Installing the Sonus “SWe Lite”

Sonus announced the SWe Lite at Ignite in the US late last year and we�ve been anxiously awaiting its arrival. Well, IT�S HERE!

The SWe Lite is the �Software Edition� of Sonus� well-established Enterprise-grade Session Border Controllers, the SBC 1000 and SBC 2000.

I�m particularly impressed with the look and feel. At a quick glance it�s indistinguishable from a 1k or 2k:

SWeLite-ChannelMonitor Calls

The GA build supports up to 100 SIP calls, 25 transcoded or encrypted sessions and a call setup rate of 10 calls per second. It�s a faithful port of the SBC we�re familiar with, so includes the bulk of the features we�ve come to rely on for years including the powerful AD integration & the invaluable real-time channel monitor (shown above).

Notably absent is inbuilt Music On Hold, although we�re assured that�s coming soon. Check out the datasheet or the page �Functional Differences Between SBC Edge and SBC SWe Lite� for more of the engineering and feature specifics.

Sonus is letting an �unlicenced� SWe Lite carry up to 5 ordinary SIP calls or 3 encrypted/transcoded calls � more on that below. In the screen-grab above I�ve established 3 calls successfully over TLS to Skype for Business and a failed fourth call attempt is what generated the �Failed to acquire licence� you can see in the Alarm View.

Installation

I found my installation deviated from the online Installation Guide for Hyper-V, so I thought I�d document the process I followed with the GA build in my Lab. Here it�s going onto my Dell R720xd running Hyper-V Server 2012 R2.

Keen readers may note that some of the time-stamps in the attached jump around a little. The steps below were captured over almost a week of testing and plenty of different builds of VM in order to document all the options � and an annoying do-over where I was bitten by the requirement to separate Admin and Media NICs (see Notes below) & fluffed the swapover.

Login to the Partner portal and raise a request to download the SWe Lite, which ships as a pre-packaged virtual machine. In my case I downloaded �SWeLite-Hyper-V-release.6.1.0.build87�.
Copy this to your Hyper-V host.
Unzip it to a utility folder. We�ll be importing this machine and copying it to a new location as part of that process, so it doesn�t particularly matter where you place it in this step.
Browse to the Install folder therein and unzip the �SBCSWeLite-HyperV.zip� file. I unzipped it to the same folder. If you have any experience with Hyper-V, this structure will look familiar:
From here you have two choices to import the VM: if you�re old-skool, continue with the next step, but if you�d prefer to P$ this up a little, jump to step 15.
Launch Hyper-V Manager and select Import Virtual Machine.
Navigate to the �Virtual Machines� folder from Step 4 and click Next:
Next:
Select �Copy the virtual machine (create a new unique ID)� and click Next:
Accept the default or select �Store the machine in a different location� and nominate your preferred locations. All mine live in their own folders under E:Hyper-V
Here I�ve chosen to place the VHD in the same location as the above:
If you�re happy with all the settings, click Finish:
The import will take place and the wizard will close:
Jump to Step 16.
If you want to import the machine using PowerShell, I did it in 2 commands to save some typing. I centralise each Virtual Machine, its snapshots and VHDs all in the same folder, and to save specifying the same thing 4 times, I used a variable. Note that the poorly-named �-path� value needs to include the XML file as well � not just the path to it. Auto-complete is your friend there � tab your way to the file:
```
PS D:> $NewVMPath = "e:Hyper-VSWELite-GA"
PS D:> Import-Vm -path "D:SWeLite-Hyper-V-release.6.1.0.build87InstallSBCSWeLite-hypervVirtual Machines56CE3CC2-D8B5-4673-9857
-BCAB33E4F6AD.XML" -Copy -GenerateNewId -VhdDestinationPath $NewVMPath -VirtualMachinePath $NewVMPath -SnapshotFilePath $NewVMPath -SmartPagingFilePath $NewVMPath -verbose
```
Back at the Hyper-V Manager you�ll find a new VM called �SBCSWeLite�. I�ve already re-named it to add a �GA� suffix:
Right-click the VM & select Settings. You�ll see it defaults to 1CPU and 1G RAM:
The Sonus install guide requires you to set static MAC addresses for all the NICs. I suspect this is for licencing reasons, and as it�s not relevant for me in my Lab, I�m going to break from the guidelines and stick with the Dynamic ones assigned by Hyper-V. If you�re going to be running this SBC in Production, please change all these NICs to Static MAC addresses. If you possess System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SC-VMM), it will let you create and manage a pool of static MAC addresses.
The first of the 5 NICs is dedicated to Admin, and the rest are reserved for Media. In the Lab I�m going to Administer it via my DMZ, and keep all my Media on the Internal network, while the final three I�ll leave �not connected�:

(I realise my NIC config here is a little �unconventional�, but sadly the SWeLite doesn�t support Admin and Media on the same network, and I only have two networks in my Hyper-V server).
Click OK to return to the Virtual Machines view.
Double-click the machine�s name to launch a console window, then the click the aqua-coloured start button (or Action / Start if you prefer). Press return to Boot to �Partition1�, or just wait for it to timeout and boot automatically:
In my Lab the SBC doesn�t like my DHCP servers, so at this step it fails to get an IP address for the Admin NIC. If you�re similarly-afflicted, you WON�T see an Admin IP as highlighted here:

If you DON�T see an IP address here, skip to Step 24.
If you *do* receive an Admin IP address above you might be tempted to jump to the browser and start configuring it, but I recommend against it. Here�s why: if you do browse to the UI you�ll hit the Initial SBC Setup wizard, as familiar users will be expecting, and this new warning message:

�It is recommended to login to the shell as �netconfig� user to map the network interfaces before initial setup�.
As you�ve not yet mapped the application�s network interfaces back to the �virtual hardware� layer, the SBC shows you all 5 NICs it�s capable of running. In my Lab I only want to use one for Admin and one for Media, so I want to suppress the other three.
Skip to step 25.
No IP? Welcome to the club. I guess yours might look like mine, where it comes to a halt at �System Health Monitor: spawned daemon with PID��:
Press return in the virtual machine window to be prompted to login:
The login is �netconfig� and �Config!�.
Set a new password for �netconfig� as prompted, then configure the Admin IP address (if you didn�t get one from DHCP or want to change what you were offered):
Respond �Y� when asked to configure interface mapping and then respond to the each of the prompts by typing in the interface names from the ever-shrinking list of options. In this screen-grab I set �mgt0� as my Admin NIC and �pkt0� as my sole NIC for media, <Return> past the others and then finish with �y� to apply the changes:
Done! Now you can sign in from the browser and continue the config from the Initial Setup Wizard:

Note the �IP Address� section now only shows 2 NICs, compared to the 5 in the image back in Step 23.
(I like how the SBC nowadays highlights changed values with a blue border around the element).
Click OK to submit the changes and login to your new SWe Lite!
TADA!
You�re not done here yet though. Whilst the SWe Lite *is* going to include free SIP and transcoding licences, they�re not there automatically. If you�ve been around the SBC (pka �UX�) family for a while you might recollect they have �Base� and �Features� licences. The requirement for a free-standing Base licence was removed back in 4.1.1 days on the 1k & 2k platforms, however the SWe Lite has reverted (at least at GA) to needing both licence types loaded. What you�re seeing here is an SBC devoid of any licencing at all:
�This SWe Lite Instance is currently not licensed.�
For the time being the licencing process is a manual one, although that�s expected to change. Capture the �SWe Lite ID� from the System / Overview screen and send it to your local Sonus distributor or support contact:
You�ll receive a �Base� licence as a semi-legible XML file (rather than the previous blob of characters), but you still paste it into the same place in the UI:
Click Decode and Apply. Don�t be freaked that the licence appears to leave everything disabled � you�re confusing the difference between the Base Licence and a Features Licence, and the �free� calls licences that come in the Base aren�t visible here:
When you return to the �Current Licenses� view it�s better (when compared to Step 32) but still may concern you. Don�t � you now have a Base licence and several previously absent options have now materialised in the UI. You�ll also now be able to make calls through the SBC:
From here the configuration process is no different from a physical SBC. Config shortcuts include the ability to import a partial config � limited to another SWeLite at the moment � and the various Easy Setup Wizards.

Notes

I absolutely LOVE that the free version of the SBC includes SIP, registration and transcoding in the Base licence. I see the SWe Lite going into Labs, and pre-Prod test environments everywhere.
Kudos also to Sonus for not restricting the SWe Lite by mandating Hosts with specific advanced hardware or boutique configurations that might be mutually-exclusive with other Virtuals.
1G RAM and 1 CPU core for 25 encrypted calls is a great starting position. It will be interesting to see how this scales as the product matures.
Don�t let the limit of 25 transcoded/encrypted calls at GA discourage you from going into production � that�s its low-ball starting position from which it is absolutely going to grow. Have a word to Sonus and run two SWe Lite (or more?) instances on the same host to double the call-carrying capacity until the unit�s stand-alone throughput meets your requirements. (I acknowledge that this might not be compatible with some carriers� SIP offerings).
The �Easy Config Wizard� won�t show in Tasks / Easy Config Wizard without a Base licence, so if you only see Certificates there, check you didn�t skip the Licencing steps above:
It�s not yet possible to import a .tar file from an SBC1k or 2k to the SWe Lite, so the migration process from physical to virtual will still involve some re-typing. I�ve tested and confirmed you can import Transformation Tables & SIP Message Rules from the other platforms, and I expect the same will apply to Passthrough Auth imports:
As you would expect of a virtual device like this, it�s able to log internally and also save packet captures locally (like the 2k).
The Admin NIC can�t be on the same network as any of its media NICs, and you�ll receive an error if you try to change them. I�d really like to see this resolved as it�s a major break from convention with its stablemates:
The backup file format is essentially the same as for the 1k & 2k, so the current version of my �Convert-SonusSbcConfigToWord.ps1� script (v6.1A at the time of writing) will still create a DOCX or PDF of the config in an easy-to-view format. I�ll get working on some minor tweaks and customisations for the SWe Lite next�

Summary

I think Sonus has done a fantastic job porting the 1k & 2k devices to a virtual platform, reinvigorating its highly-regarded SBC for centralised Data Centre deployments where rack-space is either not an option or prohibitively expensive.

I�m comforted that the GA build is significantly improved over the Alpha & Beta versions I was able to trial, and I expect Sonus will capitalise on its follow-the-sun global TAC operation to minimise the impact on customers of any issues that arise.

At Generation-e we have customers queuing up to get the SWe Lite in production, so keep an eye out here or on Twitter for any tips and traps we encounter along the way.

I�ve not seen (or asked about) pricing so I can�t comment on how the SWe Lite sits compared to its stablemates or the competition.

References

Check out Luca�s �Sonus SWe Lite Step-by-Step Setup� for VMware
Static MAC addresses: KB2804678�Cannot Exceed 256 Dynamic MAC Addresses By Default On Hyper-V Host

Credits

Thanks to Anup @ Sonus in Sydney for his help with my testing and Lab build, and to the rest of the Sonus team for envisaging and delivering on a much-sought-after addition to the product family.

Revision History

13th March 2017. This is the initial post.
13th March 2017. Added Luca�s review to References.

� G.

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