There have been a small number of posts both here and in the support community about the change between the 7.3 family of OnTap simulators and those for 8.1.1. The delivery model changed from being one where you install the simulator on a Linux system (easily setup on any virtualization platform you have) to the model in 8.1.1 Simulator where you download a full virtual machine image designed for use in a VMWare environment only.
Many people will have access to one of the paid options (VMWare Workstation/Fusions/ESX) or can use the free VMWare Player on Windows. But, for those that need alternatives such as on a Linux or Solaris host platform or something free on a Mac, here are instructions to setup 8.1.1 Simulator on VirtualBox.
Disclaimer: to date I have only tested this on a single Windows platform. Specifically, I tested this on a 32 bit Windows 7 host (but on 64 bit capable hardware). Basic setup and general operations seem normally functional, though I have not delved into all the possibilities that OnTap offers. The 7-mode simulator is the one on which I did most checkouts since this is what I need to make available to other team members where I work. I have done minimal setup only on cluster mode. None of this is technically supported by NetApp, and your mileage may vary.
Test environment: Dell laptop, 3GB RAM running Windows 7 SP1 32 bit; VirtualBox 4.2.4r81684; Simulate OnTap 8.1.1. As per the VirtualBox documentation, you will need a 64 bit processor with virtualization enhancements enabled even if the host OS is 32 bit.
Setup (assumes basic familiarity with VirtualBox)
1. Download and install VirtualBox. I just used defaults for setup.
2. Download the 8.1.1 simulator. Extract the files somewhere that you want them to be.
3. Create a new Virtual Machine with OS type BSD, version FreeBSD (64 bit). Memory required is 1600MB. Don't select a virtual hard drive now, we need to select a bunch later. Save the new machine.
4. Open the Settings for the new VM. On the System page, Processor tab, set CPU to 2
5. On the Storage path, delete the CDROM from the IDE controller. Then, add 4 virtual hard disks to the controller. For each disk, you will choose an existing disk. The disks you will add, in order, are "DataONTAP.vmdk", "DataONTAP-var.vmdk", "DataONTAP-nvram.vmdk", and "DataONTAP-sim.vmdk". Finally, add a Floppy controller with a single, empty floppy drive. When complete, the storage setup for your new virtual machine should look like:
6. On the audio page, uncheck "Enable Audio".
7. On the network page, you can add up to 4 network adapters in any style that you choose - host only, bridged, internal, NAT. This provides a bit more choice than available through VMWare Player. Having some NICs of each type certainly can setup some interesting possibilities for multiple simulators. For each NIC you add, expand the "Advanced" section for the NIC and select "Intel PRO/1000 MT Server (82545EM)" as the adapter type. The Simulator virtual machine only has drivers for this emulated NIC type. A sample NIC setup would look like:
8. The default setup of the VMWare virtual machine attaches a local Windows pipe as a conduit to each of two serial ports - one for the "console" and one for debugging. You can enable serial ports and redirect, but it is not required.
9. On the USB page, uncheck "Enable USB Controller".
10. On the Shared Folders page, no shared folders need be created.
11. Save the virtual machine.
12. Be sure you have 1600MB real free memory to start the guest or it will fail during startup at some point.
13. Start the virtual machine.
14. During the 10 second countdown, click in the VM and press any key that is NOT Enter to stop the boot.
15. Update the environment to not start the VMWare tools with command "setenv bootarg.vm.run_vmtools false"
16. If you are installing a 2nd simulator this is a great time to update the serial number as per the documentation as well.
17. Enter command "boot" to continue with the startup of Data OnTAP.
18. When the "Press Cntrl-C for menu" appears, press Cntrl-C and wait for the boot menu. This first boot can take a little bit to happen depending on your hosting platform.
19. On the boot menu, select option 4 and confirm clearing all disks and deleting all data.
20. The Simulator will restart - let it proceed normally. After restoring a fresh Data OnTAP from the simulated media you will eventually get the prompts for standard setup of a new Filer.
Enjoy!
Dean,
I just managed to get my cDOT 8.1.2 sim working on Virtualbox 4.2.10.
I first tried to use the VMWare ovftool 3.0 to convert the dataONTAP.vmx converted into an OVF format. Conversion works, but the import not.
When importing, the disk images seem corrupt, or keep complaining that
So I've used Bob's step by step plan (the first posting in this thread), combined my previous experience to convert/import version 8.0 into Virtualbox.
1. I downloaded the player/workstation version of the sim_8.1.2, and unzipped it into a folder.
2. I started the creation of a new VM, cDOT, FreBSD (64bit) with 1600MB and 2 CPUs
3. Do not create a hard disk,
4. but point to the existing vmdk disks:
DataONTAP.vmdk > connected to IDE primary master > normal, 1.03 GB
DataONTAP-var.vmdk > connected to IDE primary slave > normal, 1,51 GB
DataONTAP-nvram.vmdk > connected to IDE secundary master > normal 5,00 GB
DataONTAP-sim.vmdk (this is the disk that is split up into several parts, but you'll find a DataONTAP-sim.vmdk beneath all these S001 to S0xx.vmdks) > connected to IDE sec slave > normal, 250 GB)
5. it is crucial to add the floppy controller, AND add the empty floppy device 0, otherwise, the system will not find the correct boot device(s). And remove the cdrom device.
As of step 6, I followed all steps Bob used, and my vsim booted without problems.
I'm now able to use OC System Manager 2.x from within another W2K8 Virtual Machine and my Lenovo host laptop to configure it further.
I have not yet tried cDOT with 2 sims yet. To be continued !
Good luck !
Johan
Hi,
I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to get the 8.2 cmode vsim running under virtualbox under WIndows 7 (64 bit) on both AMD and Intel.
I've followed the excellent instructions from this thread, and tried both versions (esx & vmware workstation). I'm confident the setup is as it should be:
The sim boots and runs, but never seems to initialise properly following option 4 on the boot menu, returning an error saying the rootvol is not up:
If run within VMWare player, eveything appears to run as it should and I am taken to the cluster setup.
Please ignore the error about VMWare tools - this is the only occasion when I haven't disabled them, and it makes no difference to the outcome.
Any clues as to what I might have done wrong gratefully accepted. If there's a way forward from this point, I'm happy to try.
I have managed to get the 8.1 vsim running to the point of cluster setup in virtualbox. I then mounted up the cfcard vmdx, unpacked 821RC1_q_software_image.tgz into .../image2, and booted into it at which point I got plenty of messages related to an upgrade, all of which seemed to indicate success, apart from when it was all finished. I eventually rebooted, chose option 4 (wipe) from the boot menu, and (eventually) ended up with the same error message re the rootvol. This seems to be related to not being able to untar the mroot into an appropirate destination...
Thanks
Can anybody help me on this ?
After adding the floppy, it is complaining about the root image device.
How to overcome this ?
This instructions worked as stated. Nice job !
@bobshouseofcards wrote:There have been a small number of posts both here and in the support community about the change between the 7.3 family of OnTap simulators and those for 8.1.1. The delivery model changed from being one where you install the simulator on a Linux system (easily setup on any virtualization platform you have) to the model in 8.1.1 Simulator where you download a full virtual machine image designed for use in a VMWare environment only.
Many people will have access to one of the paid options (VMWare Workstation/Fusions/ESX) or can use the free VMWare Player on Windows. But, for those that need alternatives such as on a Linux or Solaris host platform or something free on a Mac, here are instructions to setup 8.1.1 Simulator on VirtualBox.
Disclaimer: to date I have only tested this on a single Windows platform. Specifically, I tested this on a 32 bit Windows 7 host (but on 64 bit capable hardware). Basic setup and general operations seem normally functional, though I have not delved into all the possibilities that OnTap offers. The 7-mode simulator is the one on which I did most checkouts since this is what I need to make available to other team members where I work. I have done minimal setup only on cluster mode. None of this is technically supported by NetApp, and your mileage may vary.
Test environment: Dell laptop, 3GB RAM running Windows 7 SP1 32 bit; VirtualBox 4.2.4r81684; Simulate OnTap 8.1.1. As per the VirtualBox documentation, you will need a 64 bit processor with virtualization enhancements enabled even if the host OS is 32 bit.
Setup (assumes basic familiarity with VirtualBox)
1. Download and install VirtualBox. I just used defaults for setup.
2. Download the 8.1.1 simulator. Extract the files somewhere that you want them to be.
3. Create a new Virtual Machine with OS type BSD, version FreeBSD (64 bit). Memory required is 1600MB. Don't select a virtual hard drive now, we need to select a bunch later. Save the new machine.
4. Open the Settings for the new VM. On the System page, Processor tab, set CPU to 2
5. On the Storage path, delete the CDROM from the IDE controller. Then, add 4 virtual hard disks to the controller. For each disk, you will choose an existing disk. The disks you will add, in order, are "DataONTAP.vmdk", "DataONTAP-var.vmdk", "DataONTAP-nvram.vmdk", and "DataONTAP-sim.vmdk". Finally, add a Floppy controller with a single, empty floppy drive. When complete, the storage setup for your new virtual machine should look like:
6. On the audio page, uncheck "Enable Audio".
7. On the network page, you can add up to 4 network adapters in any style that you choose - host only, bridged, internal, NAT. This provides a bit more choice than available through VMWare Player. Having some NICs of each type certainly can setup some interesting possibilities for multiple simulators. For each NIC you add, expand the "Advanced" section for the NIC and select "Intel PRO/1000 MT Server (82545EM)" as the adapter type. The Simulator virtual machine only has drivers for this emulated NIC type. A sample NIC setup would look like:
8. The default setup of the VMWare virtual machine attaches a local Windows pipe as a conduit to each of two serial ports - one for the "console" and one for debugging. You can enable serial ports and redirect, but it is not required.
9. On the USB page, uncheck "Enable USB Controller".
10. On the Shared Folders page, no shared folders need be created.
11. Save the virtual machine.
12. Be sure you have 1600MB real free memory to start the guest or it will fail during startup at some point.
13. Start the virtual machine.
14. During the 10 second countdown, click in the VM and press any key that is NOT Enter to stop the boot.
15. Update the environment to not start the VMWare tools with command "setenv bootarg.vm.run_vmtools false"
16. If you are installing a 2nd simulator this is a great time to update the serial number as per the documentation as well.
17. Enter command "boot" to continue with the startup of Data OnTAP.
18. When the "Press Cntrl-C for menu" appears, press Cntrl-C and wait for the boot menu. This first boot can take a little bit to happen depending on your hosting platform.
19. On the boot menu, select option 4 and confirm clearing all disks and deleting all data.
20. The Simulator will restart - let it proceed normally. After restoring a fresh Data OnTAP from the simulated media you will eventually get the prompts for standard setup of a new Filer.
Enjoy!
