vMX

Requirement:
To stream the telemetry data (ex: Firewall Filter), we need PFE to forward the traffic.

Issue: (version: 17.4(R1))
We have tried deploying Juniper vMX using below document.
https://www.juniper.net/documentation/en_US/vmx17.1/information-products/pathway-pages/getting-started/vmx-gsg-vmware.pdf
We got both the VM's (VCP and VFP) up/running and but they are not able to communicate. Can we get some pointers to integrate the VFP and VCP ? So that we will be able to see the all the interfaces in VCP to forward the traffic.

Regards,
Rajesh

Hi Rajesh,

Was the promiscuous mode enabled on internal vSwitch..

https://www.juniper.net/documentation/en_US/vmx17.4/topics/task/installation/vmx-installing-ova.html

Were you able to ping the vCP & vFP internal ips[128.0.0.1 & 128.0.0.16]... 

Share below outputs:

> show chanssis fpc

>ping 128.0.0.16 routing-instance __juniper_private1__  {execute this on vCP}

Please try below steps:

https://www.juniper.net/documentation/en_US/vmx17.4/topics/task/verification/vmx-vm-connection-troubleshooting-esxi.html

Thanks VR for the reply. It was very useful. 
We have followed the steps mentioned in Juniper documentation which you have shared. Now, we are able to ping vFP from vCP and able see the linecard 0 is present but not the interfaces which we added (Network Adapters). The only thing which we were not able to do is SR-IOV enabling and assigning the NIC. Our eSXI's are not supporitng the SR-IOV. Looks like it ruquires 10Gig interfaces on eSXI to enable that.

Can you confirm, whether SR-IOV is mandatory to work on vMX and if required what are the prerequisites/procedure to do that.(This might look awkward asking IO virtualization question here).

Thanks alot !!!

Regards,
Rajesh

Hi Rajesh,

Thats good to hear...!!!

Its not mandatory to use SRIOV for vMX. It totally depends on customer requirement. You can use VMXNET3 if SRIOV is not needed..In ESXi Environment i would recommend VMXNET3 instead of SRIOV.[As there are some limitation on ESXi for SRIOV.]

SRIOV Enabling on ESXi..

https://www.juniper.net/documentation/en_US/vmx18.1/topics/task/configuration/vmx-sriov-enabling-vmware.html

At this point, we only support limited NIC's for SRIOV capability like Intel 82599 and Intel X710 NIC's. For ESXi environment please use Intel 82599 based NIC's.. 

Thanks again. we are using compatible adapaters as you mentioned. 
I am able to see the slot 0 is present but temperature is absent and able to ping the vFP from vCP. But still not able to see the additional interfaces.
Few questions:
1. Do we need to keep other adapters (gig interfaces) in seperate port-group, or it can be anything (br-int,br-ext,wan)?
2. Can we have single port-group for external and wan traffic.. however it is not recommended but will it work?
3. Is there any additional config i have to do get the interfaces into vCP.

Attached the output which you asked earlier along with config details on esxi for both vCP and vFP.
Your answers helping me out and stucking at other points. Hopefully this time we can close this out.

Thanks for your time.

VCP configurationVFP configchassis detailping result 

Hi,    You can connect the external ports (interface 2 onwards) however you like. If the FPC doesn't finish booting up it means that the pfe process didn't start properly, try the following:   1. Set the vMX to operate in lite mode: user@vmx# set chassis fpc 0 lite-mode   2. You can login to the vFP VM and get the logs (/var/log/) look for anything related to RIOT (PFE process), normally those indicate why the process can't start.   Hope it helps!    

Hi Rajesh,

confirm me what is chassis mode configured, is it in lite-mode or in performance-mode?

1. Do we need to keep other adapters (gig interfaces) in seperate port-group, or it can be anything (br-int,br-ext,wan)?

<VR> ge interface will be your WAN interface which was configured under vFP. br-int will be used only for internal comunication between vCP & vFP. br-ext interface is for management access to the vCP or vFP. port-group usages is again defined based on customer requirement. 
2. Can we have single port-group for external and wan traffic.. however it is not recommended but will it work?

<VR>it can be same for br-ext or WAN.. not same as br-int. intotal you need to have minimum of 3 Interfaces configured for vFP to get it up and running [Ref: https://www.juniper.net/documentation/en_US/vmx17.4/topics/task/installation/vmx-installing-ova.html].. . Port groups are defined based of your requirement.
3. Is there any additional config i have to do get the interfaces into vCP.

<VR> from the output shared i could see FPC is in Present state. we need to have FPC online to get the ge ports on vCP.

We could se communication between vCP & vFP is happening. 

On vFP, i could see memory is configured as 512MB, can you increase that and check..

Refer to below info:

https://www.juniper.net/documentation/en_US/vmx17.4/topics/reference/general/vmx-hw-sw-minimums.html

Thanks alot !!!

Finally it worked after the changes which you mentioned.

Now am able to see interfaces as well. Apprecite your help!!

Keep going!!!