Graphic Virtual Router and Switch Simulator

rch1231 0 1K Views
Manufacturer
CNS3
URL Screenshot of http://gns3.net http://gns3.net
Price
$0.00
Pros
Great Simulator
Cons
You have to download CISCO ISO images
Summary
GNS3 is an open source software that lets you simulate complex networks while being as close as possible to the way real networks perform. All of this without having dedicated network hardware such as routers and switches.
Rating

GNS3 is a Graphical Network Simulator that allows emulation of complex networks. You may be familiar with VMWare, VirtualBox or Virtual PC that are used to emulate various operating systems in a virtual environment. These programs allow you to run operating systems such as Windows XP Professional or Ubuntu Linux in a virtual environment on your computer. GNS3 allows the same type of emulation using Cisco Internetwork Operating Systems. It allows you to run a Cisco IOS in a virtual environment on your computer. Dynamips is the core program that allows IOS emulation. GNS3 runs on top of Dynamips to create a more user friendly, graphical environment.

GNS3 also supports other emulation programs, namely Qemu, Pemu and VirtualBox. These softwares are used to emulate Cisco ASA and PIX firewalls, Cisco IPS, Juniper routers as well as hosts (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD etc.) GNS3 makes all of this emulation magic work together and allow you, for instance, to have your Cisco router talking to your Linux host. The possibilities are almost endless!

GNS3 allows the emulation of Cisco IOSs on your Windows, Linux and Mac OS X based computer. Emulation is possible for a long list of router platforms and other devices. Using an EtherSwitch card in a router, switching platforms may also be emulated to the degree of the card’s supported functionality. This means that GNS3 is an invaluable tool for preparing for Cisco certifications such as CCNA, CCNP and CCIE.

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Brief follow-up to and that focuses on practical, legal steps for getting Juniper images into a GNS3 lab.

For Juniper devices the supported path is vendor-provided virtual appliances (vSRX, vMX, vQFX) rather than sharing ISOs pulled from hardware. Juniper publishes evaluation KVM/QCOW2 images (vSRX has a trial/evaluation channel) and the image packages include the files needed to run them under QEMU/KVM. See Juniper’s vSRX evaluation/download information. (https://www.juniper.net/us/en/dm/download-next-gen-vsrx-firewall-trial.html)

Import and run workflow (high level): obtain the KVM/QCOW2 image from Juniper, extract the archive if needed, then either use GNS3’s “Import appliance” flow or create a QEMU VM in GNS3 and point it at the downloaded image. GNS3’s documentation shows the Import appliance process and specifics for complex Juniper images (vMX/vQFX) — vMX public releases require creating two VMs (vCP and vFP) and adding the extra image files in the correct order; vSRX/KVM uses a qcow2 image and Juniper recommends 4096 MB RAM and virtio NICs. (https://docs.gns3.com/docs/using-gns3/beginners/import-gns3-appliance/) (https://docs.gns3.com/docs/how-to-guides/importing-vmx-and-vqfx-into-gns3/) (https://www.juniper.net/documentation/us/en/software/vsrx/vsrx-consolidated-deployment-guide/vsrx-kvm/)

A final caution about legality and practicality: GNS3’s docs explicitly forbid soliciting or sharing vendor images; Cisco/Juniper virtual images are licensed and, in Cisco’s case, some VM images are licensed only for use inside Cisco’s modeling products. If vendor evals are not available, consider vendor lab subscriptions or community/marketplace appliances that bundle permitted images. (https://docs.gns3.com/docs/) (https://developer.cisco.com/docs/modeling-labs/2-2/vm-images-for-cml-labs/)

Member Avatar for suley04
suley04 0 Junior Poster in Training

does anyone have any ISO images for the different devices, especially any Juniper devices?

Member Avatar for rch1231
rch1231 169 Posting Shark

Are you looking for the configs/IOS files for gns3 devices? If so I gave most of them.

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