In this section:

Note

SWe Lite 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 Lite Hardware and Software Requirements.

For adding vCPUs or increasing memory on a SWe Lite upgraded to Release 7.0, refer to Changing vCPU and Increasing Memory/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 Lite Package for On-Premises Deployment prior to performing this procedure.

Note

The SBC SWe Lite 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. 

    Start Virtual Machine Manager

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

    New Virtual Machine

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

    Create new Virtual Machine

  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.

    OS Type and Version

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

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

    Memory and CPU Settings

  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.

    Finalizing Create new Virtual Machine

Verify Random Number Generator

By default, the Randon Number Generator (RNG) device is present in the SBC SWe Lite. 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 Randon 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.

    Adding Hardware

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. 

    Modify Virtual Network Interface

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.

    Adding Network Interfaces

Note

The SBC SWe Lite 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.

CPU Configuration

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.

    Begin Final Installation

    Note

     The configured VM starts automatically as shown below.

    SBC SWe Lite Running

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

    Open VM Console

Complete Initial Setup

Proceed to SBC SWe Lite Initial Setup. After setup is complete, proceed to License Installation.

License Installation

Trial License Installation

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

Production License Installation

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