GNS3 with real hardware

chmorin

So I'm trying to piece together a voice lab, and I have a question I cant seem to find an answer for.

Say I have my CME router on a computer running in GNS3. That router is connected virtually to the network adapter, so the router could ping the computer it resides within. The router would need to be on a trunked interface on a physical switch it is attached to, but the computer needs to be on an access interface. How can I enable it so my computer 'is' the router.

Typing that, I had an idea...

chmorin

Well the idea didn't work. I just tried making the line a trunk anyway. I just got a whole bunch of errors. No surprise there.

hypnotoad

Yes, you can use a Dynamips (GNS3) router for CME and connect real world hardware to it. The key is the bridge the Dynamips adapter to the correct Windows physical adapter. Take a look at this article:

PersianAdmins - Config Cisco Routers for Call Manager

The downside to all this is that there's no way to simulate FXO/FXS in software.

Specifically, take a look at his GNS3 .net file:

Lab for dynamips :

[localhost]
ROUTER R1
image = \Program Files\Dynamips\images\c3725-ipvoice-mz.123-14.T7.bin
ram = 160
disk0 = 64
disk1 = 64
model = 3725
idlepc = 0x60a6ce04
F0/0 = NIO_gen_eth:\Device\NPF_{45BB7A21-B13A-45BC-AC74-27F694FC0AC7}

Check the GNS3 documentation on how to match up your virtual F0/0 port to the correct physical port in Windows.

tiersten

Using dynamips to emulate a router for voice labs isn't ideal because you can't put FXS/FXO cards in as hypnotoad said and you won't have any DSPs either. Most people who have a VoIP lab do it with real hardware for those reasons.