4. Before you begin — information to gather
The setup wizard is 11 steps and it goes fastest when you have every answer ready before you start. Copy or print this checklist; each row is one wizard field:
| Info | Example | Where you find it |
|---|---|---|
| Hostname | qtbng-1 |
Your naming scheme |
| Timezone | America/New_York |
timedatectl list-timezones |
| NTP server | pool.ntp.org or your corporate NTP |
Ops team |
| Admin email | netops@example.com |
Ops team |
| Which NICs are for subscribers / uplink / management | 0000:47:00.0 = access, 0000:47:00.1 = uplink |
lspci -d 8086: on the box + your cable map |
| Number of VPP worker cores | 6 (recommended for a 10-core box) |
Your isolcpus= kernel arg, or accept the wizard's default |
| Rate plan | Name Bronze, down 20/25 Mbps CIR/PIR, up 10/12 Mbps CIR/PIR |
Product policy |
| DHCP pool CIDR + gateway | 100.64.0.0/24 gateway 100.64.0.1 |
Network design |
| DNS servers to hand out | 8.8.8.8, 1.1.1.1 (or your resolvers) |
Network design |
| Auth mode | local (single admin, all subs admitted), radius (external AAA), or hybrid |
Deployment plan |
RADIUS server + shared secret (if radius / hybrid) |
radius.corp:1812 + secret |
AAA team |
| Captive portal URL (optional) | http://192.168.86.33:8088/ |
Skip unless you're running gated admission |
| TLS cert (optional) | .pem + .key file paths |
Skip to use the auto-generated self-signed cert |
Physical prep:
- Both NICs cabled (management for the webui, subscriber-facing for actual traffic).
- SSH access from your workstation to the box.
- The bootstrap admin key and first-run URL from the install banner (Section 3) — the key is shown once.