Edge Virtual: Installation and On-Boarding on the Linux KVM Hypervisor

Edge Virtual: Installation and On-Boarding on the Linux KVM Hypervisor

Introduction

This guide provides instructions to install and on-board Edge Virtual on the Linux KVM Hypervisor. Our guide is based upon KVM deployed on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Note: Edge Virtual is available in a Limited Release at this time. Throughput may vary based upon Host OS, Hypervisor, and Networking configurations. Please consult with your team at Big Network for scaled deployments.

Assumptions

  1. A working Linux KVM Hypervisor.
  2. Available Edge Virtual Licenses.
  3. Edge Virtual ISO Installer available from download (please contact Big Network for assistance in obtaining the image)
  4. Capacity to host a VM with 4x CPUs, 8GB RAM, and 20G available disk space.
  5. Assume 1x WAN Port and 1x LAN Port for Networking (ideally using the the "virtio" driver.

Step 1: Prepare KVM Networking

The Edge Virtual image expects 1x WAN port and 1x LAN port to be configured for KVM networking.
  1. For our example, we assume that you will use the default KVM network for WAN, and a new, dedicated KVM network for LAN.
  2. Use XML to define the LAN network as edge-virtual-lan.xml:

<network>
  <name>edge-virtual-lan</name>
  <domain name="network"/>
  <ip address="192.168.70.5" netmask="255.255.255.0">
  </ip>
</network>

  1. Create and start the network using "virsh":

virsh net-define edge-virtual-lan.xml
virsh net-start edge-virtual-lan

Step 2: Install Edge OS

Use "virt-install" to create your Virtual Machine and begin the OS installation process.

virt-install --name edge-virtual --memory 4096 --vcpus 2 --network network=default --network network=edge-virtual-lan --disk size=20 --noautoconsole --autostart --cdrom ~/Downloads/edge-2021145.iso
IMPORTANT: Big Network Edge Virtual Device licensing looks at underlying hardware configuration as key metadata for granting device liceneses. Additionally, elements of the Big Network data plane depend on various CPU exptensions. The Virtual Machine defined by virt-install above provides this machine template. Using other tools for deployment may result in unsupportable configurations.

This will boot your virtual machine via the installation media. Connect to the device via Serial Console:
virsh console edgevirtual
  1. Confirm that you wish to proceed is OS installation. The underlying media will be overwritten.
  2. Select the "prod" environment.
  3. Select the "KVM libvirt VM" as the device model.
Allow the installation to complete and Edge Virtual to reboot.
We suggest editing the Virtual Machine configuration at this time to switch from the "e1000" NIC driver to the "virtio" NIC driver. Big Network has observed instability in deployments using the "e1000" NIC driver.

Step 3: Obtain Device ID, PIN, and On-Board Edge Virtual

  1. Once Edge Virtual reboots, the console will display Device ID and PIN. Note those details down.
  2. Navigate to https://portal.bignetwork.com -> Edge Devices -> Add Device to begin device on-boarding using the Device ID and PIN.
  3. Once on-boarded, you will have a 2x Port Edge Virtual device available for use.

Step 4: Verify Connectivity from Host OS

Edge Virtual is now online.
  1. Form the host OS, Edge Virtual will obtain addressing via DHCP on the KVM default network.
  2. From the host OS, per the KVM edge-virtual-lan.xml configuration, 192.168.70.5 will be bound as an interface in Linux. 192.168.70.2 will be available as an Edge Dashboard from Linux. Finally, 192.168.70.1 will provide NAT / gateway functionality. Ensuring that 192.168.70.2 responds to ICMP pings confirm connectivity to the Host OS means Edge Virtual is alive.

Configure Edge Virtual for your use case as required. Adjust Linux KVM network configuration as required.