The vqfx202r110reqemuqcow2 image provides a for lab environments. Its best feature is the ability to prototype complex EVPN-VXLAN fabrics (including Spine-Leaf architectures) with full support for high-availability features like GRES/NSR, which are usually exclusive to physical hardware.

The vQFX is a virtual version of Juniper’s high-performance QFX10000 data center switch. It gives you the same control and data plane features as the physical hardware, though with limited software forwarding performance. It’s perfect for proof-of-concept labs, script development, configuration validation, and training.

This image, typically named vqfx-20.2R1-2019010209-pfe-qemu.qcow2 (or similar), handles the data plane for the ASIC-based forwarding. It works in tandem with the RE. The PFE image is often in the older QCOW (version 1) format, while the RE is in QCOW2.

Many users have noted that the 20.2R1.10 evaluation file actually boots as Junos 19.4R1.10 once installed.

This article will dissect every component of this keyword, explain why monitoring top on vQFX is crucial, and provide a step-by-step guide to optimizing your virtual data center switch.

Deep Dive: Deploying the Juniper vQFX 20.2R1.10 (VFP) in your Lab

The qcow2 format is the native disk image format for QEMU/KVM. Key advantages include:

While the software can be downloaded for evaluation, production use requires a valid Juniper license.

The PFE often defaults to VNC; it is generally better to switch this to Telnet for easier management in standard lab tools. download for vQFX 20.2 is actually 19.4 | Data Center