System Requirements for EKS Deployment

Minimum Host System Requirements

This section lists the host system requirements for installing the cloud-native router.

Table 1: Cloud-Native Router Minimum Host System Requirements
Component	Value/Version
EKS Deployment	Self-managed Nodes
Host OS	Amazon Linux 2
EKS version	1.25.12
EC2 Instance Type	Any instance type with ENA adapters Note: There is no minimum instance type imposed by Juniper Cloud-Native Router, but a typical deployment runs c5.4xlarge or m5.4xlarge or larger (depending on performance requirements).
Kernel Version	The tested kernel version is 5.15.0-1040-aws
NIC	Elastic Network Adapter (ENA)
Kubernetes (K8s)	1.26.3
AWS CLI version	2.11.9
VPC CNI	v1.14.0-eksbuild.3
Multus	3.7.2 (`kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s/master/config/multus/v3.7.2-eksbuild.1/aws-k8s-multus.yaml)`
Helm	3.11
Container-RT	containterd

Resource Requirements

This section lists the resource requirements for installing the cloud-native router.

Table 2: Cloud-Native Router Resource Requirements
Resource	Value	Usage Notes
Data plane forwarding cores	2 cores (2P + 2S)
Service/Control Cores	0
UIO Driver	VFIO-PCI	To enable, follow the steps below: cat /etc/modules-load.d/vfio.conf vfio vfio-pci Enable Unsafe IOMMU mode echo Y > /sys/module/vfio_iommu_type1/parameter/allow_unsafe_interrupts echo Y > /sys/module/vfio/parameters/enable_unsafe_noiommu_mode
Hugepages (1G)	6 Gi	Add `GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT` values in /etc/default/grub on the host. For example: `GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="console=tty1 console=ttyS0 default_hugepagesz=1G hugepagesz=1G hugepages=8 intel_iommu=on iommu=pt"` Update grub and reboot the host. For example: `grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg` Verify the hugepage is set by executing the following commands: `cat /proc/cmdline` `grep -i hugepages /proc/meminfo`
Cloud-Native Router Controller cores	.5
Cloud-Native Router vRouter Agent cores	.5

Miscellaneous Requirements

This section lists additional requirements for installing the cloud-native router.

Table 3: Miscellaneous Requirements
Cloud-Native Router Release Miscellaneous Requirements
Disable source/destination checks on the AWS Elastic Network Interfaces (ENI) interfaces attached to JCNR. Cloud-Native Router being a transit router, is neither the source nor the destination of any traffic that it receives.
Attach the `AmazonEBSCSIDriverPolicy` IAM policy to the role assigned to the EKS cluster.
Set IOMMU and IOMMU-PT in `/etc/default/grub` file. For example: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="console=tty1 console=ttyS0 default_hugepagesz=1G hugepagesz=1G hugepages=8 intel_iommu=on iommu=pt" Update grub and reboot the host. For example: grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
Additional kernel modules need to be loaded on the host before deploying Cloud-Native Router in L3 mode. These modules are usually available in `linux-modules-extra` or `kernel-modules-extra` packages. Add each of following kernel modules on a separate line to `/etc/modules-load.d/crpd.conf` to load the modules at boot: cat /etc/modules-load.d/crpd.conf tun fou fou6 ipip ip_tunnel ip6_tunnel mpls_gso mpls_router mpls_iptunnel vrf vxlan Note: Applicable for L3 deployments only.
Verify the core_pattern value is set on the host before deploying JCNR: sysctl kernel.core_pattern kernel.core_pattern = \|/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-coredump %P %u %g %s %t %c %h %e You can update the core_pattern in `/etc/sysctl.conf`. For example: kernel.core_pattern=/var/crash/core_%e_%p_%i_%s_%h_%t.gz
If you are installing Cloud-Native Router on Amazon EKS, then update the `dpdkCommandAdditionalArgs` key in the `helmchart/charts/jcnr-vrouter/values.yaml` file and set tx and rx descriptors to 256. For example: dpdkCommandAdditionalArgs: "--yield_option 0 --dpdk_txd_sz 256 --dpdk_rxd_sz 256"

Cloud-Native Router ConfigMap for VRRP

You can enable Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) for your Cloud-Native Router cluster.

You must create a Cloud-Native Router ConfigMap to define the behavior of VRRP for your Cloud-Native Router cluster in an EKS deployment. Considering that AWS VPC supports exactly one next-hop for a prefix, the ConfigMap defines how the VRRP mastership status is used to copy prefixes from routing tables in Cloud-Native Router to specific routing tables in AWS. An example jcnr-aws-config.yaml manifest is provided:

The table provided below describes the ConfigMap elements:

Table 4: Cloud-Native Router ConfigMap Elements
Element	Description
`jcnr-table-name`	The routing table in Cloud-Native Router from which prefixes should be copied.
`jcnr-policy-name`	A routing policy in Cloud-Native Router that imports the prefixes in the named routing table to copy to the AWS routing table.
`jcnr-nexthop-interface-name`	Name of the Cloud-Native Router interface which should be used as the next-hop by the AWS routing table when this instance of the Cloud-Native Router is VRRP master.
`vpc-table-tag`	A freeform tag applied to the routing table in AWS to which the prefixes should be copied.

The jcnr-aws-config.yaml must be applied to the Kubernetes system before Cloud-Native Router installation. The Cloud-Native Router CNI deployer renders the cRPD configuration based on the ConfigMap.

Note:

When not using VRRP, you must provide an empty list as the data for aws-rttable-map.json.

Port Requirements

Juniper Cloud-Native Router listens on certain TCP and UDP ports. This section lists the port requirements for the cloud-native router.

Table 5: Cloud-Native Router Listening Ports
Protocol	Port	Description
TCP	8085	vRouter introspect–Used to gain internal statistical information about vRouter
TCP	8070	Telemetry information-Used to see telemetry data from cloud-native router
TCP	9091	vRouter health check–cloud-native router checks to ensure contrail-vrouter-dpdk process is running, etc.
TCP	50052	gRPC port–Cloud-Native Router listens on both IPv4 and IPv6
TCP	8081	Cloud-Native Router Deployer Port
TCP	22	cRPD SSH
TCP	830	cRPD NETCONF
TCP	666	rpd
TCP	1883	Mosquito mqtt–Publish/subscribe messaging utility
TCP	9500	agentd on cRPD
TCP	21883	na-mqttd
TCP	50051	jsd on cRPD
TCP	51051	jsd on cRPD
UDP	50055	Syslog-NG

Download Options

To deploy Cloud-Native Router on an EKS cluster you can either download the helm charts from the Juniper Support Site or subscribe via the AWS Marketplace.

Note: Before deploying Cloud-Native Router on an EKS cluster via helm charts downloaded from the Juniper support site, you must whitelist https://enterprise.hub.juniper.net as the Cloud-Native Router image registry.

Cloud-Native Router Licensing

Starting with Juniper Cloud-Native Router (JCNR) Release 22.2, we have enabled our Juniper Agile Licensing (JAL) model. JAL ensures that features are used in compliance with Juniper's end-user license agreement. You can purchase licenses for the Juniper Cloud-Native Router software through your Juniper Account Team. You can apply the licenses by using the CLI of the cloud-native router controller. For details about managing multiple license files for multiple cloud-native router deployments, see Juniper Agile Licensing Overview.