aggregate) as well as an SVM with volume(s) for data among other things. The intent of this post was to get this far, not to teach ONTAP. If you’d like to see a post around either adding a second node to the cluster or configuring ONTAP on the first one, please leave a comment and I’ll try and get around to it.