Scripted provisioning of a Cisco CSR1000V as VirtualBox-Guest: Slipstream initial startup-config

To enable immediate remote-access to brandnew deployed virtual Cisco CSR1000V-Routers by scripts, ansible etc. it’s necessary to predeploy the startup-config at least with public-rsa-keys etc.

1. Prepare

Download and install the nice tool http://CDBurnerXP. This will install a companion cli-tool cdbxpcmd.exe along with the GUI-Version.

It’ll be used to prepare an ISO-„CDROM“ containing the prepared „startup-config“-file.

2. Prepare

Prepare an IOS-XE Configuration file…

!
hostname HOSTNAME
!
...
!
!
platform console serial
!
crypto key generate rsa modulus 2048 label RSA_SSH
!
!
username labuser privilege 15
!
ip ssh pubkey-chain
!
username labuser
  key-string    
  ...
exit
exit
!
exit
!
...
!
ip ssh rsa keypair-name RSA_SSH
!
ip ssh server algorithm authentication publickey
!
...
!
line vty 0 15
  login local
  transport input ssh
  access-class ACL_NMM in vrf-also
!
end

3. Modify the existing script

These commands create the ISO-File in the %LOC%-Path.

set VM=CSR1000vX

...

: Create ISO containing slipstreamed config-file
: use UNXTOOLS "sed" to customize the "hostname"-Command
:
set CFGISO=%LOC%\config.iso
set CFGSRC=C:\RH\LAB\VM\iosxe_config.txt
set CFGTXT=%LOC%\iosxe_config.txt
cat %CFGSRC% | sed "s/HOSTNAME/%VM%/g" > %CFGTXT%
"%ProgramFiles(x86)%"\CDBurnerXP\cdbxpcmd.exe --burn-data -file:%CFGTXT% -iso:%CFGISO% -format:iso

4. Mount this ISO to the VM

The contained config-file will get automatically applied when the router boots the first time.

VBoxManage storageattach %VM% --storagectl IDE-CTL --port 1 --device 1 --type dvddrive --medium %CFGISO%

5. Run the VM
• the config-file gets applied
6. access the router

This depends of the configuration-file, of course.

• note the automatically changed hostname 😉

SED from UnxUtils changes the hostname-parameter.