Virtualise a 2821 ISR - is it possible?

[p.j.jennings]

Hi,

I have a Cisco 2821 ISR which I use to run a few Cisco 7975 phones at home.

Running the 2821 is costing too much, so I was thinking of virtualising the router to reduce costs. Is this even possible?

Many thanks

Phil

[Francesco Molino]

Hi

You can have a Cisco ISRv. The datasheet is here: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/enterprise-networks/enterprise-network-functions-virtualization-nfv/datasheet-c78-736768.html

What features are you running on your ISR 2821? Are you building a VPN and then have your IP Phones reaching your CUCM over VPN?
On Which platform you want to deploy the virtual image? ISRv isn't supported on ESXi. More explanation here: https://clnv.s3.amazonaws.com/2018/eur/pdf/BRKARC-2112.pdf


Otherwise you have CSR1000v:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/routers/cloud-services-router-1000v-series/data_sheet-c78-733443.html

[p.j.jennings]

Hi Francesco

Many thanks for the reply.

Is ISRv free for home use? This is for 4/5 phones max so I don't want to be paying too much if I can help it.

Not sure about the features, a friend set it up. I think it's running Advanced Enterprise Services.

There is no VPN. The router and phones are in my house on the same network. The router is on it's own subnet and is only for the phones.

I was hoping to use a small low-powered PC for the virtual image.

Many thanks

Phil

[balaji.bandi]

"Running the 2821 is costing too much"  - is this means Power or Smartnet ? what kind of running cost.

Making it virtual , your virtual also cost like VM / HDD and othes (until you hosting in exiting home server)

What kind of feature you are using on 2821 ( do you have any FXS and FXO) , If this is only handling SIP  then i would suggest to save cost for couple of phones to work SOHO, look at Asterisk or Freeswitch ( they are open source and tested products). works on VM.

[p.j.jennings]

Hi Balaji

Many thanks for the reply.

The electricity costs are what are forcing me to look at virtualising.

A small PC running the virtual ISR will be a lot cheaper than the 2821.

I'm just using SIP on the 2821 - no FXS or FXO.

I was thinking of Asterisk or Freeswitch, but it takes a lot to get the 7975 phones working on these.

Cheers

[Francesco Molino]

Unfortunately, ISRv or CSR1000v aren't free.
I'm asking again what features do you need because you can have multiple options for your own home use:
- deploy a GNS3 or eve-ng using IOU router image and connect 1 interface to a cloud (your physical infrastructure). It's not very stable if you use your Phones to make real calls but could be a solution for a LAB
- Use vyos (http://vyos.io/) which is an open source router. You can build a VPN with your HQ for example and do quite all routing stuffs (no UC features like srst)
- Deploy a linux machine and install FRRouting (quite same as vyos)

The last 2 are free.

[balaji.bandi]

This is one of good  for your lowe cost on rasberry pi. (asterisk on ras pi)

http://www.raspberry-asterisk.org/

If you like to build on VM and configure  here is another link

https://wiki.freepbx.org/display/FOP/Cisco