Cisco IOS XRv Vagrant Box for VMware Fusion

And yet another virtual network appliance to Vagrantize…

Ingredients used in this guide:

The Cisco IOS XRV Router image is available as part of your Cisco VIRL subscription.

Steps

1. Convert the disk image format type.

The Cisco IOS XRv Router is provided in the qcow2 (QEMU) disk image format. The QEMU disk image utility (qemu-img) is required to convert the disk image to the vmdk (VMware) format. The utility is included with the qemu package. Use either MacPorts or Homebrew to install.

From a macOS terminal, first verify the original disk image format.

qemu-img info iosxrv-k9-demo-6.1.3.qcow2 | grep file.format

A consistency check is also recommended before we convert the disk image.

qemu-img check iosxrv-k9-demo-6.1.3.qcow2

Convert the disk image.

qemu-img convert -pO vmdk iosxrv-k9-demo-6.1.3.qcow2 iosxrv-k9-demo-6.1.3.vmdk

Finally, verify the modified disk image.

qemu-img info iosxrv-k9-demo-6.1.3.vmdk | grep file.format

2. Create the Cisco IOS XRv virtual appliance template.

Open the VMware Fusion application
Menu: File → New…
Select the Create a custom virtual machine option
Click the Continue button
Select Other 64-bit as the operating system
Click the Continue button
Select Legacy BIOS for the boot firmware type
Click the Continue button
Select Use an existing virtual disk
Click the Choose virtual disk… button
Navigate to and select iosxrv-k9-demo-6.1.3.vmdk
Select Make a separate copy of the virtual disk
Click the Choose button
Click the Continue button
Click the Customize Settings button to modify the virtual appliance settings
Save As: IOS-XRv-613
Click the Save button

3. Modify/Verify the following attributes in the VM Settings:

Component	Value
Processors	1 processor core
Memory	2048 MB
Network Adapter	Share with my Mac
Hard Disk (IDE)	`iosxrv-k9-demo-6.1.3.vmdk`
CD/DVD (IDE)	Remove CD/DVD Drive
Sound Card	Remove Sound Card
USB	Remove USB Controller

4. Close the VMware Fusion application.

We will be working from the command line for the remainder of the tutorial.

5. Add a custom serial port (for management via console connection).

From a macOS terminal, append a serial port device to the virtual appliance configuration file.

printf 'serial0.present = "TRUE"\nserial0.yieldOnMsrRead = "TRUE"\nserial0.fileType = "network"\nserial0.fileName = "telnet://127.0.0.1:52099"\n' >> $HOME/Virtual\ Machines.localized/IOS-XRv-613.vmwarevm/IOS-XRv-613.vmx

The default virtual machine folder (directory) for VMware Fusion 11 is $HOME/Virtual\ Machines.localized. Upgrades and earlier versions use $HOME/Documents/Virtual\ Machines.localized as the default.

Verify the component has been added.

tail -4 $HOME/Virtual\ Machines.localized/IOS-XRv-613.vmwarevm/IOS-XRv-613.vmx

output:

serial0.present = "TRUE"
serial0.yieldOnMsrRead = "TRUE"
serial0.fileType = "network"
serial0.fileName = "telnet://127.0.0.1:52099"

6. Start the virtual appliance.

From a macOS terminal, start the virtual appliance with the vmrun command using the headless parameter.

/Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmrun start $HOME/Virtual\ Machines.localized/IOS-XRv-613.vmwarevm/IOS-XRv-613.vmx nogui

The virtual appliance should now be in the running state.

/Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmrun list

output:

Total running VMs: 1
/Users/marc/Virtual Machines.localized/IOS-XRv-613.vmwarevm/IOS-XRv-613.vmx

7. Initiate a console connection (via telnet) to the virtual appliance.

Telnet has been removed from macOS High Sierra and later. Refer to How to Get Telnet for MacOS in Mojave or High Sierra .

Open a separate macOS terminal window (or tab) and enter the following command:

telnet 127.0.0.1 52099

8. Set root credentials.

When the router boots for the first time, the system prompts the user to configure root credentials. For my example, I will create a user named superuser with the password superuser.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO root-system username is configured. Need to configure root-system username. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

         --- Administrative User Dialog ---


  Enter root-system username: superuser
  Enter secret: superuser
  Enter secret again: superuser

9. Log in with the new credentials.

Please login with any configured user/password, or cisco/cisco


User Access Verification

Username: superuser
Password: superuser

10. Set a baseline configuration for the Vagrant box.

Create the vagrant user.

conf
username vagrant
 group root-system
 secret vagrant
 exit

Set the hostname and domain.

hostname xrv
domain name example.com

Set some lab features.

domain lookup disable
line default
 exec-timeout 0 0
 exit
vty-pool default 0 4 line-template default

Set the management interface.

int MgmtEth0/0/CPU0/0
 ipv4 addr dhcp
 no shut
 exit

Commit the changes.

commit label VAGRANT-BASE
end

The management interface should be up with an IPv4 address set by DHCP.

sh ipv4 int MgmtEth0/0/CPU0/0

output:

Sat Jan  5 18:50:34.553 UTC
MgmtEth0/0/CPU0/0 is Up, ipv4 protocol is Up
  Vrf is default (vrfid 0x60000000)
  Internet address is 192.168.200.132/24
  MTU is 1514 (1500 is available to IP)
  Helper address is not set
  Multicast reserved groups joined: 224.0.0.2 224.0.0.1
  Directed broadcast forwarding is disabled
  Outgoing access list is not set
  Inbound  common access list is not set, access list is not set
  Proxy ARP is disabled
  ICMP redirects are never sent
  ICMP unreachables are always sent
  ICMP mask replies are never sent
  Table Id is 0xe0000000

Log out the superuser user.

exit

11. Configure Secure Shell (SSH).

User Access Verification

Username: vagrant
Password: vagrant

Generate a RSA key pair with the default key modulus size (2048).

crypto key generate rsa

Force the SSH server to accept only SSHv2 client connections.

conf
ssh server v2
commit label VAGRANT-BASE-SSH
end

Log out the vagrant user.

exit

Vagrant recommends using SSH key-based authentication. Unlike most Cisco network operating systems, IOS XR requires a binary data file instead of the usual public key string value.

We will first grab the content from the insecure Vagrant public key file hosted at GitHub. We then use a chain of commands to extract the second field, decode the incoming Base64 stream into a binary data file, which is saved at the root of our home directory.

Open a separate macOS terminal window (or tab) and enter the following commands:

pubkey=$(curl -Ls https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hashicorp/vagrant/master/keys/vagrant.pub)
echo $pubkey | awk '{ print $2 }' | base64 -Do $HOME/vagrant.bin

Verify the file.

file $HOME/vagrant.bin && strings $HOME/vagrant.bin | head -1

output:

/Users/marc/vagrant.bin: data
ssh-rsa

Copy the vagrant.bin file from our Mac to the Cisco IOS XRV device.

scp $HOME/vagrant.bin [email protected]:disk0:

ssh [email protected]

Verify the vagrant.bin file location.

dir disk0:/vagrant.bin

output:

Sat Jan  5 22:20:22.470 UTC

Directory of disk0:

4           -rw-  277         Sat Jan  5 22:15:36 2019  vagrant.bin

2377105408 bytes total (1561838592 bytes free)

Import the public key file.

crypto key import authentication rsa disk0:/vagrant.bin

Log out the vagrant user.

exit

Test the SSH connection from our Mac to the Cisco IOS XRv device now using SSH key-based authentication.

ssh -i $HOME/.vagrant.d/insecure_private_key [email protected]

Logged into the Cisco IOS XRv device, we can verify the SSH session is using key-based authentication.

sh ssh

output:

Sat Jan  5 22:25:10.141 UTC
SSH version : Cisco-2.0

id  chan pty     location        state           userid    host                  ver authentication connection type
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Incoming sessions
0   1    vty0    0/0/CPU0        SESSION_OPEN    vagrant   192.168.200.1         v2  rsa-pubkey     Command-Line-Interface

Outgoing sessions

The configuration is set and verified, so log out and move on to the next step.

exit

12. Stop the virtual appliance.

/Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmrun stop $HOME/Virtual\ Machines.localized/IOS-XRv-613.vmwarevm/IOS-XRv-613.vmx

13. Create the Vagrant box.

Change the current directory.

cd $HOME/Virtual\ Machines.localized/IOS-XRv-613.vmwarevm

Remove generated MAC addresses from the configuration file.

sed -i '' '/generatedAddress/d' IOS-XRv-613.vmx

Remove UUID properties from the configuration file.

sed -i '' '/uuid/d' IOS-XRv-613.vmx

Create the metadata.json file for the VMware provider.

printf '{"provider": "vmware_desktop"}' > metadata.json

List the directory contents to verify the essential files are present.

du -csh *

output:

12K    IOS-XRv-613.nvram
4.0K    IOS-XRv-613.plist
  0B    IOS-XRv-613.vmsd
4.0K    IOS-XRv-613.vmx
4.0K    IOS-XRv-613.vmxf
882M    iosxrv-k9-demo-6.1.3.vmdk
4.0K    metadata.json
272K    vmware.log
882M    total

Package the Vagrant box file with tar.

tar cvzf cisco-ios-xrv-613.box ./*

14. Add the Vagrant box.

From a macOS terminal, add the Vagrant box to our local inventory.

vagrant box add --provider vmware_desktop --name cisco-ios-xrv-613 cisco-ios-xrv-613.box

15. Test it.

From a macOS terminal, create a directory for a test project and change to it.

mkdir $HOME/Documents/test-iosxrv && cd $_

Download an example Vagrantfile.

curl -Lo Vagrantfile https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mweisel/vagrant-vmware-examples/master/cisco-ios-xrv-single-mgmt-int

Validate the Vagrantfile.

vagrant validate

Show the current status of the vagrant machine.

vagrant status

16. Vagrant Up!

vagrant up

The status of the vagrant machine should now be in the running state.

vagrant status

We can connect to the vagrant machine with SSH.

vagrant ssh

We can also connect to the vagrant machine with a console connection (out-of-band management) via telnet.

telnet 127.0.0.1 52001

17. More Vagrant commands

Stop the vagrant machine with the force option.

vagrant halt -f

Destroy (delete) the vagrant machine with the force option.

vagrant destroy -f

18. Next Steps

Build your topology.

Happy Labbing!

Steps#

1. Convert the disk image format type.#

2. Create the Cisco IOS XRv virtual appliance template.#

3. Modify/Verify the following attributes in the VM Settings:#

4. Close the VMware Fusion application.#

5. Add a custom serial port (for management via console connection).#

6. Start the virtual appliance.#

7. Initiate a console connection (via telnet) to the virtual appliance.#

8. Set root credentials.#

9. Log in with the new credentials.#

10. Set a baseline configuration for the Vagrant box.#

11. Configure Secure Shell (SSH).#

12. Stop the virtual appliance.#

13. Create the Vagrant box.#

14. Add the Vagrant box.#

15. Test it.#

16. Vagrant Up!#

17. More Vagrant commands#

18. Next Steps#

Steps

1. Convert the disk image format type.

2. Create the Cisco IOS XRv virtual appliance template.

3. Modify/Verify the following attributes in the VM Settings:

4. Close the VMware Fusion application.

5. Add a custom serial port (for management via console connection).

6. Start the virtual appliance.

7. Initiate a console connection (via telnet) to the virtual appliance.

8. Set root credentials.

9. Log in with the new credentials.

10. Set a baseline configuration for the Vagrant box.

11. Configure Secure Shell (SSH).

12. Stop the virtual appliance.

13. Create the Vagrant box.

14. Add the Vagrant box.

15. Test it.

16. Vagrant Up!

17. More Vagrant commands

18. Next Steps