vMX Setup for KVM [Outdated]

Concentrator Mode

All MXs can be configured in either NAT or VPN concentrator mode. There are important considerations for both modes. For more detailed information, see the article on concentrator modes.

Create a KVM Server (Optional and one-time setup)

1. Deploy a linux instance (for example: ubunutu).

2. Download an image and follow the steps mentioned on the official ubuntu/linux website. 

3. Install libvirt packages
   1. https://ubuntu.com/server/docs/virtualization-libvirt - Follow instructions on this page. 
4. Confirm libvirt is properly installed by running: virsh list and kvm-ok

Download the Meraki vMX .qcow2 image

Download the vMX image from the following URL

Copy the image to preferred KVM server

Once the image is downloaded, copy it over to the desired KVM server that would be used for deployment. 

If using SCP, the scp cipher has to be aes128-ctr.

scp -c aes128-ctr -r vmx.qcow2 host:~/PATH_TO_IMAGE

 Create an XML definition

A sample xml definition can be found below. Please note the key definitions for the interfaces, paths to the image files.

<domain type='kvm'>
    <name>vmx</name>
    <memory unit='GB'>8</memory>
    <currentMemory unit='GB'>8</currentMemory>
    <vcpu placement='static'>4</vcpu>
    <os>
        <type arch='x86_64'>hvm</type>
        <boot dev='hd'/>
    </os>
    <cpu mode='host-passthrough'>
        <numa>
                    <cell id='0' cpus='0-3' memory='8' unit='GB'/>
                </numa>
    </cpu>
    <features>
            <acpi/>
            <apic/>
    </features>
    <clock offset='utc'>
        <timer name='rtc' tickpolicy='catchup'/>
        <timer name='pit' tickpolicy='delay'/>
        <timer name='hpet' present='no'/>
    </clock>
    <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
    <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
    <on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
    <pm>
        <suspend-to-mem enabled='no'/>
        <suspend-to-disk enabled='no'/>
    </pm>
    <memoryBacking>
        <hugepages>
            <page size='2048' unit='KiB'/>
        </hugepages>
        </memoryBacking>
    <devices>
        <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64</emulator>
        <disk type='file' device='disk'>
            <driver name='qemu' type='qcow2'/>
            <source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/meraki.qcow2'/>
            <backingStore/>
            <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
        </disk>
        <disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
            <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
            <source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/token.iso'/>
            <target dev='sda' bus='ide'/>
            <readonly/>
            <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='1' target='0' unit='1'/>
        </disk>
        <interface type='direct' trustGuestRxFilters='yes'>
            <source dev='ens35' mode='passthrough'/>
            <model type='virtio'/>
            <link state='up'/>
            <mac address='cc:03:d9:03:05:c3'/>
        </interface>
        <serial type='pty'>
                        <target type='isa-serial' port='0'>
                                <model name='isa-serial'/>
                        </target>
                </serial>
        <console type='pty'>
            <target type='serial' port='0'/>
        </console>
    </devices>
</domain>

Create ISO file with vmx_authentication_token

Copy the token generated from the dashboard and create a user-data file in your local machine

echo "token <token value" > user-data

Next, create ISO file with the user-data file. This file would be attached as a cd-rom on the vMX and mounted at run time. 

mkisofs -output <ISO file name>.iso -volid cidata -joliet -rock user-data

Start the VMX

virsh define vmx.xml #create the virsh defintion
virsh start vmx #starts the instance

Obtain User Data and Authenticate to Dashboard 

Once a vMX has successfully connected to a network, it will then attempt to obtain its user data (vMX auth token). There are different user-data mechanisms in each platform that the vMX currently runs on to provide the token to the vMX. In AWS, Azure, GCP, and Alicloud there are user-data fields in the VM configuration where this can be provided.