Air-gapped sites
Running and upgrading a deployment with no route to the internet.
VS-HCI is designed to run disconnected. The installation medium carries everything a node needs, and nothing is fetched from the internet during installation.
What works with no connectivity
| Installation | Fully — the medium carries an offline package set |
| All platform features | Yes |
| Built-in VM templates | Yes |
| Upgrades | Yes, by uploading bundles |
| Licensing | Yes — the request and the licence are files |
What does not
| Alternative | |
|---|---|
| The template marketplace | Built-in templates, and your own |
| Syncing OS images | Upload ISOs to the library |
| Automatic version listing | Upload upgrade bundles |
| NTP to a public server | An internal time source |
| Alert email, webhooks, Slack | Internal endpoints |
Time
NTP is the one that catches people out. The setup wizard defaults to a public pool, which an air-gapped site cannot reach.
Point every node at an internal time source during setup. Clustering and TOTP both depend on clocks agreeing, and a fleet with drifting clocks produces problems that look like everything except a clock problem.
Connectivity checks during setup
The installer tests the gateway, DNS and NTP, and a failure is a warning rather than a block — precisely so that an air-gapped site can continue.
Read the results rather than clicking past them. NTP FAIL against an internal server means the
server is wrong, not that the site is disconnected.
Upgrades
Upgrade bundles can be uploaded rather than downloaded. Fetch them on a connected machine, bring them in, upload them from Software, then run the upgrade exactly as a connected site would.
Both pipelines behave identically — the only difference is where the artefacts came from. See Upgrading the fleet.
Check the integrity of bundles you transfer. A truncated copy on removable media is a real failure mode.
Installation media
The medium is self-contained. Keep a copy of the exact version the fleet runs — rebuilding a node at an air-gapped site means the medium you have is the only medium you have.
Licensing
Licensing does not need connectivity. The deployment produces a request; you carry it out, and carry the licence back in. Both are files.
See Licensing.
ISOs and templates
Upload ISOs directly to the ISO library, which replicates across controllers and is exported to every host. Define your own templates for the shapes you use.
Backups
The backup target is an SCP destination, which can be entirely internal. Nothing about backup and restore needs the internet — and the requirement that backups live off the cluster applies exactly as it does anywhere else.
Partially connected sites
Where a deployment has no internet but does have an internal mirror, point the version repository host at it under Software settings. The deployment then lists and downloads versions normally.
Operating notes
- Version the media. Label which release each stick or image holds.
- Keep release notes with the bundles. You cannot look them up later.
- Keep the signing key accessible. Root shell access needs a key holder, and an air-gapped site is where you are most likely to need the operating system.
- Test restores. There is no support engineer who can dial in.