NVIDIA Cumulus VX

NVIDIA® Cumulus® VX is a free virtual machine (VM) that enables cloud admins and network engineers to preview and test all the features of Cumulus Linux at their own pace with zero cost.

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Why Choose Cumulus VX?

Try Free NVIDIA Cumulus Linux

Try for Free

Get to know Cumulus Linux and open networking principles.

Prototype network operations

Prototype

Build sandboxes and prototype network operations before you commit.

Test the Features

Test the Features

Develop and script portable, custom applications—completely risk free.

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What You Get with Cumulus VX

Key Features

  • Get up and running quickly on your computer.
  • It’s compatible with popular hypervisors, including VMware, KVM, VirtualBox, and Vagrant.
  • Preview Cumulus Linux and use the same tools that you would in production.
  • Cloud admins and network engineers can test the technology at zero cost.
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Frequently Asked Questions

  •

    What is Cumulus VX?

    Cumulus VX is a virtual appliance that helps potential customers and partners get familiar with NVIDIA networking technology, while providing existing customers and partners a platform to prototype network operations and develop custom applications prior to deploying into a production environment. Without the need of a bare-metal switch or specialized hardware, Cumulus VX runs on all popular hypervisors, making traditional networking protocols such as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation (MLAG) and NVIDIA Cumulus-specific technologies such as the Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) and Prescriptive Topology Manager (PTM) available for testing and configuration.

  •

    How is this different from NVIDIA Cumulus Linux?

    Unlike Cumulus Linux, Cumulus VX is not meant to run on production switches or carry production data traffic. It doesn’t have an actual ASIC or network processing unit (NPU) for line-rate performance or hardware acceleration. Cumulus Linux's switch package is omitted from the VX offering. Additionally, Cumulus VX does not come with the usual Cumulus Linux product level of support and QA resources.

  •

    Who can take advantage of Cumulus VX and how?

    Data center cloud admins and network engineers can leverage Cumulus VX. Some use cases for Cumulus VX include (but are not limited to): 

    • Learn: Cumulus VX will help IT and network professionals get familiar with open networking and Cumulus Linux. 
    • Test drive: Testing Cumulus Linux features and functionalities—at their own pace in their environment—with Cumulus VX lets network engineers shorten evaluation time, without needing to invest in any hardware platform. 
    • Prototype and pre-production rollout: Existing customers can leverage Cumulus VX to experiment and design rollouts, minimizing errors and time to production. 
    • Development: Customers and partners can leverage Cumulus VX to develop custom, portable applications that can be seamlessly migrated to production Cumulus Linux or Rack Management Platform (RMP) deployments.

     

  •

    What hypervisors can I run Cumulus VX on?

    Cumulus VX can run in the following environments:

    • VirtualBox 

      • Standalone 

      • With GNS3 

      • With Vagrant 

    • KVM 

      • Standalone 

      • With GNS3 

    • VMware 

      • With Workstation 

      • With Fusion 

      • With ESXi

  •

    Is it possible to upgrade Cumulus VX?

    There is no upgrade support for Cumulus VX. Images will be released for Cumulus VX for every Cumulus Linux release. You cannot upgrade Cumulus VX using apt-get upgrade|update and will have to install the new version from scratch. However, you can use apt-get to install additional software packages, whether they’ree Cumulus Linux-specific or Debian-specific.

  •

    What Cumulus VX is not.

    Cumulus VX is not a production-ready virtual switch or virtual router. It’s not intended for use in a production environment.

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Cumulus Linux Technical Documentation

Explore technical documentation for detailed instructions on how to use Cumulus VX, Cumulus Linux, and other NVIDIA networking products.

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