VIRL

Installing and using VM

Maestro

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 1
 XML Topology Definition

VIRL Work-Flow Router

Configurations
4
VM Maestro
1
3
Topology Views

2 Virtual Machines / Switches

8
Topology Graph

5 6 7

Topology Graph with

9 Router Configurations
Services
A1-Console: 17000
Topology Director
A1-Aux: 17001
…

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 Hosting on VMWare ESXi
•  Multiple independent VIRL instances deployed on ESXi using vSphere
•  Each VIRL instance is provisioned with N*vCPUs and memory
•  Number of vCPUs and memory will limit the number of router VMs can be hosted
•  Independent users run VM Maestro UI on their laptops
Customer provided

VMWare ESXi

Hardware
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Prerequisites

§  MacBook Pro 6,1 or Later §  Intel with VT-x enabled in BIOS (Core-2
§  Mac OS X 10.7 or later Duo, i5, i7)
§  8-16G of DRAM (4-8G for VIRL) §  Windows 7
§  20G of Disk Space §  8-16G of DRAM (4-8G for VIRL)
§  VMware Fusion v5.0.3 §  20G of Disk Space
§  VMware Player v5.0.2

If your machine does not meet these requirements you cannot run VIRL

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 Getting Started with VM Maestro

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VM Maestro
§  VM Maestro is the ‘UI’ for VIRL
§  The appropriate version of VM Maestro
comes bundled with the VIRL VM
§  Download the UI installation from

http://<IP OF VIRL>/download

§  You will need to upgrade your Maestro client

when a new version of VIRL is released
unless otherwise indicated
§  VM Maestro images are available for Linux,
Mac and Windows
§  Download, extract and run…

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VM Maestro ‘Perspectives’
§  There are two main VM Maestro
‘Perspectives’ – Design and Simulation
§  These are simply workspace layouts
between which you can toggle
§  There are also several ‘panes’ that can
be exposed, arranged by dragging, or
hidden in each mode

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VM Maestro ‘Panes’
§  Selecting ‘View’ and ‘Other’ from the menu shows the panes from which you can select – the most useful of which include:

Pane Function

Console Provides a console to one or more of the virtual IOS routers in a simulation

Graph Provides the ability to shift the view to center or expose portions of the topology in
Overview the ‘Canvas’
Node Editor Provides the ability to select elements of a given routing node such as individual
network interfaces
Outline Provides the ability to select elements of a given routing node an view the
connectivity that exists between each
Projects Provides the ability to create and manipulate both projects and discrete
subordinate topologies
Simulations Provides a view of the routing nodes present in active simulations and the ability to
connect to node consoles
Canvas Provides an area in which to build an manipulate a routing topology (this is a
default / persistent area of the workspace)
Problems Identifies issues within .VIRL files (unconnected interfaces etc.)

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Arranging the VM Maestro Design Pane
§  Click to Design Mode and arrange your workspace as shown
§  Panes can be dragged and dropped into different areas of the workspace and multiple panes can be tabbed / overlapped within a given
area

Palette
Canvas
Node Editor and Outline (Overlapping)

Projects & Graph Overview, ANK, Console

History (Overlapping)
(Overlapping) Properties

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Arranging the VM Maestro Simulation Pane
§  Click to Simulation Mode and arrange your workspace as shown
§  Panes can be drug and dropped into different areas of the workspace and multiple panes can be tabbed / overlapped within a given area

Projects Canvas Simulations

Console & ANK

(overlapping)

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Configure VM Maestro to talk to VIRL host
§  Open the ‘preferences’ window from the ‘File menu’ – select the ‘Web Services’ tab
§  Create a new ‘profile’ by pressing the ‘+’ symbol
§  Sign in as ‘guest/guest’ or with the username and password that
you’ve been allocated

IP address of your VIRL VM –

port 8080 is REQUIRED!!!

Result will be an output like this:

Ensure that ‘Compatible’ is present
for each field

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VM Maestro
§  Whenever you install VM Maestro, you need
to update the Node Subtypes
§  Under ‘File/Preferences’ select ‘Node
Subtypes’ and then press ‘Fetch from Server’
to update VM Maestro with the available node
types
§  Each time you upgrade your version of VM
Maestro you will need to repeat this operation
§  If there are custom subtypes present on the
VIRL server, you will need to repeat this
operation to get the new subtype definition
downloaded

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Creating a New Project
1.  Return to Design mode
2.  Select File → New → Project from the menu – the Project Wizard will appear
3.  Drop open the ‘General folder, select ‘Project’ and click the ‘Next’ button
4.  Enter ‘VIRL-LAB’ in the Project name and click ‘Finish

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Creating a New Topology
1.  ‘VIRL-LAB’ will now appear and be highlighted in the Projects Pane
2.  Select File → New → Topology from the menu – the ‘Create a new .virl’
wizard will appear
3.  Enter ‘VIRL Star.virl’ in the filename field (Note - .virl must be appended or
the wizard will not proceed)
4.  Click ‘Finish’ to create the new topology

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 Creating a New Project
A blank topology will be created and a like that below opened

§  A new ‘Palette’ will appear as part of the

Canvas containing items that can be
inserted to form the new topology
§  Tools –
§  Select & Connect
§  Nodes –
§  Defined VM types linked to a VM
image
§  General –
§  Toolbox with special items link P2MP
lan segment option

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Placing Nodes on the Canvas
We will now place our first nodes in our ‘VIRL Star’ topology

1.  Click the ‘IOSv’ router element in the Palette

2.  Click on the Canvas to place the first node
3.  Click the name-box and name the first node
‘London’
4.  Click on the Canvas to place the second
node and name the node ‘Miami’

Note: Arrange the nodes roughly as shown – we

will be adding to the topology later

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Setting the Topology IGP
We will now set the IGP to be used by the topology – OSPF in this case

1.  Click anywhere on the Canvas – not a node

2.  Select the ‘AutoNetKit’ tab in the Properties
pane
3.  Using the drop-down box set the IGP to
OSPF

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 Creating Links and Interfaces
We will now create a link between the Miami and London nodes

1.  Select the Connector tool

2.  Drag a connection from Miami to London
3.  Interface names are assigned automatically

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 Generating Configurations using AutoNetKit
Here we will use AutoNetKit to generate configurations based on the defined topology
1.  Click the ‘Gears’ from the menu-bar – this
causes AutoNetKit to generate
configurations for each node in the topology
2.  Click on the Miami node
3.  Select the ‘Configuration’ tab from the
Properties pane
4.  Review the node-specific configuration
generated by AutoNetKit

Note: AutoNetKit uses the 192.168.n.n

address-space for OSPF / IS-IS router-
ids and the 10.n.n.n address-space for
interfaces

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Saving AutoNetKit-Generated Configurations
Now we can save the configurations off to be used / reviewed / modified offline

1.  Select the ‘Configuration’ tab from the

Properties pane
2.  Use the ‘Save As’ Button to save the
configuration file to your desktop for later use
3.  Name the file (defaults to the Node name) and
click ‘Save’

Note: VIRL configurations are NOT saved

across simulations so changes you make will
be discarded unless you save them first using
the ‘extract config’ function

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Launching a Simulation
Now we will launch a simulation of our simple network

1.  Click the green ‘Play’ button on the VM

Maestro menu-bar
2.  The simulation will launch and VM Maestro will
provide the simulation’s UUID
3.  When you click ‘OK’ you will be asked if you
want to switch to the Simulation perspective –
click ‘Yes’

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Using the Simulation Pane
VM Maestro will now track the state of the simulation

1.  After the simulation has launched each node /

instance will appear in the Simulations pane
2.  Status messages will be reported in the
‘Console’ tab
3.  VMs are booting when shown as ‘ACTIVE’

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Opening Consoles for the Nodes
Now we can open consoles for each of the nodes and monitor the boot process

1.  Right-click on each node in the Simulation

Pane and select ‘Telnet’ and then ‘to its
console port (nnnnn)
2.  You *may* be asked to select a new
terminal view – choose ‘Create new’ and
click ‘OK’\
3.  The new console will be created

Notes on Consoles:

•  Each console has a unique TCP port number

•  Console panes can be moved for best viewing

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Shutting Down the Simulation
Here we will shutdown the running simulation

1.  Right-click on the simulation and select

‘End Simulation’

Notes:
•  VM Maestro can terminate the entire
simulations at once or you can terminate and
restart individual nodes
•  Right-click against the node and click ‘Stop this
node’
•  If your simulation gets left in an inconsistent
state a reboot will likely fix it as the OpenStack
database is erased across boots

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Changing the Topology to IOSv
Here we take our simple topology and convert it from IOSv to IOS XRv

1.  Switch to ‘Design’ mode

2.  Select the nodes in the topology
3.  Select the ‘Node’ tab from the Properties pane
4.  Select ‘IOS XRv’ in the ‘Sub-type’ drop-down
box
5.  Press ‘Update router configurations’

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Changing the IGP to IS-IS
Here we look at changing the IGP from OSPF to IS-IS

1.  Click anywhere on the canvas – not on a node

2.  Select the AutoNetKit tab in the Properties pane
3.  The drop-down allows for the selection of
OSPF, IS-IS or EIGRP – choose IS-IS

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Configuring BGP
Setting-up BGP AS-numbers and Node-Roles is done via the AutoNetKit tab on the Properties pane

1.  Select a node on the canvas

2.  Select the AutoNetKit tab in the Properties pane
3.  The AS-number is set in the ASN box – set
these to 100 for London and 400 for Miami
4.  Set the ibgp-role on both nodes to Route-
Reflector (RR)

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 AutoNetkit

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AutoNetkit mechanics
.VIRL
files

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Configuring attributes in AutoNetkit

BGP view – one AS, all nodes are BGP speakers,

BGP ‘view’ shows the full mesh

Network topology design in VMMaestro

Physical layer view from AutoNetkit

•  Topology designed in VMMaestro

•  ‘Update router configurations’ generate two outputs – per-node
configuration files and network visualization diagrams
•  ‘Layer views’ show protocol-centric topologies

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Configuring attributes in AutoNetkit

Setting ASN values on groups of nodes

OSPF area 0 – five AS’s, five area 0’s

Physical layer view from AutoNetkit

BGP view – five AS, all nodes are BGP speakers,

BGP ‘view’ shows the full mesh per AS

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Configuring attributes in AutoNetkit

OSPF area values set on each node

BGP route-reflector clusters and AS’s

configured

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 Self-Directed Exercise

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Using VM Maestro to Build More Complex Configuration
Now that you’ve been through the basics of VIRL and VM Maestro take some time to build the
topology shown here and on the following pages:

Links, Layouts, and Names OSPF Areas

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Using VM Maestro to Build More Complex Configuration
Now that you’ve been through the basics of VIRL and VM Maestro take some time to build the
topology shown here and on the following pages:

BGP AS’s BGP Route Reflectors

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Thank you.