Creating and Using

the EXOS Virtual

Switch in Oracle
Virtual Box

Name
MHELM

Versio
n
0.2

Comments
Refreshing a rather old application note

Table of Contents
1. Introduction & Purpose...................................................................................... 3
2. Downloading and Preparing OVB.......................................................................3
3. Creating an "Host-Only" Network in OVB...........................................................4
4. Creating and using an EXOS VM........................................................................5
5. Networking with the EXOS VM in OVB...............................................................9
6. Caveats........................................................................................................... 11

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1. Introduction & Purpose

This guide provides instructions for creating and using the EXOS VM (virtual
switch) within Oracle Virtual Box. Oracle Virtual Box. From the OVB online
manual:
"VirtualBox is a cross-platform virtualization application. What does that
mean? For one thing, it installs on your existing Intel or AMD-based
computers, whether they are running Windows, Mac, Linux or Solaris
operating systems. Secondly, it extends the capabilities of your existing
computer so that it can run multiple operating systems (inside multiple
virtual machines) at the same time. So, for example, you can run Windows
and Linux on your Mac, run Windows Server 2008 on your Linux server, run
Linux on your Windows PC, and so on, all alongside your existing
applications. You can install and run as many virtual machines as you like -the only practical limits are disk space and memory."
The EXOS virtual switch can be used to build a network within OVB by which
VMs can be interconnected. Complete network topologies can be created.
This is extremely valuable in that network configurations and protocols can
be tested thoroughly without the need for any physical equipment.

2. Downloading and Preparing OVB

Find
and
download
Oracle
Virtual
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Box

from

here:

Oracle Virtual Box best functions with the addition of the Extension Pack. To
install the OVB Extension Pack, download it (per the link above) and then
install it as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Start up OVB
Enter the Preferences dialog
Enter the Extensions dialog
Click on the Add Package button
Select
the
Extension
pack
file
(e.g.
Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.0.20-106931.vbox-extpack)
6. Accept the Terms and Conditions

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7. Click OK.

3. Creating an "Host-Only" Network in OVB

Prepare OVB for the out-of-band management of EXOS VMs as follows:

1. Enter the Preferences dialog

2. Enter the Network dialog
3. Select the Host-only Networks tab
4. Click on the Add Host-Only Network
button
5. Select the new Host-Only Network
Adapter
6. Click on the Edit Host-Only Network button
7. In the Adapter dialog, determine an
unique subnet (one not used by any
other adapter on your host) and give
the Host-Only Network Adapter an
appropriate unique IP address and
mask in that subnet.

8. Enter the DHCP Server tab/dialog and

uncheck the box for the server
disabling it.

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4. Creating and using an EXOS VM

Get the latest EXOS .iso file from your Extreme SE (E.g. vm-21.1.1.4-patch1-2.iso).
Create an EXOS VM with the following steps:
1. Click the "New" ICON.

2. Choose "Linux" for Type.

3. Choose "Other Linux (32-bit)" for
Version.
4. Type a name in the Name field (e.g.
"x210") and click Continue.

5. Set the memory size to be 256MB

and click Continue.

6. Select "Create a virtual hard drive

now" and click Create.

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7. Select VDI and click Continue.

8. Select "Fixed size" and click

Continue.

9. Type in 256MB in the size field

and click Create.

10.Double click on the newly created but powered off virtual machine that
should appear in the left frame in the Oracle VM Virtual Box Manager window.

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11.Select the EXOS VM .iso file and

click Start.

12.At this point, the EXOS

virtual
machine
window
should launch and there will
be a prompt to erase and
format the "External Memory
Card". Type "y" and hit
Return.

13.When the formatting process finishes and the prompt

reads "press ENTER to reboot", do not hit enter, but
instead close the window and choose the option to
"Power off the machine" and click OK.
14.Select the new VM in the left frame in the Oracle VM Virtual
Box Manager window and click Settings.

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15.Click on the Storage tab within

the VM's settings window select
the .iso "optical drive" in the
storage tree dialog on the left
and click the Remove media icon
at the bottom and then click the
Remove button.

16.Optionally, click the Audio tab

and deselect the "Enable Audio"
check box.

17.Click the Network tab and then

on the "Adapter 1" sub-tab
widow, using the "Attached to:"
drop-down list select the "Hostonly Adapter" option. Click on
Advanced
and
change
the
Promiscuous Mode to "Allow All".

18.Enable and change the next

three adapters to "Internal
Network" giving each a unique
name (e.g. I101, I102, and I103
respectively), and change the
Promiscuous Mode on all three to
"Allow All".

19.Lastly, click OK.

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20.The EXOS VM is now ready. To start it, double click on it again within the left
frame in the Oracle VM Virtual Box Manager window.

The EXOS VM is the same as any EXOS switch. The default administrator's login is
"admin" with no password. The first adapter, in the Host-Only network, is the "outof-band" management port associated with the MGMT VLAN and VR-MGMT.
The VM can be upgraded to a later EXOS image (e.g. vm-21.1.1.4-patch1-2.xos)
through any VLAN with an IP, but in this case, it would probably be best to use the
MGMT VLAN, which, once assigned the proper IP, should be able to communicate
with the Host-Only interface on the host.
As of EXOS 21.1 there is no separate SSH XMOD, but for EXOS VMs with version 16.x
and below there is an SSH XMOD available.
Lastly, like any EXOS switch, one can license the EXOS VM for any software
capability using the trial license via the "debug epm enable trial-license" command.

5. Networking with the EXOS VM in OVB

The EXOS VM can have up to 8 network adapters or "ports", the first of which, as
mentioned above, is the MGMT port. The first four are accessible for configuration

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through the Settings GUI within the OVB manager. The remaining adapters/ports
must be configured through "vboxmanage" shell commands.
Here is an example of a configuration for the 5 th adapter (port 4 from the CLI of the
virtual EXOS switch):
vboxmanage
vboxmanage
vboxmanage
vboxmanage
vboxmanage

modifyvm
modifyvm
modifyvm
modifyvm
modifyvm

x201
x201
x201
x201
x201

--nic5 intnet
--macaddress5 000496F201F5
--cableconnected5 on
--intnet5 l14
--nicpromisc5 allow-all

The main settings of an adapter that are of interest are the promiscuous mode (-nicpromisc) which should be set to allow-all, and the internal network name (intnet).
An internal network is basically an isolated segment. Adapters on an internal
network with the same name share that segment. To "connect" a port on one EXOS
VM switch to a port on another EXOS VM switch, simply give the adapters the same
internal network name. Below two switches share the same internal network name
for their 2nd adapter. They are able to detect each other via EDP.

It should be noted, that if one disables a port from the CLI of an EXOS VM, the port
on another VM sharing the same internal network with the disabled port will not

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show as "down". Instead, the internal adapters on both switches would need to be
disabled to show both ports as "down" simultaneously.
Shell scripting provides a convenient way configure EXOS VM adapters and possibly
to create virtual networks. The following PERL script creates and/or modifies the 7
non-MGMT ports on a series of EXOS VMs named x201, x202, etc. when its
output is piped into a shell.
$ cat vnic.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl
my $i = 2;
my $j = 1;
my $p = 201;
my $n = $p - 200;
while ($p < 210) {
$i = 2;
while ($i < 9) {
$j = $i - 1;
print "vboxmanage
print "vboxmanage
print "F$i\n";
print "vboxmanage
$n = $p - 200;
print "vboxmanage
print "$j\n";
print "vboxmanage
$i = $i + 1;
}
$p = $p + 1;
}

modifyvm x$p --nic$i intnet\n";

modifyvm x$p --macaddress$i 000496F$p";
modifyvm x$p --cableconnected$i on\n";
modifyvm x$p --intnet$i l$n";
modifyvm x$p --nicpromisc$i allow-all\n";

$ perl vnic.pl | sh

Similar scripting could be used for a group of EXOS VMs whereby their
interconnections are created to form a specific network topology.

6. Caveats
Certain features do not work
well on the EXOS VM due to
their
relation
to
the
capabilities of the underlying
hardware.
For
instance,
while
port
sharing (LAG) works using
LACP, it only can use the
round-robin
load-sharing

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algorithm, that is, the address-based algorithms are not available and LACP is
required.
Attempts to get OpenFlow working via the OpenFlow XMOD end badly (i.e. the EXOS
VM crashes immediately with the first installment of a flow).
Lastly, while ACLs and ACL counters appear to work as expected, Clear-Flow does
not work despite being configurable.

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