VM size recommendation for CSR1000V in Azure

[vadim.vedmedenko]

Hi!

Are there any recommendation for VM size of CSR1000V in Azure ?
I see recommendation size A2, D1, D2 (all standard) during creation. Are any performance to VM size comparison?

[James Schultz · Accepted solution]

At the moment we unfortunately do not have a performance table like you're referring to.  The reason is, we're still working on tuning the performance of CSR on Azure as well as working with Azure to iron out the deployment process.

So once the deployment process is finalized, and we have a release or two to tune the performance, we'll make such data available.  My guidance for now would be to only use the CSR for up to 50Mbps of throughput on Azure.  This should increase substantially after our tuning work is complete.

Also please be aware that it is currently very difficult, and potentially impossible to successfully launch a CSR VM on Azure.  The team over at Microsoft has identified a number of bugs in the Azure cloud platform that are causing this problem, and they should be fixed shortly.  This is also the reason why there are no deployment guides for CSR on Azure posted yet.

Thanks!

James

[andyirving]

I have successfully deployed CSR1000v in Azure and terminated an IPsec (IKEv2) FlexVPN on it, this was a "router on a stick" deployment as I didn't realize I needed to change the vm size to get more than one NIC.  I will try and deploy an A3 spec VM today to see if that provides the required two NIC model to replicate how I do this already on vCloud.

Andy

[vadim.vedmedenko]

James thank you for answer and clarification.

So based on your answer we will not try to test CSR right now  and will wait for deployment guide.

By the way I tried to deploy CSR, but deployment failed. VM was created and I am able to connect to it.

[James Schultz]

That's very odd.  You actually see the Azure portal telling you that the VM is in a "failed" state?  We spent a lot of time working with the Azure certification team to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen. :)

In some deployment modes with Azure, it will ask you whether you want to enable enhanced logging/monitoring (I forgot the exact wording they use).  If you leave that switch enabled, it can cause a big delay in deployment since Azure tries to install additional agents into the CSR (which we don't allow).  But it still shouldn't show up as failed.

[vadim.vedmedenko]

James that's it logging was enabled, it was huge delay.

Another question is deployment type of CSR. Currently I see the only possible method to deploy is Resource manager. Are any plans to support classic (old) deployment model?

The problem is that we can't connect VMs which are already exist in VNET (classic) with new VNET which created for CSR in Resource manager deployment model.

I know that there is  proposed workaround is to connect two VNETs (classic and RM) via IPSec but it's little ugly.

[James Schultz · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately Microsoft will not allow us to support the classic mode.  Every product added to the Azure Marketplace must now support only Resource Manager and the Preview Portal.  They removed the option to support classic mode a few months ago according to discussions I've had with them.

My understanding is that in the near future they will have a seamless way to roll all of the classic infrastructure into the Resource Manager world without any downtime, but that's a topic you'd need to bring up with Microsoft.

[haasekcisco]

Several months ago, I deployed a 2 NIC CSR 1000V from the Azure Marketplace.  Now that Cisco has a 4 NIC offering, does anyone know the process to upgrade the underlying VM from 2 to 4 NICs?  Is it as simple as selecting a different VM type?

Thanks

Kurt

[Nagaraj Arunkumar]

We have additional data on Azure now that we have launched this.   We will update this thread with the latest results shortly

[tbanuelo]

CSR1000v has been available on Microsoft Azure Marketplace since January of 2016. The first VM type that we supported was a D2 2xvNIC template. The Cisco CSR1000v achieves 500Mbps CEF throughput and 150Mbps IPsec throughput on a D2 VM type. We then released a D3 2xvNIC template VM type and increased performance to 500Mbps CEF and 500Mbps IPsec.

We will continue to on board new VM templates to increase the number of vNICS and also plan to increase performance using larger VM types.

For a detailed CSR1000v deployment guide on Microsoft Azure go here: https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/12744996/cisco-csr-1000v-deployment-guide-microsoft-azure