Nokia 7750 SR, 7950 XRS User Manual

vSIM INSTALLATION AND SETUP GUIDE RELEASE 20.10.R1

VIRTUALIZED 7750 SR AND 7950 XRS

SIMULATOR (vSIM)

vSIM INSTALLATION AND SETUP GUIDE RELEASE 20.10.R1

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October 2020

Nokia — Proprietary and confidential.

Use pursuant to applicable agreements.

vSIM INSTALLATION AND SETUP GUIDE RELEASE 20.10.R1

Nokia is committed to diversity and inclusion. We are continuously reviewing our customer documentation and consulting with standards bodies to ensure that terminology is inclusive and aligned with the industry. Our future customer documentation will be updated accordingly.

Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Other products and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or tradenames of their respective owners.

The information presented is subject to change without notice. No responsibility is assumed for inaccuracies contained herein.

© 2020 Nokia.

Contains proprietary/trade secret information which is the property of Nokia and must not be made available to, or copied or used by anyone outside Nokia without its written authorization. Not to be used or disclosed except in accordance with applicable agreements.

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Table of Contents

1	Getting Started................................................................................	5
1.1	About This Guide.........................................................................................	5
1.1.1	Audience......................................................................................................	5
1.1.2	List of Technical Publications ......................................................................	6
1.2	vSIM Installation and Setup Process...........................................................	6
2	vSIM Overview ................................................................................	9
2.1	vSIM Overview ............................................................................................	9
2.1.1	vSIM Concept ...........................................................................................	10
2.2	vSIM Deployment Models..........................................................................	11
2.2.1	Integrated Model........................................................................................	11
2.2.2	Distributed Model ......................................................................................	11
2.3	Supported vSIM Configurations.................................................................	12
2.4	vSIM Networking .......................................................................................	14
2.5	vSIM Software Packaging ........................................................................	15
3	Host Machine Requirements .......................................................	17
3.1	Overview....................................................................................................	17
3.2	Host Machine Hardware Requirements.....................................................	17
3.2.1	vCPU Requirements..................................................................................	17
3.2.2	CPU and DRAM Memory ..........................................................................	17
3.2.3	Storage......................................................................................................	18
3.2.4	NICs...........................................................................................................	18
3.3	Host Machine Software Requirements......................................................	19
3.3.1	Host OS and Hypervisor............................................................................	19
3.3.1.1	Linux KVM Hypervisor...............................................................................	19
3.3.1.2	VMware Hypervisor ...................................................................................	20
3.3.2	Virtual Switch.............................................................................................	20
3.3.2.1	Linux Bridge...............................................................................................	21
4	vSIM Software Licensing .............................................................	23
4.1	vSIM Licensing Overview ..........................................................................	23
4.2	vSIM License Keys....................................................................................	23
4.3	Checking the License Status.....................................................................	24
5	Creating and Starting a vSIM VM on a Linux KVM Host ...........	25
5.1	Introduction ...............................................................................................	25
5.2	VM Configuration Process Overview.........................................................	25
5.3	Libvirt Domain XML Structure....................................................................	27
5.3.1	Domain Name and UUID...........................................................................	27
5.3.2	Memory......................................................................................................	28
5.3.3	vCPU .........................................................................................................	28
5.3.4	CPU...........................................................................................................	29
5.3.5	Sysinfo.......................................................................................................	30

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5.3.6	OS .............................................................................................................	34
5.3.7	Clock..........................................................................................................	35
5.3.8	Devices......................................................................................................	36
5.3.8.1	Disk Devices..............................................................................................	36
5.3.8.2	Network Interfaces.....................................................................................	38
5.3.8.3	Guest vNIC Mapping in vSIM VMs............................................................	40
5.3.8.4	Console and Serial Ports...........................................................................	42
5.3.9	Seclabel.....................................................................................................	43
5.4	Example Libvirt Domain XML ....................................................................	43

6Creating and Starting a vSIM VM on a VMware ESXi

Host................................................................................................

45

6.1Creating and Starting an Integrated Model vSIM VM on a VMware

	Host ...........................................................................................................	45
7	Verifying the vSIM Installation .....................................................	57
7.1	Overview ....................................................................................................	57
7.2	Verifying Host Details ................................................................................	57
7.2.1	General System Information ......................................................................	57
7.2.2	Linux Distribution Type ..............................................................................	57
7.2.3	PCI Devices ...............................................................................................	58
7.2.4	CPU Processor Information .......................................................................	58
7.2.5	Host Memory .............................................................................................	59
7.2.6	Host Capability ..........................................................................................	60
7.2.7	QEMU and libvirt Information ....................................................................	60
7.2.8	Loaded Modules ........................................................................................	60
7.2.9	Host Virtualization Setup ...........................................................................	61
7.3	Verifying the Creation of VMs ....................................................................	61
7.4	Verifying Host Networking .........................................................................	63
7.5	Verifying vSIM Software ............................................................................	64
7.5.1	Check the Status of the System BOF ........................................................	64
7.5.2	Check the Chassis Type ...........................................................................	65
7.5.3	Check the Card Types Equipped in the System ........................................	65
7.5.4	Check the vSIM System Licenses .............................................................	66
Appendices	..............................................................................................	69
Appendix A: vSIM Supported Hardware ............................................................		71
7250 IXR	...................................................................................................................	71
7750 SR ...................................................................................................................		73
7950 XRS ...................................................................................................................		92
Appendix B: Known .........................................................................Limitations		95
Appendix C: vSIM ........................................................Glossary of Key Terms		97

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1Getting Started

1.1About This Guide

This guide describes how to install and set up the Virtualized 7750 SR and 7950 XRS Simulator (vSIM).

This guide is organized into functional chapters and includes:

•a functional overview of the vSIM

•a description of the vSIM system architecture

•requirements for the NFV infrastructure (NFVI) supporting the vSIM system

•initial commissioning procedures to bring up a vSIM for first-time use

Command outputs shown in this guide are examples only; actual outputs may differ depending on supported functionality and user configuration.

Note: This guide generically covers Release 20.x.Rx. content and may contain some content that will be released in later maintenance loads. Refer to the SR OS 20.x.Rx. Software Release Notes, part number 3HE 16194 000x TQZZA, for information on features supported in each load of the Release 20.x.Rx. software.

1.1.1Audience

This guide is intended for anyone who is creating vSIMs in a qualified lab environment. It is assumed that the reader has an understanding of the following:

•x86 hardware architecture

•Linux system installation, configuration, and administration methods

•basic XML syntax

•7750 SR and 7950 XRS chassis components

•SR OS CLI

•networking principles and configurations, including virtualized I/O techniques

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1.1.2List of Technical Publications

After the installation process of the vSIM is completed, refer to the SR OS documents, as listed in the 7450 ESS, 7750 SR, and 7950 XRS Documentation Suite Overview, part number 3HE 15080 AAAB TQZZA. These documents contain information about the software configuration and the command line interface (CLI) that is used to configure network parameters and services.

1.2vSIM Installation and Setup Process

This guide is presented in an overall logical configuration flow. Each section describes the tasks for a functional area.

Table 1 lists the general tasks and procedures necessary to install and setup a vSIM, in the recommended order of execution.

Table 1	vSIM Installation and Configuration Workflow
Task		Description	See
Installing the host		Set up and install the host machine,	Host OS and Hypervisor
machine		including the host operating system.
Installing the virtualization		Install the necessary virtualization packages	Linux KVM Hypervisor
packages		on the host machine.	Virtual Switch
Configuring host		Configure host networking (NICs, network	vSIM Networking
networking		interfaces, vSwitch).	Virtual Switch
			Network Interfaces
			Guest vNIC Mapping in vSIM VMs
Downloading the software		Download the SR OS software image.	vSIM Software Packaging
image
Obtaining the license keys		Obtain the software license keys from Nokia.	vSIM Software Licensing
VM resource		Determine resource requirements for the	Memory
requirements		virtual machine (VM).	vCPU
Creating configuration		If required, create configuration files for the	Creating and Starting a vSIM VM on
files		VM. The exact format of the configuration	a Linux KVM Host
		files depends on the method of installation.	Creating and Starting a vSIM VM on
			a VMware ESXi Host

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Table 1	vSIM Installation and Configuration Workflow (Continued)
Task		Description	See
Launching the VM		Launch the vSIM VM.	Creating and Starting a vSIM VM on
			a Linux KVM Host
			Creating and Starting a vSIM VM on
			a VMware ESXi Host
Verifying the installation		Verify the vSIM VM installation.	Verifying the vSIM Installation

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2vSIM Overview

2.1vSIM Overview

The Nokia Virtualized 7750 SR and 7950 XRS Simulator (vSIM) is a Virtualized Network Function (VNF) that simulates the control, management, and forwarding functions of a 7750 SR or 7950 XRS router.

The vSIM runs the same Service Router Operating System (SR OS) as 7750 SR and 7950 XRS hardware-based routers and, therefore, has the same feature set and operational behavior as those platforms. Configuration of interfaces, network protocols, and services on the vSIM are performed the same way as they are on physical 7750 SR and 7950 XRS systems. vSIM software is designed to run on x86 virtual machines (VMs) deployed on industry-standard Intel servers. In this document, vSIM refers to the guest software running on a VM and to the set of those VMs that comprise a network element.

The vSIM is suitable for labs, training and education, network simulation, or to emulate a device under test (DUT) in preparation for deployment into a production network. It is not intended for deployment in an actual production network.

NFV enables network functions that previously depended on custom hardware to be deployed on commodity hardware using standard IT virtualization technologies. For network operators, the benefits of NFV include:

•reduced CAPEX by using industry-standard hardware that is potentially easier to upgrade

•reduced OPEX (space, power, cooling) by consolidation of multiple functions on fewer physical platforms

•faster and simpler testing and rollout of new services

•more flexibility to scale capacity up or down, as needed

•ability to move or add network functions to a location without necessarily needing new equipment

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2.1.1vSIM Concept

The vSIM software is designed for a standard virtualization environment in which the hypervisor software running on a host machine creates and manages one or more VMs that consume a subset of the host machine resources. Each VM is an abstraction of a physical machine with its own CPU, memory, storage, and interconnect devices. Each vSIM can be viewed as a Virtual Network Function (VNF) made up of one or more VNF components (VNF-C) spanning one or more compute servers. For a vSIM, each VNF-C is a VM that emulates one card slot of a physical router, or a complete physical router in the case of one integrated model.

The SR OS is the guest operating system of each VNF-C VM. vSIM VMs can be deployed in combination with other VMs on the same server, including VMs that run guest operating systems other than the SR OS.

Note: Care must be taken not to over-subscribe host resources; vSIM VMs must have dedicated CPU cores and dedicated vRAM memory to ensure stability. In addition, combining vSIM VMs with other VMs that have intensive memory access requirements on the same CPU socket should be generally avoided for stability reasons. See Creating and Starting a vSIM VM on a Linux KVM Host for more information about this topic.

Figure 1 shows the general concept of a vSIM.

Figure 1 vSIM Concept

Other VM

vSIM VNF-C

APP1

APP2

APP3

SR OS

GUEST O/S

VIRTUAL

VIRTUAL

VIRTUAL

VIRTUAL

CPU

MEMORY

CPU

MEMORY

HYPERVISOR

VIRTUAL

VIRTUAL

VIRTUAL

VIRTUAL

HOST APP

DISK

NIC

DISK

NIC

HOST OS

HOST MACHINE

sw0240

The host machine supporting a vSIM VM must be a qualified x86 machine that may range from a laptop to a dedicated server.

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The host machine must run a hypervisor that is compatible with the vSIM software. QEMU-KVM and VMware are the only supported hypervisors.

See Host Machine Requirements for detailed information about the minimum requirements of the host server and the supported hypervisors for the vSIM.

2.2vSIM Deployment Models

The vSIM can be deployed as one of two models: integrated or distributed. The deployment model depends entirely on the configured chassis type of the vSIM system.

2.2.1Integrated Model

The integrated vSIM model uses a single VM to emulate the physical router. All functions and processing tasks of the emulated router, including control, management and data plane, are performed by the resources of the single VM.

An integrated vSIM is created when the configured chassis type is SR-1, SR-1s, or IXR-R6. All other chassis types require a “distributed” model of deployment.

While SR-1 and SR-1s chassis types are single VM combined systems without redundancy support, the IXR-R6 chassis type can have two combined VMs to allow for redundancy. The IXR-R6 otherwise behaves as an integrated model, as both VMs have combined CPM/IOM components.

2.2.2Distributed Model

The distributed vSIM model uses two or more VMs (VNFCs) connected to a common internal network to emulate a single physical router (VNF).

In a distributed system (vSIM), each VM is specialized, supporting either control plane processing (CPM) or datapath functions (IOM or XCM).

A distributed vSIM supports one CPM or two hot-redundant CPMs in the same active-standby model as the emulated physical router so that if the active CPM fails, the standby can take over immediately, with minimal or no impact to packet forwarding, services, or control plane sessions. These can be placed on different hosts to provide hardware and software resiliency.

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A distributed vSIM is created when the configured chassis type is anything other than “SR-1”, “SR-1s”, or “IXR-R6”.

The VMs of a distributed vSIM must be able to communicate privately over an internal network dedicated to the router being emulated. The internal network behaves similar to the switch fabric of a physical router.

Each CPM and IOM/XCM of a specific vSIM instance must be connected to the fabric network of that instance. The fabric network is a Layer 2 broadcast domain over which the VMs of the vSIM send messages to each other for purposes of discovery, inter-card communication and synchronization, inter-IOM data traffic, and so on. The MTU of network interfaces associated with vSIM internal fabric interfaces must be set to 9000 bytes. Packets sent over the fabric by each IOM/XCM or CPM are Ethernet encapsulated (without 802.1Q VLAN tags) and frames with a multicast/broadcast destination MAC address must be delivered to all the VMs of the vSIM instance.

2.3Supported vSIM Configurations

For a vSIM to properly simulate a particular 7750 SR or 7950 XRS router configuration, the SR OS software running on each of its component VMs must read the SMBIOS information (see Sysinfo for information about SMBIOS parameters) which must have the following configured:

•the chassis type of the emulated router

The chassis type must be set identically for all VMs that make up one chassis or system.

•the slot number corresponding to each VM

•the card type represented by each VM

•the equipped MDAs/XMAs in each VM emulating an IOM or XCM card

•the SFM (switch fabric module) that virtually connects the slot to the rest of the system

The SFM must be set identically for all VMs that make up one chassis or system.

•the chassis-topology of the system

When this value is set to XRS-40, the slot is part of an extended 7950 XRS chassis. This must be set identically for all VMs that make up one 7950 XRS-40 system.

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Note: Prior to Release 16.0, the chassis-topology attribute was not supported and VMs emulating a 7950 XRS-20 or 7950 XRS-20e card would automatically boot as being part of an extended 7950 XRS-40 system. With Release 16.0 and later software, a VM emulating a 7950 XRS-20 or7950 XRS-20e card automatically boots as being part of a standalone XRS-20 system.

vSIM software can only simulate valid 7750 SR and 7950 XRS router configurations. For example, with real physical hardware, you cannot install a 7950 XRS CPM-X20 in an SR-12 chassis or pass data traffic through a 7950 XRS chassis with only one CPM-X20 and no XCMs installed. The same rules apply to vSIMs.

vSIM configuration should always start with a decision about the chassis type to be emulated. vSIM supports the following chassis types:

7750 SR

•7750 SR-7

•7750 SR-12

•7750 SR-12e

•7750 SR-a4

•7750 SR-a8

•7750 SR-1e

•7750 SR-2e

•7750 SR-3e

•7750 SR-1

•7750 SR-1s

•7750 SR-2s

•7750 SR-7s

•7750 SR-14s

7950 XRS

•7950 XRS-16

•7950 XRS-20

•7950 XRS-20e

7250 IXR

•7250 IXR-6

•7250 IXR-10

•7250 IXR-R4

•7250 IXR-R6

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•7250 IXR-s

•7250 IXR-e

•7250 IXR-X

The chassis, sfm, and chassis-topology SMBIOS parameters determine the total number of card slots available, the eligible card types in each slot position and the minimum configuration of cards to create a functional system.

If a VM of a vSIM emulates a physical card with I/O ports (for example, an IOM or XCM) then certain MDAs compatible with that card can be virtually equipped. I/O ports on these MDAs map to VM vNIC interfaces as explained later in this document. The MDA types that are compatible with a card adhere to physical hardware rules.

Appendix A: vSIM Supported Hardware summarizes all currently supported valid combinations of chassis type, SFM type, card type, XIOM type and MDA type that may be represented by one single vSIM VM.

2.4vSIM Networking

A vSIM VM can have one or more virtual NIC ports. Depending on the hypervisor, each vNIC port presented to a vSIM VM can be one of the following types:

•VirtIO (KVM)

•E1000 (KVM and VMware)

For each of the above options, the virtual NIC port that is presented to the guest is internally connected to a logical interface within the host. The logical host interface may map directly to a physical NIC port/VLAN or it may connect to a vSwitch within the host. If a vNIC port is connected to a vSwitch, a physical NIC port/VLAN must be added as a bridge port of the vSwitch to enable traffic to reach other external hosts.

Note: SR-IOV and PCI pass-through are not supported technologies for vSIM VMs.

Each vSIM VM supports up to eight virtual NIC ports. Depending on the card-type emulated by the VM, this may be more or less than the actual number of I/O ports supported by the card-type. Additional ports may be configured on the vSIM, but they will have no external connectivity and will remain in the down state.

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Note: Throughput on vSIM ports is limited to no more than 250 pps.

2.5vSIM Software Packaging

vSIM software is part of the VSR software package that is available for download from OLCS as a ZIP file with a name such as Nokia-VSR-VM-20.2.zip. The software images are stored in virtual disk images inside the ZIP file.

The sros-vm.ova file inside the ZIP archive is used to deploy a vSIM in a VMware data center.

Note: Do not use the sros-vsr.ova file to on-board a vSIM; this OVA archive file is intended for use only with VSR virtual machines.

The QCOW2 disk image inside the ZIP archive is used to deploy a vSIM on a Linux KVM hypervisor (either using libvirt tools or OpenStack).

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3Host Machine Requirements

3.1Overview

This section describes the requirements that must be fulfilled by a host machine in order to support vSIM virtual machines (VMs).

The host machine for vSIM VMs is usually a dedicated server or PC in a lab environment. vSIM VMs may also be deployed in a fully orchestrated data center, but this topic is out of scope of this guide.

3.2Host Machine Hardware Requirements

This section describes the host machine hardware requirements.

3.2.1vCPU Requirements

The minimum number of vCPUs that you can allocate to a vSIM VM is two. See vCPU for more information.

The 7250 IXR family has the following minimum requirements:

•1) four vCPUs for cpiom-ixr-r6

•2) a minimum of four vCPUs for imm36-100g-qsfp28; however, eight vCPUs are recommended

3.2.2CPU and DRAM Memory

vSIM VMs can be deployed on any PC or server with an Intel CPU that is Sandy Bridge or later in terms of micro-architecture.

The PC or server should be equipped with sufficient DRAM memory to meet the memory requirement of the host, and have adequate resources to back the memory of each vSIM VM without oversubscription.

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The minimum amount of memory for each vSIM VM depends on emulated card type, as listed in Table 2.

Table 2	VM Memory Requirements by Card Type
Emulated card type		Minimum required memory (GB)
cpiom-ixr-r6		6
imm36-100g-qsfp28		6
xcm-14s		8
xcm-1s		6
xcm-2s		6
xcm2-x20		6
xcm-7s		6
all other card types		4

Note: vSIM deployment is not supported on PCs or servers powered by AMD or ARM CPUs.

3.2.3Storage

Each vSIM VM needs only a moderate amount of persistent storage space; 5 to 10 Gbytes is sufficient in most cases.

The currently supported method for attaching a storage device to a vSIM VM is to attach a disk image that appears as an IDE hard drive to the guest. The vSIM VM disk images can either be stored on the host server hard drive, or stored remotely.

3.2.4NICs

vSIM VMs are supported with any type of NIC, as long as it is supported by the hypervisor.

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3.3Host Machine Software Requirements

This section describes the requirements for host OS and virtualization software requirements for vSIM VMs.

3.3.1Host OS and Hypervisor

The supported host OS depends on the hypervisor selected to run the vSIM VMs. Integrated model vSIM VMs (SR-1, SR-1s, IXR-R6) are supported with the following hypervisors:

•Linux KVM, as provided by one of the host OSs listed below

•VMware ESXi 6.0, 6.5, or 6.7

Distributed model vSIM VMs are only supported with the Linux KVM hypervisor, using one of the following host OSs:

•CentOS 7.0-1406 with 3.10.0-123 kernel

•CentOS 7.2-1511 with 3.10.0-327 kernel

•CentOS 7.4-1708 with 3.10.0-693 kernel

•Centos 7.5-1804 with 3.10.0-862 kernel

•Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 with 3.10.0-229 kernel

•Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 with 3.10.0-327 kernel

•Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 with 3.10.0-693 kernel

•Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 with 3.10.0-862 kernel

•Ubuntu 14.04 LTS with 3.13 kernel

•Ubuntu 16.04 LTS with 4.4

3.3.1.1Linux KVM Hypervisor

vSIM VMs can be created and managed using the open-source Kernel-based VM (KVM) hypervisor.

Nokia recommends the use of the Libvirt software package to manage the deployment of VMs in a Linux KVM environment. Libvirt is open source software that provides a set of APIs for creating and managing VMs on a host machine, independent of the hypervisor. Libvirt uses XML files to define the properties of VMs and virtual networks. It also provides a convenient virsh command line tool.

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The vSIM VM examples shown in this guide assume that VM parameters in a domain XML file are read and acted upon by the virsh program.

3.3.1.2VMware Hypervisor

You can install integrated model vSIM (SR-1, SR-1s, IXR-R6) VMs on hosts running the VMware ESXi hypervisor. Only ESXi versions 6.0, 6.5, and 6.7 are supported with the vSIM.

Note: Distributed model vSIMs are not supported on VMware managed hosts.

Nokia recommends deployment of the vSphere vCenter server and use of the vSphere Web Client GUI for managing the virtual machines in a VMware environment.

The following VMware features are supported with vSIM VMs:

•e1000 vNIC interfaces

•vNIC association with a vSphere standard switch

•vNIC association with a vSphere distributed switch

•vMotion

•High Availability

Non-supported features include VMXNET3 device adapter support, SR-IOV, PCI pass-through, DRS, fault tolerance, and Storage vMotion.

3.3.2Virtual Switch

A virtual switch (vSwitch) is a software implementation of a Layer 2 bridge or Layer 2-3 switch in the host OS software stack. When the host has one or more VMs, the vNIC interfaces (or some subset) can be logically connected to a vSwitch to enable the following:

•vNIC-to-vNIC communication within the same host without relying on the NIC or other switching equipment

•multiple vNICs to share the same physical NIC port

The Linux Bridge vSwitch implementation option is available on Linux hosts.

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The standard switch and distributed switch vSwitch implementation options are available on VMware ESXi hosts.

3.3.2.1Linux Bridge

The Linux bridge is a software implementation of an IEEE 802.1D bridge that forwards Ethernet frames based on learned MACs. It is part of the bridge-utils package. The Linux bridge datapath is implemented in the kernel (specifically, the bridge kernel module), and it is controlled by the brctl userspace program.

On Centos and RHEL hosts, a Linux bridge can be created by adding the ifcfg-brN (where N is a number) file in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory. The contents of this file contain the following directives:

•DEVICE=brN (with N correctly substituted)

•TYPE=Bridge (Bridge is case-sensitive)

The following shows an example ifcfg file:

TYPE=Bridge

DEVICE=br0

IPADDR=192.0.2.1

PREFIX=24

GATEWAY=192.0.2.254

DNS1=8.8.8.8

BOOTPROTO=static

ONBOOT=yes

NM_CONTROLLED=no

DELAY=0

To add another interface as a bridge port of brN, add the BRIDGE=brN directive to the ifcfg network-script file for that other interface.

On Ubuntu hosts, a Linux bridge is created by adding an auto brN stanza followed by an iface brN stanza to the /etc/network/interfaces file. The iface brN stanza can include several attributes, including the bridge_ports attribute, which lists the other interfaces that are ports of the Linux bridge.

The following example shows an /etc/network/interfaces file that creates a bridge br0 with eth0 as a bridge port:

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback auto br0

iface br0 inet dhcp bridge_ports eth0 bridge_stp off bridge_fd 0

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bridge_maxwait 0

By default, the Linux bridge is VLAN unaware and it does not look at VLAN tags, nor does it modify them when forwarding the frames.

If the bridge is configured to have VLAN sub-interfaces, frames without a matching VID are dropped or filtered.

If a VLAN sub-interface of a port is added as a bridge port, then frames with the matching VID are presented to the bridge with the VLAN tag stripped. When the bridge forwards an untagged frame to this bridge port, a VLAN tag with a matching VID is automatically added.

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RELEASE 20.10.R1

4vSIM Software Licensing

4.1vSIM Licensing Overview

This section describes how software licensing applies to vSIMs. For a vSIM to be fully functional, the system must load a valid license file at bootup. The license file encodes the allowed capabilities and features of the vSIM system. Contact your Nokia account representative to obtain license files associated with a purchase order or trial request.

4.2vSIM License Keys

When you purchase software licenses for one or more vSIMs, your Nokia account representative will provide you with corresponding vSIM license key files, which could be one license file for all the vSIMs or a separate license file for each one.

Each vSIM requires its own license tied to the specific UUID of the individual vSIM VM, but more than one license may be included in a license file. The virtual machines acting as the CPMs of each vSIM must have their UUID identifiers manually set to the specified values. See Domain Name and UUID for more information UUID identifiers.

The license-file boot-option parameter of each vSIM indicates the location of the license file, which can be a local disk location or an FTP server location. The licensefile parameter can be specified by editing the BOF file (before or after bootup), or by including it in the SMBIOS information provided to each CPM virtual machine of the vSIM. See Sysinfo for more information about the SMBIOS parameters.

Note: Both CPMs in a redundant vSIM system should have the same BOF setting for the license-file parameter. Also, if the license-file is stored on the local disk (CF3) of the active CPM, it should also be stored on the local disk (CF3) of the standby CPM. You can use the admin redundancy synchronize boot-env command to synchronize the BOF settings and copy the license-file to the standby CPM if it is stored locally.

When the vSIM software starts booting and determines that it should serve the function of a CPM in a vSIM system, it attempts to read and parse the referenced license file.

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If the CPM cannot find a valid license key and it is the only CPM of the vSIM, the system is allowed to complete its bootup procedures but only a limited number of non-configuration-related commands are available in this state, and the system is forced to reboot after 60 minutes.

If the CPM cannot find a valid license key (with matching UUID, major software version, and valid date range), and the vSIM has another CPM with a valid license key, only the CPM without a license will be rebooted after 60 minutes. In the meantime the system is fully functional. However, if either CPM of a vSIM system has a corrupt license file or a license file for the wrong type of product, the entire chassis will be forced to reboot after 60 minutes.

Note: The IOMs of a vSIM system do not need their own license keys; they inherit the license state of the system, as determined by the CPMs. The IOMs reboot immediately if no CPM has a valid license.

4.3Checking the License Status

After the vSIM is operational, you can check the license status of the system. At the prompt, type the following:

show system license

The following is sample output for a vSIM emulating a 7750 SR-7 chassis with a valid license:

A:Dut-A# show system license

===============================================================================

System License

===============================================================================

License status : monitoring, valid license record Time remaining : 99 days 4 hours

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

License name		: [e-mail]
License uuid		: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Machine uuid		: a8812f3e-a90d-4de3-8a5e-6e44001e35f6
License desc		: 7xxx vm-training-sim
License prod		: Virtual-SIM
License sros		: TiMOS-[BC]-16.0.*
Current	date	: WED OCT 24	20:52:37 UTC 2018
Issue	date	: THU AUG 02	17:40:35 UTC 2018
Start	date	: WED AUG 01	00:00:00 UTC 2018
End	date	: FRI FEB 01	00:00:00 UTC 2019

===============================================================================

A:Dut-A#

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Creating and Starting a vSIM VM on a Linux KVM Host

5Creating and Starting a vSIM VM on a Linux KVM Host

5.1Introduction

This section describes how to create and start up vSIM virtual machines (VMs) on host machines using the Linux KVM hypervisor.

Several methods are available for creating a Linux KVM VM based on a specific set of parameters or constraints. These methods include:

•specifying the VM parameters in a domain XML file read by virsh, the libvirt command shell

•using the virt-manager GUI application available as part of the libvirt package

•using the qemu-kvm (RedHat/Centos) or qemu-system-x86_64 (Ubuntu) commands

The Linux libvirt package provides the Virtual Shell (virsh) command-line application to facilitate the administration of VMs. The virsh application provides commands to create and start a VM using the information contained in a domain XML file. It also provides commands to shut down a VM, list all the VMs running on a host, and output specific information about the host or a VM.

This section describes how to define and manage your vSIM VM using the virsh tool.

5.2VM Configuration Process Overview

The libvirt domain XML file for a vSIM VM defines the important properties of the VM. You can use any text editor to create the domain XML file; pass the filename as a parameter of the virsh create command to start up the vSIM VM. For example, virsh create domain1.xml.

You can run virsh commands to display information about the VM or change specific properties. Table 3 lists the basic virsh commands, where VM_name is the value that you configured for the name element in the XML configuration file. Refer to http:// libvirt.org/virshcmdref.html for more information.

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Table 3	Basic virsh Commands
Command	Example	Result
capabilities |	virsh capabilities | grep cpu	Displays the number of cores on the physical machine,
grep cpu		the vendor, and the model
console	virsh console VM_name	Connects the serial console of the VM if using the serial
		PTY port
define	virsh define VM_name.xml	Reads the XML configuration file and creates a domain.
		This is useful to provide persistence of the domain across
		reboots
destroy	virsh destroy VM_name	Stop and power down a VM (domain). The terminated VM
		is still available on the host and can be started again. The
		system status is “shut off”
dumpxml	virsh dumpxml VM_name	Displays the XML configuration information for the
		specified VM, including properties added automatically by
		libvirt
list	virsh list [ --all | --inactive]	The “--all” argument displays all active and inactive VMs
		that have been configured and their state
		The “--inactive” argument displays all VMs that are
		defined but inactive
nodeinfo	virsh nodeinfo	Displays the memory and CPU information, including the
		number of CPU cores on the physical machine
start	virsh start VM_name	Starts the VM domain
undefine	virsh undefine VM_name	Deletes a specified VM from the system
vcpuinfo	virsh vcpuinfo VM_name	Displays information about each vCPU of the VM

Note: The virsh shutdown and virsh reboot commands do not affect vSIM VMs because the vSIM software does not respond to ACPI signals.

Some VM property changes made from the virsh command line do not take immediate effect because the vSIM does not recognize and apply these changes until the VM is destroyed and restarted. Examples of these changes include:

•modifying the vCPU allocation with the virsh setvcpus command

•modifying the vRAM allocation with the virsh setmem command

•adding or removing a disk with the virsh attach-disk, virsh attach-device, virsh detach-disk, or virsh detach-device commands

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•adding or removing a vNIC with the virsh attach-interface, virsh attachdevice, virsh detach-interface, or virsh detach-device commands

5.3Libvirt Domain XML Structure

The libvirt domain XML file describes the configuration of a vSIM VM. The file begins with a <domain type=‘kvm’> line and ends with a </domain> line. In XML syntax, domain is an element and type=‘kvm’ is an attribute of the domain element. vSIM VMs must have the type='kvm' attribute because KVM acceleration is mandatory. Other domain types, including type='qemu', are not valid.

The libvirt domain XML file structure can conceptually be interpreted as a tree, where the domain element is the root element and contains all the sub-elements (child elements) in the file. All sub-elements can contain their own child elements, and so on. The following domain child elements should be configured to for vSIM VMs:

•name, see Domain Name and UUID

•uuid, see Domain Name and UUID

•memory, see Memory

•vcpu, see vCPU

•cpu, see CPU

•sysinfo, see Sysinfo

•os, see OS

•clock, see Clock

•devices, see Devices

•seclabel, see Seclabel

5.3.1Domain Name and UUID

Use the <name> element to assign each VM a meaningful name. The name should be composed of alphanumeric characters (spaces should be avoided) and must be unique within the scope of the host machine. Use the virsh list command to display the VM name. The following is an example of a <name> element:

<name>v-sim-01-control</name>

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Each VM has a globally unique UUID identifier. The UUID format is described in RFC 4122. If you do not include a <uuid> element in the domain XML file, libvirt auto generates a value that you can display (after the VM is created) using the virsh dumpxml command. Setting the UUID value explicitly ensures that it matches the UUID specified in the software license. See vSIM Software Licensing for information about vSIM software licenses. The following is an example of a <uuid> element, using the correct RFC 4122 syntax:

<uuid>ab9711d2-f725-4e27-8a52-ffe1873c102f</uuid>

5.3.2Memory

The maximum memory (vRAM) allocated to a VM at boot time is defined in the <memory> element. The 'unit' attribute is used to specify the unit to count the vRAM size.

Note: The unit value is specified in kibibytes (2^10 bytes) by default. However, all memory recommendations in this document are expressed in units of gigabytes (2^30 bytes), unless otherwise stated.

To express a memory requirement in gigabytes, include a unit=‘G’ (or unit=‘GiB’) attribute, as shown in the following example:

<memory unit='G'>6</memory>

The amount of vRAM needed for a vSIM VM depends on the vSIM system type, vSIM card type, and the MDAs installed in the system or card. See CPU and DRAM Memory for more information.

5.3.3vCPU

The <vcpu> element defines the number of vCPU cores allocated to a VM. The minimum number of vCPUs that you can allocate to a vSIM VM is two.

The <vcpu> element contains the following attributes:

• cpuset

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The cpuset attribute provides a comma-separated list of physical CPU numbers or ranges, where “^” indicates exclusion. Any vCPU or vhost-net thread associated with the VM that is not explicitly assigned by the <cputune> configuration is assigned to one of the physical CPUs allowed by the cpuset attribute.

•current

The current attribute allows fewer than the maximum vCPUs to be allocated to the VM at boot up. This attribute is not required for vSIM VMs because in-service changes to the vCPU allocation are not allowed.

•placement

The placement attribute accepts a value of either 'static' or 'auto'. You should use 'static' when specifying a cpuset. When 'auto' is used, libvirt ignores the cpuset attribute and maps vCPUs to physical CPUs in a NUMA-optimized manner based on input from the numad process. The placement attribute defaults to the placement mode of <numatune>, or to static if a cpuset is specified.

The following example <vcpu> configuration for a vSIM VM allocates four vCPUs.

<vcpu>4</vcpu>

5.3.4CPU

The <cpu> element specifies CPU capabilities and topology presented to the guest, and applies to the model of the CPU. The mode attribute of <cpu> supports the following values:

•custom

In the custom mode, you must specify all the capabilities of the CPU that will be presented to the guest.

•host-model

In the host-model mode, the model and features of the host CPU are read by libvirt just before the VM is started and the guest is presented with almost identical CPU and features.

If the exact host model cannot be supported by the hypervisor, libvirt falls back to the next closest supported model that has the same CPU features. This fallback is permitted by the <model fallback=‘allow’/> element.)

•host-passthrough

In the host-passthrough mode, the guest CPU is represented as exactly the same as the host CPU, even for features that libvirt does not understand.

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The <topology> child element specifies three values for the guest CPU topology: the number of CPU sockets, the number of CPU cores per socket, and the number of threads per CPU core.

The <numa> child element in the <cpu> element creates specific guest NUMA topology. However, this is not applicable to the vSIM because the vSIM software is not NUMA-aware.

The following is the recommended configuration of the <cpu> element for vSIM VMs:

<cpu mode="custom" match="minimum"> <model>SandyBridge</model> <vendor>Intel</vendor>

</cpu>

5.3.5Sysinfo

The <sysinfo> element presents SMBIOS information to the guest. SMBIOS is divided into three blocks of information (blocks 0 to 2); each block consists of multiple entries. SMBIOS system block 1 is most important for the vSIM. The SMBIOS system block contains entries for the manufacturer, product, version, serial number, UUID, SKU number, and family.

SMBIOS provides a necessary way to pass vSIM-specific configuration information from the host to the guest so that it is available to vSIM software when it boots. When a vSIM VM is started, the vSIM software reads the product entry of the SMBIOS system block. If the product entry begins with 'TIMOS:' (without the quotes and case insensitive), the software recognizes the string that follows as containing important initialization information. The string following the 'TIMOS:' characters contains one or more attribute-value pairs formatted as follows:

attribute1=value1 attribute2=value2 attribute3=value3

This pattern continues until all attributes have been specified.

The supported attribute-value pairs and their uses are summarized in Table 4.

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