In this post we generate and install the necessary licenses for Edge devices and then connect them to the controllers. This is the second part from Cisco SD-WAN On-boarding series on building a self hosted SD-WAN lab. For first part click here.
At first we need to obtain the necessary licenses from the Cisco site. That’s why we need a Smart Account that includes a Virtual one. Go to software.cisco.com, from the Administration area select Manage Smart Account:
then, select Virtual Accounts
next, select New Virtual Account
fill the form with the name of the new Virtual Account and save.
Next step is to add a vBond profile. Go back to Software Central page and from the Network Plug and Play area, choose Plug and Play Connect.
From the top right drop-down menu select the virtual account created before.
Next, select Controller Profiles, then select Add Profile button.
For the controller type, VBOND must be selected.
In the next page, fill the required fields and pay attention to Organization Name (this defines the OU to match in the Certificate Auth Process and must be consistent across the Viptela domain) and Primary Controller (this name/address will be used for vBond), then Submit.
To add Virtual edges (vEdge or cEdge) devices, from the Plug and Play Connect page, select Devices link.
then select Add Software Devices button
To add a vEdge, in the Identify Device window, enter VEDGE-CLOUD-DNA in the Base PID field.
For cEdge, the Base PID is CSR1KV and for ISRv is ISRV.
After finishing adding devices, click Next, then check Review and Submit, and Done
Now devices are added, for a few minutes they will be on Pending for publish state
Once the status become Provisioned, we can go to Controller Profiles and select the check box in front of Profile Name and then Provisioning File link, to download the provisioning file.
In the Download Provisioning File dialog, select Controller Versions 18.3 and newer and download the file.
Transfer the downloaded file to the docker node, if you don’t know how, look on EVE-NG Cookbook section 13.2 and you will find how.
Navigate to Configuration > Devices and select Upload vEdge List to upload provisioning file downloaded from Cisco website. On the page are displayed several unused device licenses being successfully added to the system.
Onboarding Edge nodes
vEdge
First step in configuring vEdge is applying the following template:
system
host-name vEdge
system-ip <vEdge system IP>
site-id 1
organization-name "pocvlab sdwan"
clock timezone Europe/Bucharest
vbond <VPN0 VBOND IP>
!
vpn 0
interface ge0/0
ip address <VPN0 IP address/netmask>
ipv6 dhcp-client
tunnel-interface
encapsulation ipsec
no shutdown
!
ip route 0.0.0.0/0 <VPN0 gateway address>Verify connection with vBond (10.10.0.3), vManage (10.10.0.2) and vSmart (10.10.0.4) using ping.
Now, we have to copy/paste CA certificate content from docker node to a file on vEdge. Open a terminal on Docker and cat CA.crt, select and copy content.
On vEdge go to linux shell using vshell command, type vim CA.crt to open a empty file in vim editor. Press i key to start inserting text and paste the previous copied content. Use <Esc>wq to write the file and quit. Type exit to go back in vEdge CLI. Now we can import root CA certificate:
vEdge# request root-cert-chain install /home/admin/CA.crt
Uploading root-ca-cert-chain via VPN 0
Copying ... /home/admin/CA.crt via VPN 0
Updating the root certificate chain..
Successfully installed the root certificate chainIn vManage interface, navigate to Configuration > Devices and select unused vEdge entry, click on the three dots on the right side and select Generate bootstrap configuration. Accept the defaults and click OK. From the new window open we need UUID code and OTP. Go to vEdge console and insert UUID and OTP in the following command:
request vedge-cloud activate chassis <UUID> token <OTP>
example bellow:
request vedge-cloud activate chassis-number ebad1856-1b4a-c89c-d120-25ed7d6945b5 token 58b4fb93b34a13dbfdb8a0c2f29d4fadin about a minute you can use show control local-properties to check certificate status on vEdge CLI, it should be Installed.
cEdge
Because we have to copy root certificate from Docker node to cEdge bootflash, at first we configure only basic system properties and IP address for Ge0/0 interface, using following template:
config-transaction
!
hostname cEdge
!
system
system-ip <cEdge system IP>
site-id 2
admin-tech-on-failure
organization-name "pocvlab sdwan"
vbond <VPN0 VBOND IP>
!
interface GigabitEthernet1
no shutdown
ip address <VPN0 IP address/netmask>
!
commit
endon the Docker node, edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and permit ssh root login, restart sshd service (not recommended in production environment). Next step is to copy CA root certificate file from Docker to cEdge bootflash, using next command:
cEdge#copy scp://root@10.10.0.1 bootflash:
Address or name of remote host [10.10.0.1]?
Source username [root]?
Source filename [root/CA.crt]? /root/CA.crt
Destination filename [CA.crt]?
Password: once file is copied, we can proceed to install certificate:
cEdge#request platform software sdwan root-cert-chain install bootflash:CA.crt
Uploading root-ca-cert-chain via VPN 0
Copying ... /bootflash/CA.crt via VPN 0
Updating the root certificate chain..
Successfully installed the root certificate chainnow we can go ahead and finish configuration for cEdge:
config-transaction
!
interface Tunnel0
no shutdown
ip unnumbered GigabitEthernet1
tunnel source GigabitEthernet1
tunnel mode sdwan
exit
sdwan
interface GigabitEthernet1
tunnel-interface
encapsulation ipsec
color default
exit
exit
!
commit
endActivate cEdge manually, using chassis number and OTP from Bootstrap Configuration. This is generated from vManage web, Configuration > Devices, select unused CSR1000v line.
request platform software sdwan vedge_cloud activate chassis-number <UUID> token <OTP>
example bellow:
request platform software sdwan vedge_cloud activate chassis-number CSR-6170246D-E8C4-1D4A-A972-5EF144184AB9 token c448da2783609afcc3e9a7a7a17f1dfdAfter one minute or so, Tunnel0 interface should go up and certificate installation done, you can check status of control connections on cEdge CLI with show sdwan control connections.
From vManage web interface Configuration > Device we can see the state of WAN Edges:
and in the main Dashboard status of all connected nodes:
Ok, here is the end of this long post. I hope it will be useful.
Lab Resources
Brilliant article, really detailed and helped me get my lab up and running in no time!
I’m so glad to hear that.
Hello, I’m having some troubles to get the csr1000v-ucmk9.16.11.1a-serial.qcow2 to work.
I’m trying two things:
1. Convert it to Vmware VMDK but for some reason the VM keep’s reloading and just give me two option for boot – Package.conf and GOLDEN IMAGE.
2. I’m trying to run it in eve-ng but the .qcow2 don’t start, it’s like the image is not recognize.
Do you have any tip to bring this up?
Thanks a lot
Hi Leonard, you don’t have to convert the image to any other format, it just have to be renamed and placed in a specific directory. Please follow next steps:
Step 1. SSH to EVE and login as root, from cli create directory for CSRv:
mkdir /opt/unetlab/addons/qemu/csr1000vng-universalk9.SDWAN.16.11.1a
Step 2. Upload the downloaded csr1000v-ucmk9.16.11.1a-serial.qcow2 image to the /opt/unetlab/addons/qemu/csr1000vng-universalk9.SDWAN.16.11.1a using FileZilla or WinSCP.
Step 3. Go to image location and rename uploaded image to virtioa.qcow2 (you can rename using FileZilla or WinSCP):
cd /opt/unetlab/addons/qemu/csr1000vng-universalk9.SDWAN.16.11.1a
mv csr1000v-ucmk9.16.11.1a-serial.qcow2 virtioa.qcow2
Step 4. Fix EVE permissions:
/opt/unetlab/wrappers/unl_wrapper -a fixpermissions
After that you can add the vCSR (cEdge) to your topology using template named Cisco CSR 1000V (XE 16.x).
Good Luck!
Hi there !
It’s really great blog; thanks so much.
Just a quick question, under Plug and Play Connect (there is a message asking to accept Cisco Universal Cloud Agreement (UCA) for PnP Connect), is it safe to accept it? I’ve read about it, but couldn’t figure out what is it.
Thanks
Hi, yes no problem with that. Thx.
Hi,
I got error for this
vEdge# request root-cert-chain install /home/admin/CA.crt
Uploading root-ca-cert-chain via VPN 0
Copying … /home/admin/CA.crt via VPN 0
Error: Not a valid certificate
Failed to install the root certificate chain !!
vEdge#
What can cause it? need advice
Check CA.crt from vEdge node, it has to be the same as CA.crt from Docker. You have to go in vshell and cat CA.crt, check if is the same like CA.crt that you generated on Docker node.
Hi
Not able to use #Conf t …. giving command not supported on CSR1000v, although loved the image and …. asked for user is Pswd admin/admin …… but not able to get in global configuration mode to install the Evaluation License
Loaded image ….. router booted with user is and pswd…… but not able to enter global configuration mode ……#conf t ….. command not supported
Pls help to sort out
Rahul,
you have to use config-transaction to enter in configuration mode and don’t forget to use commit when you finish entering your commands.
Thank for your posting.
In my lab, Vsmart/Vbond/CSR1KV have already added to Vmanage. But in dashboard VManage, only Vsmart and Vbond are up. CSR1KV (WAN Edge) is down (although I can ping CSR1KV and Vmanage together).
Let me know if you have any advice. Thanks!
BB, go in vManage Configuration>Certificates>WAN Edge List and check if the State is green (Certificate installed) for your CSR1K.
i did until this step, wait for sometime but license didn’t show install. :/
request vedge-cloud activate chassis-number xxx token xxx
Do i need to do anything else?
Probably you have a problem with vEdge certificate. Check vManage Configuration>Certificates.
You are right, i not yet valid the certificate, once i click valid it, it work, i can see vEdge in the dashboard, but the system IP is showing unreachable.
@NKK Probably is better to start from scratch again.
Hi,
I am getting a real hard time in copying CA certificate content from docker node to a file on vEdge.
Can you guide as to how to copy from notepad to VIM? Have tried a tonne of methods. thanks
Look in Docker GUI>Accessories is a text editor called Pluma, it will help you dealing with text files.
Excellent blog
Going good. I am stuck at the last step. When I do show control local-properties
on vedge, the certificate status keep on showing not-installed.
any pointers?
Go in vManage Configuration>Certificates>WAN Edge List and check if the State is green (Certificate installed) for your vEdge node.
I had to do ‘Send to controllers’ to get it up. once again, thanks for your wonderful blog.
From here onwards, what do you recommend to further work on SD-WAN? If you can refer some resources, will be great.
Regards
I am glad that you found useful stuff here. You can look at Cisco SD-WAN course on labminutes.com, but i think sdwan-docs.cisco.com is the most comprehensive.
I dont have the plug and play option or the .viptela file to upload, is there any other manual way of adding the vedges ?
I’m not sure at which step you’re stuck. Please give more details,
I’m stuck on the “WAN Edge” part..
“From vManage web interface Configuration > Device we can see the state of WAN Edges:”
I dont have a cisco smart account so that is why couldn’t continue.
Is there any other way besides uploading the .viptela file to add the vedges to our WAN Edge list?
As far i know this is the only way you can do this. Try to contact you Cisco local representative, i hope they can help you.