Cisco Catalyst 8000V Edge Software Installation And Configuration Guide

Deploy the VM Using COT

Updated: April 24, 2026

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Overview

Edit the basic properties of the VM

Edit the custom properties of the VM

Command references for deploying OVA using COT

cot edit-properties
cot inject-config

Overview

Specifies the steps to deploy the Cisco Catalyst 8000V VM by using the Common OVF Tool.

To deploy the Cisco Catalyst 8000V VM, use the cotdeploy...esxi command. Note that the command description provided in this task offers a general guidance. The exact steps may vary depending on your VMware environment and setup.

Procedure

Run the cotdeploy...esxi command to deploy the Cisco Catalyst 8000V. The script options are described at: http://cot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/usage_deploy_esxi.html.

Note

The default values may vary depending on the Cisco Catalyst 8000V version.

Edit the basic properties of the VM

Perform these steps to edit the basic properties of the Cisco Catalyst 8000V VM using COT.

Before you begin

Download and install the COT libraries and script. For instructions, refer to the GitHub site at http://cot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation.html.

Procedure

To edit the basic properties of the OVA, use the cot edit-properties command.

Example:

cot edit-properties

-p key1 = value1 , --properties key1 = value1

This command sets properties using key value pairs. For Example, -p "login-username=cisco" sets the login username using a key value pair.

Here, -o output specifies the name or the path to a new OVA package if you are creating a new OVA instead of updating the existing OVA.

Add additional arguments to the cot edit-properties command, if required.

This table specifies the cot edit-properties arguments that can be used to edit the basic properties of the VM.


Script step	Description
`cot edit propertie s c8000v-universalk9.ova`	Edits the basic environment properties of the OVA file.
`-p "login-username=cisco"`	Sets the bootstrap login username.
`-p "login-password=cisco"`	Sets the bootstrap login password.
`-o "c8000v-universalk9-customized.ova"`	Saves a modified OVA that contains configuration commands from the text file.

For more information on the cot edit-properties command, see: http://cot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/usage_edit_properties.html.


cot edit-properties c8000v-universalk9.ova
-p "login-username=cisco" 
  
-p "login-password=cisco" 
-o c8000v-universalk9-customized.ova 
\# save modifications to a new OVA
cot info c8000v-universalk9-customized.ova
  # verify the new values of properties in the OVA
(...)
Properties:
  <config-version>                                        "1.0"
  Router Name                                             ""
  Login Username                                          "cisco"
  Login Password                                          "cisco"
  Management Interface                                    "GigabitEthernet1"
  Management VLAN                                         ""
  Management Interface IPv4 Address/Mask                  ""

Edit the custom properties of the VM

You can add custom properties to your Cisco Catalyst 8000V instance based on the Cisco IOS XE CLI commands using the vSphere GUI. You can add these properties either before or after you boot the Cisco Catalyst 8000V instance. If you set these custom properties after you boot the Cisco Catalyst 8000V instance, you must reload the router or power-cycle the VM for the properties settings to take effect.

To edit the vApp options to add the custom Cisco Catalyst 8000V properties, perform these steps.

Procedure

	1.	In the vSphere GUI, choose the Options tab.
	2.	Choose vApp Options > Advanced.
	3.	In the Advanced Property Configuration window, click Properties.
	4.	Click New to add a property.
	5.	In the Edit Property Settings window, enter the required information to create a new custom property based on the appropriate Cisco IOS XE CLI command. Note Before adding a custom property, make sure that the Cisco IOS XE command upon which it is based is supported for your Cisco Catalyst 8000V version. Enter the label. This is a descriptive string for the property. Enter the `com.cisco.c8000v` option in the Class ID field. Assign the property an ID of "ios-config-xxxx." Here, xxxx is a sequence number from 0001 to 9999 that determines the order in which the custom properties are applied. Enter a description for the property. Enter the property type as “string”. This is the only type supported. Enter the default value as the Cisco IOS XE CLI command the custom property is based on.
	6.	Click OK.
	7.	In the Advanced Property Configuration window, click OK.
	8.	Reboot the Cisco Catalyst 8000V instance. You must reboot the router for the new or edited properties to take effect.

Command references for deploying OVA using COT

This section describes the COT commands and scripts that are commonly used for deploying Cisco Catalyst 8000V using COT.

cot edit-properties

This command is part of COT and lets you configure or modify the properties within the OVA file. Use the cot edit-properties command to pre-apply a small number of configuration commands to the OVA.

cot edit-properties ova-filename

Here, -o output specifies the name or path to a new OVA package, if you are creating a new OVA instead of updating the existing OVA.

-c config-file specifies the name of a text file containing IOS XE commands to be added to the OVA.

In this example, a previously created text file, iosxe_config.txt, containing the appropriate IOS XE configuration commands, is added to the OVA deployment using the cot edit-properties command.


$ cat iosxe_config.txt
  
interface GigabitEthernet1
no shutdown
ip address 192.168.100.10 255.255.255.0
!
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 GigabitEthernet1 192.168.100.1
$ cot edit-properties c8000v-universalk9.ova \
     -o c8000v-universalk9-customized.ova \
     -c iosxe_config.txt
$ cot info c8000v-universalk9-customized.ova

The cot info command is used to show the modified OVA.


Properties:
  <config-version>              "1.0"
  Router Name                   ""

...


  Intercloud Tunnel Interface Gateway IPv4 Address   ""
  <ios-config-0001>             "interface GigabitEthernet1"
  <ios-config-0002>             "no shutdown"
  <ios-config-0003>             "ip address 192.168.100.10 255.255.255.0"
  <ios-config-0004>             "ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 GigabitEthernet1 192.168.100.1"

This table specifies the command and arguments used in the example.


Script step	Description
`cot edit properties c8000v-universalk9.ova`	Edits the custom environment properties of the OVA file.
`-o "c8000v-universalk9-customized.ova"`	Creates a new OVA containing configuration commands from the text file.
`-c iosxe_config.txt`	The text file that contains IOS XE configuration commands. Each line of configuration in this file results in an entry such as com.cisco.productname.ios-config-xxxx in the XML of the OVA.

cot inject-config

The cot inject-config command is used in COT to embed one or more bootstrap configuration files into the OVA package.

Use the cot inject-config commandto pre-apply a large set of configuration commands to the OVA, for example, a complete running configuration. This method is efficient for file size and loading time, because it uses plain text for configuration commands rather than XML.

For more information about the cot inject-config command, see http://cot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/usage_inject_config.html

cot inject-config ova-filename

Here, -o output specifies the name or path to a new OVA package if you are creating a new OVA instead of updating the existing OVA.

-c config-file specifies the name of a text file, such as iosxe_config.txt to be embedded in the OVA.

In this example, the cot inject-config command adds Cisco IOS XE commands in text file iosxe_config.txt to the OVA.


$ cat iosxe_config.txt  
interface GigabitEthernet1
no shutdown
ip address 192.168.100.10 255.255.255.0
!
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 GigabitEthernet1 192.168.100.1
$ cot inject-config c8000v-universalk9.ova \
     
 -o c8000v-universalk9-customized.ova \
      -c iosxe_config.txt
$ cot info c8000v-universalk9-customized.ova

<.. other output snipped for brevity ..>


Files and Disks:                       File Size  Capacity Device
                                       --------- --------- --------------------
  c8000v_harddisk.vmdk                71.50 kB   8.00 GB harddisk @ SCSI 0:0
  bdeo.sh                               52.42 kB           
  README-OVF.txt                         8.53 kB           
  README-BDEO.txt                        6.75 kB           
  cot.tgz                              116.78 kB           
  c8000v-universalk9.iso             484.80 MB           cdrom @ IDE 1:0
  config.iso                           350.00 kB           cdrom @ IDE 1:1

This table specifies the cot inject-config command and arguments used in the example.


Script step	Description
`cot inject-config c8000v-universalk9.ova`	Edits the custom environment properties of the OVA file.
`-o "c8000v-universalk9-customized.ova"`	Specifies the name of the new or modified OVA that contains the configuration commands from the text file.
`-c iosxe_config.txt`	The name of the text file that contains the IOS XE configuration commands.

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