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When deploying Virtual-Machines by OVF/OVA-Files in automated manner, eg. using PowerShell of Terraform, it’s crucial to set all individual deployment parameters using the provisioning system. Discover the available Properties using PowerShell OFV-Tool Using PowerShell Create a vCenter-Connection Retrieve the OVF-Config-Object Display all contained Properties („=Keys“) Deployment-Option? Using OVF-Tool OVFTOOL.EXE, provided by VMware (Download OVFTOOL) allows to inspect existing OVA/OFV-Files, too.Read More →

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The existing Windows-Comman-Script has been enhanced so it now waits until the Router-VM is up got an IP-Address assigned using DHCP. For Demonstration-Purposes an SSH-Connection will be established. The public-key of my laptop-ssh-client is part of the slipstreamed Router-Configuration. Deploy a Router-VM with hostname „CSY“. Establish an SSH-Connection to the discovered Router-IP: Have a look to the startup-config used: This is the „CMD“-Script used:Read More →

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The following version adds a „-c“ option: „Connected IP-Address“-Check. the script exits, when the Router-VM is up and running and has an usable IP-Address The Script still checks all CDP-Packets received at the specified Interface: If the Sender has the correct „Hostname“ it reads the CDP-Management-IP-Address announced. This IP-Address has to be within the IP-Range of any connected IP-Network at the specified Interface. So it’ll be possible to establish a SSH-Session to the router-VM.Read More →

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After provisioning a new Cisco CSR1000V-Router this script waits until the router is fully deployed got it’s Management-IP-Address assigned via DHCP. and returns this Management IP-Address. Prepare First, install „netaddr“-package. needed to check, if the management-IP of the CDP-Neighbor is in the correct IP-Subnet the „wait-for-CDP“-Script Obviously far to much hard-coded stuff, just as an example 😉 waiting for a CDP-Neighbor to appear with the following properties: hostname „CSR-A“ an IP-Address within the network „192.168.56.0 /24“ at the interface VirtualBox Host-Only-Network Provision a new CSR1000V Router named „CSR-A“ Run the „wait-for-CDP-Neighbor“-Script In a second CMD-Box, and… Be patient, of course. Or store the returned IP-AddressRead More →

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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. 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. Prepare Prepare an IOS-XE Configuration file… Modify the existing script These commands create the ISO-File in the %LOC%-Path. Mount this ISO to the VM The contained config-file will get automatically applied when the router boots the first time. Run the VM the config-file gets applied access the router This dependsRead More →

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In a lab environment it might be handy to quickly rollout new (virtual) routers without much manual intervention. The following script creates a VirtualBox-VM and boots it up. Prepare Install VirtualBox and have a CSR1000V-ISO-File ready. Execute The Inventory populates: Use it After another reboot the serial console can be accessed by a windows pipe: The pipe provides access to the serial-console:Read More →

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Background: Python-Requests wants to verify https-certificates, which makes sense to me. – but my VCenter uses a self-signed Certificate Don’t think about ignoring certificate errors 😉 Prerequisites Download the certificate from the VCenter: Install the certificate: Now Python.requests validates the vCenter: Add the Export to ~/.bashrc at the end of the fileRead More →

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…this article should have been published at 2017-11-23, i forgot to press the right botton. So, an update might be needed, anyone still interested in cot today? Release 2.1 (2018-01-29) is the current release, containing some fixes (https://github.com/glennmatthews/cot/blob/master/CHANGELOG.rst) COT installation using PIP So, let’s go, following thats embarassing. Install PIP first Try it again Optional: Argument-Completion Not essential, but handy. COT helpers A full installation requires so called „cot-helpers“ to use all features. first fix „fatdisk“ which is used to inject configs into OVA-Files uncomment to and run the helper-installation again: But it threw a lot of warnings.. warning: format ‘%lu’ expects argument of typeRead More →

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Today i wanted to stop using hard-coded S3-Credentials in my scripts running on EC2-Instances. Create an IAM-Role Services IAM Roles [Create Role] Select type of trusted entity AWS-Service EC2 [Next: Permissions] Attach permissions policies AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess Review Role name: READ_S3 Attach Role to EC2-Instance Services EC2 Instances Instance Settings attach IAM-Role READ_S3 Prepare Linux Setup Within the EC2-Instance to which the IAM-Role has been attached. Check Access to „meta-data“ => „IAM“ => „Security-Credentials“ The Script has to know the name of the role to use. Fetch the IAM-Role-Credentials using python.requests() Attention: recreated the Role in the meantime, so the credentials have been modified. Use the credentialsRead More →

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The CSR1000V-Router has already been prepared (Create a CSR1000V-Instance with nested Virtualiation support) and in (Part 4: Package the Service-VM into an OVA) we copied the OVA-Image of our „ubuntu-server“-VM to this Router. Add the internal Network-Interface between Router and Service-VM Install the Service-VM Activate the installed Service-VM Access the VM using the (virtual) Serial-Console Logout: 3x [CTRL]+ Access the VM using SSH via the internal Network Check the local python/NAPALM-Setup to get facts about the containing routerRead More →