The management interface is the port through which the virtual appliance is managed and administered. It is also the port through which integration of the Central Management System appliance and a managed appliance is managed. With the single-port address type, the management interface is also the port through which a managed appliance requests and downloads software updates from the DTI network.
Initial settings need to be configured to set up the management interface, and to allow access to the network, change the default administrator password, and so on.
If your virtual appliances are managed by VMware vCenter Server, the Deploy OVF Template wizard includes a Properties screen that allows you to enter your activation code and supply CLI commands that configure the appliance. You can also reset the password for the "admin" user on this screen.
If the wizard does not include the Properties screen or if you choose not to use it, you can use the console of the vSphere client to type the activation code and commands that allow the admin to log in to the CLI or Web UI to configure the appliance. You can fully configure the appliance from the console, but it might be inconvenient because you cannot paste into the console.
Using the Properties Screen
The Properties screen is included in the Deploy OVF Template wizard if you connect to your ESXi host through VMware vCenter Server. For an illustration of this screen and information about the other wizard screens, see Installing a virtual NX series, CM series, or FX series appliance.
Trellix recommends that you use the Properties screen to do at least the following:
Enter the activation code for your virtual appliance. The activation code contains many characters. The vSphere Client prevents you from pasting the activation code into the vSphere Client console, and it is easy to make a typing error.
Reset the password for the "admin" user if password authentication will be used to log into the CLI or Web UI over the network. The password must be changed to a password of at least eight characters.
You can also use this screen to provide commands for configuration settings that the system will apply during the initial boot. This can be convenient if you have a large number of virtual appliances to deploy, because you can create base sets of commands and then customize them for each deployment.
Note
You can use the system virtual bootstrap reset command to reset the Properties screen values after the virtual appliance is deployed and running.
The following table describes the fields in the Properties screen.
Field | Description |
|---|---|
Activation Code | The code you received in a secure email from Trellix that gives the virtual appliance its identity and access credentials. |
Initial CLI commands | A Base64-encoded set of commands that at a minimum allow the appliance to connect to your network. To use this field, type the commands in plain-text format, encode them to Base64, and then paste the encoded string into this field. (You could use the Linux command Consider using this field for network connectivity only, because the size of the string could become unwieldy. The string can be a maximum of 65,535 bytes, and cannot be line-wrapped. |
Initial CLI commands URL | A URL that points to a file on your network (for example, The virtual appliance needs network connectivity (which the commands in the Initial CLI commands field can establish) to access the file referenced in the URL. |
Reset admin password | A password of at least eight characters. The initial "admin" password must be reset to allow the admin user to log into the CLI or Web UI over the network unless both of the following are true:
|
Using the Console
Trellix recommends that you use the Properties screen to provide initial configuration settings, because you cannot copy and paste into the vSphere Client console. However, if you do not use this screen, and if the license update feature is not enabled, Trellix recommends that you accept the evaluation licenses during the initial configuration, because typing the keys is tedious and prone to error. After the activation code is entered and the admin user has access to the appliance Web UI or CLI , you can copy and paste the license keys.
Log in to vSphere client.
In the left pane, expand the ESXi IP address and then select the virtual appliance.
Click the Console tab.

If the console is not running, click the green arrow to launch it.
At the login prompt, enter admin.
At the password prompt, enter admin.
If prompted to change the password, configure a new password using the
username admin password <new password>command. You will be logged out. Log in again with the new password.Start the configuration jump-start wizard:
hostname (config) # configuration jump-startAnswer the wizard questions as described in Wizard steps.
Note
To navigate away from the vSphere Client console and return to the vSphere Client user interface or your local machine, press Ctrl+Alt .
Wizard Steps
The following tables describe the questions the configuration wizard prompts you to answer. As noted in the table, the wizard skips some steps based on your answers to previous steps.
Note
Press Ctrl+C to exit the configuration wizard. After the management interface is configured, an administrator can use the configuration jump-start CLI command to run the wizard again.
Network Security steps
Central Management System steps
File Protect steps
Malware Analysis steps
Step | Response |
|---|---|
Hostname? | Enter the hostname for the appliance. |
Admin password? | (Optional) Enter a new administrator password. |
Confirm admin password? | Re-enter the new administrator password. |
Enable remote access for 'admin' user? | Enter yes to enable the administrator to log in to the appliance remotely. Enter no to disable remote access. |
Enable IPv4 for the management interface (ether1)? | Enter yes to enable the IPv4 protocol. If you enter no, IPv4 setup is skipped and you are redirected to the IPv6 configuration, where you can enable or configure IPv6 instead. |
Use DHCP on ether1 interface? | Enter no to manually configure your IP address and network settings. |
Use zeroconf on ether1 interface? | Enter yes to use zero-configuration (zeroconf) networking. Enter no to specify a static IP address and network mask. (If you specify yes, the next step is skipped.) NOTE: Do not use zeroconf on the primary interface. |
Primary IP address and masklen? | Enter the IP address for the management interface in A.B.C.D format and enter the network mask (for example, 1.1.1.2 /24). |
Default gateway? | Enter the gateway IP address for the management interface. |
Primary DNS server? | Enter the IP address of the DNS server. |
Domain name? | Enter the domain for the management interface (for example, it.acme.com). |
Enable fenet service? | Enter yes to enable access to the DTI network. (If you enter no, the next three steps are skipped.) |
Enable fenet license update service? | Enter yes to enable the licensing service to automatically download your licenses from the DTI network and install them. (If licenses are downloaded and installed successfully, the wizard skips the step that prompts for the product license key and the step that prompts for the security-content updates key.) |
Sync appliance time with fenet? | Enter yes to synchronize the appliance time with the DTI server time. If you enabled the licensing service, synchronization prevents a feature from being temporarily unlicensed due to a time gap. The wizard makes three attempts to perform this step before it gives up and moves to the next step. |
Update licenses from fenet? | Enter yes to download and install your licenses. The wizard makes three attempts to perform this step before it gives up and moves to the next step. |
Enable IPv6 on management interface (ether1)? | Enter yes to enable IPV6 protocol, which changes network routing from IPv4 to IPv6. |
Enable IPv6 autoconfig (SLAAC) on ether1 interface? | Enter yes to enable IPv6 autoconfig on the ether1 (management interface) port. (This step is skipped if you entered no in the "Enable IPv6" step.) |
Enable DHCPv6 on ether1 interface? | Enter yes to use DHCPv6 to configure IPv6 hosts with IP addresses. (This step is skipped if you entered no in the "Use DHCP on ether1 interface" or "Enable IPv6" step.) |
Product license key? | Press Enter to install a 15-day evaluation license. |
Security-content updates key? | Press Enter to skip this step and install the license later. |