Installing CML2.8 on fedora41 by using libvirt

[keliang8576 (Ke Liang)]

Banner

I don’t have the responsibility for any data loss on your computer.
Read carefully before installing VM. >w<

Background

Since there is little information about installing CML (Cisco Modeling Lab) on fedora by using libvirt, I decide to make a document about this topic on Fedora Discussion.
I am studying CCNP after passing my CCNA exam. I need a lab environment for my self-study on my laptop which is ROG GU603HM. The official Cisco documentation recommends using VMware Workstation Player/Pro instead of libvirt for CML VM. Dual boot for using Windows or installing VMware Workstation on fedora is inconvenient from my perspective. So I tried to install CML on libvirt, it worked out of the box fortunately.
I am not a native English speaker, hope you guys understand my words.

Setting up
First, I followed the “Installing virtualization software” topic from fedora docs.

Virtualization – Getting Started

And download 2 ISO files from Cisco which are “Cisco Modeling Labs 2.8.0 server” & “Cisco Modeling Labs reference platform ISO file (October 2024)”.
Cisco announced that CML is free under condition that it is used below 5 nodes per lab.
If you are interested in the information, you can watch David Bombal’s Youtube video.

Create a new virtual machine using “Cisco Modeling Labs 2.8.0 server” ISO file and select “Ubuntu 24.04 LTS”.

Screenshot From 2024-12-03 13-32-56.png

I’m using NAT for local access on my laptop. (You can adjust the setting for bridge later.)
Doing some configuration like this.

Screenshot From 2024-12-03 13-48-46.png

And doing some adjustment before installing.

Screenshot From 2024-12-03 13-56-18.png

Screenshot From 2024-12-03 13-57-45.png

Add the “Cisco Modeling Labs reference platform ISO file (October 2024)” ISO file by clicking “Add Hardware” button.

Screenshot From 2024-12-03 14-08-48.png

Enable boot menu and adjust the booting order.

Screenshot From 2024-12-03 14-11-12.png

Adjust additional setting for Video Virtio & begin installation.

Screenshot From 2024-12-03 14-12-47.png

Press Enter to enter CML installation process & have a cup of coffee.
You can make the screen larger by clicking View>Scale Display>Always.

Screenshot From 2024-12-03 14-16-52.png

After the successful installation, the VM will reboot & don’t press any key to enter standard “CML Initial System Configuration process”.
You can follow again, David Bombal Youtube video for the initial system configurtion process.

After that, CML should boot like you were using CML on Windows + VMware Workstation combination.

Optional

You can remove the “Cisco Modeling Labs 2.8.0 server” CDROM and adjust some settings for booting quicker.

Adjustments for bridging are not covered in this topic.
There is a lot of good information about bridging using systemd-networkd on Fedora Discussion like:

Switch from systemd-networkd to NetworkManager

I have a working Network setup, based on systemd-networkd, which allow me to bridge to KVM guests to the “vlan trunk” or individual “vlan”, per virtual NIC.

enp1s0.network

[Match] Name=enp1s0 [Network] VLAN=vl1 VLAN=vl6 VLAN=vl100 Bridge=br0

br0.netdev

[NetDev] Name=br0 Kind=bridge

br0.network

[Match] Name=br0 [Network] DHCP=no

For each vlan (vl1, vl6 and vl100), I have 4 similar files for each of them:

vl1.netdev

[NetDev] Name=vl1 Kind=vlan [VLAN] Id=1

vl1.network

[Match] Name=vl1 …

Hope your configuration would work.
Good luck. >w<

[bond (James bond)]

Thank you for creating the post.

Some suggestion and some question:

1. You need/can add an image in this forum instead of GDrive since the chances of those images getting deleted increase over time and people will miss out on information.

2. Can’t we convert the .ova file with this qemu-kvm convert -p -f vmdk -O qcow2 cml2_2.8.0-6_amd64-32_SHA256-disk1.vmdk cml.qcow2 command instead of downloading the iso file? The vmdk file is there when we unzipped OVA file. To extract it, I used tar -xvf cml2_f_2.8.0-6_amd64-32.ova command.

The problem I have is:
I can’t see how to launch/boot CML ( i.e. cml.qcow2 file) properly as you can see, I’m stuck at this very early stage:

My assumption for this not booting is, due to missing configurations inside the cml2_2.8.0-6_amd64-32_SHA256.ovf file.

.rw-r--r--@ 2.7G qemu    1 Nov 14:10 cml.qcow2
.rw-r--r--@ 1.1G pranav  1 Nov 10:06 cml2_2.8.0-6_amd64-32_SHA256-disk1.vmdk
.rw-r--r--@ 271k pranav  1 Nov 10:06 cml2_2.8.0-6_amd64-32_SHA256-file1.nvram
.rw-r--r--@ 3.7k pranav  1 Nov 10:06 cml2_2.8.0-6_amd64-32_SHA256.cert
.rw-r--r--@  336 pranav  1 Nov 10:06 cml2_2.8.0-6_amd64-32_SHA256.mf
.rw-r--r--@ 9.4k pranav  1 Nov 10:06 cml2_2.8.0-6_amd64-32_SHA256.ovf

If only we could create “qcow2” image with the configurations/parameters that are mentioned inside cml.ovf file. I think there are commands like varish, virt-manager, etc which allow this. But I don’t know.

Any suggestions/tips/recommendations are welcomed.

[keliang8576 (Ke Liang)]

@bond

qemu-kvm convert

Wow, thank you for giving me suggestions.
Since there is a limited number of pictures I can upload to fedora discussion, I considered the convenience of using Google Drive for storing pictures that are used to demonstrate how to install CML.
I will take posting new discussion on “Cisco Modeling Labs - Personal Community” into consideration in the future.

[ CML ova file method]
I tried using qemu-img to covert the vmdk file to qcow2 file and booted into “CML Initial System Configuration process” successfully.

I extracted the ova file named “cml2_p_2.8.0-6_amd64-32.ova”.

tar -xvf cml2_p_2.8.0-6_amd64-32.ova

And I got several files that include “cml2_2.8.0-6_amd64-32_SHA256-disk1.vmdk”.

Then, I use qemu-img to convert the vmdk file.

qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O qcow2 cml2_2.8.0-6_amd64-32_SHA256-disk1.vmdk ubuntu24.04.qcow2

I imported the qcow2 file and added “refplat-20241016-fcs.iso” as a CDROM like I did on the tutorial.

I changed the CDROM to boot first.
Note: You don’t need to checked the “Enable boot menu” option.

And I did some configuration like the pictures I posted.

Thank you for telling me another method of importing VMs.

[bond (James bond)]

I imported the qcow2 file and added “refplat-20241016-fcs.iso” as a CDROM like I did on the tutorial

Among the 4 files seen in the picture below, which file do I have to download to get “refplat-20241016-fcs.iso” ? I can’t seem to find iso with that name.

Maybe attaching that iso will fix my booting issue.

[keliang8576 (Ke Liang)]

Try this one. Extract it.