GNS3 VM On Hyper-V
With Windows 10 Pro, you have the option of using a Windows native hypervisor called Hyper-V. It’s included with the OS so you don’t have to pay the high price of something like VMWare Workstation while still getting great performance. I set it up with the default option of using Dynamic Memory so that it won’t use much ram until you start adding a lot of routers and switches and it will scale up the VM’s available RAM as needed. I simulated the INE CCIE R/S topology on it with 20 routers and 5 switches, and sat at around 6GB memory consumption of the VM and my total system ram usage right up at 7.6GB of 8GB total. I didn’t notice any issues at all though, and I think that Hyper-V will scale the VM back and give more to the host if it needs it. Overall it feels much better than using VMWare Player which always opened up a window when starting GNS3. With this option, you just set Hyper-V to boot your VM automatically when you boot your desktop and it will always be in the background, available for you to use as a remote sever from GNS3.
If you give your VM a static IP, you can even setup a VPN so you can remotely access the lab from anywhere you have the internet.
What it looks like running INE’s full CCIE RS v5 topology
Requirements
- Windows 10 Pro / Education / Enterprise
- Hyper-V feature enabled
- 8GB ram
Just give me the VHDX
Username: gns3 Password: gns3
How-to build your own
- Download Ubuntu 16.04 Server
- Create a Virtual Switch
- Action -> Virtual Switch Manager
- Create Virtual Switch
- Chose External so you can access it from other computers on your network and the internet
- Name it GNS3 VM Switch
- Bind it to whatever interface gets to the internet
- Make a New VM
- Action -> New -> Virtual Machine
- Name -> GNS3 VM
- Choose Gen 2
- I use 1024MB RAM, and allow Dynamic Memory to add more if needed
- Connect it to GNS3 VM Switch
- Create a virtual hard disk - I used 20GB
- Install an operating system from a bootable image file
- Browse to where you downloaded your Ubuntu server iso
- Change secure boot to Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority and Set Auto Boot
- VM Settings -> Security -> Template -> Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority
- VM Settings -> Automatic Start Action
- Always start this virtual machine automatically
- Install Ubuntu
- Connect and power on the VM
- Install Ubuntu Server
- Enter 5x for US layout
- Hostname: gns3vm
- Full name is optional
- Username: gns3
- Password: gns3
- Use weak password: yes (up to you obviously)
- Encrypt: no
- Timezone: up to you
- Partition Disks: I use all defaults here
- LVM
- SCSI1
- Write Changes: Yes
- Amount of volume group to use: default - enter
- Force UEFI: Yes
- Write Changes: Yes
- HTTP Proxy: blank
- Install security updates automatically
- Scroll down and choose OpenSSH server with the space bar
- Installation Complete - Continue
- Configure Ubuntu and Install GNS3 Server
-
Login with gns3/gns3
-
Get the mac address and create a static entry in your dhcp server
ip add- get the mac of eth0
- reboot to get new lease
sudo reboot -
You can now ssh to your VM on the address you reserved
sudo apt update; sudo apt upgrade -
Its usually worth a restart after your first upgrade to get the latest kernel
sudo reboot -
Install GNS3
sudo -s add-apt-repository ppa:gns3/ppa apt update apt install gns3-server apt install gns3-iounano /etc/systemd/system/gns3.service- Paste this in
- ctrl+o, ctrl+x to save and exit
- enable and start the gns3 service
- systemctl enable gns3
- systemctl start gns3
- systemctl status gns3 to verify it’s active (running)
-
- Configure GNS3 to Point to Your Remote Server
- Edit -> Preferences -> Server -> Remote Servers
- Add, just update the Host to the IP of your VM that you reserved earlier
- When you go to add IOU devices, choose remote computer and run on the IP you chose.
- If you have issues with your iourc just paste it manually in ~/.iourc under your gns3 account
- Edit -> Preferences -> Server -> Remote Servers
