Virtual Systems (Vx)

The Barracuda NextGen Firewall F-Series Vx can be deployed on VMware, Xen, KVM, and Hyper-V hypervisors using the virtual images provided by Barracuda Networks. Each image comes with one virtual network adapter by default; additional network interfaces must be added by the admin. Virtual systems are classified by a 'capacity' number in the model name that defines the number of protected firewall IPs, SSL VPN users, VPN users, and proxy users (AV and URL Filter). For specialized installations, use Barracuda F-Series Install and a generic Barracuda F-Series ISO image to deploy a custom configuration.

Sizing your Virtual Machine

Your Vx license limits the amount of supported CPU cores you can use for your virtual F-Series Firewall. Storage and RAM can be sized to fit your needs and are not limited by the license.

VMware ESXi

• Supported Versions – VMware ESX(i) version 3.5 or higher
• Image Format –  *.ova
• Max. Number of Virtual Network Adapters – 10

To deploy the F-Series Firewall Vx on your VMware hypervisor, download the NextGen Firewall F-Series or NextGen Control Center image from the Barracuda Networks Download Portal. If you want to deploy using the standard configuration, use the OVA image. If you want a custom configuration, download the generic Barracuda NextGen Firewall F-Series Vx ISO image and Barracuda F-Series Install to carry out the deployment.

To deploy an F-Series Vx on a VMware ESXi server, see How to Deploy a NextGen F-Series Vx OVA on VMware Hypervisors or How to Deploy a NextGen F-Series Vx using F-Series Install on a VMware Hypervisor.

Citrix

• Supported Versions – Citrix XenServer 6.2 or higher
• Image Format – *.hvm.xva (PVHVM) or *.pv.xva (PV) disk images
• Max. Number of Virtual Network Adapters – 7

Xen images come in a PVHVM (mix of fully virtualized and paravirtualized drivers) or PV (only paravirtualized drivers) version. If your Citrix XenServer supports PVHVM, it is recommended to use the PVHVM image for near-native performance. Download images from the Barracuda Networks Download Portal.

To deploy an F-Series Firewall Vx on a XenServer, see How to Deploy a NextGen F-Series Vx on a Citrix XenServer.

Opensource Linux Xen

• Supported Versions – XenServer 4.X or higher
• Image Format – Linux script (.sh) script containing PVHVM or PV disk images
• Max. Number of Virtual Network Adapters – 7

Xen images come in a PVHVM (mix of fully virtualized and paravirtualized drivers) or PVM (only paravirtualized drivers) version.It is recommended to use the PVHVM image for near-native performance. Download the installation package to match your Linux Xen hypervisor from the Barracuda Networks Download Portal.

To deploy an F-Series Vx on a XenServer, see How to Deploy a NextGen F-Series Vx on an Opensource Xen Server.

KVM

• Supported Versions – KVM 5.4.2 and higher
• Image Format – *.kvm.zip
• Max. Number of Virtual Network Adapters – up to 28 (depending on the configuration and number of devices in the VM configuration)

KVM uses a different approach for attaching devices to the virtual machine. It uses an emulated PCI controller with 32 slots. 5 slots are permanently occupied by necessary system components and disk controller. The remaining 27 slots can be freely assigned to other devices, including networks adapters. The KVM image for the F-Series Firewall Vx uses the Virtio paravirtualized network adapters for best performance.

To deploy an F-Series Firewall Vx on a KVM hypervisor, see How to Deploy a NextGen F-Series Vx on KVM.

Hyper-V

• Virtual Disk Format – *.vhd
• Max. Number of Virtual Network Adapters – up to 8 network adapters + up to 4 additional 'legacy network adapters'.

Use the VHD disk images from the Barracuda Download portal to deploy the NextGen Firewall as a generation 1 VM on a Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor.

To deploy an F-Series Vx on a Hyper-V hypervisor, see How to Deploy a NextGen F-Series Vx on Hyper-V.