swXtchBridge System Requirements

WHAT TO EXPECT
In this article, users will learn about the prerequisites before deploying a swXtchBridge. It is recommended to review this page before installing the swXtchBridge.

Network and cloudSwXtch Connectivity

Before deploying a swXtchBridge, a user must already have a cloudSwXtch instance running on the cloud.
A user should have network connectivity from on-premises to the Virtual Network hosting the cloudSwXtch instance (for example, a ping command from the cloudSwXtch instance to the on-premises network should complete successfully).

Testing On-Premises and Cloud Link
Use one of the following testing tools to measure the connectivity from on-prem and into the cloud, and to profile the link. This will ensure the link between on-premises and the cloud used by both the SwXtchBridge and the cloudSwXtch is optimal.
swx-perf: (available in the swx-tools)
iPerf v2: https://iperf.fr/iperf-doc.php
Sockperf: https://docs.nvidia.com/networking/display/vmav9851/appendix+sockperf+%E2%80%93+udp/tcp+latency+and+throughput+benchmarking+tool

NIC Requirements

The number of NICs is determined by the topology. Please consult the swXtchBridge Topologies page for more information.

If the swXtchBridge will use the High-Performance mode, the non-primary NIC must be a Mellanox or Intel card that supports DPDK.

Mellanox: ConnectX-5 cards are preferred for the non-primary NIC. For a list of recommendations, please visit the following link: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/third-party-adapters-listing.html?flt2_general-table0=Nvidia%2FMellanox
Intel: For a list of recommendations (drivers and NIC names), please visit the following link: https://core.dpdk.org/supported/nics/intel/

PLEASE NOTE
On Azure, the DATA NIC must be hardware accelerated.

Operating System

A VM or BareMetal bridge host machine running one of the following operating systems:

Ubuntu 24.04
RHEL 9

The kernel must be 5.11 or greater.

CPU

CPU must be at least a Xeon-class processor with a minimum of 8 cores, supporting AVX.

Memory

A minimum of 16GB of RAM is required.

Storage space

An SSD of 40GB (20GB min) is recommended.

Firewall Exceptions

The swXtchBridge installer script will automatically open the following ports:

firewall-cmd --add-port=80/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --add-port=9999/udp --permanent
firewall-cmd --add-protocol=igmp --permanent

Required dependencies

For RHEL 9 and Ubuntu 24.04, users will need the following dependencies on their SwXtchBridge machine:

pciutils
docker

For RHEL 9, kernel-extra-modules are needed if running a high-performance driver.

PLEASE NOTE
If the installation is done using the --auto_deps , the script will automatically install any required dependencies.