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Installation

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

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).

Supported Traffic Generators

Traffic Generator

Type

Version

IXIA

UHD

Chassis Type: Ixia UHD
Chassis Version: IxOS 9.10.2300.159
Protocol Build Number: 9.10.200

IXIA

NOVUS

Chassis Type: Ixia XGS2
Chassis Version: IxOS 9.12.2100.7
Protocol Build Number: 9.12.2009.10

Deploy the VM

The VM image is provided as a gzip file. It should be decompressed to get the qcow2 image to deploy as a VM.

The FTAS VM has Aviz ONES integrated into it and will take some time to initialise after the first boot.

You can connect to the console port of the VM to see the installation logs.

Create the VM using GUI App virt-manager

If your host server has Ubuntu Desktop and virt-manager installed you can use it to deploy the VM. Make sure you can start the Virtual Machine Manager and that it connects successfully to the local hypervisor.

Creating a VM with virt-manager is very straightforward, Use the following steps to deploy the FTAS VM

File -> New Virtual Machine -> Import existing disk image -> Forward

Browse to the FTAS disk image location and select Ubuntu as the OS name
Click "Forward" and select vCPU (min 2 cores) and Memory (4GB) for the VM

Click "Forward", give your VM a name and check "Customize configuration before install"
Select "NIC ...", in the "Network source" select the Linux bridge you created on the host machine

Apply the configuration and start the VM

Create the VM using XML configuration

Create an XML configuration file from the following template

The below lines can be changed to customize the VM installation:

Line #2 the Name of the VM
Lines #3 & #4 the amount of System Memory for the VM
Line #5 the number of vCPU Core for the VM

Create a Linux bridge configuration file (bridged-network.xml) for libvirt from the following template

Line #4 the name of the Linux bridge on the host machine

Define the Linux bridge for the VM

Start the VM

If you see a permission error run the virsh command with sudo may fix the issue

Check the VM status

Configure the IP address on the VM

If there is a DHCP server on the management network the VM will obtain its IP configuration from the DHCP server
If there is no DHCP server or you want to configure the IP address statically, Follow the below steps

Enter VM console

The default username is 'oper' with the default password 'oper@123'

Check connections and devices

Release IP assigned by DHCP

Configure static IP for the connection

Set a default Gateway address

Set the IP configuration mode to manual

Reapply the configuration to the interface

Verify the IP address

Test FTAS VM reachability from outside the VM, if the VM is not reachable please check the access rule at the below location,

If the above value is 1 please change it to 0 and the reachability issue should be resolved

There are some scaling scripts that require multiple network service servers (NTP, SYSLOG, TACACS+, etc.). In order to simulate this, we can add a secondary IP address to the VM NIC.

To add a secondary IP address, use the command

Network services containers

The FTAS VM has docker containers running and the following docker images installed:

DHCP container image ztp_dhcp(DHCP sevice)

ztp_dhcp(DHCP) services are not run by default as it might conflict with DHCP running in the DC infra.

Net Services container image netservices:v1 (NTP, SYSLOG, TACACS+ services). This container is run with the "--network=host" option. If you need to change the configurations of the services please find them in the following configuration files.

Dockers running by default:

User Login

Users can log in to the FTAS VM using one of the following methods

Console login

virsh console <VM_domain_name>

#Example -  
#sonic@sonic-39:~$ virsh console FTAS_VM01
#Connected to domain FTAS_VM01
#Escape character is ^]
#oper@ftasvm:~$

SSH login

The default username is 'oper' with the default password 'oper@123'

After logging in user will be dropped into the 'Bash shell'

with the following pre-defined folders and files

qjob.py - Script to schedule execution jobs.
testbeds - Directory to create and maintain testbed parameter files.
jobs - Directory containing the JSON file that holds the job queue. qjob.py script controls and edits this JSON file. Please don't edit the JSON file manually.

Deploy the VM

The VM image is provided as a gzip file. It should be decompressed to get the qcow2 image to deploy as a VM.

The FTAS VM has Aviz ONES integrated into it and will take some time to initialise after the first boot.

sonic@sonic-39:~$ gunzip -c ftas_ones_vmi_1.1.2.qcow2.gz > ftas_ones_vmi_1.1.2.qcow2
sonic@sonic-39:~$ ls -l
total 8302936
-rw-rw-r-- 1 sonic sonic 4929683456 Feb 21 06:21 ftas_ones_vmi_1.1.2.qcow2
-rw-rw-r-- 1 sonic sonic 3572510886 Feb 21 06:20 ftas_ones_vmi_1.1.2.qcow2.gz
sonic@sonic-39:~$

You can connect to the console port of the VM to see the installation logs.

Create the VM using GUI App virt-manager

Creating a VM with virt-manager is very straightforward, Use the following steps to deploy the FTAS VM

File -> New Virtual Machine -> Import existing disk image -> Forward

Browse to the FTAS disk image location and select Ubuntu as the OS name
Click "Forward" and select vCPU (min 2 cores) and Memory (4GB) for the VM

Click "Forward", give your VM a name and check "Customize configuration before install"
Select "NIC ...", in the "Network source" select the Linux bridge you created on the host machine

Apply the configuration and start the VM

Create the VM using XML configuration

Create an XML configuration file from the following template

The below lines can be changed to customize the VM installation:

Line #2 the Name of the VM
Lines #3 & #4 the amount of System Memory for the VM
Line #5 the number of vCPU Core for the VM

Create a Linux bridge configuration file (bridged-network.xml) for libvirt from the following template

Line #4 the name of the Linux bridge on the host machine

Define the Linux bridge for the VM

Start the VM

If you see a permission error run the virsh command with sudo may fix the issue

Check the VM status

Configure the IP address on the VM

If there is a DHCP server on the management network the VM will obtain its IP configuration from the DHCP server
If there is no DHCP server or you want to configure the IP address statically, Follow the below steps

Enter VM console

The default username is 'oper' with the default password 'oper@123'

Check connections and devices

Release IP assigned by DHCP

Configure static IP for the connection

Set a default Gateway address

Set the IP configuration mode to manual

Reapply the configuration to the interface

Verify the IP address

Test FTAS VM reachability from outside the VM, if the VM is not reachable please check the access rule at the below location,

If the above value is 1 please change it to 0 and the reachability issue should be resolved

There are some scaling scripts that require multiple network service servers (NTP, SYSLOG, TACACS+, etc.). In order to simulate this, we can add a secondary IP address to the VM NIC.

To add a secondary IP address, use the command

Network services containers

The FTAS VM has docker containers running and the following docker images installed:

DHCP container image ztp_dhcp(DHCP sevice)

ztp_dhcp(DHCP) services are not run by default as it might conflict with DHCP running in the DC infra.

Net Services container image netservices:v1 (NTP, SYSLOG, TACACS+ services). This container is run with the "--network=host" option. If you need to change the configurations of the services please find them in the following configuration files.

Dockers running by default:

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.

Hypervisor Software

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).

Installation

Host Requirements

hashtagHardware

hashtagOperating System

hashtagHypervisor Software

hashtagNetwork Configuration

Supported Traffic Generators

Deploy the VM

hashtagCreate the VM using GUI App virt-manager

hashtagCreate the VM using XML configuration

hashtagConfigure the IP address on the VM

hashtagNetwork services containers

User Login

User Login

Deploy the VM

hashtagCreate the VM using GUI App virt-manager

hashtagCreate the VM using XML configuration

hashtagConfigure the IP address on the VM

hashtagNetwork services containers

Supported Traffic Generators

Installation

Host Requirements

hashtagHardware

hashtagOperating System

hashtagHypervisor Software

hashtagNetwork Configuration

Hardware

Operating System

Hypervisor Software

Network Configuration

Create the VM using GUI App virt-manager

Create the VM using XML configuration

Configure the IP address on the VM

Network services containers

Create the VM using GUI App virt-manager

Create the VM using XML configuration

Configure the IP address on the VM

Network services containers

Hardware

Operating System

Hypervisor Software

Network Configuration