CSR 1000v OVA error: “A required disk image was missing”

Introduction

You might be getting this error “A required disk image was missing” while deploying a new virtual machine from CSR 1000v OVA file. You can ignore this error, but the router will not boot after you power it on. I have written below how I managed to deploy CSR 1000v using OVA file and run the VM. I’m not sure if this is the best solution, but it worked for me.

Workaround

Step 1: Extract the OVA archive

The first thing you need to do is extract OVA archive and locate the ISO file. In my case it was named csr1000v-universalk9.16.08.01a-vga.iso. It is almost of the same size as the OVA archive itself.

Step 2: Upload the ISO file to the datastore

Upload the extracted ISO file to the datastore of your ESXi host.

Step 3: Assign ISO file to VM’s CD/DVD drive

Now you need to Edit Settings of your CSR 1000v VM. Make sure its CD/DVD drive is to your ISO image, like shown on the picture below:

Step 4: Run VM and access its console.

Now you can run your CSR 1000v VM and access its console. The output of the console is similar to that of a regular router’s serial port:

Conclusion

Thank you for reading. Hope this workaround helped you 🙂