Maintainer for vyos appliance wanted

[b-ehlers]

As I have no longer access to the vyos LTS versions, I can no longer update the vyos appliance. It already shows, as the latest version 1.3.3 is missing.

For keeping the vyos appliance up-to-date someone with access to the LTS versions is needed.

[Da-Geek]

Could something like these simple build steps https://docs.vyos.io/en/latest/contributing/build-vyos.html#build-iso
be automated by GitHub Actions, and and a VyOS iso created and then used in GNS3?

[Da-Geek]

Could something like these simple build steps https://docs.vyos.io/en/latest/contributing/build-vyos.html#build-iso be automated by GitHub Actions, and and a VyOS iso created and then used in GNS3?

Well I followed the basic instructions for building a new iso and it worked as expected.
I was able to create vyos-1.4-rolling-202309271930-amd64.iso and duplicated the current
VyOS version 1.3.2 template and use the new .iso file to fully boot, login & then install
the new version without issue.

The same 6 bash commands could easily be used to create the .iso for VyOS v1.2, v1.3, or v1.4
I am still thinking GitHub automation to build the images and including them in a GNS3 Template,
if this is something people are interested in, I can dig a little deeper and look at the GitHub Actions
to get this going?

[b-ehlers]

I have some reservations about providing my own images, but that shouldn't stop you.

• Setting up a build system for VyOS sounds like more work than I want to do. With a quick google search I found https://github.com/9l/vyos-build-action, maybe that can be a good start.
• A self made image is unofficial, it has to be supported by the image creator / GNS3.
• VyOS receives part of their income by providing official images. Images supported by GNS3 could impact their financial situation.

[Da-Geek]

I have some reservations about providing my own images, but that shouldn't stop you.

• A self made image is unofficial, it has to be supported by the image creator / GNS3.

• VyOS receives part of their income by providing official images.
  Images supported by GNS3 could impact their financial situation.

This is totally irrelevant.
This would be the same for any use of even the "LTS Images" or the "Official Nightly iso builds"
provided by VyOS Directly or anyone that follows the instructions provided by VyOS to build
even the LTS Versions of the source code.
VyOS provides Support Services around the product used on production platforms, and as far
as I can see, that does not include GNS3 as a Supported Platform, so any use of
VyOS in GNS3 even with the "Official LTS Images" would be unsupported anyway.

GNS3/SolarWinds doesn't offer "Support" for any of the Appliances provided by this registry,
unless I have missed something?

This is not a Hill I'm willing to die on, I was just offering an option to get an updated VyOS
appliance back in GNS3, that does not require someone to have a Minimum "support + software"
contract costing $2400 annually for 5 Years (https://vyos.io/subscriptions/support/production)

[b-ehlers]

Just noticed, that the access to the legacy releases has changed (again). Now you have to open https://vyos.net/get/ and fill out a form to get the links to the old releases. That is an absolutely reasonable way to handle that. But for me the vyos project is changing the download procedure too often, to keep up with them.

Furthermore I have no access to the current release 1.3.x, therefore the releases in the appliance are getting old.

In their blog post https://blog.vyos.io/community-contributors-userbase-and-lts-builds they tell us, why they don't accept distributing self made images with the name "vyos". Mainly they fear, that non-working images will have a negative impact on their brand. While I can fully understand it, that means that there is no way getting the vyos images except paying a lot of money.

So for these reasons I think, that the vyos appliance has to go. As no other maintainer has shown up, I will create a PR removing vyos.

[grossmj]

Now you have to open https://vyos.net/get/ and fill out a form to get the links to the old releases.

I did it and they only give access to the legacy 1.2.9-S1 version :(

Furthermore I have no access to the current release 1.3.x, therefore the releases in the appliance are getting old.

Let me try if we can get a subscription as a non-profit organization before we decide removing VyOS.

[b-ehlers]

Furthermore I have no access to the current release 1.3.x, therefore the releases in the appliance are getting old.

Let me try if we can get a subscription as a non-profit organization before we decide removing VyOS.

Even then, we only get the information to update the appliance, but not the right to redistribute the images. As the images are quite costly, almost all users won't have access to the images and therefore won't be able to use the appliance. So the vyos appliance will be of very limited use.

[b-ehlers]

Now you have to open https://vyos.net/get/ and fill out a form to get the links to the old releases.

I did it and they only give access to the legacy 1.2.9-S1 version :(

I just tried it. They give a long URL, that redirects to another long URL, that redirects to https://cdn.vyos.io/.... On this base URL I found most legacy versions, namely vyos-1.1.8-amd64.iso, vyos-1.2.9-amd64.iso, vyos-1.2.9-S1-10G-qemu.qcow2 and vyos-1.2.9-S1-amd64.iso. Only vyos-1.2.9-10G-qemu.qcow2 is missing.

But I have no idea how long the vyos folks will keep this scheme.

[elico]

It's very simple to build the 1.3.3 ISO using docker.
I cannot maintain the appliance but can supply a simple creation script.

[grossmj]

I have contacted the VyOS team and they offered us a partnership, part of it is they would maintain the VyOS appliance on the GNS3 marketplace. Hopefully this should be finalized soon.

[elico]

@grossmj the VyOS project has a very good documentation on how to build the ISO:
https://docs.vyos.io/en/latest/contributing/build-vyos.html

I can publish my basic and simple scripts that builds VyOS regularilly.
Currently the VyOS LTS version is 1.4 which is an upgrade from the 1.3.3.