ARUBAOS-CX OVA NETWORK SETUP IN ESXI

CONTENTS
ArubaOS-CX OVA Network Setup in ESXI .............................................................................................. 1
Requirements.......................................................................................................................................... 1
Prerequisites ........................................................................................................................................... 1
Guide Scope ........................................................................................................................................... 1
Topology ................................................................................................................................................. 2
Deploying the OVA.................................................................................................................................. 3
Mapping Serial Connections To ArubaOS-CX OVA (Optional) ................................................................ 6
Network interfaces ................................................................................................................................ 12
Connecting to other Devices ................................................................................................................. 13
Connecting The port Groups to THe network adapters.......................................................................... 19
Accessing the Web UI ........................................................................................................................... 23

REQUIREMENTS
 ESXI 6.0 and above (Deployed on a device with 32 gigs of RAM or more)
 PC
 ArubaOS-CX OVA
 Client OS (Windows 10, Fedora)
 Server (Win 2012, Ubuntu)

PREREQUISITES
 Existing knowledge of Creating VMs
 Basic vSwitch knowledge

GUIDE SCOPE
This guide will walk thorough how to set up the ArubaOS-CX OVA in an ESXI environment. This guide
will also cover how to connect the ArubaOS-CX OVA to other devices in the ESXI environment. To
demonstrate this a diamond topology the OVA will represent 1 core Switch, 2 Distribution switches and
one access switch (In this guide the OVA will be used as an access switch this does not reflect where it
would be placed in the real world). This guide will not cover the CLI configuration of the ArubaOS-CX
OVA nor the implementation of the client and server, it will cover only verification of connectivity. Below
is a diagram of what will be setup in this guide.

1
TOPOLOGY

2
DEPLOYING THE OVA
Description
This setup will be a 4 switch diamond topology. This means that this process needs to be repeated three
additional times in order to have 4 switches in your environment.
Loading the Ova
 Log into ESXI Web management console and click “create / Register VM”

Selecting the type of VM

3
Selecting the ArubaOS-CX OVA
Note: the Ova download name can be changed to a friendly name

 At this point in the prompt click the blue area “Click to select Files Or drag/Drop”. After clicking
this area it will bring up File explorer where you have to navigate to the OVA in our case the
ArubaOS-CX Ova.
 After Selecting the OVA click next through the Prompt In this scenario we will use the defaults.

4
After selecting Finish the OVA will be imported.

This step will have to be Repeated 3 more times to have 4 switches in total.
This environment already has a client and a server deployed. Their deploying these will not be covered
here.

5
This is what the environment should look like after everything is all imported

Note: the windows server and client were pre-installed

MAPPING SERIAL CONNECTIONS TO ARUBAOS-CX OVA

(OPTIONAL)
Description
This step is optional. It is possible to configure the switches using the console connection on the ESXI
server. This allows the Windows 10 client to have a putty session connected to the Switches.

First shut everything down. This should be the end result.

Configure the Windows 10 Client
 First Right Click Edit Settings
 Select Add Device then Select Serial Port

 Now Click the Drop Down and select “Use Name Pipe”

6
 Edit the name in “pipe name”.using this format to identify each device uniquly “\\.\pipe\(Name)”.
 This “name” has to be unique to each switch. Each switch can be named the Switches after there
position, in this example “\\.\pipe\core”. This name will have to match the serial on the 8400
switch designated as a core device.

 Repeat this 4 more times with a unique name for each switch the end result should look similar
to this

 Now we will have to add a serial port to each switch.

 The Switch will be configured as a server going to a process. The reason this setting is a process
is because putty will be used to access the switch. This name should correlate to the names
used before
In this case “\\.\pipe\core” was used. So Re-Use the same name and change the “Near End” to
Server and “Far end” to a process First: Right Click Edit the Setting for one of the instances

7
 To add another Device, select Serial Port, after that enter the matching named piped.

8
 Now this has to be repeated for each device (adding the correlating name just like and changing
the “Near End” to server and “Far End” to A process).
 Ones that’s done Power on all the machines

9
Once the same process that was done for the Core Device has been done to all the switches Log into
the Windows 10 Client and connect to the COM ports using putty, ones that’s done it should look like
this
Note: Sometimes the console port hangs for a minute then loads if it doesn’t load rebooting the
switch will fix hanging.

10
  Now renaming the Switches to the correct names using the console Connections port number
and name. Here on the Windows 10 client it shows that serial port 1 mapped to Core which
means COM1 is Core a Switch.

 To reduce confusion on the switch, connect to COM1 and give it the host name of Core to log
into the switch use “admin” with no password.
**Don’t Forget to Save**
In Configuration mode “copy running configuration Startup-Configuration” will save the
configuration

11
NETWORK INTERFACES
Each Switch has 8 network interfaces
Note: Two of the network Interfaces are reserved, one is for the services the second interfaces is
reserved for the management interface which leaves 6 Usable Interfaces.

ESXI Network interface OVA Equivalent

Network adapter 1 MGMT Interface

Network adapter 2 1/1/1

Network adapter 3 1/1/2

Network adapter 4 1/1/3

Network adapter 5 1/1/4

Network adapter 6 1/1/5

Network adapter 7 1/1/6

Network adapter 8 Service interface (Not Usable)

12
CONNECTING TO OTHER DEVICES
Description
 Before connecting to other devices in ESXI it is recommended to create a second vSwitch that
has no connections to the outside network because other devices from the external network can
interfere with the OVA and cause unexpected behavior.
 In addition to creating a second vSwitch, port groups will needed to be created these port groups
will act as links from one OVA to another.
Navigating to vSwitch
 From the Main Menu On the Left hand side Click Network.

 Once the network section has been clicked it will display all the available port groups.

 In the networking Section next to the Port group tab Click “Virtual Switches”

 Click “Add Standard Virtual Switch” After clicking “Add Standard Virtual Switch” A display Box will
pop up.

13
 The Display Box will Request a Name. In this case it will be named Internal. In addition to this the
security settings will need to be edited to match the photo below.

 After Clicking Add there should be two Virtual switches the internal Switch that was just created
and the Native vSwitch.

14
Creating Port Groups

Each Link in the topology will have to be its own port group so it can act as a point to point Link. So that
means there will need to be 8 port groups Configured For the topology displayed here. Giving the ports
Friendly names will help when assigning the interfaces to a port group.

15
 Under the Networking Section Navigate to the Port groups Tab then Click Add Port Group

 On the Port Group Tab Click “Add Port groups” A popup should then display.

 The Pop up should look like this. In this pop the Port group will need to be named Given a Vlan
ID and Linked to the “internal” vSwitch that was Earlier in this section.

16
This will have to be repeated for each link. For this topology there should be 8 port groups after Creating
All the port groups it should look Similar to this

17
Port Group Topology
Here is what the port Groups will look like when they are assigned to the correct ports.

18
CONNECTING THE PORT GROUPS TO THE NETWORK ADAPTERS
Now That the Port groups are created and the vSwitch is created now the each ArubaOS-CX OVA
network adapter will need to be assigned to the correct port group. So to do this, Navigate to the main
Menu with all the VMs.
 Start the all the VMs

 Now place each Link has to be in the appropriate port group (each port group should only have 2
VMs included)
 Right Click on one of the VMs and Select Edit settings

 (VM Core Settings) This Should Display the current settings for the VM. Click the Network
Adapter and from here select the appropriate port groups. This will need to be repeated for all 4
ArubaOS-CX Devices.

19
Distribution 1

20
Distribution 2

Access Switch

21
Verification
In Order to verify the connections the ports on the switch can be turned on and a ping test can be done
and LLDP can be used to see neighbors.
First the interfaces have to be turned on this is done by doing a no Shutdown on all used interfaces on
each Instance.

Once all the ports are to verify the ports are properly connected do a “show LLDP Neighbors”

22
A ping can also be done from switch to switch An IP address has it be assigned to the interfaces

ACCESSING THE WEB UI

Description
The Web UI can also be accessed by remote device this can be done either by using the built in VM
environment or another port group.
For this example the built in Port group will be used.
Navigate to the Networking section then Port groups.

23
Select the VM Network and Edit the Security Settings

To continue this example the Core switch will be used. Edit the Settings of the Switch, and change
Network adapter 1 to the VM network.

24
Now Connect to the Switch now configure the switch to turn on the Web UI

interface mgmt
no shutdown
ip static <IP Address>
default-gateway <IP Address>

https-server rest access-mode read-write

https-server vrf mgmt
user <name> password

25
Verification
Now web browse to the configured IP and login

26