Setup csr1000v on VirtualBox

To create a VirtualBox node, you can follow some clear guidelines. I am able to successfully append csr1000v-universalk9.03.14.02.S.154-1.S2-std. Problem with csr1000v booting and startup console using gns3 in windows 10 environment and VirtualBOX oracle. Dear All, I am facing problem to open consol of csr1000v from gns3, i am using virtualbox from oracle. Jul 22, 2014 The CSR1000v is a virtual router designed to run under VMWare or, as we will be doing here, under VirtualBox. Getting the CSR1000v You can download the CSR1000v straight from Cisco with a valid CCO account. The download link is here. README-CSR1000v.md iosxeiso2vbox.py is a tool to create an IOS XE Vagrant VirtualBox box from an IOS XE ISO image. The ISO will be installed into a VM, booted and configured. It can then be used as a box within Vagrant to bring up an IOS XE router that is fully configured to.

For this router I had a lot of difficulties on determining the right setup so I can have all the functionality ( service instance, correct interface mapping to GNS3 ports ).

We will need:
- GNS3 v1.3.10 Csr1000v Virtualbox

- Virtual Box 5.0.4 or latest
- csr1000v image , you can download it from here Csr1000v Virtualbox

Note!!! csr1000v image comes in IOS format or OVA, if you can't download the ISO image but you can download the .ova , simply go with .ova file open the file with 7zip and extract the ISO image from it.

Step 1: we need to build a blank VM, with the following parameters:
- OS Type : Linux / Other Linux (64-bit)

Csr1000v Virtualbox Install

- System:
- Memory : 4096 MB
- Processors : 1vCPU
- Acceleration :
- Paravirtualization Interface : KVM
- Hardware : VT-x/AMD-v - Nested Paging
- Storage : 8GB - dynamic blank image
- CD-ROM : select the csr1000v image
- Network :
- Not attached
- Adapter Type: virtino-net
- Promiscuous Mode : Allow All
- Serial:
- Port Mode : Host Pipe
- Path/Address : .pipecsr1000v

Step 2: Boot up the device , it will start installing the IOS-XE on the VM storage.

Step 3: Once the IOS-XE , boot the device and you will receive a prompt with 'Router>'. At this point the console is directed to the VGA, we need to make the console accessible from serial.

In the VM window , configure the router with the following commands :

Router>enable
Router#conf t
Router(conf)#platform console serial
Router(conf)#exit
Router#copy run start
Router#reload

Step 4: Power off and on the VM , and open a putty window. In Putty select Serial connection and in Serial line select '.pipecsr1000v'

Csr1000v Virtualbox Windows 10

Virtual networking is becoming more and more popular. Just a little while back, Cisco released a virtual router called CSR 1000V that can run in a VM. CSR is for Cloud Services Router. But Cisco had limited its use to VMWare based technology like ESX and VMWare Player/Workstation. Well, when Cisco released version 3.10, is supported more virtual machines and it looked like it had the possibility to run in Virtual Box. I was quite happy to try as I use Virtual Box a lot. So after lots of tweaks and tries, I got it to work the way I wanted.

For this example, I am going to create a router called csr1000v-2. A few notes:

Needs to run on a PC that is a Core i5 or better.
CSR 1000V is free (if you already have a support contract) but extremely low throughput of 2.5Mbps. A paid license is required for higher throughput. But this is good enough to learning purposes.

Csr1000v Virtualbox Free

To install, you will need the following:

Download and install VirtualBox.

Download the ‘Cisco CSR 1000V Series ADVANCED ENTERPRISE SERVICES – ISO’ file from Cisco. I am currently using 3.10.0S, which is IOS 15.3(3)S as it is the first release to support(unofficially). There are newer versions available, this just happens to be the one I first grabbed when it came out.
- You will need a Cisco login account to get it. DON’T ASK ME TO GIVE YOU A COPY.

Download and install ‘Named Pipe TCP Proxy’. (http://shvechkov.tripod.com/nptp.html)

First to explain why using Named Pipe. When you first start the installer, it will ask you if you want to use the VM console as the routers ‘console’ port or if you want to use the VMs serial port as the ‘console’ port. Since I will need to copy and paste commands, I decided to use the serial port option as it allowed me to connect to the serial port using Putty. The Named Pipe utility creates a TCP port proxy. So you can open a connection to a specific TCP port and the utility will redirect it to the serial Pipe.

So after you download the Named Pipe utility, just

Start the program “piped.exe”
Create our first pipe with the following settings.
- Pipe-Name “.pipecsr1000v-2”
- Port 1999.
I put the router name in the Pipe-Name so I know which pipe is for which router. You will need to create a new entry for each CSR you install on your PC. Choose a different port for each too.

Now that this is setup, if you telnet to localhost port 1999 on you PC, you will be attached to the serial port.

Next we are going to create the VM. Create a new VM in VirtualBox with the following settings.

General:
- Type: Linux
- Version: RedHat (64bit)
Memory: 4GB
Network: (You can choose if you want each interface to be NAT, BIND, LocalHost, etc.)
- Enable all 4 adapters and set the 'Adapter Type' to 'Paravirtualized Network (virt-io net)'
Audio:
- Off
Serial Ports:
- Enable Serial Port 1
- Port Number: COM1
- Port Mode: Host Pipe
- Create Pipe checked
- Port/File Path: .pipecsr1000v-2

Before we start the VM, make sure you have started the Named Pipe Proxy TCP Proxy.

Open telnet connection to proxy port (eg, localhost port 1999)
- If using Putty, change setting in Putty session under Connection->Telnet
  - Turn off ‘Return key sends Telnet New Line instead of ^M’.

Now start the VM.

In GRUB menu, choose ‘Serial Console’.
First boot takes a long while. It will reboot once automatically. There is nothing else you need to do.

There you go. Wasn’t that easy? It’s all automatic. So, connect to router to see what IP address the GigabitEthernet0 was given.

Router>enable
Router#sh dhcp lease
Temp IP addr: 192.168.56.102 for peer on Interface: GigabitEthernet0

Now it’s up to you to configure the remainder. Below is some extra initial config to just get you going.

Give the router an initial enable and telnet password and hostname. An example is as follows.

Router>en
Router#conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#enable secret cisco
Router(config)#line vty 0 4
Router(config-line)#password cisco
Router(config-line)#exit
Router(config)#hostname csr1000v-2
csr1000v-2(config)#^Z
csr1000v-2#wr
Building configuration...
[OK]

Now a few closing comments. You may have noticed that it takes a lot of RAM. I haven’t tried reducing it to see how low I could get it, but I di