BeroNet Telephony Appliance-v2
Contents
Introduction
The beroNet Telephony Appliance is the ideal platform for customers and technology integrators, looking for a reliable hardware solution, with integrated ISDN, Analog and GSM connectivity.
The beroNet Telephony Appliance’s elegant design delivers superior energy efficient properties and is designed specifically for the rigorous 24/7 uptime demand of modern telephony systems. With a power consumption of less than 24W during normal operation, over 200 EUR can be saved in electricity costs per year.
With its fanless design and harmonized components the beroNet Telephony Appliance is the suitable solution for all kinds of telephony projects. The beroNet Telephony Appliance is designed for telephony applications in the SOHO and SME markets and is perfectly suited for businesses with up to 60 concurrent calls.
The most amazing feature is its built in beroNet Hypervisor, which allows user to run multiply apps simultaneously. A PBX, Faxserver and Firewall can run on the same hardware platform and be maintained via a WebGUI. The appliance is the embedded low power Datacenter for your office.
The beroNet Hypervisor is built on the Alpine embedded Linux with the XEN Kernel. This allows to use minimum ressources of physical Machine for the hypervisor itself and give most of the ressources to the Virtual Machines. The hypervisor only requires 2GB of disk space and 1 GB of Memory.
physical Setup
The appliance has several connectors for different tasks.
The minimal Setup requires only 2 cables:
* power adapter to the 12V DC Jack * LAN cable connected to LAN
After pushing the power button, you should hear a beep and the appliance should boot up.
Assembly
The appliance, the card and the modules are assembled as described in the assembly guide:
Appliance Assembly Guide
Network Setup
After powering up and after a few seconds the appliance should receive an IP Address from your local DHCP Server. There are several ways to obtain the IP Address of the Hypervisor:
* Windows Network Discovery * bfdetect * search through DHCP Server logs
Windows Network Discovery
The windows built in network discovery tool should find the beroNet appliance. It shows an icon and the IP of the appliance. By double clicking you will be forwarded to the Hypervisor webinterface.
bfdetect
Another option is bfdetect. With bfdetect you can discover the appliance via the windows or linux command line. bfdetect shows the serial Number, the Hypervisor Version, the MAC address and the IP Address of the Appliance. The following bfdetect output shows an appliance and a gateway. The Appliance Serial-Numbers start with 20 followed by the amount of RAM and finally by the serial itself.
Please wait, while we're scanning on all interfaces for beroNet devices... 1) serial: 20-16-0000000004 type: Appliance appfs: 0.2 mac: 00:13:3b:10:08:48 ip: 172.20.10.10 2) serial: 2-16-0000012238 type: Gateway appfs: 3.0.03-Phone-Detect-rc001. mac: d8:df:0d:00:22:e8 ip: 172.20.10.9 Please, select a device (enter 'q' to leave):
With bfdetect you can also switch from DHCP to a static IP which can be set manualy, by choosing the index of the device and then following the configuration steps.
beroNet Hypervisor Webinterface
As soon as you have accessed the Hypervisor Webinterace you can login with the default credentials:
user: admin pw: beronet
Make sure to change the passwort later in the menu under "System->change password".
The Hypervisor GUI allows it to:
* Manage Virtual Machines * create and restore backups of machines * use the beroNet appliance Market to download ready Apps and ISO Installation Media * Update the Hypervisor * discover built in beroNet Gateway or beroNet Gateway in the local network
Virtual Machines
Howto Install an OS in a VM
To install an operating system as a VM you need to follow the steps:
1. Download an ISO file which contains the operating system either from a web-url or from the market 2. Create a VM and define its metric 3. Set the boot-device to "d (isofile)" 4. Start the VM from the Dashboard 5. Access the VNC console via the VNC link in the dashboard
Dashboard
The dashboard shows all VMs and all ISO files.
Each VM can be started by clicking the "start" link if they are in the state "STOPPED". If they are in the state "RUNNING" the VM can be accessed via VNC, halted via the "shutdown" link or powered off via the "Poweroff" link.
VNC - Console/Monitor for the VMs
By default each Virtual Machine starts a VNC Server on the Ports between 5900 - 5905. Any VNC tool can connect to this port, e.g. tightvnc for linux and windows: TightVNC
The Dashboard provides a built-In WebtRTC based WebVNC Client from Kanaka: noVNC Client. As the VNC Server of the VM is not a WebRTC Server, a WebRTC Proxy is used to connect the VM VNC Server and the noVNC Client. We're using again Kanakas Socket Proxy: websockify for that.
The Websockify Proxy opens a WebRTC Port on the Ports 6900 - 6905 corrresponding to the VNC Server ports. This needs to be understand and considered when creating NAT rules to the Hypervisors WebGui. It is easier to use an external VNC client like tightvnc in this case (the VNC port must still be natted).
The following picture shows how a browser can use the WebVNC on port 6900 and the Webserver on port 80 and how a VNC client can directly connect to the VMs VNC Server on port 5900:
Manage VMs
Under "Virtual Machines->Manage VMs" you create new VMs, delete or rename existing ones.
By clicking on New the VM Create wizard opens and allows to create a new vm.
After clicking on Create you can modify the VM Details in the VM Manager.
In the List of Virtual Machines you can always find a "manage" button which brings you to the VM Manager of this machine.
VM Details
The VM Manager divided in different sections:
STATUS
Shows the current status of the VM and allows to do actions with it. The actions are:
- Power On / OFF
- Shutdown
- Sleep / Wakeup
- Clone
Additionally you can use the built-in WebVNC tool to connect to the console of the VM.
SYSTEM
In the System Settings you can define:
* # CPUs - The amount of CPUs for this virtual machine, one is reserved for the Hypervisor * Memory in GB - The amount of memory for this VM, 1GB is reseved for the Hypervisor * Start on boot - defines if the VM should be started automatically during boot * Boot-Device - defines if the VM boots from it's virtual hard-drive or from the ISO file for installation
NETWORK Under the network settings you can define:
* NIC-Mode - defines if the VM should access both the LAN and WAN port or only the LAN port of the appliance (NOTE: for LAN-WAN mode, LAN-WAN mode needs to be activaed under System->network) * NIC-Model - Realtek RTL8139 or Intel e1000 the emulated NIC Model for the VM
Also the MAC Addresses of the VM are visible here. The WAN Mac Address is only relevant in the lan-wan mode.
DISKS
The Disks Manager allows to create, delete and reorder virtual disks. Also It defines if an ISO Intallation Medium is inserted in the VM. NOTE: a deleted disk can not be recovered!
OTHER
Under other, you can mainly find the VNC and miscalleneous settings:
* VNC Display - defines the VNC display number * VNC Password - defines the VNC access password * VNC Keymap - defines the VNC virtual Keyboard Keymap * HV Options - adds the possibility to add manually XEN option, for reference: xen options, multiple settings can be seperated by ; as localtime=1; * Windows-Tools - if enabled the VM has another disk containing the PV driver for windows, which boost the performance of a windows VM (NOTE: preinstalled with the market windows images)
CLONES
If the VM has clones or is a clone, it displays a list of its clones or a link of its parent.
Backup & Restore
The Hypervisor can backup & restore both full VMs and ISO files. In the Backpup & Restore-Manager the attached USB drivers are displayed.
If no disk was found, attach a USB drive and click on "scan for new devices". If the drive is not yet a "backup-space" for the Hypervisor, the drive needs to be formatted as backup space.
To make a backup or restore already made backups click on the USB drive link.
In the restore tab, previously backuped ISO files and Apps (VMs) can be restored back to the hypervisor disk. This may take several minutes and even hours depending on the file size and if the file is compressed. The backups can also be deleted here.
In the "Backup-Tab" local VMs and ISO files can be backuped. VMs can be compressed in order to save drive space.
Make sure that the drive is large enough to hold a compelete VM. Creating a backup can take several minutes and even hours, depending on the filesize and wether compression is used or not.
ISO Manager
The iso manager shows the lokal stored ISO files which can be used to boot a VM to install the OS provided in the ISO file (e.g. an Ubuntu ISO for installing Ubuntu in a VM). Isos can be deleted via the "delete" link.
There are 3 ways to get an ISO on the appliance:
1) Web-Download
The Web-URL of the ISO can be provided. If it is protected with basic auth, a username and password can be provided in the syntax "user:password". NOTE: this can take several minutes and even hours, depending of the size of the ISO and the internet speed.
2) Upload
An iso of up to 8GB can be uploaded directly via the browser. NOTE: this can take several minutes and even hours, depending of the size of the ISO
3) Windows Share Download
With Window share credentials:
* Domain e.g. beroNet * Share Name e.g. //beronas/ISOs (the share is only one Folder on the Server, like //SERVER/SHARE and SHARE does not have subfolders) * user e.g. beroUser * password e.g. beroPassword
a windows share, fileserver or NAS can be browsed. After clicking on an ISO File, the file will be downloaded.
NOTE: this can take several minutes and even hours, depending of the size of the ISO
beroNet Appliance Market
The beroNet Appliance Market allows it to download pre-installed Virtual Machines. These machines can be started directly in the Hypervisor. The Market also allows to donwload ISO Installation Media for setting up new Virtual Machines.
Each VM or ISO has additional Meta Information like the version and the size. By clicking the download icon the VM or ISO will be downloaded to the lokal appliance.
NOTE: this can take several minutes or even hours, depending on the size and internet speed
How-to use clones / snapshots
The beroNet hypervisor GUI allows to create thin clones of existing VMS. A clone is not a full copy of a VM. The disks of the clone reference back to the parent so that only the differences for each clone are stored within the clone, while the main data resides within the parents disk. The mechanism used here is copy-on-write. The parents disk is not modified while the clones run, this means the parents VM state is saved as a snapshot. When the clones are deleted the parent can run again from the moment on when the first clone was created. At later times other clones can be created from the parent or even from clones.
The result is a tree, like in this example:
NOTE: only the orange leaves of the tree can actually run. But indeed they can run at the same time!
"Parent" and "clone 2" can be seen as snapshots as they preserve the VM state at the time when they ran at last.
To create a clone you need to go to the VM Manager of a VM on the STATUS Tab and click on "clone" and then provide a name of the clone (You can only create clones of powered of VMs).
After that the cloned VM becomes a parent and is in the STATUS CLONED:
Also a list of all clones of this VM is displayed:
You can always create new clones from this parent VM. These clones will have the state of the parent last time it was powered off.
Disk Management Tool
Hypervisor Version 0.9.9 introduces a Disk Management tool. It scans all VM disks and shows them in a list. You can manage each disk individually and use the following actions:
- convert a "qcow" disk to a "qcow2" disk which allows resizing and clones. This can take very long on large disks.
- move allows to move a disk to another VM
- rename allows to rename a disk
- delete deletes the disk from the VM (can't be undone!)
- resize allows to enlarge or shrink disks. To enlarge them just use a "+" like if you want to increase by 10G enter "+10G"
System
Update Hypervisor
To update the hypervisor, simply click on the Version which you want to install.
Network Settings
The Network Manager allows to choose the Interface Mode of the appliance:
- LAN - Both LAN Ports are bridged into a single network bridge
- LAN-WAN - the 2 LAN Ports are put into seperate bridges, VMs which have LAN-WAN mode have the WAN Bridge as additional Network adapter
The LAN Mode can be defined as DHCP or static. If it is static the LAN Settings need to be defined. These settings do only apply to the LAN interface of the Appliance. The WAN Port however can only be controlled from within a VM which has the LAN-WAN mode enabled.
Cloud Settings
The cloud manager allows to register the appliance into the beroNet cloud or into a private beroNet cloud. After successfull registration a cloud key appears. The appliance starts communication with the beroNet cloud after enabling the cloud and after clicking "cloud enable".
NOTE: a reboot of the hypervisor might be needed to register the appliance in a different cloud'
Reboot & Halt
By clicking "CLICK HERE FOR REBOOTING THE APPLIANCE", the appliance does a reboot.
NOTE: all VMs will be halted ungracefully
By clicking "CLICK HERE FOR SYSTEM SHUTDOWN", the appliance will turn itself off.
NOTE: it is not possible to turn on the appliance from remote
change password
Under System->change password, the password of the admin GUI User can be changed.
Gateways
The Gateways Manager starts a bfdetect in the background and shows a list of all local appliances and Gateways with their Serials, Firmware Versions, IP Addresses and MAC Addresses.
By clicking on the IP Address, the browser will be redirected to the gateway/appliance GUI.
Manual Virtual Machine Setup guides
This section helps to understand how to setup different Operating Systems and what can be done to enhance the performance of the Virtual machines.
Windows
If you want to setup a Windows virtual machine you need to follow the steps:
1. Download a Windows Installation Medium 2. Create VM with enough CPU cores and enough memory 3. Boot and install the VM 4. Install the PV Driver set from the Windows Tools package
To enhance the performance of the Windows Installation the following steps should be considered:
1. use RDP instead of the Web-VNC Console 2. change the windows performance profile to maximize performance and turn off GUI features 3. turn off swap
Keep in mind the the Disk is a file on a SSD. Having swap enabled means a lot of disk access from within the VM. The disk access is always slower from within the VM.
Linux
Linux should run rather performant as VM because the recent kernels already have XEN drivers built in.
Assembly Guide
The assembly is similar to the Appiance v1:
Recovery
You can recover the hypervisor with the beroNet Recovery USB Stick. The latest revory stick and a howto can be found here:
NOTE: lease make sure to use a USB Stick with at least 8GB of memory NOTE: make sure the USB Stick is formatted as FAT32
Steps for recovery
1. Plugin the recovery USB stick 2. Hold F11 Key during boot to reach the Boot-Options Menu 3. choose "General USB Flash Disk" ! (do not choose UEFI) 4. Choose Web-Install 5. let the appliance boot the recovery stick, after a few minutes it reveives an DHCP IP Address which will be displayed on the screen 6. use a different computer to access the IP. 7. In the recovery GUI, download the latest HV Image 8. After download install the HV Image, the Appliance will automatically shutdown after installation 9. unplug the Recovery stick and boot the appliance
See below how the recovery Stick is booted and how to use the Sticks GUI to recover the Hypervisor.
Choose right boot option
Make sure too choose "General USB Flash Disk" and NOT "UEFI".
Boot the Webinstaller
Short after booting the bootloader shows 3 options. Make sure to choose the "beroNet Appliance Installer (web)"
See the IP Address obtained
After the boot process has finished, the Linux shows the IP address obtained via DHCP:
The Sticks WebGUI
When you surf to the IP Address the Sticks WebGUI will be displayed.
Klick "fetch image-list" to download the current images.
chooes the latest "HV" image to download.
Now you can install the Hypervisor on the Appliance. Be Aware that the recovery stick will erase the SSD in the appliance!
Ressources
Drivers for the bare metal hardware can be found here:
Known Issues
* Web VNC Viewer only works properly in Firefox and Microsoft Edge * up to the Hypervisor Version 0.9.2, the VM and ISO storage space is limited to only 23G, this can lead to VMs growing bigger than the storage space and failing
FAQ
Problem: beroNet Card is not visible in Hypervisor or appliance OS
Solution: The PCIe cable might have been slipped out, open the appliance make sure the card is well connected and carefully close the appliance.
If the hypervisor still does not see the beroNet card, save the network settings and activate them, this rediscovers the network interfaces
Problem: My VNC client shows only a black screen when behind a NAT or using the beroNet Cloud
Workaround: read VNC Guide carefully and use an external VNC Client if necessary.
Problem: Shutdown in Hypervisor of Windows doesn't work
Workaround: the PV Driver shutdownmon service hasn't been installed correctly. Start a command prompt as administrator and goto c:\Program files (x86)\Xen PV Drivers\bin\ and issue the command:
shutdownmon -i
Problem: WebVNC keyboard is strange
Solution: Use the HV-Options in the VM Editor and add
keymap='de'
for a german keymap.
Problem: VM Time is about 1 hour wrong
Solution: Use the HV-Options in the VM Editor and add
localtime=1
Problem: Shutdown in Windows 10 results in Hypervisor crash
Workaround: Windows 10 tries to use Fastboot while shutting down, this can be disable in Windows under:
Settings->System->Power&Sleep->Additional Power Settings->Choose what the power buttons do->Change->settings that are currently unavailable -> Turn on fast startup
Problem: WebVNC keyboard doesn't work
Solution: Set a keymap under "OTHER" in the VM Manager, save and restart the VM. Also try to maximize the WebVNC client to fullscreen.
CHANGELOG
The Hypervisor receives new features and bugfixes frequently. Please see the beroNet Hypervisor Changelog for a list of changes.
