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1 General Questions

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1.1 What is VyOS?

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1.2 Should I try it?

Help
Tools

1.3 What version should I install?

1.4 How often are new versions released?

What links here

1.5 What functions does VyOS lack?

Related changes

1.6 Does VyOS support other hardware platforms (MIPS) or will it support them in the future?

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2 Installation
2.1 What hardware requirements does VyOS have?
2.2 How much disk space do I need?
2.3 How do I upgrade my installation?
2.4 Can I install VyOS on an embedded platform?
2.5 Can I install on CompactFlash or USB flash media?
2.6 What hypervisors can I use?
3 Usage
3.1 How do I install Debian packages?
3.1.1 For 1.0.x/1.1.x
3.1.2 For 1.2.x onwards

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4 Configuration
4.1 How do I enter configuration mode?
4.2 How do list the current config?
4.3 Once in configure, can I use commands that are normally available outside config mode ?
4.4 Can I see a history of commands given previously ?
4.5 How do I apply my changes?
4.6 I am afraid my changes may break connectivity or make system inaccessible in other way.
What should I do?
4.7 I changed configuration and then changed my mind about commiting them. What can I do?
4.8 I added a user with "useradd"/edited a config in /etc and everything is lost after reboot!
4.9 Is it possible to make vyatta show all the settings, line by line? So it is easy to use copy and
paste ?
4.10 How do I enable web GUI?
4.11 Firewall
4.11.1 Is any traffic filtering enabled by default?
4.11.2 Is there a way to filter traffic originated by router itself?
4.11.3 I created a firewall instance, but it does not filter anything.
4.11.4 If I have firewall enabled, is traffic described in NAT rules automatically enabled?
4.12 How can I have system command(s) run on boot?
5 Troubleshooting
5.1 How do I view logs?
6 Development
6.1 Which branch should I develop on
6.2 I submitted a pull-request on Github
7 Other questions
7.1 How do I shot web?

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General Questions
What is VyOS?
VyOS is a routing/firewall/VPN platform , forked from Vyatta, based on Debian GNU/Linux that runs
on x86 and ARM hardware and many virtual machine hypervisors.

Should I try it?

It depends. If you are a network engineer/administrator or want to become one, you should. VyOS
is more like IOS, JunOS and other enterprise platforms, not like SOHO appliances (D-Link, Linksys
etc.). You need to understand what you are doing to configure it.

What version should I install?

The latest one. Newer versions are always better than older.

How often are new versions released?

The first official version was released on December 22nd 2013. We ask your involvement by
testing our nightly builds and report any problems you experience.

What functions does VyOS lack?

There are some. For instance it lacks
MPLS,
PBR (can be done with a trick),
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WebVPN,
PPTP and L2TP clients,
IPv6 flow accounting.
Most of the currently lacking features are to be implemented in future releases.

Does VyOS support other hardware platforms (MIPS) or will it

support them in the future?
It does not. One of project goals is to make it work on widely used hardware.

Installation
What hardware requirements does VyOS have?
Hardware requirements strongly depend on purpose your appliance is used for. For small branch
offices Atom/C3 CPU and 256-384M RAM should be enough; for edge routers, large VPN
concentrators and other high loaded appliances you should consider powerful servers.

How much disk space do I need?

At least 2 GB. More space is recomended to be able to upgrade your installation via image (see
questions below).

How do I upgrade my installation?

Preferred way is to use image-based upgrade. Find the latest image and type command "add
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system image <image URL>". You may download the image to your appliance and specify path to
file as the argument, or specify a remote URL.
Do not use 'full-upgrade -k', it may ruin your setup irrecoverable.

Can I install VyOS on an embedded platform?

Basically yes. try it!

Can I install on CompactFlash or USB flash media?

You can, but you should reduce writing in this case (redirect logs to a remote syslog server etc.). It
is better to use enterprise grade SLC cards rather than consumer grade.
Avoid using USB sticks in production, they are not intended for intensive usage and often fail.

What hypervisors can I use?

VMWare and XenServer are officially supported and appliance templates are provided for them. If
you want to install on a Xen VM, use livecd-virt, it had Xen-aware kernel.
KVM and VirtualBox are known to work without troubles.
There are no reports about other hypervisors, but in theory they also should work.

Usage
How do I install Debian packages?
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For 1.0.x/1.1.x
First configure repositories. The Hydrogen and Helium releases are based on Debian Squeeze
(which is EOL at the moment so we use the Debian archive):
set system package repository squeeze components 'main contrib non-free'
set system package repository squeeze distribution 'squeeze'
set system package repository squeeze url
'http://archive.debian.org/debian'
Squeeze is no longer supported, however Hydrogen and Helium have some packages from
Squeeze Long Term Support so:
set system package repository squeeze-lts components 'main contrib nonfree'
set system package repository squeeze-lts distribution 'squeeze-lts'
set system package repository squeeze-lts url
'http://archive.debian.org/debian'
Then
commit && save;exit
because repository is expiried you should update it with validation-ignoring option:
sudo apt-get -o Acquire::Check-Valid-Until=false update
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and you can install packages with "sudo apt-get install xxxxxxx" as usual.

For 1.2.x onwards

VyOS's 1.2.x release is expected to be based off Debian's Jessie release.
set system package repository squeeze components 'main contrib non-free'
set system package repository squeeze distribution 'jessie'
set system package repository squeeze url
'http://httpredir.debian.org/debian'
For backports:
set system package repository squeeze components 'main contrib non-free'
set system package repository squeeze distribution 'jessie-backports'
set system package repository squeeze url
'http://httpredir.debian.org/debian'
Then
commit;save

Configuration
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How do I enter configuration mode?

configure
Commands accept abbreviations wherever they are unique, so in this case you can type:
conf

How do list the current config?

show

Once in configure, can I use commands that are normally available

outside config mode ?
add "run" in front of the command, eg: run show interfaces

Can I see a history of commands given previously ?

history

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How do I apply my changes?

commit

I am afraid my changes may break connectivity or make system

inaccessible in other way. What should I do?
commit-confirm <MINUTES>
If everything is ok, issue
confirm
If you do not issue "confirm" command in given MINUTES (default is 10), your router will reboot and
rollback to previous configuration.

I changed configuration and then changed my mind about

commiting them. What can I do?
discard

I added a user with "useradd"/edited a config in /etc and

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everything is lost after reboot!

Do not do this. Backend configuration files are created by vyatta code at config loading or commit.
All configuration changes must be done with native CLI ("set" commands).
If you do not have in depth understanding of VyOS code, it is better to forget it has Linux inside.

Is it possible to make vyatta show all the settings, line by line? So it

is easy to use copy and paste ?
run the command "show configuration commands"

How do I enable web GUI?

There isn't one (yet) There are some initiatives like vyBuddy

by Cartman. Might get integrated in

a later version.

Firewall
Is any traffic filtering enabled by default?
No.

Is there a way to filter traffic originated by router itself?

Per-interface firewall for local only control inbound connectivity. If you use zone-policy firewall, you
can restrict in or outbound traffic from the router.

I created a firewall instance, but it does not filter anything.

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You should apply it to an interface to make it work.

If I have firewall enabled, is traffic described in NAT rules automatically

enabled?
No, it is not. If you have both firewall and NAT, you should have both filtering rule to allow traffic
and NAT rule to do translation.

How can I have system command(s) run on boot?

To run a command on boot, add the command(s) to /config/scripts/vyatta-postconfig-bootup.script

Troubleshooting
How do I view logs?
Use operational command "monitor log" to view all log messages. You also may use "show log tail"
comand to monitor latest messages in real time.

Development
Which branch should I develop on
Development efforts should be directed towards VyOS 1.2. VyOS 1.1.6 is developed on the lithium
branch in the Github. Use the build-iso package to start building (Howto build an ISO image,
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extensive readme ). VyOS 1.2 development and beyond occurs on the current branch and is
build using vyos-build as starting point (readme ).

I submitted a pull-request on Github

It can happen that we lose track of your pull-request. If that's the case create a task in phabricator
to call attention to it. Read more about this in Report a bug.

Other questions
How do I shot web?
We dunno, lol.
Category: User documentation

This page w as last modified on 6 August 2016, at 22:50.

Content is available under GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 or later unless otherw ise noted.
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