VIRL ...man I miss GNS3!

itdaddy

I have to be honest. I really do not like VIRL right now . OMG could have they have made it as nice and easy as GNS3 unpack and go!

multimillion dollar company cant make a software as good as GNS3. I realize the power it might have for certain things but man you could not make it nice for study? I will muddle through it but I am not happy with it really. being that I work with lost of software. I say are you serious Cisco???????????????????????//

Iristheangel

It definitely could be more user-friendly. I think Humphrey from RG had a conversation with the main VIRL guy at Cisco Live and the guy was honestly shocked that more people using the software didn't understand how to use Linux. The setup is the hardest part. After it's up and running after install for the first time, it's easier. The things I would recommend are the following:
- Follow the exact directions and use the VIRL community to check for any issues you may be having
- Make sure you're on a beefy machine. You know the part where you can drop a CSR1000v into the topology? Well, that's REALLY running a CSR1000v virtualized so if you don't have the computer that can handle it, you will have issues.
- VIRL 1.0 now introduced a nice little Web GUI instead of VM Mastro. It's not bad if you ask me. Improvements from when VIRL came out.

GNS3 is pretty awesome as well but there are some gaps in what it can do which is why I lean more towards VIRL for my Cisco-specific studies.
Cons of GNS3:
- Find your own images
- Find your own IOU images
- You're usually installing a package of programs onto your machine - This is why a lot of people actually went out and started using UNL
- Limitations on what IOS versions GNS3 can really run. Good luck getting some of the more modern versions of code to run on it with different devices. When support is dropped for the 7200 and the version of code required for the CCIE is raised, GNS3/UNL might end up falling behind. Especially if they add some of the newer stuff to the CCIE such as PFRv3 or iWAN.

But one of the big advantages though of UNL and GNS3 is that they don't have any vendor lock so you can lab out a mixed vendor environment. That's primarily what I end up using it for.

OfWolfAndMan

Using the tutorial provided via email link, I found it extremely easy. There were a couple commands I had to know, but nothing too extensive.

The UI for Maestro isn't my favorite. At least, parts of it. The functionality in it compared to GNS3 makes life much easier with autonetkit and the fact the bugs for IOS/NX-OS/IOSvL2 get sorted out somewhat quickly. GNS3 is tried and true, but there are random bugs you tend to hit and in my experience, the larger your deployment in GNS3, the less stable.

I personally, out of all options (For R&S at least) like my ESXi server best. I can put CSR1000Vs on my environment along with a linux box or two for captures, packet generators (Scapy or Ostinato), or other various projects such as openvswitch or ODL (Getting off-topic lol). The nice thing about the CSRs is I can do a trial license for Data to do MPLS configs, and then once it expires, I just spin up a new VM! In addition, I find moving the load off of my local device onto a server more assuring (And stable), considering I run VIRL on a 16 GB I7 Macbook pro which btw I kind of regret doing now that they raised the node limit to 20.

Iristheangel wrote: »

- VIRL 1.0 now introduced a nice little Web GUI instead of VM Mastro

Just saw this. Will look into that.

Iristheangel

@Wolf - I think they actually raised it to 30 now. CSR1000vs with eval licenses aren't bad at all. The only pain is the QoS labs on it since they jack your throughput up. I believe INE is now running everything on CSR1000v's on eval licenses so that's been the biggest complaint about their rack rentals.

advanex1

I struggle with VIRL. I've been looking through the FAQs about how to setup a user machine, they said to use an LXC but I can't even figure out how to configure the dang IP address and make it work within the network. I'm deployed right now on a laptop, so I can't run more than the one virtual machine required to run VIRL.

GNS3, as you guys know, doesn't even do port security.. so I'm having to run a wine wrapped version of packet tracer just to do basic switching stuff. It also irritates me that you have to run vlan database as opposed to just creating vlans... but what do I know.. I'm a small timer. I'll have to check out UNL.

I really like the fact that it has all the commands and built in "IOS", but I really wish they had better a better how-to type section.

*edit*

Does UNL have the same issues as GNS3 with limited function of switches?

azaghul

@advanex1 They all (VIRL, GNS3, UNL) have the same features/limitations when it comes to the images, as they all (IOU/ IOSv) use the same images from Cisco. The only advantage VIRL has is access to updated versions of the L2/L3 images sooner.

OfWolfAndMan

advanex1 wrote: »

GNS3, as you guys know, doesn't even do port security.. so I'm having to run a wine wrapped version of packet tracer just to do basic switching stuff. It also irritates me that you have to run vlan database as opposed to just creating vlans... but what do I know.. I'm a small timer. I'll have to check out UNL.

*edit*

Does UNL have the same issues as GNS3 with limited function of switches?

I recall a thread being written where you could export the .qcow2 images to your desktop at one point and integrate them with Qemu on GNS3. Not sure if Cisco has locked down that ability since then as I never tried with IOSvL2, only IOSv. You can find the thread here:

Community Blog: Exporting VIRL images into GNS3 | GNS3

koz24

I haven't tried the new VIRL but the old one was clunky and a pain in the neck. Coming from a Linux sysadmin background, that is not what turned me off from VIRL. Since I was doing SWITCH at the time, VIRL had the same L2 problems as L2 IOU, so I found no benefit there. Couldn't do SPAN/RSPAN, L3 Etherchannels, and a few others. For ROUTE, a lot of my lab workbooks use Serial interfaces and VIRL only supports Ethernet, so this was another turnoff. Now I just use GNS3 and I hook up 4 3560e switches to my virtual routers and I'm good to go.

I plan to do the Security and DC tracks at least to the NA level and SP to the NP level in the future, so I might renew just for those purposes. BTW, ASAs and IOS XR can be set up in GNS3 anyway, but it's more convenient with VIRL. As far as I know there is no NX-OS in GNS3(yet). But right now, the $150/year feels wasted.

itdaddy

what I don't like is the CCIE or any exam is hard enough as it is wthout having to learn a development environment. Maybe I should look at BOSON ahhahah-- I will keep trying. I talked to a friend and he uses a MAC with fusion and then spins up virl. I am going to do that. I have and i7 Intell with 24 GB of ram and it is klunky slow and I am going back to windows 7 from crappy windows 10 cow first and try that ever since i went to windows 10 my machines slow as dirt.

joelsfood

Really, if you're working on CCIE level exam you need to invest in some hardware, either of your own or rack rentals. Except for UCSPE, that thing is awesome.

Plus if Cisco tried to do everything a 7k or even a 5k does in software so that you could then run the image in ViRL/GNS/etc, the throughput would be abysmal. There's a reason so many functions are written into the silicon and not punted to the cpu

advanex1

@Wolf - I appreciate it. I'll look into it.