Virtual Environments¶
Infix primarily targets real hardware, deployment to the cloud is not a
priority at the moment. However, for development and testing purposes
there is an x86_64 build that runs in Qemu.
These images also work with the Graphical Network Simulator (GNS3), which is a very user-friendly tool for playing around with simple to complex network setups, verifying interoperability between vendors, etc.
QEMU¶
Tip
Installation for Debian/Ubuntu based systems can be done by "simply": sudo apt install virt-manager -- dependencies ensure the relevant Qemu packages are pulled in as well. This trick, installing virt-manager, helps set up Qemu networking on your system.
A virtualized Infix x86_64 instance can be launched from a Linux system, with Qemu installed, by issuing:
from an unpacked release tarball. From a built source tree of Infix the same functionality is bundled as:
To change settings, e.g. networking, RAM, or number of interfaces, use
make run-menuconfig from a built source tree. The same
functionality is available from a release tarball as the optional -c
argument: ./qemu/run.sh -c brings up a menuconfig dialog, select
Exit and save the changes, then start Qemu as usual.
Note
The -c option requires the kconfig-frontends package, on
Debian/Ubuntu systems: sudo apt install kconfig-frontends
The Infix test suite is built around Qemu and Qeneth, see:
GNS3¶
The Infix appliance is available directly from the GNS3 Marketplace --
release tarballs no longer include a .gns3a file. To install it,
open GNS3 and go to File → New Template, select Install an appliance from
the GNS3 server, and search for Infix. When asked for a disk image, click
Download to fetch it directly, or point GNS3 to a .qcow2 file downloaded
from the releases page.
Infix is in the "Router" category, it comes with 10 interfaces available by default for use as switch ports or routing.
For a complete walk-through, from installing GNS3 to building and verifying your first topology, see the blog post Infix in GNS3.