In this section:

Note

SBC SWe Edge supports the following (depending on your license):

  • For Memory (RAM), valid settings are 1 GiB (1024 MiB), 1.5 GiB (1536 MiB), or 2.5 GiB (2560 MiB).
  • For vCPUs, valid settings are 1, 2, 4 or 10 vCPUs.

For detailed information, refer to SBC SWe Edge Hardware and Software Requirements.

For adding vCPUs or increasing memory on a SBC SWe Edge upgraded to Release 7.0, refer to Changing vCPU and Increasing VM Size.

Downgrade Limitations

For Release 8.1 and later, the SBC uses a single QCOW2 image file instead of multiple QCOW2 image files. As a result, the SBC cannot be downgraded from Release 8.1 and later to Release 8.0 and earlier.


Prerequisites

Refer to Downloading the SBC SWe Edge Package for On-Premises Deployment prior to performing this procedure.

Note

The SBC SWe Edge supports one Network Management interface and up to four Network Media interfaces. The minimal networking configuration (one management and one media interface) requires two bridge interfaces configured on Hyper Visor host. To support maximum 1+4 configuration, Hyper Visor host must have five bridge interfaces configured prior to the Virtual Machine (VM) installation.

Limitations

  • Disk and network drivers must be selected during deployment only.

  • Changing disk or network drivers post-deployment is not recommended.

Create new Virtual Machine

  1. Start the Virtual Machine Manager. 

  2. Select New Virtual Machine from the File drop-down menu.

  3. From the Create New Virtual Machine dialog, select Import existing disk image and click Forward. 

  4. Select Linux from the OS type drop-down menu.

  5. Select Debian Squeeze from the Version drop-down menu.

  6. Click Browse and navigate to the location of the disk image. 

  7. From the Choose Storage Volume dialog, select file SBCSWeLite-disk.qcow2, then click Choose Volume.

  8. Click Forward.

  9. Set Memory (RAM) field to 1024, 1536, or 2560.

  10. Set CPUs to 1, 2, 4, or 10 and click Forward.

  11. Enter the name of your new VM in the Name field.
  12. Select the Customize configuration before install option.

  13. From the New VM dialog, select the applicable network from the Network selection drop-down menu, and click Finish.

    Note

    This network is used for Management Interface.

Verify Random Number Generator

By default, the Random Number Generator (RNG) device is present in the SBC SWe Edge. Through the Virtual Manager options/configuration, verify RNG is present. If it is not displayed, install manually as follows:

  1. Access the Virtual Machine window and click Show Virtual Hardware Details.
  2. In the Virtual Manager options, click Add Hardware.
  3. Select RNG to open the Random Number Generator Window.
  4. Leave the Device filed set to /dev/urandom and click Finish.

Customize Configuration

Modify the Disk Device Model

  1. In the new pop-up window, select Disk 1.

  2. Expand Advanced options and select VirtIO (for Releases 7.0 and above) or IDE (for Release 6.1) from the Disk bus drop-down menu.

Modify Network Interface Device Model

Note

For 7.0 Release and later: Use virtio as the Network Interface Device Model.

  1. Select NIC.

  2. Select virtio from the Device model drop-down menu, then click Apply. 

Add Virtual Network Interfaces

  1. Click Add Hardware.
  2. From the Add New Virtual Hardware dialog, select Network.
  3. Select the desired Bridge id from the Network source drop-down menu.
  4. Select virtio from the Device model drop-down menu, and then click Finish.

  5. Repeat the preceding steps for additional Network Interfaces.

Note

The SBC SWe Edge Virtual Machine requires five Virtual Network Interfaces configured, regardless of the actual number of Networks used by the guest VM.

Note

The first Virtual NIC must use a dedicated bridge (Network source). The Network source can then be used to configure the four remaining Virtual NICs.

Caution

Ribbon recommends that all customers review and, if necessary, optimize their Network Interface configurations before proceeding. Failure to do so could lead to interface mapping issues. See Mapping Network Interfaces  and then return to this section.

Configure CPU Model

To achieve the maximum performance of the CPUs, configure the CPUs so that the Model field is set to host-passthrough.

Configure SR IOV

The Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) is a type of PCI device that enables a physical device (such as a single NIC device) to share to multiple virtual functions; this functionality improves the performance of the I/O. SR-IOV configuration in KVM can share the physical port with multiple virtual machines.

For the configuration steps required to enable SR-IOV networks on the KVM platform, refer to Red Hat Enterprise's PCI Device Assignment with SR-IOV Devices.

Finalize Installation

  1. From the Virtual Machine dialog, click Begin installation.

    Note

     The configured VM starts automatically as shown below.

  2. Click the monitor icon in the header to open the VM console. 

Complete Initial Setup

Proceed to Running Initial Setup on SBC SWe Edge. After setup is complete, proceed to License Installation.

License Installation

Trial License Installation

If you are installing an SBC SWe Edge instance for a trial or demonstration deployment, proceed to  Obtaining and Installing a Permanent SBC SWe Edge Trial License.

Production License Installation

If you are installing an SBC SWe Edge instance to carry live enterprise traffic, proceed to Obtaining and Installing an SBC SWe Edge Production Node-Locked License.