Dynamips - Ghostios and Sparsemem

kpjungle

Hi,

Ive searched the forums along with googled my way through documentation, but with no dice on this problem with dynamips.

After reading that people use the Ghostios and Sparsemem configuration commands with Dynamips/Dynagen to improve performance, I have tried them out, but with poor results.

In almost all the labs I build, when i start up dynagen with them, it never gets done loading the images, it just gets stuck in the Dynamips server window. Ive tried leaving it for up to 20 minutes, to see if it ever got through, but it didnt.
Anyone else experiencing this?

miller811

kpjungle wrote:

Hi,

Ive searched the forums along with googled my way through documentation, but with no dice on this problem with dynamips.

After reading that people use the Ghostios and Sparsemem configuration commands with Dynamips/Dynagen to improve performance, I have tried them out, but with poor results.

In almost all the labs I build, when i start up dynagen with them, it never gets done loading the images, it just gets stuck in the Dynamips server window. Ive tried leaving it for up to 20 minutes, to see if it ever got through, but it didnt. Im using a 3640 uncompressed image.

Anyone else experiencing this?

I never could get Dynamips alone to work. I actually have a house full of hardware (13 routers )that rarely get used. I downloaded GNS3 and run it with no problem. It really makes it simple to change configs. I typically runs 3 routers in the labs I am running, but have run 7-8 with no problem.

There are plenty of DOCs available that will walk you through the download, to operational state using GNS3. That is how I finally got it working. The doc also showed how to add a loopback on you PC to allow access to the routers locally, which is working great for me on the ISCW prep using SDM iwth dynamips.

I have a P4 with 3 Gigs of RAM.

networker050184

In your net files use:

sparsemem = true
ghostios = true

It really makes a HUGE difference. I can run about 10 routers with 1.9 ghz and 2gb ram.

To keep it from getting stuck use:

autostart = false

then you can start them one by one which will allow you to get more running.

Good luck!

kpjungle

Thanks,

It would seem that the autostart = false command did the trick, the labs can now start, and i can boot the routers one at a time.