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
Install KVM packages
Check if KVM acceleration is ready
Add user to libvirt group
Verify if the libvirt user group is available using the below command
If the libvirt group is not available, it can be created using the below command
Then add the current user to the group
Set user and group for qemu. Update the qemu config with your user and libvirt group
Restart the libvirtd service
Check the status of the libvirtd service
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
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).
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
This step will reset the SSH connection and reassign the static IP from the physical interface(enp1s0) to the bridge interface(br0).
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:~$
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:~$
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"