Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Onboarding Guide, Releases 26.x and Later

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Cisco SD-WAN Manager VM Instance on KVM

Updated: July 7, 2026

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Explains how to create a Cisco SD-WAN Manager virtual machine (VM) instance on a server running the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor.

A VM instance is a virtualized server environment that

  • runs Cisco SD-WAN Manager on a server with hypervisor software

  • enables deployment on Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) or VMware vSphere ESXi hypervisors, and

  • requires specific server hardware and configuration steps.

Server requirements for VM instances

For server requirements, see Server Hardware Requirements.

Create a VM instance for Cisco SD-WAN Manager on the KVM hypervisor

Follow these steps to create a Cisco SD-WAN Manager VM instance on the KVM hypervisor:

Procedure

1.

Launch the Virtual Machine Manager client application.

The system displays the Virtual Machine Manager screen.
2.

Click New to deploy the virtual machine.

The Create a new virtual machine screen opens.
3.

Enter the name of the virtual machine.

  • Select Import existing disk image radio button.

  • Click Forward. The virtual disk is imported and associated to the VM instance you are creating.
4.

Provide the existing storage path and click Browse to locate the Cisco SD-WAN Manager software image.

  • In the OS Type field, select Linux.

  • In the Version field, select the Linux version that you are running.

  • Click Forward.
5.

Specify Memory and CPU based on your network topology and number of sites, then click Forward.
6.

Select Customize configuration before install, and click Finish.
7.

Select Disk 1 in the left navigation bar.

  • Click Advanced Options.

  • In the Disk Bus field, choose IDE (Cisco vManage Release 20.3.1, choose SCSI).

  • In the Storage Format field, choose qcow2.

  • Click Apply to create the VM instance with the parameters you defined. By default, this VM instance includes one vNIC, which is used for the tunnel interface.

Note

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN supports only VMXNET3 vNICs.
8.

In the Cisco SD-WAN Manager Virtual Machine window, click Add Hardware to add a new virtual disk for the Cisco SD-WAN Manager database.
9.

In the Add New Virtual Hardware screen, specify the following for the new virtual disk:

  • In Create a disk image on the computer's hard drive, specify the disk capacity for the Cisco SD-WAN Manager database to be 100GB.

  • In the Device Type field, specify IDE disk (Cisco vManage Release 20.3.1, specify SCSI disk) for the virtual storage.

  • In the Storage Format field, specify qcow2.

  • Click Finish to complete the creation of a new virtual disk with a capacity of 100 GB.
10.

In the Cisco SD-WAN Manager Virtual Machine screen, click Add Hardware to add another vNIC for the management interface.
11.

In the Add New Virtual Hardware screen, click Network.

  • In the Host Device field, select an appropriate host device.

  • Click Finish.

The newly created vNIC is listed in the left pane. This vNIC is used for the management interface.
12.

If the Cisco SD-WAN Manager instance is a part of a cluster, repeat Steps 10 and 11 to create a third vNIC for the Message Bus.
13.

In the Cisco SD-WAN Manager Virtual Machine screen, click Begin Installation.
14.

The system creates the virtual machine instance and displays the Cisco SD-WAN Manager console.
15.

At the login prompt, log in with the default username admin and default password admin.

The system prompts you to select the storage device to use.
16.

Select hdc, which is the new partition added for the Cisco SD-WAN Manager database.
17.

Confirm that you want to format the new partition hdc.

The system reboots and displays the Cisco SD-WAN Manager instance.
18.

To create a Cisco SD-WAN Manager cluster, repeat Steps 1 through 17 to create a VM for each Cisco SD-WAN Manager instance.

Connect to a Cisco SD-WAN manager instance

This task enables you to configure an IP address on the Cisco SD-WAN Manager instance, allowing you to connect to it using a web browser for further management and configuration.

Follow these steps to connect to a Cisco SD-WAN Manager instance:

Procedure

1.

Log in with the default username and password.

Example:

Login: admin password: admin #
2.

Configure an IP address on interface eth0 in VPN 512 and add a default route if necessary.

Example:

# config 
(config)# vpn 512 
(config)# ip route prefix/length next-hop-ip-address 
(config-vpn-512)# interface  eth0
(config-interface-eth0)# ip address ip-address 
(config-interface-eth0)# no shutdown 
(config-interface-eth0)# command and-quit 
#

Specify an IP address that is reachable on your network to ensure connectivity.
3.

Connect to the Cisco SD-WAN Manager instance using a web browser.

Example:

https://ip-address:8443/
4.

Log in with the username admin and the password admin.

You can now access the Cisco SD-WAN Manager instance through your web browser and proceed with further configuration.

What to do next

After connecting, a guided task flow assists you through the essential configurations for new deployments. For more information, see First Time Settings on Cisco SD-WAN Manager.