Learn how to install a ThoughtSpot cluster in a VMware environment.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes


For each hardware node, you must:

  • Complete the prerequisites
  • Add hard disks to the VM



  1. Make sure you have installed the Hypervisor on each of your three nodes.


  2. Create datastores for all solid-state drive (SSD) and hard drive devices.

Use the OVF to Create a VM

  1. Download the ThoughtSpot OVF from the Downloads page here to a location on an accessible disk.
  2. Log in to the ESXi web portal.

  3. Select Virtual Machines > Create/Register VM.

    The system displays the dialog for selecting an OVF template.

  4. Choose the OVF template and press Next.

    The system prompts you to select a storage.

  5. Choose the SSD as the destination and press Next.

    The system displays the Deployment Options dialog.

  6. Enter the options and press Next.

    Setting Value
    Network mappings Select the correct network for your installation.
    Disk provisioning Choose Thin.
    Power on automatically Check this box.
  7. Review your selection and press Finish.

  8. Wait for the template to be loaded.

    Depending on your network speed, loading can take several minutes.

  9. Make sure that VM is powered off.

Add hard disks to the VM

Use Case HDFS Disk Requirements
POC 2 x 1 TB on HDD
Production 3 x 2 TB on HDD

For a proof of concept (POC), follow these steps to create two 1TB HDFS disks on HDD storage, as shown here (2 x 1TB).

For production deployments, ThoughtSpot requires you to have three 2TB HDFS disks on HDD (3 x 2TB). For this use case, follow these same steps to create the additional, larger capacity disks.

  1. Edit the VM you just created.

  2. Select Add hard disk > New hard disk.

    You can give the VM up to 72 cores (or approximately 490 G RAM). The ESXi host should keep a minimum of 2 cores.


  4. For a proof of concept, set the options as follows. (For production deployments, set the size to 2TB.)

    Setting Value
    size 1 TB
    Location Use the Browse button to select the hard disk store.
    Thin provisioned Check this box.

    You should see something similar to the following:

  5. Save your changes.
  7. Power on the VM
  8. Once the VM is online, run the following command to prepare the HDFS disks:

     sudo /usr/local/scaligent/bin/prepare_disks.sh

Next steps

There is no network at this point on your VMs. To make the VM node accessible from any terminal within local network, contact [email protected].