Creating and starting a vSIM VM on a VMware ESXi host

Creating and starting an integrated model vSIM VM on a VMware host

This chapter provides instructions on deploying integrated model vSIM VMs on VMware ESXi hosts using the vSphere Web Client only. Techniques for deploying VMs on ESXi hosts using other options (for example, vSphere Windows client, direct ESXi shell access) are beyond the scope of this guide.

Note: This procedure assumes that you have already installed the vCenter Server and added the ESXi host to the data center group.
Note: Distributed model vSIM VMs are not supported on VMware hosts.
  1. Connect to the vCenter Server over HTTP and log in from the VMware vCenter Single Sign-On window, as shown in VMware vCenter Single Sign-On, by doing the following:
    1. Enter the username.
    2. Enter the password you set during installation.
    Figure 1. VMware vCenter Single Sign-On
  2. Click Login.

    The vSphere Web Client dashboard is displayed, as shown in the following figure.

    Figure 2. vSphere Web Client dashboard
  3. From the Navigator panel, choose Home→Hosts and Clusters, as shown in the following figure.
    Figure 3. Home menu
  4. Select and deploy your OVF template, using the following steps:
    1. Browse to the source location of your data center.
    2. Right-click the ESXi host on which to deploy the vSIM VM.

      The Actions menu opens.

    3. Select the Deploy OVF Template option, as shown in the following figure.
      Figure 4. Actions menu
  5. The Deploy OVF Template window is displayed with the Select source option selected, as shown in the following figure.
    Figure 5. Deploy OVF Template
  6. Specify the location of the vSIM OVA archive file (sros-vm.ova), using the following steps:
    1. Select the Local file option button to browse for and retrieve a local file.
      The following figure shows an example selection using the Local file option.
      Figure 6. Select the local file
    2. Click Next to advance to the Review details panel.
  7. From the Review details panel, select the Accept extra configuration options check box, as shown in Review details.
    Note: This selection allows you to accept the additional configuration options in the vSIM OVA archive file that are not available in the standard VMware OVA templates.
    Figure 7. Review details
  8. Click Next to advance to the Select name and folder option.
  9. From the Select name and folder panel, use the following steps to specify a name and location for the deployed OVF template:
    1. Name the deployed OVF template as the vSIM VM.

      The name can be up to 80 characters and must be unique within the vCenter Server VM folder.

    2. Select the data center where the vSIM VM is deployed.
    3. Click Next to advance to the Select storage option.
  10. From the Select storage panel, select the storage location for the deployed template, as shown in Select the storage location, using the following steps:
    1. Select a virtual disk format.
    2. Select a VM storage policy.
    3. Click Next to advance to the Setup networks option.

    For more information about the virtual disk format for your configuration, go to www.vmware.com.

    Figure 8. Select the storage location
  11. From the Setup networks panel, configure the network interfaces for the vSIM VM, as shown in the example in Configure the network interfaces.

    By default, the vSIM created from the supplied OVF template is deployed with four network interfaces: breth0, breth1, breth2, and breth3. For example, breth0 is the first guest interface and maps to the A/1 management port of CPM A, and so on. See 7750 SR-1, 7750 SR-1s, 7250 IXR-R6, 7250 IXR-ec vSIM interface mapping and Guest vNIC mapping in vSIM VMs for the mapping of the vNIC interfaces to SR OS interfaces, which is performed independently of the hypervisor.

    Figure 9. Configure the network interfaces
  12. Click Next to advance to the Ready to complete option.
  13. Review the vSIM VM settings.
    Note: Ensure that the Power on after deployment check box is not selected.
  14. Click Finish to deploy the vSIM VM.

    The Recent Tasks panel on the dashboard displays the status of the vSIM deployment, as shown in the following figure.

    Figure 10. vSIM VM deployment status
  15. Configure the memory and resource allocation for the vSIM VM, using the following steps:
    1. In the Navigator panel, locate the newly deployed vSIM, as shown in the following figure.
      Figure 11. Navigator
    2. Right-click the vSIM name and select Edit Settings.
      The Edit Settings window is displayed with the Virtual Hardware tab selected.
    3. Select the number of vCPU and vMemory to allocate to the vSIM VM.
  16. Configure a serial port to obtain console connectivity to the vSIM, using the following steps:
    1. Click the New Device drop-down menu located toward the bottom of the Edit Settings window.
    2. Select a Serial Port from the drop-down menu.
    3. Configure the serial port, as required.

      The example configuration shown in Serial port configuration enables console access to the vSIM via Telnet by routing TCP port 12050 on the ESXi host to the serial port on the vSIM. Other methods are available but are not documented here.

      Figure 12. Serial port configuration
    4. Click Add to implement the new serial port configuration.
  17. Add and modify the vSIM configuration parameters, using the following steps:
    1. From the Edit Settings window, select the VM Options tab.
    2. Click the arrow to expand the Advanced Settings option.
    3. Click the Edit Configuration button to display the Configuration Parameters.
    4. Click the Add Row button to add a machine.id setting.

      Add a machine.id setting and set its value to the SMBIOS text string appropriate for the VM. See Sysinfo for more information.

      Example machine.id setting shows an example vSIM in an integrated model deployment emulating a 7750 SR-1s chassis. The example machine.id setting is as follows:

      TIMOS:address=192.168.169.200/23@active address=192.168.169.201@standby license-file=ftp://user:password@192.168.169.110/license.txt slot=A chassis=SR-1s card=cpm-1s mda/1=s36-100gb-qsfp28

      Figure 13. Example machine.id setting
    5. Click OK to return to the Edit Settings window.
  18. From the Edit Settings window, click OK to finish the vSIM VM configuration.
  19. From the Recent Tasks panel, check the status of the vSIM VM reconfiguration.
  20. Start the vSIM, using the following steps:
    1. Locate the vSIM in the Navigator panel and right-click it.

      The Actions menu opens.

    2. Select the Actions→Power→Power On action.

      The vSIM starts the boot process.

  21. Optionally connect to the console by using Telnet to connect to the ESXi host (in this example, 192.168.168.15) on the TCP port number you defined earlier (in this example, 12050).
    The TIMOS login screen is displayed when the vSIM is up and running successfully.
  22. Log in using the following credentials:

    • login – admin

    • password – admin

    SR OS commands can now be issued as normal.