Host Requirements

Hardware

• CPU: x86_64 8 cores or more with Virtualization enabled

• Memory: 8GB or more system memory

• Disk Space: 256GB or more available disk space

• Network Interface: 1 GbE NIC

For FTAS with ONES integration, more disk space and RAM is needed

Memory: 16GB or more system memory Disk Space: 512GB or more available disk space

Operating System

• Ubuntu 20.04 or later (64-bit)

Other flavours of Linux that support KVM should also be able to run the FTAS.

However, it's important to note that these alternative distributions have been specifically tested for compatibility with FTAS, and therefore, users who opt for non-Ubuntu Linux systems to run FTAS should be aware that they may encounter compatibility issues and may need to perform additional configuration and testing on their own.

Hypervisor Software

KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is the leading open-source virtualisation technology for Linux. It installs natively on all Linux distributions and turns underlying physical servers into hypervisors so that they can host multiple, isolated virtual machines (VMs).

We will be using KVM to serve as the hypervisor for the FTAS VM because KVM being a type-1 hypervisor, it outperforms all type-2 hypervisors, ensuring near-metal performance.

Please refer to the following steps to install it on the host machine

• Ensure that the latest Ubuntu packages are installed

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

• Install KVM packages

sudo apt install libvirt-clients libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-daemon virtinst bridge-utils qemu qemu-kvm

• Check if KVM acceleration is ready

kvm-ok

# You should see a message like "KVM acceleration can be used"
sonic@sonic-39:~$ kvm-ok
INFO: /dev/kvm exists
KVM acceleration can be used
sonic@sonic-39:~$ 

• Add user to libvirt group

Verify if the libvirt user group is available using the below command

sudo getent group | grep libvirt

sonic@sonic-39:~$ sudo getent group | grep libvirt
libvirt:x:119:sonic,root
libvirt-qemu:x:64055:libvirt-qemu
libvirt-dnsmasq:x:120:
sonic@sonic-39:~$ 

If the libvirt group is not available, it can be created using the below command

sudo groupadd --system libvirt

sonic@sonic-39:~$ sudo groupadd --system libvirt
groupadd: group 'libvirt' already exists
sonic@sonic-39:~$ 

Then add the current user to the group

sudo usermod -a -G libvirt $(whoami)

• Set user and group for qemu. Update the qemu config with your user and libvirt group

sudo vi /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf

# Some examples of valid values are:
#
#       user = "qemu"   # A user named "qemu"
#       user = "+0"     # Super user (uid=0)
#       user = "100"    # A user named "100" or a user with uid=100
#
#user = "root"
user = "<your host user>" 


# The group for QEMU processes run by the system instance. It can be
# specified in a similar way to the user.
group = "libvirt"

• Restart the libvirtd service

sudo systemctl stop libvirtd
sudo systemctl start libvirtd

Check the status of the libvirtd service

sudo systemctl status libvirtd

sonic@sonic-39:~$ sudo systemctl status libvirtd
● libvirtd.service - Virtualization daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/libvirtd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2023-02-18 10:16:26 UTC; 27s ago
     Docs: man:libvirtd(8)
           https://libvirt.org
 Main PID: 68774 (libvirtd)
    Tasks: 33 (limit: 32768)
   CGroup: /system.slice/libvirtd.service
           ├─54120 /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 -name guest=ftas03,debug-threads=on -S -object secret,id=masterKey0,format=raw,file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/domain-8-ftas03/master-key.aes -machine pc-i440fx-1.5,accel
           └─68774 /usr/sbin/libvirtd

Feb 18 10:16:26 sonic-39 systemd[1]: Starting Virtualization daemon...
Feb 18 10:16:26 sonic-39 systemd[1]: Started Virtualization daemon.
lines 1-13/13 (END)

• If your server has a GUI desktop installed, you may want to install virt-manager. The virt-manager application is a desktop Graphical user interface for managing virtual machines through libvirt

sudo apt-get install virt-manager

Network Configuration

It is recommended that the virtual NIC on the VM should be bridged with the physical NIC on the host machine.

In this sample configuration eno1 is the physical NIC of the host machine, which is typically used for SSH(Management).

Netplan configuration for Linux bridge using DHCP

#/etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml
network:
  ethernets:
    enp1s0:
      dhcp4: no
  bridges:
    br0:
      interfaces: [enp1s0]
      dhcp4: yes
      mtu: 1500
      parameters:
        stp: true
        forward-delay: 4
      dhcp6: no
  version: 2

Netplan configuration for Linux bridge using static IP

#/etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml
network:
  ethernets:
    enp1s0:
      dhcp4: no
  bridges:
    br0:
      interfaces: [enp1s0]
      addresses: [172.16.1.100/24]
      gateway4: 172.16.1.1
      mtu: 1500
      nameservers:
        addresses: [8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4]
      parameters:
        stp: true
        forward-delay: 4
      dhcp4: no
      dhcp6: no
  version: 2

Please assign the same static IP as on the physical Management NIC(enp1s0).

After this step, IP will be re-assigned to the bridge interface(br0) and the Physical interface(enp1s0) will act as a Layer-2 interface.

Apply the above configuration

sudo netplan apply

This step will reset the SSH connection and reassign the static IP from the physical interface(enp1s0) to the bridge interface(br0).