ExtremeSwitching (EXOS)

Quick question, can the virtual XOS image that seems to be designed for virtual box be made to run on Vmware ESXi, the reason for this request is we already have virtual versions of most vendor products, this can be connected together inside the ESXi Environment, this is great for training and simulating customer issues. However try as I might I cannot convert this to run in ESXi.

I've done it without problems.

But just in case, here's an OVA file made specifically for EXSi:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/swoy9yovudxzco0/XOS1_v0001.ova?dl=0

And here's the latest xos image so you can update the VM to v15.7.1.4...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ucaj6inra60j2oi/bd10Ki386-15.7.1.4.xos?dl=0

Thanks so much as already said below.

i have download the VM from mention link, now its asking me the username & password
kindly share the same

When I click on this I don't get prompted, do you have drop box account of your own, maybe its asking for this.

not that
i have download the .ova file but after i deployment its asking login & pwd
[i]
[i]

Its working now.... Thanks Simon

Seems like to have to wait for a while.( as you have discovered ), just be a little careful when enabling your adapters as it does act as a switch, so if you enable the 2nd and 3rd ports to the same virtual network the VM will loop them !!, you can always enable stpd s0 to protect against this.

Ok. already

Thank you

Hi Simon,
The virtual EXOS image should run just fine in ESXi with some modifications to the VM properties before it is installed.

When building the new VM, choose “Other Linux 64-bit” for the type. You’ll have to edit the properties of it once it’s “created” and delete the existing hard disk (should be SCSI) add a new one that is a 256MB IDE drive (instead of SCSI). Memory should be 256MB as well. Mount the ISO in the CD drive, and fire away.

A note on the network adapters... the first one is for the out-of-band management port. You can have 3 ports on the network side (I think that’s the limit at least). Those need to be E1000 mode ports. You can use vSwitches in VMware to connect different EXOSpc instances. You can also map those to NICs on a server and have a physical port to connect to.

Please let me know if you have questions. I’ll be glad to answer them. I can also build an OVA file and share it with you if needed.

-Drew

WOW I cannot thank you enough, I've already fired up the OVA, and gained out of band management, the ability to try things out quickly without fanfare is going to such a benefit to us.

I also notice it does Layer 2, which is a real surprise, I enabled STP and looped the ports, loop detected.

I should probably out this out, as quoted from another thread:

Please note that some features are not software emulated (yet) in the VM. Typically, while you can set VPLS on the control plane part, data plane will not work.

I think we all accept these sorts of VMs are as is, its much better the vendors put something out there, be it imperfect rather than sit on it and keep it internal ( like Ciscos IOU ) . I was not expecting anything layer 2 to work so that's just plus. What this does allow me to do is run internal training easily and to test out configurations.

Simon, things like VPLS, ACL, QoS, that require hardware support aren't there. I mean, you CAN configure them, but they won't work.

But EAPS, G.8032, STP in all flavors, MLAG, BGP, OSPF all work pretty well.

I use this to recreate customers networks and troubleshoot things.

Wow!!! Is it really possible to run XOS as VM?

seems so awesome hey !

When I run the VM in workstation 11, I get a watchdog timeout that slowly increments and does not allow me to log in. Any ideas what this may be? Do I need to adjust my VM settings?

Tom,

I installed W11 to check and the fiirst thing that I notice is that VMs take waaaay longer to boot than under W10.

If you get the watchdog message, go to settings and uncheck the Connected box under Device Status for each network adapter. You may have a loop.

I personally use VirtualBox both under Windows and under OS X. I find it much more responsive and easier to configure. But, hey, that's just me...

Daniel,

That worked. I was able to login. Any advice about the NIC setup? I disabled all 3 NICs to get it to let me log in.

Regards,

Tom

The first NIC always goes to the mgmt port, so the best thing to do is to point it to a Host-only network (usually vmnet1).

Then, to interconnect several VMs, create new networks using the Virtual Network Editor (under Edit menu) and configure them as Host-only, unchecking Connect a host and Use local DHCP service.

These networks should be used as point to point links between two switches.

Is it possible to upgrade and downgrade the VM, I've attempted all 3 of the image types, ( summit, bd8800 and x8. each time with the same result, its important to have the same version as our customers when running through their fault scenarios.

* XOS4.5 # download image 10.20.34.1 bdX-15.5.3.4-patch1-6.xos vr "VR-Mgmt" Note: The inactive partition (primary) will be used for installation.
Do you want to install image after downloading? (y - yes, n - no,

Simon,

The VM has its own image different from the regular ones.

Here's the one you need:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ucaj6inra60j2oi/bd10Ki386-15.7.1.4.xos?dl=0

what's the difference between bd10ki386-15.7 and 15.3 or 15.4 . I can boot 15.3 and 15.4 using Qemu, but not 15.7. I manage to boot all using vbox.

They are just different versions of EXOS.

The image above is the firmware file needed to update the VM. It is not the VM itself...

If you need the EXOS v15.7.1.4 VM for Virtualbox, use this one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7x13mv22djzc31n/EXOS_VM-15.7.1.4-vbox.ova?dl=0

Initially I had switch running image 15.3 and I've created to machines, one using virtual box and the other one using Qemu. I'v upgrade both switches to 15.7 and virtual box booted ok.
VBOX: After upgrade

Qemu: After upgrade

Qemu: booting from secondary partition:

My question is why would 15.3 boot and 15.7 not able to boot on the same platform.

I haven't tried the VMs under Qemu and don't know what may have changed that prevents the upgrade from booting...

Hi Njanyana,
Have you tried any of the options presented in the boot menu?

Please try 'o' to restore original settings and then 's' to save. Then try 'c' to continue boot. Reboot once more to see if the settings stuck.

Hi Drew
After using your suggestion I can boot into (pacman). Once reboot the machine go back in the initial state showing boot menu (not grub). Maybe there is something I should do here after using option "o", "s" and "c".

In the above screen I used "export" and exit.

Hi Drew
After using your suggestion I can boot into (pacman). Once reboot the machine go back in the initial state showing boot menu (not grub). Maybe there is something I should do here after using option "o", "s" and "c".

In the above screen I used "export" and exit.

I'm not sure why your VM is stuck in this mode now. You might have better luck with a fresh install at this point. If you need the ISO file instead of the .xos file for this, I should be able to share that with you.

Njanyana,

I finally got some time to play with NGS3, and solved your problem with EXOS v15.7.1...

The console was showing a
Warning. Could not determine the CPU Family[/code]message.

So, after some investigation on the start options for QEMU, I found that all that it takes is to add
-cpu core2duo[/code]in Advanced Settings - > Options.

With that change the VM will boot without problems...

Thanks a lot Daniel, I've add "-cpu core2duo" and upgrade was successful

Coming back to share a new link for Virtual EXOS downloads. The EXOS Virtual Machine files are now hosted on Github.
https://github.com/extremenetworks/Virtual_EXOS

This is also documented in this GTAC Knowledge article: Where to download the latest version of EXOS VM?

I'm also closing this thread. If there are further questions, please create a new one 🙂