The first time I installed the Cisco virtual wireless controller (vWLC) was using version 8.1 on a fresh install of VMWare ESXi 6.5. Cisco very helpfully provides the vWLC in an OVA file, which is effectively everything you need for the install wrapped up in a single file for easy creation of the virtual machine (VM). However… it did not work.
You don’t have to Google for long before you realise that Cisco seems to have a problem with OVA files.
An OVA is made up of a few files. but the key ones are the file that tells you the specification of the VM (CPU, RAM, HDD) and the image file (ISO) of the software you’re deploying.
The first time this happened to me I figured out that I could make the VM manually using the settings specified in the OVA and then mount the ISO file to complete the installation. I told myself I would write a blog about it to help others out but never got round to it.
Well this week when I deplored a fresh vWLC using version 8.5 I had the same problem. I have previously upgraded my virtual infrastructure to ESXi 6.7 so this was a new Cisco and VMWare version, which backups the comment that Cisco seems to have an issue with its OVA’s.
Last time round ESXi 6.5 was just failing to create the VM from the OVA with little more useful information than “it failed”. This time round, using ESXi 6.7, it provided the error “A required disk image was missing”. It also went as far as creating the VM shell, which saved a step on the first time round. All I had to do was mount the ISO contained in the OVA and let it install.
So you ask, where is this useful blog post to help me Andrew? Well, turns out someone beat me to it. Orkhan over at geekstuff.org wrote this short and concise blog article on the problem when he was trying to load a CSR 1000v OVA. The steps are exactly the same for vWLC’s so I won’t waste any more of both our time, just go there and enjoy your vWLC.