Up & Running With GNS3 1.X

How to Setup GNS3

Adding your own PC to GNS3 with MS Loopback

MicroNugget: GNS3 and Windows 8

MicroNugget: How to Tune GNS3 to Avoid a 100% CPU Utilization?

MicroNugget: Connecting Virtual Box Hosts to GNS3 Networks

MicroNugget: Virtual PC Simulators & GNS3

MicroNugget: Using Wireshark with GNS3

MicroNugget: Connecting GNS3 to the Internet

MicroNugget: The ASA in GNS3

How To Install GNS3 1.0 on Windows 8.1

GNS3 1.0 was released to the world on October 21st, 2014. I have been using previous versions of GNS3 for some time now to simulate networks and to practice for my Cisco certifications. For those of you who aren’t familiar with GNS3, it is an application that allows you to build networks for free. The caveat there is you need to supply the images for your equipment. GNS3 supports Cisco, Juniper, HP, Arista, Citrix, and Brocade (as specified on their site, gns3.com. You build out a virtual lab which means there is no need to purchase physical hardware.

Before getting started, you’ll need to sign up on GNS3‘s website. Once you have an account. You can download GNS3. Click on the Windows download button to begin.

Once you open the installation file, click through the standard setup screen and agreement until you get to the Choose Components section.

Select all the components you will need – almost everything. SolarWinds is a new application packaged with GNS3. If you already have some of the components installed, such as Wireshark, you can uncheck it.

After completing installation, Start GNS3.

Upon opening GNS3, you will be prompted to save your new project locally or in the cloud. For the purposes of setting up GNS3 I will skip this.

Click on Edit and then Preferences.

Expand Dynamips and select IOS routers.

This is where you must supply your IOS image. I cannot supply these images for you. Click on New to add your image.

Enter the name of the Image and its platform.

Set the amount of RAM to be allocated to IOS.

Select the default adapters you want installed for each new instance of this device.

After you finish, the router will be displayed with its settings.

Click on the General tab to view your settings. Make any changes as you see fit.

The Console applications tab is where you can configure what application is to be used to console into your devices within GNS3.

The Packet capture tab displays your settings for capturing traffic on links between your devices within GNS3. Notice the capture analyzer command using SolarWindows Response Time Viewer.

Click OK to close the Preferences window.

The big window in the middle of GNS3 is your topology view. This is wear you drag and drop devices from the left menu item.

To add a device, click on one of the symbols on the left and drag and drop the IOS image you’ve uploaded to GNS3.

The Topology Summary window will display a list of all your devices. A red orb signifies a device that is off. A green orb means the device is on.

Right click on your device and click on Start to turn on your device. Right click again and select Console to bring up Putty to manage your device.

Happy labbing!

GNS3 1.2.1 installation on Ubuntu 14.04

As mentioned in an earlier post GNS3 is moving ahead fast. Currently at version 1.2.1 the GNS3 is looking great. Compared with the version 1.0 Beta 1 which I had installed, the 1.2.1 is not only more stable, but it has the Menu more clean and compact. For example now there is only one Preferences menu where you can adjust all your settings.

During the installation of 1.0 Beta 1 I made some notes in Evernote and it prove to be very useful as the installation was pretty messy. With 1.2.1 I did the same thing, but the installation was very smooth. Still, I said that if I made those notes maybe I should share them for those interested in a quick installation. A more complete guide can be found on GNS3 Community.

1. Download GNS3 1.2.1

Head over to http://www.gns3.com/, create and account and download the bundle archive for Linux.

If you for some reason you don’t want to create an account, you may download each package individually from https://github.com/GNS3

The following lines will assume that you have the bundle archive.

2. Install Ubuntu 14.04 dependencies

$ sudo apt-get install libpcap-dev uuid-dev libelf-dev cmake

$ sudo apt-get install python3-setuptools python3-pyqt4 python3-ws4py python3-netifaces python3-zmq python3-tornado

$ sudo apt-get install unzip

3. Unzip the bundle archive

1	$ unzip GNS3-1.2.1.source.zip

You should see 5 packages in GNS3-1.2.1 folder:
dynamips-0.2.14.zip
gns3-server-1.2.1.zip
gns3-gui-1.2.1.zip
iouyap-0.95.zip
vpcs-0.6.zip

4. Install Dynamips

$ unzip dynamips-0.2.14.zip

$ cd dynamips-0.2.14

$ mkdir build

$ cd build

$ cmake ..

$ make

$ sudo make install

To check if the correct version is install:

1	$ dynamips \| grep version

You should see in the output 0.2.14

5. Install GNS3 Server

$ unzip gns3-server-1.2.1.zip

$ cd gns3-server-1.2.1

$ sudo python3 setup.py install

To check if the GNS3 Server is installed correctly:

1	$ gns3server

If you see some output other than an error, than you’re fine.

6. Install GNS3 GUI

$ unzip gns3-gui-1.2.1.zip

$ cd gns3-gui-1.2.1

$ sudo python3 setup.py install

To test if the installation is working:

$ gns3

You should see a graphical interface of GNS3 launched.

At this moment you have a working GNS3 environment if you want only want to test Cisco hardware emulators. I strongly recommend to continue and install also the rest of the components. Who knows when you’ll need them

7. Install IOUyap (Optional, if you will use IOU images)

$ unzip iouyap-0.95.zip

$ cd iouyap-0.95.zip

$ make

$ sudo make install

To test the installation:

1	$ iouyap -h

8. Install VPCS (Optional, if you want to use VirtualPC)

$ unzip vpcs-0.6.zip

$ cd vpcs-0.6/src

$ mk.sh 64

$ cp vpcs /usr/bin/

For the third line, the 64 represent 64bit, as my Ubuntu 14.04 is build on 64bit.
The values can be:
– 32 or i386 for 32bit OS
– 64 or amd64 for 64bit OS

Please be sure to use the correct one for your OS.

To test the VPCS:

$ vpcs

You should see a Virtual PC being launched. Leave the console with letter q.

9. Install VirtualBox (Optional, if you want to launch VMs)

Download the correct version for your system from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads. The following lines will assume an Ubuntu 14.04 64bit OS.

1 2	$ apt-get install dkms $ dpkg -i virtualbox-4.3_4.3.20-96996~Ubuntu~raring_amd64.deb

You can also use the instructions at https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads and go for an APT installation.The choice is yours.

10. Install Qemu (Optional, if you want to use qemu images)

1	$ sudo apt-get install qemu

11. Install IOU (Optional, if you want to use IOU images)

I’m not a legal matter expert, and the usage of IOU is sort of grey area. Because of this, I’m not going to cover this chapter.

You’re ready to go. Start the GNS3 GUI:

$ gns3

Some things to check before going live:

check in the menu Edit > Preferences to set your desired Paths (in General sections) and to check the paths for the binaries (dynamips, vpcs, iou, virtualbox…)
add the IOS, virtualbox vm, iou images
in case of Cisco hardware emulators don’t forget to find the IdlePC value (when you add the IOS image or later with the start of your first router with a certain image) otherwise your CPUs will cry.

If something does not work as described or you need help please let me know in Comments.

[Update 1]

If you get the following error during installation of iouyap:

GNS3-1.2.2.source/iouyap-0.95 $ make

gcc -g -DDEBUG -Wall -c -o iouyap.o iouyap.c

iouyap.c:40:23: fatal error: iniparser.h: No such file or directory

#include

compilation terminated.

make: *** [iouyap.o] Error 1

Try to install the iniparser as follows:

1	sudo apt-get install flex bison

then

cd /tmp

curl -L https://github.com/ndevilla/iniparser/archive/master.tar.gz | tar -xz

cd iniparser*

make

and finally iouyap

cd /tmp

curl -L https://github.com/GNS3/iouyap/archive/master.tar.gz | tar -xz

cd iouyap*

bison -ydv netmap_parse.y

flex netmap_scan.l

gcc -Wall *.c -I /tmp/iniparser*/src -L /tmp/iniparser* -o iouyap -liniparser -lpthread

strip –strip-unneeded iouyap

sudo mv iouyap /usr/local/bin

How to Connect Cisco IOU to GNS3-1.1 and Emulate Cisco Switch in GNS3-1.1

Well, what’s up? Today I’m going to discuss an interesting GNS3 Cisco simulator tutorial on how to connect Cisco IOU to GNS3-1.1. This is an alternate way of emulating Cisco switches in GNS3.

So I hope this article will answer how to get a working layer 2 switch in GNS3-1.1

By the way what is a Cisco IOU device? Cisco IOS on UNIX (IOU) is a fully working version of IOS that runs as a user mode UNIX/LINUX platform. IOU is built as an image and runs just like any other program. Layer 2 and layer 3 IOU images are available for switching and routing respectively. Cisco IOS on UNIX is aimed for internal uses only (Cisco employees). Distribution of IOU images to customers or external persons is strictly prohibited.

The new version of GNS3 (1.1) supports IOS on UNIX, thereby providing fantastic Cisco switch simulator to the users. Usually people who are preparing for CCIE Routing and Switching will be using IOS on UNIX facility.

The process to connect Cisco IOU to GNS3-1.1 is a little bit hassle though, but I’m gonna give you simple explanation with step by step procedures.

Tools Required

GNS3-1.1: Download from here
Oracle VirtualBox: Download from here
GNS3 IOU VM.ova: Is the Virtual Unix platform to run IOU image. It is a virtual box OVA file: Download from here
IOU image: IOU image is intended to use only for Cisco employees, distribution of IOU is strictly prohibited. Please don’t ask me! Google is your friend always.
iourc.txt file: Is the license of Cisco IOU image. I have no privilege to provide it publicly, but I found adiscussion related to it. It may help you.

Now we are ready to go…

Step 1: GNS3 IOU VM.ova Setup

Double click ‘GNS3 IOU VM.ova’ , it will open up in VirtualBox (if you have installed VMware please right click on the GNS3 IOU VM.ova file and change the ‘open with’ to Oracle VM VirtualBox).

Click Import button, it will be imported to VirtualBox VM list.

Go to Settings → Network → Adapter 1
Make sure it is attached to Host-only Adapter with name VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter. Then click OK.

Start the GNS3 IOU VM, then login with following credentials.

User name: root
Password: cisco

Step 2: Upload IOU Image to Unix (GNS3 IOU VM)

Check the IP address of the GNS3 IOU VM by ifconfig command and note down the IP (my case 192.168.56.102).

Now come to the host machine and open any browser (I’m a Chrome fan). Enter the following link in the address bar http://192.168.56.102:8000/upload.

Choose your IOU image and click Upload button.
[Note: the location of the file being copied (/home/gns3/GNS3/images/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX)]

Now our IOU device is ready to run….!

[Troubleshoot: Please allow 192.168.56.XX network in the firewall, Disable proxy if you are using. In local PC (host machine) be sure that your VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter is set to accept DHCP]

Step 3: GNS3 Server Configuration

By default GNS3 host binding is 127.0.0.0:8000 (local host loopback) address, we have to change the server to 192.168.56.XX:8000.

Go to Edit → Preferences → GNS3 Server → Local Server
Drop down the Host Binding section and choose 192.168.56.XX, local VirtualBox Host-Only Adapter IP (mine 192.168.56.101) and click Apply.

Again Edit → Preferences → GNS3 Server → Remote Server
Add a host by entering UNIX GNS3 IOU VM IP address that we noted in Step 2 (mine 192.168.56.101) and 8000 as port.

Step 4: Connect Cisco IOU to GNS3-1.1

Go to Edit → Preferences → IOS on UNIX → General Settings
The set the path of iourc.txt (iourc.txt can be stored on any directory of your local PC, eg: Desktop), browse and select it.

Now go to IOU Devices, click New button and select server type as Remote. Your remote server will be listed there → Next

You will receive a message “You have chosen to use a remote server, please provide the path to IOU image located on the server!”, just click OK.

Now type a Name for the IOU image and set IOU image path that you noted already in Step 2.
Type should be L2 for switch IOU.

Click Finish button. That’s that!
You have success fully configured Layer 2 Switch in GNS3-1.1…! Go to GNS3 GUI and drag the switch in to work space.