VIRL on Packet

PocketLumberjack

I'm not sure if this is the right sub forum but has anyone tried this? I don't have a nice enough system to use for a VIRL server right now. What I am wondering is how well it works for people who don't have VIRL server setup already. I am starting to dig into CCNA and I would like to use it for testing a labbing. I just can't find anything on how it works when you don't already have a personal VIRL server. Any help is much appreciated, if I'm missing something obvious let me know!

OfWolfAndMan

Here is requirements verbatim from Cisco:

"""
• Host system must be able to access the Internet on a regular basis (TCP ports 4505 & 4506 outbound enabled on any firewall/proxy)
• A minimum of 8GB of RAM and four core CPU must be allocated to the VIRL virtual machine for better performance and functionality. *More resources allows for larger simulations; suggest 12GB for 20 nodes, 15GB for 30 nodes, or 18GB for 40 nodes *This is dependent on the nodes launched in the simulation. Cisco IOSXRv requires 3GB of memory to launch.
• Intel VT-x / EPT or AMD-V / RVI virtualization extensions present and enabled in the BIOS
• 70GB of free disk space for installation
• Estimate the hardware resources you would need to spin up a certain simulation using the resource calculator."""

VIRL tutorial here for setup: VIRL Micro-Site

VIRL has routers, switches and firewalls you may configure. Good for anything up to a CCIE or proof-of-concept testing.

Here's a learning lab when first coming into VMMaestro: VIRL Learning Lab Tutorial

VIRL is nice, but since you're doing CCNA, unless you have money to throw around, just download GNS3 or packet tracer.

https://www.gns3.com/

The only thing about GNS3 is it's primarily geared towards the routing aspect more and requires you to provide your own IOS images. Happy hunting!

pevangel

A bit confused on what you're asking here. What are you trying to run VIRL on?

PocketLumberjack

https://www.packet.net/resources/partners/cisco-virl/ it is a cloud hosting service.

@OfWolfAndMan - I don't have any Cisco ISO's because I don't have any Cisco switches or routers and I am not going to download ISOs, it's not the way I do things.

thomas_

I set it up once and got it working. I then shut it down and tried to open it up a second time and I was having issues getting it to work. I've been busy with other things, so I haven't messed with it anymore.

I went with the cheapest plan they had and it took between 45-60 minutes just to provision the server once I got everything setup on my computer to launch Terraform to provision the server. When you're using packet it's not a VM that you can just shutdown and start backup. You have to reprovision everything unless you leave it running, but I don't like leaving something running while I'm not getting charged for it just so I don't have to wait an hour for it to provision. You can go with a beefier plan that will probably provision faster, but you'll also be paying more per hour.

Once I'm done with Linux+ and ready to start my CCNP studies, I'll messing around with it again. I've toyed with the idea of just starting it up on Friday nights and letting it run through Sunday night, so if at point I want to use it I won't have to wait for the hour to provision it. I think that's a good compromise. However, I have a pretty beefy desktop(i7 with 32GB of RAM, so I may just run it on there and not have to worry about the provisioning.