dynamips, wha?!?!

bowlersp

so, i thought i would try out the dynamips thing last night. i got through the install with no problem. the problem i had was when it started talking about ios images. I, for one do not have a cisco webpage login to obtain them. i had no idea that you needed them to run dynamips. i was pretty disappointed to find this out after installing everything. it was pretty much like, ok you've installed everything, but you don't have any images or access to them so YOU'RE SCREWED!! I guess i would have liked it better if at the dynagen.org and dynamips webpages if they post something on the front page saying, STOP HERE!! IF YOU DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO CISCO TO DOWNLOAD IOS IMAGES THEN DON'T INSTALL THIS SOFTWARE CAUSE IT WON'T WORK. any kind of notification would have been greatly appreciated. it probably is great software, but don't be fooled to install it like me if you don't have access to any ios image files.

mikej412

#1 on the Dynamips FAQ.

Can you provide a Cisco IOS image for a 3600 or a 7200 to me ?

No, I am not allowed to distribute any IOS image. You will have to find one by yourself, this should not be a problem if you are a Cisco customer.

From the Dynagen tutorial page

IOS Images

Dynamips runs real Cisco IOS images. From the Dynamips FAQ:

Can you provide a Cisco IOS image for a 7200 to me?

No, I am not allowed to distribute any IOS image. You will have to find one by yourself, this should not be a problem if you are a Cisco customer.

A post with collected Dynamips links is in this thread. The first link is the is to the Internetwork Expert Dynamips page. They have the installation video where they show going to CCO to download an image and that page also says

Next you'll need a Cisco IOS software image for a 7206, 3620, 3640, or 3660 router depending on which platform you will be emulating. IOS can be downloaded from [url]http://www.cisco.com[/url] for users with a valid service contract.

Maybe someday someone will write a Dynamips for Dummies book -- but I'd guess there would still be people who wouldn't read that.

bowlersp

oh well, i guess i'll have to get some a different way.

Humper

seriously guy just open your eyes and you'll find something.

dynamik

Humper wrote:

seriously guy just open your eyes and you'll find something.

This has piqued my curiosity for some time. What are the chances you of damaging your equipment by trying to load an IOS obtained from someone other than Cisco?

I know this is sort of a gray area, but the truth is, many of us don't have access to the latest IOS from Cisco, and we must obtain the latest IOS from "friends" or "other resources." Can loading a bad image permanently brick your device, or can you always load another image regardless?

mikej412

dynamik wrote:

What are the chances you of damaging your equipment by trying to load an IOS obtained from someone other than Cisco?

Worst case -- your router melts downs, burst into flames, and takes your house with it. And you burn in hell for all eternity. <notice -- no smiliey here> But that's the absolute worst case scenario.

The 2nd to worst possibility would be getting a bad image file and have to reload a backup of your original IOS file using XMODEM.

Webmaster wrote:

From a Cisco reseller, or another used router for example. Any 'free' download methods are illegal, and should not be discussed in these forums. That's why it is so important to buy used routers with a proper IOS version, because buying the software afterwards is more expensive than the typical used router.

IOS downloading -- don't ask, don't tell.

AlanJames

I installed this last week actually.

It runs quite well once you've sourced an IOS image.

The only issue I had was that it likes to eat PC resources, My CPU utilisation stayed at 100%

dtlokee

AlanJames wrote:

I installed this last week actually.

It runs quite well once you've sourced an IOS image.

The only issue I had was that it likes to eat PC resources, My CPU utilisation stayed at 100%

Check into the idlepc value, if you get it set correctly your CPU utilization will drop to nothing for the routers you are running.

bowlersp

i got it to work. it is incredible. never will i waste my money again purchasing equipment!! this is going to be a great journey towards the ccnp. thanks for all your help.

dynamik

bowlersp wrote:

i got it to work. it is incredible. never will i waste my money again purchasing equipment!! this is going to be a great journey towards the ccnp. thanks for all your help.

I believe you still have to "waste you money" on switches though

http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=28910

Glad you got it up and running. It looks like an great solution for people who don't want to go the hardware route.

networker050184

Dynamips is a great sudy resource but by no means a replacement for real gear, especialy if you have never worked with the real stuff. I guess if you never plan on working with the hardware or cabling then Dynamips is all you need Yes you do need switches still. You can do some switching stuff with nm-16esw modules, but not nearly enough functionality out of that for any exam.

r_durant

I figure if you have at least worked with equipment, or during your CCNA (or Cisco) study you had practice on physical equipment (and would have cabled the equipment yourself), you should be ok using dynamips "only" for the BSCI, now for BCMSN is a different kettle of fish altogether...