Pipo e2H - Advanced ICT Solutions Jose Luis Gomez Ferrer de Couto - CEC, ACE, VSP, VTSP

Installing Vyatta Open Networking - The open source alternative to Cisco

Vyatta is an open source solution for routing and security with outstanding performance. It is available in software and appliance, being able to be used even in virtual machines. The open source version has the same functionality as commercial as the only difference in all these products is that the paid version have support from the company.

Vyatta provides the following services at the highest performance:

• Advanced Routing: IPv4, IPv6, BGP, OSPF, RIP, VRRP, 802.1Q and many more.
• Security: Firewall, IPSec VPN, IDS, SSL VPN, URL Filtering and more.
• Performance Optimizer: QoS, WAN balancer, grouping of links and much more.

In this article we will install Vyatta on a virtual machine, which run with the VMware Player. This method is useful to enhance laboratories and in our case, but we have templates available on the website of Vyatta for our environment Citrix XenServer and VMware virtualization vSphere.

The steps in this article will be:

1. Download Vyatta from the official site.
2. Create a virtual machine with VMware Player.
3. Install Vyatta on the VM.
4. Basic Settings.
5. Testing the solution.

Download Vyatta from the official site

The first step we're going to do is download the ISO image of the product, therefore we went to the official site . From the homepage you click on the Download section and then go down the ISO image. We could also choose the image for VMware and tear on our VMware Player but the article is based on a standard installation, valid for any hardware.

Create a virtual machine with VMware Player

Once you have downloaded the ISO image, we create a VM on VMware Player, this will require that we have version 3 of the product, otherwise we can visit EasyVMX and create us a VM where you can download with a size of few KB.

We start our VMware Player 3 and we click the option Create a New Virtual Machine.

Then select the option Installer disc image file (iso) and click on the button Browse ... to choose our downloaded image. Warns us that it has identified the operating system that stores the image, saying that we choose later. When you check the options and choose the image you click the Next button.

We chose the Linux operating system and version Other Linux 2.6.x kernel, and we click the Next button.

We introduce the virtual machine name, in our case Vyatta and where we want to store. After entering the options we click the Next button.

In the next step we decided to allocate storage to the virtual machine. Vyatta requires at least 1 GB in our case we will create a 2 GB disk in the future if we are installing new services. After entering the storage we click the Next button.

Finally we will parameterize the virtual machine by removing unnecessary components, for this we click the Customize button Hardware ...

Remove the drive, the USB driver and sound card, for this mark and you click the Remove button.

On removal of these components we click the OK button and then Finish. Our virtual machine will start its boot until you reach the screen where you enter the login credentials.

Install Vyatta on the virtual machine

The steps we will follow below, are fully valid for installation on any hardware.

The first thing to do is log in our Vyatta, to this end we introduce the root user and password Vyatta.

The following is to launch the install command to install-system you type it and press the enter key. NOTE: The keyboard is in English.

Then an installation wizard starts where the first question is whether we want to install, by default Yes option is selected, press the Enter key to continue.

Check if we have stored, the finding gives us the option to choose how to partition the storage, by default Auto option appears selected, so press the enter key to continue. Note: we can see the previous comment about the minimum storage is 1 GB.

The following shows the size of the detected disk and allows us to select which disk to install, if we had more than one show us, in our case as we only have one and which is selected (sda) press the enter key to continue .

We see a warning message saying that you will lose all data on disk, to continue YES key and press the enter key.

In this step we introduce the root partition size, as we know at least 1 GB, we we type 1000 to leave the rest open and press the enter key.

He then encountered a configuration file and asks if you want to copy it, leave it default and press the enter key.

We asked if we wanted to create a password for the user of the system, by default appears to yes, get that dough, and press the enter key.

We introduce the root user password and confirming them Vyatta.

We reported the need to install a boot loader such as GRUB, we appear by default the disk where you have installed. Press the enter key to continue.

Finish the installation, now just reboot the virtual machine by typing reboot and press the enter key. We appear to confirm, press the enter key.

Basic Configuration

Before setup, disconnect the ISO image, you click on the icon below shaped cd and choose Disconnect.

The configuration of our Vyatta always with the user will Vyatta, to begin meeting began with him entering the credentials created during installation.

To display all available commands will appear twice and tabulated.

To parameterize our Vyatta need to enter the mode configuration, so you type configure and press the enter key.

The next step is to configure an IP address to help administer it, we're going to use DHCP, but is the same sentence, but instead of writing the word DHCP, we introduce the IP / Mask. This set key interfaces ethernet eth0 dhcp address and press the enter key.

Then configure SSH and HTTPS services, for this type commands September ssh service and set service https and press the enter key.

To save the changes you type, then we commit the configuration mode by typing exit and pressing enter.

To display the IP configuration of the ethernet interface you type the command show interfaces ethernet eth0 and press enter.

Testing the solution

Finally we will test both SSH and HTTPS access. The first step will be to use a putty SSH client and enter the IP address 192.168.17.128 and found to have user logins with Vyatta.

And for HTTPS access open our browser and type https: / / 192.168.17.128, we must accept the notice of the certificate and enter user credentials Vyatta.

About José Luis Gómez Ferrer de Couto

ICT Manager Solutions Soltel