How good is VIRL?

Stevo7

Hey guys,

I am enrolled in the Cisco Networking Academy through my college, They have given us packet tracer to use, but i would really prefer some actual kit. I have physical gear but i am looking at virtual at the moment as i am on the move a bit.

I looked at GNS3 and it looks a lot more complicated that it once was, and finding ios images is annoying.

Someone suggested looking at the cisco VIRL. How good is it really? I do not mind paying the $80/year for an academic subscription if it works well and it is easy to use. I am really lazy (busy) and do not have time right now to get things running to get things running lol.


Appreciate your read.

Iristheangel

It's harder to set up but once it's working, it's fine. Just be sure to follow the online tutorials and use your googlefu if you come across any trouble. If you're lazy, simple GNS3 might be better for you but nothing is 100% simple and you won't have access automatically to the newest IOS/IOU/CSR images if you go that route

Stevo7

Ah no worries, I'll look into it more. Mainly all the iOS images are the issue. I'll prob get VIRL

koz24

I'm using VIRL to study for SP using their IOS XR. It's a great piece of software but my biggest gripe with it is there is no serial support. Most of the lab books I have use serial! If VIRL supported Serial interfaces I would ditch a bunch of the alternatives but until then...