Cumulus Linux in a Virtual Environment
Cumulus Linux in a virtual environment enables you to become familiar NVIDIA networking technology, learn and test Cumulus Linux in your own environment, and create a digital twin of your IT infrastructure to validate configurations, features, and automation code.
Virtual Environments
NVIDIA provides these virtual environments:
- NVIDIA Air is a cloud hosted platform that works exactly like a real world production deployment. NVIDIA AIR provides pre-built demos using the reference topology. You can also build your own reference topology and configurations. See NVIDIA Air User Guide.
- Cumulus VX is a free virtual appliance with the Cumulus Linux operating system. You can install Cumulus VX on a supported hypervisor and configure the VMs with the reference topology or create your own topology. See Cumulus VX.
Cumulus Linux in a virtual environment contains the same Cumulus Linux operating system as NVIDIA Ethernet switches and contains the same software features. You have the full data plane functionality through the Linux kernel, as well as layer 2 VLANs and both VXLAN bridging and VXLAN routing capabilities.
Unsupported Features in a Virtual Environment
Due to hardware specific implementations, virtual environments do not support certain Cumulus Linux features.
| Feature | Supported in a Virtual Environment |
|---|---|
| ACL configuration with the cl-acltool command | No |
| In Service System Upgrade - ISSU | No |
| Precision Time Protocol - PTP | No |
| Port Security | No |
| SPAN and ERSPAN | No |
| Temperature and sensor outputs | Artificial temperature and sensor outputs for simulation. |
| Packet marking and remarking | No |
| QoS buffer management and buffer monitoring | No |
| QoS shaping | No |
| What Just Happened (WJH) | No |
| Network Address Translation - NAT | No |
| Adaptive Routing | No |
| Storm control | No |