Phase 1: Workstation EVE-NG Deployment

Phase 1: Workstation EVE-NG Deployment

Approach

EVE-NG CE runs inside a KVM VM on the Razer workstation. This avoids the bare-metal Ubuntu takeover (EVE-NG patches the kernel and replaces networking) and keeps the Arch/Hyprland desktop intact. Nested virtualization is required — EVE-NG runs QEMU/KVM internally for lab nodes.

VM Specifications

Parameter Value

vCPU

16 (adjustable based on topology load)

RAM

40GB (leave ~20GB for desktop)

Disk

200GB qcow2 (thin-provisioned)

Network

NAT (192.168.122.x) or bridged to host network

CPU Mode

host-passthrough (required for nested KVM)

OS

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (EVE-NG CE requirement)

Installation Steps

Runbook: EVE-NG Deployment Runbook

  1. Download EVE-NG CE ISO from eveng.net

  2. Create KVM VM via virt-install with nested KVM enabled

  3. Install EVE-NG CE from ISO

  4. Configure management IP

  5. Access web UI via browser

  6. Configure Cloud0 for lab-to-host connectivity

  7. Verify nested KVM works inside the VM

  8. Test with a single IOSv node boot

Verification Checklist

  • EVE-NG web UI accessible from browser

  • Single IOSv router boots and reaches console

  • virsh list shows EVE-NG VM running

  • Desktop remains responsive with EVE-NG idle (~2-3GB overhead)

  • egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo returns >0 inside EVE-NG VM