Juniper routing engines are essentially running full-blown FreeBSD-based operating systems. They take significantly longer to boot than basic Linux containers or lightweight appliances. Patience is required; give the RE a few minutes to complete all daemons and services before attempting to log in.
The QCOW2 format is the standard for QEMU-based virtualization and is used for the vQFX RE due to its specific benefits:
A fundamental characteristic of the vQFX (and its physical QFX10000 counterpart) is the architectural split between the Routing Engine (RE) and the Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE).
: To have a functional switch, this image must be paired with a PFE (Packet Forwarding Engine) image (usually named something like vqfx-20.2r1.10-pfe-qemu.qcow2 ). Standard Deployment Specifications According to Juniper's technical documentation for vQFX: vCPU : 1 for the RE. RAM : 2 GB (minimum) for the RE. Interfaces : em0 : Management interface. Vqfx-20.2r1.10-re-qemu.qcow2
: A step-by-step tutorial for users looking to run Juniper images in a Cisco environment. It includes links to community-made node definitions specifically for these images.
: Frequently used in GNS3 tutorials to learn Junos OS without needing expensive hardware. Juniper Elevate Community Guide: Importing Juniper vMX and vQFX into CML2.4
: This detailed guide provides specific QEMU settings for the vqfx-20.2R1.10-re-qemu.qcow2 image. It covers assigning 1024 MB RAM, configuring two vCPUs, and changing the NIC type to virtio-net-pci to ensure the Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) is recognized. The QCOW2 format is the standard for QEMU-based
Here is how to set it up as a functional "piece" of your lab: 1. The "Two-Piece" Requirement
: This likely stands for "Routing Engine," indicating that this image pertains to the routing or control plane aspect of the appliance.
Routing Engine (Control Plane). It must be paired with a separate Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) image (e.g., vqfx-20.2R1-2019010209-pfe-qemu.qcow ) to function as a complete switch. Version: Junos OS 20.2R1.10. RAM : 2 GB (minimum) for the RE
Once the boot process completes, access the console and perform the initial setup:
: With the split architecture, all configuration, management, and operational commands are issued exclusively on the RE. You can verify the PFE's operational status and that the data plane is online with the command: