Asterfusion Virtual SONiC Switch Instructions

This article mainly explains the establishment of the Asterfusion virtual SONiC switch (vAsterNOS) operating environment. By reading this article, users can quickly deploy the vAsterNOS image on the GNS3 virtual platform, thereby making it easier for users to learn and understand the use of Asterfusion enterprise SONiC switches.

vAsterNOS is a virtual operating system for sonic switches launched by Asterfusion. It inherits all the software features of AsterNOS and can run in network virtualization software such as GNS3 and EVE-NG. Users can better understand the characteristics of Asterfusion enterprise SONiC switches by using vAsterNOS, thereby providing strong support for building an efficient and stable network.

Users can search for images of GNS3, VM, Centos and other related software through the Internet. vAsterNOS image software can be obtained by applying to Asterfusion. Of course, Asterfusion also provides all the software mentioned above. You only need to apply and you can download them all.

vAsterNOS can run in network virtualization software such as GNS3 and EVE-NG. This article mainly introduces the construction method in GNS3 network virtualization software. First, you need to download the software image mentioned above and put it on your personal PC, and turn on the server with VMware ESXI installed so that the PC can connect to the server and the PC can access the server through the web. Then prepare to install GNS3, vAsterNOS and other software.

Access the ESXI server through the PC web and log in. Click to create/register a virtual machine as follows:

Choose to deploy the virtual machine from an OVF or OVA file and click Next

Enter a name for the virtual machine and click Next

Select GNS3 VM.ova and complete the installation

After completing the creation of the GNS3 VM, configure the VM management IP through network on the management page and restart the virtual machine.

Right-click the GNS3 VM window, select Console, and open the console in a new window, as follows:

At this time, the relevant configuration interface appears, select network to enter

Then the following interface appears:

Modify the IP address, gateway, DNS and other related parameters. The IP address needs to be on the same network segment as the VMware ESXI system. as follows:

Then save and exit to complete the network related configuration.

Next click Edit to enter the virtual machine settings interface, as follows:

The CPU and memory need to be set to appropriate values. For example, to run a 2+4 spine-leaf network, 6 vAsterNOS images need to be run. The running configuration of each vAsterNOS image is not less than 2 cores 4G, then the CPU needs to be combined. Set the number to greater than 12 cores and the memory to greater than 24G. At the same time, if you run a virtual PC and use it as verification data, you also need to calculate the occupied CPU and memory resources. This article is set to 24 cores 130G.

The GNS3 configuration after completing the setup is as shown below:

Its username and password default to gns3/gns3.

Select network-vswitch-vswitch0, as follows:

Click Edit Settings. You need to adjust the security policy to promiscuous mode, as follows:

After completing all the above settings, restart the GNS3 virtual machine.

The GNS3 VM client is installed on a personal computer and can be installed directly using the prepared EXE file. After the installation is complete, it is used to remotely connect to the GNS3 VM Server. Complete operations such as image import, network topology creation, and basic configuration.

Open the GNS3 client, click edit, and select preferences, as follows:

Select server and set host and user/passward as follows:

Open the GNS3 client and select file-New blank project, as follows:

Enter the project name as follows:

Then select file-import appliance and import the vasternos image configuration file, as follows:

Select the image configuration file to be imported, as follows:

Then choose to install to the main server, as follows:

Then check if the image file matches

Then click next and wait for the import to complete. The default username and password for the newly imported vasternos system is admin/asteros. It should be noted that the Asterfusion-vAsterNOS.gns3a and vAsterNOS-V3.1.img files must be placed in the same path.

Upload the prepared asterfusion-vAsterNOS.svg file to the relevant directory of the GNS3 VM Server through scp or other methods. The file path is: /home/gns3/GNS3/symbols/asterfusion-vAsterNOS.svg.

Then choose to use the icon file on the GNS3 client, as shown below, find the vAsterNOS device in the red box on the left

Then right-click and select configure template

Select browse in symbol, as follows：

Select the vAsterNOS icon file, as follows：

And, configure the number of CPU cores and memory capacity in this interface, as follows:

Now, the import of vAsterNOS has been completed and users can use it normally.

Drag vAsterNOS out and right-click, the following interface will appear, you can start or stop the device, and open the configuration interface:

Select Custom console open the configuration interface, Enter the username and password admin/asteros to start the exploration of vAsterNOS.

In the process of verifying the network, a terminal needs to be used for data transmission testing to verify whether the network configuration is correct, so the CentOS system needs to be installed on the GNS3 vm server. The installation process is similar to vasternos, and you only need to import the CentOS image file. It should be noted that if you use the CentOS image provided by Asterfusion, the default username and password are: root/yx979150.

We set up a simple network to verify whether the device forwarding data status is normal. The network topology is as follows:

Connect a vAsterNOS device and two server devices, configure IP addresses of different network segments and configure static routes. Use server-1 to ping server-2. If the ping is successful, it means that the three devices are running normally.

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