Ubuntu and GNS3

I am trying to save some money by using GNS3 on weekdays and real equipment on weekends.
I installed GNS3v0.7.1 on my Win7 64bit. It runs fine, but from time to time the console(putty) crashes on particular router. So I decided to install Ubuntu 10.04 x64, and installed GNS3. I followed this guy's installation, and so far so good.

My question is how do I use teraterm or may be putty as my console for GNS3 Ubuntu?
And for GNS3 users here, what OS do you use?

Thanks

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Comments

stuh84

GNS3 is just an overlay for Dynamips, so whatever ports each router is posted on, you should just be able to telnet to them, like so: -

telnet localhost 2001

Just open up the terminal and try it from there.

As for the OS's I use? Fedora 12 has been what I used to get me through the BSCI exam on the CCNP, I used Ubuntu 8.04 for the CCNA, and I'm hoping in future I can start using ESXi if I get a powerful enough server, and run it within a CentOS VM.

Bear in mind, I'm doing this ALL in Dynamips though, I don't use GNS3 by choice.

thehourman

How would I know the routers' port numbers?

stuh84

Check the .net file, or open up a terminal and do the following

netstat -an | grep -i 200
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:2001 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:2002 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:2003 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:2004 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:7200 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN

The first 4 in my list are the ports of the routers.

Alternatively, learn dynagen and dynamips rather than GNS3, then you aren't relying on what the GUI does, only what you configure.

JSK

On my Ubuntu machine I use Minicom as my console application. It works pretty good. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Minicom

stuh84

JSK wrote: »

On my Ubuntu machine I use Minicom as my console application. It works pretty good. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Minicom

Minicom is for physical devices though if I'm not mistaken, this is for emulated routers.

thehourman

I need to learn how to use a Linux OS.

spartangtr

I use roxterm, really liked the tab browsing.

Changing GNS3 terminal window. #IT_terror.

stuh84

If using the GUI version of Ubuntu, it has tabbed terminals by default anyway, Ctrl+Shift+T opens one up. Just a heads up in case you didn't already know.

thehourman

spartangtr wrote: »

I use roxterm, really liked the tab browsing.

Changing GNS3 terminal window. #IT_terror.

OK Thanks, I will try that later today; I am going to hit the books first.

@stuh84,
Thanks, I did not know that.

burbankmarc

stuh84 wrote: »

I'm hoping in future I can start using ESXi if I get a powerful enough server, and run it within a CentOS VM.

Not to derail the thread or anything, but why use vmware when the Xen kernel works really well?

stuh84

burbankmarc wrote: »

Not to derail the thread or anything, but why use vmware when the Xen kernel works really well?

Main reason is because VMWare has such a foothold in the corporate world, I want to get involved in it so I have some experience of it.

Plus, I've been using VMWare desktop (Fusion, Player, Server) and Workstation versions for years, so I have a lot of VMs already that while I dont use all the time, it would be nice to just chuck them on and boot them up without any conversion etc.

thehourman

stuh84 wrote: »

Main reason is because VMWare has such a foothold in the corporate world, I want to get involved in it so I have some experience of it.

Plus, I've been using VMWare desktop (Fusion, Player, Server) and Workstation versions for years, so I have a lot of VMs already that while I dont use all the time, it would be nice to just chuck them on and boot them up without any conversion etc.

Speaking of VMware, the VMware player(free one), if I run ubuntu on it would I be able to run GNS3 under virtual machine?
I am thinking of doing it uesterday, but what I have installed is VirtualBox, and it is kind of slow.
Is VMware player runs smoother than VirtualBox?

stuh84

thehourman wrote: »

Speaking of VMware, the VMware player(free one), if I run ubuntu on it would I be able to run GNS3 under virtual machine?
I am thinking of doing it uesterday, but what I have installed is VirtualBox, and it is kind of slow.
Is VMware player runs smoother than VirtualBox?

You would be able to do that, but you are then limiting what GNS3 can use in terms of resources to how you have set the VM. I have a server I use which is almost dedicated to Dynamips, if at all possible it would be a better route to have a box which does Dynamips alone, or at least not much else (I'm using an laptop with a broken screen, but it has a C2D and 2GB of ram, perfect for the task at the moment).

thehourman

The reason I asked is that, I don't like the Gnome bootloader. I simply can't restarting my PC and switching between two OSes. And I don't have the cash for dedicated dynamips server. I don't even know how to use it. lol.
I have spent all my tax money on my lab equipments. The only reason why I am learning GNS3 is, so that I can save up some money by reducing my electric bill.
Money is really tight for me these past few months.

stuh84

thehourman wrote: »

The reason I asked is that, I don't like the Gnome bootloader. I simply can't restarting my PC and switching between two OSes. And I don't have the cash for dedicated dynamips server. I don't even know how to use it. lol.
I have spent all my tax money on my lab equipments. The only reason why I am learning GNS3 is, so that I can save up some money by reducing my electric bill.
Money is really tight for me these past few months.

Yeah I know what you mean, I've not got a lot myself due to now having a mortgage, what I use for servers and the like are hand-me-downs. Maybe keep an eye out to see if anyone is getting rid of their old laptop or something? Even a Core Duo can run a good 10 routers if you set it up right.

I think as long as you dedicate enough resources to the VM though (and if the VM can use multi-core processors) you may be onto a winner.

thehourman

I already setup the VMware player and installed Ubuntu 10.04 64bit.
One more question, a minutes ago I could control my mouse back and forth on Windows and VMware(Ubuntu) without using hotkeys. And now for some reason, if I want to go back to Windows, I have to use ctrl+alt to exit the VMware window.
What should I do to go back to previous settings?
EDIT: A simple VMware restart fixed the problem.

How do I share my files from Windows 7 to VMware Ubuntu?

stuh84

Look into Samba, you may be able to use Samba on Ubuntu enough to do what you need.

thehourman

Thanks, samba works.
I can't seem to change the file if the file is originated from Windows to Ubuntu, but from Ubuntu to windows, I can do anything.

burbankmarc

make sure your smbpasswd is set and your windows user is a user on your linux machine.

thehourman

burbankmarc wrote: »

make sure your smbpasswd is set and your windows user is a user on your linux machine.

Ok cool.

To all,
Thanks a lot guys.
My GNS3 seems to be working pretty well with my VMware.
The specs of my VMware is: 2 cores of my CPU, 3GB of RAM, and 7GB HDD.
When I opened 12 routers, it ran smoother than my Win7, and the consoles did not drop like on Win7. When everything is running Ubuntu's sys monitor says that both core are running at 100%, and the RAM is about 75%.

Man, I am really happy now. I do have my mini-practice lab now.

EDIT:
That ROXterm works like a charm, love it.

Also, I remember some here posted a new terminal emulator that is similar to ROXterm or may be it was ROXterm(can't remember).
Does anyone know where that thread is?

bermovick

That's pretty impressive. I have troubles opening 4-5 routers in windows. I'll have to work more on getting my linux partition operational. Sticking point right now seems to be decoding the cbtnuggets videos & google searches looks like that's a pretty major problem for lots of people

burbankmarc

bermovick wrote: »

That's pretty impressive. I have troubles opening 4-5 routers in windows. I'll have to work more on getting my linux partition operational. Sticking point right now seems to be decoding the cbtnuggets videos & google searches looks like that's a pretty major problem for lots of people

I've read in a few places that you can play the cbtnuggets in mplayer. You just need to get the good, bad, and ugly codecs for it.

thehourman

bermovick wrote: »

That's pretty impressive. I have troubles opening 4-5 routers in windows. I'll have to work more on getting my linux partition operational. Sticking point right now seems to be decoding the cbtnuggets videos & google searches looks like that's a pretty major problem for lots of people

That was my problem, I could not open more than 5 routers. When I opened the 6th router, the the console would drop. And GNS3 devoured my system resources. That was the only reason why I installed Ubuntu(dual boot).
However, under VMware player, everything seems to run the way I wanted them to run. Therefore, I just deleted my Ubuntu partition, and rewrite my bootloader to get rid of that grub bootloader.

JSK

stuh84 wrote: »

Minicom is for physical devices though if I'm not mistaken, this is for emulated routers.

Hmm, I think you are right. I was assuming that it is possible to create a loopback interface in Linux and just point Minicom to that interface. But I've not been able to find any information that supports this.

thehourman

How do I make my router act like a switch on GNS3?

I used the 3640 with 16SW module, and I couldn't make a vlan the way I want to.
Do I have make a vlan under privilege mode and using the vlan database command?

How come the guy from youtube can use the show vlan command on his GNS3 router?
I tried to use the sh vlan command and it says Ambiguous command.

QHalo

Honestly I'd just **** GNS3. If your topology is static its much easier to just create a net file and use that.

stuh84

thehourman wrote: »

How do I make my router act like a switch on GNS3?

I used the 3640 with 16SW module, and I couldn't make a vlan the way I want to.
Do I have make a vlan under privilege mode and using the vlan database command?

How come the guy from youtube can use the show vlan command on his GNS3 router?
I tried to use the sh vlan command and it says Ambiguous command.

When in enable mode, use the vlan database command

mikej412

thehourman wrote: »

I tried to use the sh vlan command and it says Ambiguous command.

For the NM-16ESW module use the show vlan-switch command instead.

I have a real NM-16ESW module -- works great in the home network, but I don't even bother with it when working with the home Cisco Lab.

spartangtr

bermovick wrote: »

That's pretty impressive. I have troubles opening 4-5 routers in windows. I'll have to work more on getting my linux partition operational. Sticking point right now seems to be decoding the cbtnuggets videos & google searches looks like that's a pretty major problem for lots of people

Yea, I was able to get about 7-8 routers going in windows 7 without eating up too much resources but GNS3 seemed buggy. Half the routers I would put in my topology the console didn't work right and I'd spend more time just trying to get all the routers console lines to work than actually labbing.

Finally put Ubuntu 10.04 on my desktop. I've tried 12 routers without a hitch, CPU didn't even hit 50%. Haven't had a single problem. I do like Windows 7 but I now mainly use Ubuntu. It's slick.

As far as CBTnuggets goes, I just converted those to MP4.

chmorin

thehourman wrote: »

I am trying to save some money by using GNS3 on weekdays and real equipment on weekends.
I installed GNS3v0.7.1 on my Win7 64bit. It runs fine, but from time to time the console(putty) crashes on particular router. So I decided to install Ubuntu 10.04 x64, and installed GNS3. I followed this guy's installation, and so far so good.

My question is how do I use teraterm or may be putty as my console for GNS3 Ubuntu?
And for GNS3 users here, what OS do you use?

Thanks

I run GNS3 on Win7 x64 with no problems. I used to run it on XP, and I had more problems then. All I have to do to configure it is make sure all the paths are correct and make sure I have IdlePC configured.