Skip to main content
Version: current

CHR: Installation

Overview and System Requirements​

Cloud Hosted Router (CHR) is a virtualized edition of RouterOS designed to run on x86_64 virtual environments. It provides the same core routing, firewall, VPN, and management features available on MikroTik hardware devices.

Host System Requirements​

  • CPU: 64-bit processor with virtualization support
  • RAM: 256 MB or more
  • Disk: 128 MB or more

Capacity Limits​

RouterOS Version 6​

  • Maximum CHR virtual hard drive size: 16 GB

RouterOS Version 7​

  • Maximum RAM and disk space are limited by the Linux kernel 5.6.3 and depend on the specific hardware.

Calculating Minimum RAM Requirements​

The minimum required RAM depends on your CPU count and interface count. Use the appropriate formula below to calculate an approximate value:

  • RouterOS v6:

    RAM = 128 + [ 8 × (CPU_COUNT) × (INTERFACE_COUNT - 1) ]

  • RouterOS v7:

    RAM = 512 + [ 8 × (CPU_COUNT) × (INTERFACE_COUNT - 1) ]

Recommendation: For CHR instances, allocate at least 1024 MiB of RAM.

Software Requirements​

  • Package version: RouterOS v6.34 or newer

Available Disk Image Formats​

  • RAW disk image: .img file
  • VirtualBox disk image: .vdi file
  • VMware disk image: .vmdk file
  • Hyper-V disk image: .vhdx file
  • OVA appliance: .ova file
warning

These are disk images only and must be attached to a virtual machine.

Download the CHR Image​

  1. Go to the MikroTik download page Cloud Hosted Router section.
  2. Select the image format for your platform.
  3. Download the file.

Create and Configure a Virtual Machine​

  1. Create a new VM in your hypervisor.
  2. Attach the CHR disk image as the system disk.
  3. Boot the VM.

Virtual Network Adapters​

warning

Fast Path Support

  • RouterOS v7: Fast Path is supported with vmxnet3 and virtio-net interfaces.
  • RouterOS v6: Fast Path is not supported.

Access CHR​

  • Username: admin
  • Password: none (you should set a strong password immediately after first login)

After first boot, CHR runs on a Free license by default. To activate a trial or upgrade, use /system/license/renew.

Platform-specific guides​

Supported Virtualization Platforms​

warning

CHR cannot run on the bhyve hypervisor. CHR does not support para-virtualized platforms.

Note: Only Generation 1 virtual machines are supported when using Hyper-V.

Important: Paravirtualization is not supported on any hypervisor.

Supported Cloud Platforms​

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
  • Hetzner Cloud
  • Linode
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Vultr