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Install vMX on VMWare

Read this topic to understand how to install vMX with the VMware vSphere Web Client using OVA files.

Installing vMX with OVA Files

vMX supports different physical PCI devices such as SR-IOV and VMXNET3. The procedure in this section is specific to VMXNET3 devices. See Enabling SR-IOV for VMware for information to bring up vMX with SR-IOV NICs.

Note:

If you are running vMX in performance mode, you must change the VM hardware version to 10.

To install vMX with the VMware vSphere Web Client using OVA files:

  1. Download the vMX software package for VMware from the vMX page and uncompress the package in a location accessible to the server.

  2. Launch the vSphere Web Client for your ESXi server and log in to the server with your credentials.

Note:

You must set up these three interfaces to launch the VFP.

  • Management access

  • Bridge for internal communication between the VCP and VFP

  • WAN interface (minimum of one)

To install vMX with vSphere for VMXNET3 adapters, perform these tasks:

Setting Up the Datastore

To upload vMX to the ESXi datastore:

  1. Click the Summary tab, select the datastore under Storage, right-click, and select Browse Datastore.
  2. In the Datastore Browser, click the Upload button, select Upload File, and upload the files for the package contents listed in vMX Package Contents.

Setting Up the Network

To set up the different networks for management (br-ext), internal connection of the VMs (br-int), and WAN ports for data:

  1. In the left navigation pane, select the ESXi server and click the Configuration tab. Select Networking under Hardware.
  2. In the top right corner, click Add networking to create the management vSwitch (br-ext).

    In the Add Network Wizard dialog box:

    1. For Connection Type, select the Virtual Machine option button and click Next.
    2. For Network Access, scroll down and select the Use vSwitch0 option button, and click Next.
    3. For Connection Settings, name the network br-ext and click Next.

    This network is connected to the management port (for example, vmnic0), which has a management IP address.

  3. In the top right corner, click Add networking to add another vSwitch (br-int). In the Add Network Wizard dialog box:
    1. For Connection Type, select the Create vSphere standard switch option button, clear all the physical NIC check boxes (vmnicx), and click Next.
    2. For Connection Settings, name the network br-int and click Next.

    Note that this network is not connected to any physical NICs.

  4. In the top right corner, click Add networking to add another vSwitch for the WAN port (p2p1).
    1. For Connection Type, select the Create vSphere standard switch option button, select the physical NIC check box to which you want to direct WAN traffic (for example, vmnic2), and click Next.

      The link is up as indicated by 10000Full.

    2. For Connection Settings, name the network p2p1.
  5. In the top right corner, click Add networking to add another vSwitch for the WAN port (p2p2).
    1. For Connection Type, select the Create vSphere standard switch option button, select the physical NIC check box to which you want to direct WAN traffic (for example, vmnic3), and click Next.

      The link is up as indicated by 10000Full.

    2. For Connection Settings, name the network p2p2.

You can see the four vSwitches you created (br-ext, br-int, p2p1, p2p2) in the Configuration tab for Networking. You must enable promiscuous mode in all vSwitches so that packets with any MAC addresses can reach the vMX. For example, OSPF needs multicast MAC address communication so you must enable promiscuous mode to support it.

To enable promiscuous mode in a vSwitch:

  1. In the Configuration tab for Networking, click Properties next to the Standard Switch for each vSwitch.

  2. In the vSwitch Properties dialog box, select vSwitch in the Ports tab and click Edit at the bottom.

  3. In the vSwitch Properties dialog box, select Accept from the Promiscuous Mode list in the Security tab and click OK.

Deploying the VCP VM

To deploy the VCP VM using .ova files:

  1. Select the host and select Deploy OVF Template from the File menu.
  2. In the Source pane, click Browse, select the .ova file for the VCP, and click Next.
  3. In the OVF Template Details pane, click Next. This pane displays a summary of the OVA file contents.
  4. In the Name and Location pane, specify the name of the VM and click Next.
  5. In the Storage pane, select the appropriate datastore for the destination storage of the VM and click Next.
  6. In the Disk Format pane, select the Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed option button and click Next.
  7. In the Network Mapping pane, map the destination network on the host to the source network. For VCP, you must map the source networks for the external management network for connecting to management interfaces (br-ext) and the internal connection between VCP and VFP (br-int).

    Select the destination network (for example, br-ext) for the br-ext source network, select the destination network (for example, br-int) for the br-int source network, and click Next.

  8. In the Ready to Complete pane, verify your configuration and click Finish.

The .ova file is deployed as the VCP VM.

Deploying the VFP VM

To deploy the VFP VM using .ova files:

  1. Select the host and select Deploy OVF Template from the File menu.
  2. In the Source pane, click Browse, select the .ova file for the VFP, and click Next.
  3. In the OVF Template Details pane, click Next. This pane displays a summary of the OVA file contents.
  4. In the Name and Location pane, specify the name of the VM and click Next.
  5. In the Storage pane, select the appropriate datastore for the destination storage of the VM and click Next.
  6. In the Disk Format pane, select the Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed option button and click Next.
  7. In the Network Mapping pane, map the destination network on the host to the source network. For VFP, you must map the source networks for the external management network for connecting to management interfaces (br-ext) and the internal connection between VCP and VFP (br-int).

    Select the destination network (for example, br-ext) for the br-ext source network, select the destination network (for example, br-int) for the br-int source network, and click Next.

  8. In the Ready to Complete pane, verify your configuration and click Finish.

The .ova file is deployed as the VFP VM.

After you have deployed the VFP VM, you can modify the amount of memory, the number of vCPUs, and the number of WAN ports.

Note:

Before you launch the VFP VM, make sure you have configured the proper number of vCPUs and memory for your VM based on the requirements described in Minimum Hardware and Software Requirements.

To modify these settings for the VFP VM:

  1. In the left navigation pane, select the VM and and right-click Edit Settings to display the Virtual Machine Properties window.

  2. To change the amount of memory, select Memory in the Hardware tab of the Virtual Machine Properties window. Change the memory size and click OK.

  3. To change the number of vCPUs, select CPUs in the Hardware tab of the Virtual Machine Properties window. Change the number of virtual sockets and click OK.

  4. To add WAN ports, click Add in the Hardware tab of the Virtual Machine Properties window. The Add Hardware wizard is displayed.

    1. For Device Type, select Ethernet Adapter and click Next.

    2. For Network connection, select the adapter type (for example, VMXNET3), select the network connection (for example, p2p1 or p2p2), and click Next.

    3. Verify your configuration and click Finish.

    Click OK in the Virtual Machine Properties window.

Launching vMX on VMware

After you power on both VMs, vMX is started as a virtual network function (VNF).

To launch vMX:

  1. Select the VFP VM in the left navigation pane and right-click Power > Power On.
  2. Select the VCP VM in the left navigation pane and right-click Power > Power On.
Note:

You must shut down the vMX instance before you reboot host server using the request system halt command.

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