Copy the Refplat ISO to Disk

CML now requires all of the reference platforms that your labs will use to be present on the local disk. CML will no longer use these VM images from the mounted refplat ISO file. If you did not copy the contents of the refplat ISO to your local disk during the Initial Set-up, you may use the Copy Refplat ISO to Disk button in the System Administration Cockpit to perform the copy after the installation is complete.

Ensure that no one is trying to use the CML server while the Copy Refplat ISO to Disk is running.

Your CML server should be running and should have the refplat ISO mounted as a CD/DVD drive.

Log into the System Administration Cockpit by following the Logging into the System Administration Cockpit instructions.

In the System Administration Cockpit, click CML2 in the navigation bar on the left side of the page and expand the Copy Refplat ISO item in the Maintenance section.

Click the Copy Refplat ISO button.

Depending on the network and disk speeds, it can take several minutes to a couple of hours to copy the entire contents of the refplat ISO to your CML server’s disk.

It is safe to restart the copy process if it fails or is stopped. It will avoid overwriting files and will intelligently resume copying a partially-copied qcow2 file.

The copy process will fail if there are any labs running on the CML server, if the refplat ISO is not mounted as a CD/DVD drive, or if there is insufficient space on the CML server for the contents of the refplat ISO image.

The copy process can also fail if the remote CD/DVD drive connection is unreliable. If the copy process fails when using the refplat ISO as a mounted CD/DVD drive, you may instead copy the refplat ISO file to the CML server.

  1. Unmount or disable the CD/DVD drive that was using the refplat ISO file.

  2. Use scp to copy the refplat ISO file to the CML server.

    Note

    You must use an scp application from the command line. In particular, you cannot use WinSCP to connect to the CML server on port 22. Windows users will need to run an scp-compatible command from cmd.exe or from PowerShell. For example, you could use pscp, which is included with the PuTTY application, or you could install OpenSSH for Windows.

  3. Use your regular CML UI credentials to authenticate on the regular SSH port (22). Be sure to name the file refplat_images.iso. For example

    scp refplat-20220211-fcs.iso admin@com-ip-addr:refplat_images.iso

  4. Files uploaded via scp on port 22 will be placed in /var/local/virl2/dropfolder/.

  5. Restart the controller services via the CML2 page in the System Administration Cockpit.

  6. Finally, re-run the Copy Refplat ISO again. This time, the process will use the refplat_images.iso file that you copied to the CML server as the source of the VM images.

  7. Once the Copy Refplat ISO process succeeds, you may delete the /var/local/virl2/dropfolder/refplat_images.iso file.

The node definitions and image definitions from the refplat ISO have been copied to your CML server. Your CML server no longer needs to have the refplat ISO image mounted as a CD/DVD drive. Your CML server is now ready to run simulations.