2.2.6. Install as a VM using VMware¶
VMware basic deployment¶
Virtual Service Router is provided in the form of an OVA file. It is supported on:
ESX/ESXi 6.7U2 and later
vCenter Server 6.7U2 and later
Fusion 6.x
Workstation 10.x
Player 6.x
See also
Refer to this link and that one for compatibility. For ESXi 6.7 you can use this link to check if your ESXi build number includes Update2. Virtual Service Router’s hardware version is 15.
The image is configured to run with:
4 cores
8GB RAM
1 vmxnet3 NIC
If you wish to add other NICs, make sure they have the vmxnet3
virtualDev attribute, or Virtual Service Router will not be able to use them.
In order to boot your Virtual Service Router VM, import the OVA file in your VMware product.
The next step is to perform your first configuration.
See also
Refer to VMware documentation for details on how to deploy VM images. For instance Deploying using vSphere 6.7, ESXi 6.7 or vCenter Server 6.7
VMware performance tuning¶
All ESXi version¶
Optimizations must be done in the hypervisor to achieve the best performance.
In the Virtual Hardware tab of the VM settings, set:
VM CPU
Reservationfield to its maximal valueVM CPU
Limitfield toUnlimited
In the VM Options tab, Advanced part of the VM settings, set:
sched.cpu.latencySensitivityto ‘High’: used to ensure pinning and exclusive affinity of all CPUs of a VNF
In the VM Options tab, Advanced part of the VM settings, press the
Configuration Parameters button to set:
ethernetX.ctxPerDevto1(whereethernetXis the NIC which will be handled by the Virtual Service Router): each NIC configured with ctxPerDev will receive a TX thread in the hypervisor. It can be checked in theesxtopoutput. The ctxPerDev recommendation must be enabled for NICs that are expected to process an high packet load.sched.cpu.latencySensitivity.sysContextstonumerical value: system threads (TX and RX) are assigned exclusive physical CPU cores. The numerical value assigned tosched.cpu.latencySensitivity.sysContextsmust equal the number of active threads for the VNF. For example, if one receive thread exists and three TX threads have been set using thectxPerDevcommand, the value set must be 4. In this example, 4 physical CPU cores must be available and unreserved.Since Virtual hardware version 17, it is possible to use more than the default number of 8 maximum Rx/Tx queues. To do so, set
ethernetX.maxRxQueuesandethernetX.maxTxQueuesto the desired amount of maximum Rx/Tx queues. Although, note that the maximum number of queues will still be limited to32or the number of vCPUs in the virtual machine, whichever is lowest.
More details are available in VMware document regarding high performance setups and best practices.
esxtop reading¶
First, run esxtop command in the hypervisor’s console.
Here is the default esxtop screen (also accessible by hitting ‘c’):
4:53:33pm up 12 days 8:06, 654 worlds, 2 VMs, 5 vCPUs; CPU load average: 0.24, 0.05, 0.02
PCPU USED(%): 0.0 0.4 0.0 0.2 2.9 0.1 0.1 1.6 0.1 0.0 118 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.2 112 0.0 0.1 1.7 0.0 0.2 AVG: 9.9
PCPU UTIL(%): 0.1 100 0.1 0.3 2.5 0.1 0.2 1.5 0.1 0.1 100 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 100 0.1 0.2 1.6 0.1 0.3 AVG: 12
CORE UTIL(%): 100 0.3 2.6 1.6 0.2 100 0.2 0.2 0.3 100 1.7 0.2 AVG: 25
ID GID NAME NWLD %USED %RUN %SYS %WAIT %VMWAIT %RDY %IDLE %OVRLP %CSTP %MLMTD %SWPWT
685528 685528 6WIND-TI 11 237.16 301.35 0.00 803.45 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.00
21609 21609 VMware vCenter Server Appliance 13 3.59 3.08 0.02 1300.00 0.00 0.02 198.30 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00
685520 685520 esxtop.228984 1 2.87 2.46 0.00 97.97 - 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
1 1 system 270 0.42 2103.44 0.00 24709.04 - 307.76 0.00 0.28 0.00 0.00 40.78
10304 10304 vpxa.67910 24 0.17 0.15 0.00 2400.00 - 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
5662 5662 hostd.67290 24 0.12 0.09 0.04 2400.00 - 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.00
8 8 helper 142 0.02 0.03 0.00 14200.00 - 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
4241 4241 ioFilterVPServer.67102 2 0.02 0.02 0.00 200.00 - 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
685432 685432 sshd.228973 1 0.02 0.02 0.00 100.00 - 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
10 10 ft 4 0.01 0.01 0.00 400.00 - 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Threads (including ctxPerDev) threads can be displayed by hitting ‘e’,
with the GID number of the process. You can check here the number of threads
created for the VM, and their current load:
4:55:29pm up 12 days 8:08, 654 worlds, 2 VMs, 5 vCPUs; CPU load average: 0.26, 0.15, 0.05
PCPU USED(%): 0.0 0.4 0.0 0.0 2.3 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.0 113 0.0 0.0 2.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.7 118 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 AVG: 10
PCPU UTIL(%): 0.1 100 0.1 0.1 2.2 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.2 0.1 100 0.1 0.1 2.0 0.1 0.1 0.1 2.4 100 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 AVG: 12
CORE UTIL(%): 100 0.3 2.3 0.4 0.4 100 2.1 0.1 2.5 100 0.3 0.3 AVG: 25
ID GID NAME NWLD %USED %RUN %SYS %WAIT %VMWAIT %RDY %IDLE %OVRLP %CSTP %MLMTD %SWPWT
228985 685528 vmx 1 0.01 0.00 0.00 100.00 - 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
228987 685528 NetWorld-VM-228986 1 0.00 0.00 0.00 100.00 - 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
228988 685528 vmast.228986 1 0.00 0.00 0.00 100.00 - 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
228991 685528 vmx-vthread-7 1 0.00 0.00 0.00 100.00 - 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
228993 685528 vmx-mks:6WIND-TI 1 0.01 0.01 0.00 100.00 - 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
228994 685528 vmx-svga:6WIND-TI 1 0.02 0.02 0.00 100.00 - 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
228998 685528 vmx-vcpu-0:6WIND-TI 1 0.41 100.17 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00
228999 685528 vmx-vcpu-1:6WIND-TI 1 113.65 100.17 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
229000 685528 vmx-vcpu-2:6WIND-TI 1 118.87 100.17 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
229170 685528 NetWorld-Dev-67108888-Tx 1 0.00 0.00 0.00 100.00 - 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
229171 685528 NetWorld-Dev-50331672-Tx 1 0.00 0.00 0.00 100.00 - 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
21609 21609 VMware vCenter Server Appliance 13 4.66 4.01 0.02 1298.06 0.00 0.08 196.53 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00
The network screen (accessible by hitting ‘n’) is really useful to check if the hypervisor is dropping packets:
5:00:32pm up 12 days 8:13, 649 worlds, 2 VMs, 5 vCPUs; CPU load average: 0.26, 0.26, 0.14
PORT-ID USED-BY TEAM-PNIC DNAME PKTTX/s MbTX/s PSZTX PKTRX/s MbRX/s PSZRX %DRPTX %DRPRX
33554433 Management n/a vSwitch0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
33554434 vmnic0 - vSwitch0 6.65 0.01 229.00 6.46 0.01 145.00 0.00 0.00
33554435 Shadow of vmnic0 n/a vSwitch0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
33554436 vmk0 vmnic0 vSwitch0 6.65 0.02 335.00 6.06 0.01 131.00 0.00 0.00
33554438 69973:VMware vCenter Server Ap vmnic0 vSwitch0 4.70 0.01 189.00 4.89 0.01 355.00 0.00 0.00
33554463 228986:6WIND-VA-1.6.2-1 vmnic0 vSwitch0 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.96 0.00 117.00 0.00 0.00
50331649 Management n/a DvsPortset-0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
50331650 LACP_MgmtPort n/a DvsPortset-0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
50331651 lag1 n/a DvsPortset-0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
50331652 vmnic7 - DvsPortset-0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
50331653 Shadow of vmnic7 n/a DvsPortset-0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
50331654 vmnic6 - DvsPortset-0 0.20 0.00 124.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
50331655 Shadow of vmnic6 n/a DvsPortset-0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
50331656 vmnic5 - DvsPortset-0 0.20 0.00 124.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
50331657 Shadow of vmnic5 n/a DvsPortset-0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
50331658 vmnic4 - DvsPortset-0 0.20 0.00 124.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
50331659 Shadow of vmnic4 n/a DvsPortset-0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
50331672 228986:6WIND-TI.eth2 lag1* DvsPortset-0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
67108865 Management n/a DvsPortset-1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
67108888 228986:6WIND-TI.eth1 void DvsPortset-1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
83886081 Management n/a DvsPortset-2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
83886087 228986:6WIND-TI.eth3 void DvsPortset-2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The column details can be checked in the esxtop statistics reading guide.
Troubleshooting¶
With VMware 6.0 and vSphere desktop client, starting Virtual Service Router VM from OVA file fails with the following message:
The OVF package is invalid and cannot be deployed.
See https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2151537.
To workaround this problem:
Use the vSphere HTML5 client (the desktop client is deprecated).
Repackage the OVA file to use SHA1 hashing instead of the latest SHA256 using ovftool available at https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/ovf/.
# ovftool --shaAlgorithm=SHA1 /path/to/original/file.ova /path/to/new/file-sha1.ova