Cisco Catalyst 8000V Edge Software Installation And Configuration Guide

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Install Cisco Catalyst 8000V in OpenStack Environment

Updated: March 5, 2026

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Overview

Provides information on Cisco Catalyst 8000V installation in OpenStack through the OpenStack dashboard GUI, a Heat template, or the OpenStack command-line interface.

An OpenStack environment is a cloud computing infrastructure platform that

  • virtualizes and manages physical data center resources, such as compute, storage, and networking,

  • supports deployment of private and public clouds to provide users on-demand access to resources, and

  • enables management, scaling, and automation of virtual machines and services.

Cisco Catalyst 8000V and OpenStack

OpenStack works with Cisco Catalyst 8000V by:

  • providing a cloud infrastructure to host it as a virtual machine (VM), and

  • managing the underlying physical hardware resources and using virtualization to create the virtual machine that the Cisco Catalyst 8000V software runs on.

Install and boot Cisco Catalyst 8000V on OpenStack Train, starting with Cisco IOS XE Release 17.7.1. OpenStack Train is the 20th version of the open-source cloud infrastructure software and acts as a hypervisor manager. Manage this deployment through the OpenStack dashboard through the GUI, a Heat template, or the OpenStack command-line interface (CLI).

See the sections in this chapter to view the installation workflows for each of these methods.

Features supported

This list provides the features that are supported in the Cisco Catalyst 8000V installation in OpenStack:

  • IPv6

  • CDNA Licensing model

  • vNIC hot add and delete in the autonomous mode

Installation requirements

The requirements for installing Cisco Catalyst 8000V in OpenStack are

  • OpenStack Release: Train Release

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Release 8.2 (Ootpa)

  • RHEL OSP version 16.1 (Train)

  • CVIM version 4.2

  • Virtual disk: 8-GB and 16-GB virtual disks

  • Minimum supported profile: 1 vCPU with 4-GB memory and 8-GB or 16-GB virtual disk

Restrictions for installing in OpenStack

See this list for the restrictions and limitations that are applicable when installing Cisco Catalyst 8000V in OpenStack.

  • Console URLs generated by OpenStack heat-deployments are subject to a token time-to-live (TTL) with a default setting of 10 minutes. Any NoVNC URLs that you use expire after this default time. This expiration can occur more quickly under certain conditions, such as when booting up low-profile instances or when using different setups.

    To overcome this limitation, use the built-in Instance VNC console in the portal. Or, use the virsh console command on the compute node to access the console.

Installing Cisco Catalyst 8000V in OpenStack

When you install Cisco Catalyst 8000V in OpenStack, OpenStack provides a cloud infrastructure to host Cisco Catalyst 8000V as a virtual machine (VM).

Summary

The components in this installation are:

  • OpenStack: this open-source cloud platform manages a pool of computing, storaging, and network resources.

  • Virtualization layer: OpenStack relies on virtualization technologies to create a virtual machine (VM) environment from the physical hardware.

  • Cisco Catalyst 8000V: the virtual router operates when OpenStack supplies virtualized hardware resources such as CPU, memory, and network interfaces.

Workflow

You can install Cisco Catalyst 8000V by using:

Install the VM by using the GUI

Perform these steps if you want to create a VM in OpenStack by using the GUI. You can access the dashboard after deployment when you use this installation method.

Procedure

1.

On the OpenStack portal, click Images, and choose the image that you want to launch.

Alternatively, you can also click Instances and then Launch Instance.
2.

In the left pane, click Details and specify these details:

  • Instance Name: Enter a name for your instance.

  • Description: Enter a description for your instance. This field is optional.

  • Availability Zone: This field specifies the logical partitioning of the cloud. Enter Nova in this field.

  • Count: Enter the number of instances that you want to create. Increase the count to create multiple instances with the same settings.
3.

Click Next, and click Source from the left pane.
4.

In the left pane, click Source and configure these settings.

  1. From the Select Boot Source drop-down field, choose either Image, Instance Snapshot, Volume, or Volume Snapshot.

    The Source option specifies the template used to create an instance. You can use an image, a snapshot of an instance (image snapshot), a volume, or a volume snapshot (if enabled). You can also choose to use persistent storage by creating a new volume.

  1. To delete the Volume when you delete the instance, from the Delete Volume on Instance Delete field, choose Yes.
5.

In the left pane, click Flavor. Choose an option based on your memory and storage requirements and click Next.
6.

In the left pane, click Networks and choose a network to connect the Cisco Catalyst 8000V VM with the servers in that network. This option is also required if you want to set up a topology.

Note

You can use the Network Ports drop-down list and choose a NIC if you want to select an SRIOV port to be attached to the VM.
7.

In the left pane, click Security Groups and choose the security groups to launch your instance in. A default security group is also available.
8.

In the left pane, click Configuration and perform these actions:

  1. Copy and paste the user data in the Customization Script field.

    The following is a sample user data configuration script:

    hostname c8kv-ios_cfg
                        license smart enable
                        username lab privilege 15 secret lab
                        ip domain-name cisco.com
                        interface GigabitEthernet1
                        ip address 10.0.0.5 255.255.255.0
                        no shut
                        exit
                        ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.0.0.1
                        line vty 0 4
                        login local
                        exit

  2. Alternatively, you can upload an XML file or the iosxe_config.txt file to provide user data or configuration data. Click Choose File and browse to your XML or .txt file.

    Note

    For detailed information on configuring day zero settings, see Day 0 Configuration.

  3. Select the Configuration Drive check box, and click Next.
9.

Click Launch Instance to launch your instance.

Note

You must copy the ciscosdwan_cloud_init.cfg file to bootflash when you switch from the autonomous mode to the controller mode.

Install the VM using a Heat template

Perform this task to install the OpenStack VM using a Heat template.

Heat templates in OpenStack allows you to create OpenStack resources such as instances, volumes, security groups. This template specifies the infrastructure for your cloud application in the form of text files and enables you to automate the deployment of infrastructure, services, and applications.

Procedure

1.

Log in to the OpenStack portal.
2.

From the menu options on top, click Project.
3.

Click Orchestration and select Stack.
4.

In the Stacks window, click Launch Stack .
5.

From the Template Source drop-down list, choose File, URL, or Direct Input, based on how you want to provide the template and click Next.

If you chose the File option, click the Choose File option, browse to the location where you have saved your template file, upload this file.
6.

In the Stack Name field, specify the name for the stack.
7.

To enable rollback, select the Rollback on Failure check box.
8.

Enter a password for the admin in the Password for user “admin” field.
9.

Click Launch.

After the launch is complete, in the Stacks window, the system displays a Create Complete message in the Status column.