Chapter 1: Overview & Requirements

	cOS Core Getting Started Guide for Hyper-V	Next

	Note: This document is also available in other formats
A PDF version of this document along with all current and older documentation in PDF format can be found at https://my.clavister.com. It is also available as a single HTML page.

Note: This document is also available in other formats

A PDF version of this document along with all current and older documentation in PDF format can be found at https://my.clavister.com.

It is also available as a single HTML page.

cOS Core with Hyper-V

By using the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor, it is possible to have a single computer running multiple, virtual Clavister NetWall Firewalls with each virtual firewall running a separate copy of cOS Core. This technique is referred to as virtualization and each virtual firewall can be said to be running in its own virtual machine. This is the basis for the Clavister Virtual Series of products, which also includes cOS Core running in the KVM and VMware virtual environments.

cOS Core is an Operating System

cOS Core is a network security operating system that is not built on a pre-existing operating system like Linux. Instead, it is itself both the operating system and firewall. This means cOS Core has modest resource requirements under Hyper-V, such as only needing a very small disk space footprint of under 64 megabytes. A detailed list of resource requirements can be found later in this chapter.

	Important: A virtual host should run only cOS Core as a guest
	To provide maximum security, the virtual host should be running cOS Core as the only guest. This defends against security attacks against vulnerable hardware, where local data in a processor might be read by other software sharing the same processor. The attacks known as "Spectre" and "Meltdown" are examples of this.

cOS Core Management

Not only can cOS Core run in its own virtual machine under Hyper-V, the management workstation that is used to administer cOS Core can also run under the same Hyper-V installation or it can be on a separate, external computer. To perform management tasks, the management workstation may run InControl, the Web Interface or a CLI console through an SSH client.

Referencing Hyper-V Documentation

This guide describes the steps involved when installing cOS Core with Hyper-V on x86 based hardware as well as covering many of the issues that may be encountered with cOS Core running in a Hyper-V virtual environment.

The guide tries to deal specifically with the subject of cOS Core running under Hyper-V and, unless relevant, does not detail the installation of Hyper-V itself or issues which are related only to Hyper-V. Pure Hyper-V subjects are best explained by other, Hyper-V specific documentation.

Hardware Requirements

The server running Hyper-V must satisfy the following criteria:

The hardware architecture must be 64-bit x86.
It must support virtualization using Intel VT-x or AMD-V architectures.
Intel processors must be from either the Intel Core (or later) workstation or Intel server family of products.
It must support a ratio of 1-to-1 for threads to defined virtual CPUs.
It must support at least one core per virtual CPU.

Supported Microsoft Server

The supported platforms are the following: is

Windows Server 2012 R2 with the Hyper-V role add-on. Configuration can be performed using the Power Shell or the Hyper-V Manager.
Hyper-V Server 2012 R2. Configuration can be performed using the Power Shell or the Hyper-V Manager running on a remote computer.

Supported Network Adapters

The administrator should configure Hyper-V with synthetic network adapters and up to 8 of these can be configured.

Support for VLANs

cOS Core running under Hyper-V allows VLAN filtering to be configured on virtual interfaces. Doing this is described in Section 3.3, Using VLANs.

Ethernet Ring Buffer Sizes Cannot Be Changed Under Hyper-V

It should be noted that when cOS Core runs under Hyper-V, the Ethernet interface ring buffer sizes cannot be change in cOS Core and must stay as the default values. However, it is unusual to need to change these buffers sizes. This is also discussed in a Clavister Knowledge Base article at the following link:

https://kb.clavister.com/343412609

Running cOS Core with Microsoft Azure™

Microsoft Azure support is discussed in a Clavister Knowledge Base article at the following link:

https://kb.clavister.com/324735748