Cisco Catalyst 8000V Edge Software Installation And Configuration Guide

PDF

Create the VM Using CLI

Updated: March 5, 2026

Want to summarize with AI?

Log in

Overview

Specifies the steps to create the Cisco Catalyst 8000V VM using command line interface.

Before you begin

  • Download and install the virt-install RPM package on the KVM server.

  • Download the .qcow2 image from the Cisco Catalyst 8000V software installation image package. Then copy the file to a local device or network device.

Procedure

1.

To create the VM for a .qcow2 image, use the virt-install command.

Creates a new VM instance and starts the instance.

Example:


                        virt-install                    \
                        --connect=qemu:///system   \
                        --name=my_c8kv_vm           \
                        --os-type=linux            \
                        --os-variant=rhel4         \
                        --arch=x86_64              \
                        --cpu host                 \
                        --vcpus=1,sockets=1,cores=1,threads=1   \
                        --hvm                      \
                        --ram=4096                 \
                        --import                   \
                        --disk path=<path_to_c8000v_qcow2>,bus=ide,format=qcow2   \
                        --network bridge=virbr0,model=virtio                        \
                        --noreboot
2.

To create the VM, for a .iso image, perform these steps:

  1. Run the qemu-img command.

    Creates an 8G disk image in the .qcow2 format.

    Example:

    
                                qemu-img create -f qcow2 c8000v_disk.qcow2 8G

  2. Run the virt-install command.

    Creates a new VM instance. Cisco Catalyst 8000V installs the image onto the specified disk file after this command is executed. This command requires the correct permissions for the VM to be created.

    Example:

    
                                virt-install               \
                                --connect=qemu:///system  \
                                --name=my_c8000v_vm          \
                                --description "Test VM"   \
                                --os-type=linux           \
                                --os-variant=rhel4        \
                                --arch=x86_64             \
                                --cpu host                \
                                --vcpus=1,sockets=1,cores=1,threads=1    \
                                --hvm                     \
                                --ram=4096                \
                                --cdrom=<path_to_c8000v_iso>           \
                                --disk path=c8000v_disk.qcow2,bus=virtio,size=8,sparse=false,cache=none,format=qcow2   \
                                --network bridge=virbr0,model=virtio     \
                                --noreboot

    This sample configuration creates a 1 vCPU VM with 4G of RAM having one network interface and one serial port.
3.

To provide the Day 0 configuration through the c8000v_config.iso disk image, add an additional parameter to the virt-install command.

Example:

virt-install --disk path=/my/path/c8000v_config.iso,device=cdrom,bus=ide

For more information, see Day 0 Configuration.
4.

After the installation is complete, the Cisco Catalyst 8000V VM shuts down. Run the virshstart command to start the VM.

Note

Due to this issue specific to RHEL, when you launch Cisco Catalyst 8000V in a RHEL environment by using the virt-install command, set the host mode based on the RHEL version.

  • For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, use --cpu host .

  • For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, use --cpu host-model .