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SONiC is an open source network operating system based on Linux that runs on switches from multiple vendors and ASICs. SONiC offers a full-suite of network functionality, like BGP and OSPF, VXLAN that has been production-hardened in the data centers of some of the largest cloud-service providers.

The community around SONiC has been growing and includes Juniper including Apstra, Arista, Nokia, Alibaba, Comcast, Cisco, Broadcom, Nvidia-Mellanox and VMware. SONiC underpins Microsoft’s Azure networking services. According to IDC, a SONiC data-center switch market will be worth $2 billion by 2024.

Some term it as ‘Linux of Networking’.

In this blog, we will see how to spin up a sample topology using vSONIC Virtual Switch on EVE-NG.

To start with, we will use mssonic.yml file which lists the generic parameters for spinning up the instance.

Copy mssonic.yml file into “/opt/unetlab/html/templates/intel” or “/opt/unetlab/html/templates/amd” based on your cpu. In my case, I am using EVE-NG on macbook so I have used Intel.

root@eve-ng:~# ls -l /opt/unetlab/html/templates/intel/ | grep mssonic

-rw-r–r– 1 root root 1993 Jul 30 22:41 mssonic.yml

root@eve-ng:~#

2. Create a folder under “opt/unetlab/addons/qemu/” with name “mssonic-version/” like “mssonic-3.1.2”.

Keyword “mssonic” is important as using this only, eve-ng will recognize this image.

root@eve-ng:~# ls -l /opt/unetlab/addons/qemu/ | grep ms

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jul 30 22:48 mssonic-3.1.2

root@eve-ng:~#

https://github.com/Broadcom/sonic-VirtualSwitch/tree/master/3.1.2

3. Gunzip the .gz file to extract the image file.

root@eve-ng:/opt/unetlab/addons/qemu/mssonic-3.1.2# gunzip sonic-vs-3.1.2.img.gz

root@eve-ng:/opt/unetlab/addons/qemu/mssonic-3.1.2# ls -l

total 2380932

-rw-r–r– 1 root root 2438070272 Jul 30 22:55 sonic-vs-3.1.2.img

4. Rename sonic-vs-3.1.2.img to virtioa.qcow2. Please make sure to rename only and don’t convert it.

root@eve-ng:/opt/unetlab/addons/qemu/mssonic-3.1.2# mv sonic-vs-3.1.2.img virtioa.qcow2

root@eve-ng:/opt/unetlab/addons/qemu/mssonic-3.1.2# ls -l

total 2380932

-rw-r–r– 1 root root 2438070272 Jul 30 22:58 virtioa.qcow2

5. Fix the permissions as usual on eve-ng.

root@eve-ng:/opt/unetlab/addons/qemu/mssonic-3.1.2# /opt/unetlab/wrappers/unl_wrapper -a fixpermissions

root@eve-ng:/opt/unetlab/addons/qemu/mssonic-3.1.2#

Now we all set to use this under EVE-NG

I have made a simple leaf-spine topology using Sonic Virtual Switches

6. Open the Eve-NG UI.

Add the new Node, and select Sonic Router as below.

7. Change any settings here if you need however defaults should be good.

8. I have built a simple Leaf-Spine topology using 4 Sonic VS.

9. Start one or more Switches and let it boot.

Trying 172.16.137.130…

Connected to 172.16.137.130.

Escape character is ‘^]’.

Jul 31 15:30:59.295935 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: ZTP service started.

Jul 31 15:30:59.295971 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Failed to set system MAC address as the random number generator seed input.

Jul 31 15:30:59.295999 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Checking running configuration to load ZTP configuration profile.

Jul 31 15:30:59.893505 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3845]: Waiting for system online status before continuing ZTP. (This may take 30–120 seconds).

Debian GNU/Linux 9 sonic ttyS0

Jul 31 15:31:34.932822 System is ready

Jul 31 15:31:36.290136 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3845]: System is ready to respond.

Jul 31 15:31:36.308466 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Link up detected for interface Ethernet0

Jul 31 15:31:36.308525 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Link up detected for interface Ethernet1

Jul 31 15:31:36.308554 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Link up detected for interface Ethernet2

Jul 31 15:31:36.308581 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Link up detected for interface Ethernet3

Jul 31 15:31:36.308609 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Link up detected for interface Ethernet4

Jul 31 15:31:36.308637 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Link up detected for interface Ethernet5

Jul 31 15:31:36.308664 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Link up detected for interface Ethernet6

Jul 31 15:31:36.308741 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Link up detected for interface Ethernet7

Jul 31 15:31:36.308769 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Link up detected for interface Ethernet8

Jul 31 15:31:36.308821 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Link up detected for interface Ethernet9

Jul 31 15:31:36.308850 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Link up detected for interface Ethernet10

Jul 31 15:31:36.309163 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Link up detected for interface Ethernet11

Jul 31 15:31:36.340452 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Link up detected for interface Ethernet12

Jul 31 15:31:36.340489 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Link up detected for interface Ethernet13

Jul 31 15:31:36.340761 2021 sonic INFO sonic-ztp[3850]: Link up detected for interface Ethernet14

Default username/pwd – admin/YourPaSsWoRd

10. Once up and running, you would see lots of ztp related messages which can be disabled using below command.

sudo config ztp disable

sudo config save -y

11. Once done, you can go into sonic cli, using sonic-cli

admin@sonic:~$ sonic-cli

sonic#

sonic# ?

clear Clear commands

configure Enter configuration mode

copy Perform file copy operations

exit Exit from the CLI

fast-reboot fast-reboot [options] (-h shows help)

image Image related commands

logger Enter messages into the system log

no No commands under Exec mode

ping Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts

ping6 Send ICMPv6 ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts

reboot reboot [options] (-h shows help)

renew Renew commands

show Show running system information

terminal Set terminal settings

tpcm SONiC image installation manager

traceroute Print the route packets take to the host

traceroute6 Print the route packets take to the IPv6 host

warm-reboot warm-reboot [options] (-h shows help)

write Save config

sonic#

to prove its working, lets configure IP Addresses on Interfaces and see if we can ping each other.

On Leaf-1:

sonic(config)# hostname leaf-1

leaf-1#

leaf-1# show running-configuration interface Ethernet 0

interface Ethernet0

mtu 9100

speed 25000

fec none

no shutdown

ip address 10.10.10.2/30

leaf-1#

On Spine-1:

spine-1# show running-configuration interface Ethernet0

interface Ethernet0

mtu 9100

speed 25000

fec none

no shutdown

ip address 10.10.10.1/30

spine-1#

12. Ping the other end to find everything is working

spine-1# ping 10.10.10.2

PING 10.10.10.2 (10.10.10.2) 56(84) bytes of data.

64 bytes from 10.10.10.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=5.32 ms

64 bytes from 10.10.10.2: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=1.34 ms

— 10.10.10.2 ping statistics —

2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1001ms

rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.349/3.336/5.323/1.987 ms

spine-1#

That’s all, hope you like it.. In next sessions, we can go through some more specific scenarios around it.