Overview of vShell entities

Extreme Virtual Shell (vShell) commands, objects, and relationships enable you to create and manage supported virtual devices and networks.

The vShell environment

Virtual Shell (vShell) is a Python-based interactive environment that enables you to create and manage virtual system instances.

Note

For documentation of vShell commands, refer to Appendix A: vShell Command Reference.

Templates and chassis

A template object is a virtual image of an Extreme SLX-OS device. A chassis is a bootable instance of a template that represents a device.

The current vSLX version supports SLX 9540 template types:

Chassis-creation flow is as follows:

Create named templates from one or both of the supported template types.
Create one or more chassis (devices), each specifying a named template.

Workstations

You can also create workstations (virtual PCs). In general, you virtually connect workstations to virtual devices (chassis) that you created.

The current version supports only workstations running Ubuntu Linux.

Bridges

You can connect a port to no more than one other port. A bridge enables you to connect multiple ports, forwarding traffic received by one port to all ports connected to the bridge.

Note

A virtual bridge does not learn MAC addresses.

Probes

To connect a probe to an entity—a device port, a bridge, or a host interface—use the link -probe command. Once the connection is created, traffic to and from the entity is forwarded to the probe. You can use x86 network tools to monitor probed traffic.

Links

A link is a virtual cable connecting two ports, a port and an entity, or two entities.