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A Quick Guide to Setting up the Guest OS or IOX on an IR800 Router: Configuration and Running

By December 9, 2019September 23rd, 2020Blog, Cisco, Networking
Cisco

The guest OS function of the Cisco IR800 routers is a Linux server with a hypervisor-supported functionality where separate, light-weight applications can be loaded. This write up is intended to focus on allowing the startup and access to the Guest OS and does not get into the development or the actual Guest OS other than being able to start and log in.

Requirements for the starting the Guest OS:

  • The IOS on the router is at least 15.6-3
  • IPv6 is enable and running on GigabitEthernet 2 interface
  • DHCP is running on the router, for the network range of the GigabitEthernet 2 interface

Here are the portions of the router configuration for the getting the Guest OS up and running.

ipv6 dhcp pool v6gospool
address prefix 2001:192:168:1::/64 lifetime infinite infinite
!
ip dhcp pool TEST-SITE-16
network 172.16.1.0 255.255.255.240
domain-name test-site.local
default-router 172.16.1.1
dns-server 8.8.8.8
!
int gig 2
ip address 172.16.1.1 255.255.255.240
duplex auto
speed auto
ipv6 enable
ipv6 address 2001:192:168:1::1/64
ipv6 dhcp server v6gospool
no shut
!
line 1 2
stopbits 1
line 3
script dialer lte
no exec
transport preferred none
transport output none
rxspeed 100000000
txspeed 50000000
line 8
no exec
transport preferred lat pad telnet rlogin lapb-ta mop udptn v120 ssh
transport output lat pad telnet rlogin lapb-ta mop udptn v120 ssh
rxspeed 100000000
txspeed 50000000
line 1/3 1/6
transport preferred none
transport output none
stopbits 1
!
iox client enable interface GigabitEthernet2

Helpful Commands for Managing the Guest OS:

To stop the guest server: guest-os 1 stop
Note it can take 30 seconds for the Guest OS to shut down.

To start the guest server: guest-os 1 start
Note it can take 5 minutes for the Guest OS to start up.

To see the local guest server and IP addresses: show iox host list detail
The “show iox host list detail” command is the best way to see if the Guest OS is up and running.  It is also the way to see what IP address the Guest OS is currently running on.

show iox host list detail
TEST-SITE-16#show iox host list detail
IOX Server is running. Process ID: 325
Count of hosts registered: 1
Host registered:
===============
IOX Server Address: FE80::200:CFF:FE05:9479; Port: 22222
Link Local Address of Host: FE80::1FF:FE90:8B05
IPV4 Address of Host:       172.16.1.4
IPV6 Address of Host:       fe80::1ff:fe90:8b05
Client Version:             0.4
Session ID:                 1
OS Nodename:                TEST-SITE-16-GOS-1
Host Hardware Vendor:       Cisco Systems, Inc.
Host Hardware Version:      1.0
Host Card Type:             not implemented
Host OS Version:            1.3.4.1
OS status:                  RUNNING
Interface Hardware Vendor:  None
Interface Hardware Version: None
Interface Card Type:        None
Applications Registered:
=======================
Count of applications registered by this host: 0

To access the web interface of the Guest OS go to https://<-IP-ADDRESS->:8443

So using the IP Address from the above command “show iox host list detail” the URL becomes https://172.16.1.4:8443

The username and password to access the Guest OS are the same as the local router authentication. So if you created multiple users at privilege level 15, they should all be able to login to the Guest OS. Note, you should also be able to SSH into the Guest OS.

Jason Howe, Senior Networking Engineer, PEI

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