Boson simulator feedback

For those of you who have the Boson simulator (where you can configure virtual routers/switches), do you like it? I know having your own equipment is the best, but for those on an extremely limited budget, do you think it's a suitable substitute in order to get some lab experience?

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Mojo_666

Dr_Atomic wrote: »

For those of you who have the Boson simulator (where you can configure virtual routers/switches), do you like it? I know having your own equipment is the best, but for those on an extremely limited budget, do you think it's a suitable substitute in order to get some lab experience?

I plan on using this later tonight, although I have my own lab I want something "else" where I can just go over and over the commands.

I will let you know how I find it.

networker050184

I think you'd be better of with Dynamips than that.

peanutnoggin

networker050184 wrote: »

I think you'd be better of with Dynamips than that.

+1

When it comes to dynamips, I say... to each's own!! But in your case Dr_Atomic, I would suggest dynamips over a Boson simulator. Again, this is your opinion... something is better than nothing so your choice. Good luck

-Peanut

Geetar28

I have the simulator. My company bought it (its overpriced in my opinion). it is nice to be able to throw together a simple topology really quickly...which you can do with GNS3 as well for free. The tough part is gettting a hold of IOS images...

The thing i noticed with the Boson sim. was that it worked fine for very small topo's ie 2 routers 2 switch type things...but when you build it out bigger its flakey. especially the routing protocols...I would configure something and just know that it should work ...but the route table wouldn't reflect the change sometimes for 3-5 minutes if at all. I would work up the same scenario, change nothing some time later on, and it would work fine. It would mess with your head in that you would think you messed up and you really didn't. So it's not real trustworthy in my opinion.

I'm trying to get going with dynamips right now myself. Trying to get it setup with my external switches (found a YouTube post that shows you how...just haven't had a lot of time to give it a go.) I'm not sure if running dynamips will be more reliable... Odom has a real good post about his "dynamips journey" Tis the Season? for Buying my Dynamips PC | NetworkWorld.com Community good stuff...

Dr_Atomic

Geetar28 wrote: »

I have the simulator. My company bought it (its overpriced in my opinion). it is nice to be able to throw together a simple topology really quickly...which you can do with GNS3 as well for free. The tough part is gettting a hold of IOS images...

The thing i noticed with the Boson sim. was that it worked fine for very small topo's ie 2 routers 2 switch type things...but when you build it out bigger its flakey. especially the routing protocols...I would configure something and just know that it should work ...but the route table wouldn't reflect the change sometimes for 3-5 minutes if at all. I would work up the same scenario, change nothing some time later on, and it would work fine. It would mess with your head in that you would think you messed up and you really didn't. So it's not real trustworthy in my opinion.

I'm trying to get going with dynamips right now myself. Trying to get it setup with my external switches (found a YouTube post that shows you how...just haven't had a lot of time to give it a go.) I'm not sure if running dynamips will be more reliable... Odom has a real good post about his "dynamips journey" Tis the Season? for Buying my Dynamips PC | NetworkWorld.com Community good stuff...

I looked at Odom's site on Dynamips - since I'm not familiar with it, it was a bit over my head. It seems that this program works in conjunction with real hardware vs. something like Boson, which is solely a simulator in itself? My whole reason for gravitating to Boson was to not have to shell out $$$ for hardware and to avoid the costs/time limitations of rack rentals. It is a bummer that Boson seems to be buggy with anything more than a basic topology.

Is there some material somewhere explaining Dynamips to someone not familar with it?

burbankmarc

Dr_Atomic wrote: »

Is there some material somewhere explaining Dynamips to someone not familar with it?

The easiest way is to just get the newest version of GNS3, .7 I think. Then you just need an IOS image.

I could be wrong but I think the newest version of GNS3 auto assigns idle PC values so you don't have to worry about that.

That and it's graphical nature makes it easy to get start started for those jumping into the dynamips world.

tanix

Dr_Atomic wrote: »

I looked at Odom's site on Dynamips - since I'm not familiar with it, it was a bit over my head. It seems that this program works in conjunction with real hardware vs. something like Boson, which is solely a simulator in itself? My whole reason for gravitating to Boson was to not have to shell out $$$ for hardware and to avoid the costs/time limitations of rack rentals. It is a bummer that Boson seems to be buggy with anything more than a basic topology.

Is there some material somewhere explaining Dynamips to someone not familar with it?

Kind of, you can route anything into it (dynamips) virtual or physical device. The main difference is that Boson's is more of a simulator, not an emulator. Think of Bosons more like someone who developed a software program that attempts to act like the devices, while dynamips is an actual emulator that runs the IOS of the various models they support. More specifically, you will see all that the IOS has to offer in Dynamips (though some things may not function) while with Boson, you will only see what they designed it to have which means some functions or commands may not even be present.

A lot of people use GNS3 which is basically a GUI application that works with Dynamips, but will have less capability. Once you learn Dynamips (which is pretty much just a CLI system), you can use GNS3 to setup your topologies graphically and then switch to Dynamips to gain the speed and power.

Do some looking around the net for Dynamip configuration, there are tons of videos and sites out there that will walk you though it step by step.

The only limitation of Dynamips is that you need the actual IOS to run a certain device, though that in itself is one of the reasons why it is better, its actually running the IOS, not simulating it.

Dr_Atomic

tanix wrote: »

The only limitation of Dynamips is that you need the actual IOS to run a certain device, though that in itself is one of the reasons why it is better, its actually running the IOS, not simulating it.

What is the best way to get the IOS one would need for a particular device for Dynamips?

ColbyG

emulator > simulator

Simulators' functionality is limited to what's been coded into it. Emulators have the full functionality of the IOS one loads.

chmorin

burbankmarc wrote: »

The easiest way is to just get the newest version of GNS3, .7 I think. Then you just need an IOS image.

I could be wrong but I think the newest version of GNS3 auto assigns idle PC values so you don't have to worry about that.

That and it's graphical nature makes it easy to get start started for those jumping into the dynamips world.

GNS3 is great for routing simulations, but it lacks in the switching department. It is worth the day or so of 'sit down, figure it out' time to get it working properly. It is useful for helping with alot of routing protocols. It does have it quirks though, any emulator will. However, none of them are very significant and not really noticeable. The only real significant thing that bugs me is an inability to send different vlan traffic out the physical interface. But it is better than nothing, and it is free.

Easily tons better than packet tracer.

networker050184

chmorin wrote: »

The only real significant thing that bugs me is an inability to send different vlan traffic out the physical interface.

What do you mean by this? I've never had any issues with tagged traffic on there and I've been doing quite a bit of testing with it lately.

chmorin

networker050184 wrote: »

What do you mean by this? I've never had any issues with tagged traffic on there and I've been doing quite a bit of testing with it lately.

3725 with voice -> Cloud to my NIC -> Switch -> Phone

I was never able to get trunking to work properly leaving the physical into the emulated. To be honest, I never really tinkered with it that much. I just left everything on native and kept it simple to practice phone configurations. Now I have the real hardware, so I really gave up testing it.

networker050184

chmorin wrote: »

3725 with voice -> Cloud to my NIC -> Switch -> Phone

I was never able to get trunking to work properly leaving the physical into the emulated. To be honest, I never really tinkered with it that much. I just left everything on native and kept it simple to practice phone configurations. Now I have the real hardware, so I really gave up testing it.

Should work fine as long as you have it set up correctly.

tanix

Dr_Atomic wrote: »

What is the best way to get the IOS one would need for a particular device for Dynamips?

Well, with a guest account you can pick up some of the older model IOS directly from CISCO. Read the license terms concerning them, technically you aren't supposed to use it for that purpose, but read around the board, there is discussion concerning it.

As for the newer IOS images, they may require a service contract or special access account.

There are other ways as well, just search the net.

Cyanic

I talked to the guys at the Boson booth at Live. They knew all about GNS3 and were not too happy that I brought it up. Then they gave me some pitch about how they are improving their product and how using GNS3 violates Cisco licensing.

burbankmarc

Cyanic wrote: »

I talked to the guys at the Boson booth at Live. They knew all about GNS3 and were not too happy that I brought it up. Then they gave me some pitch about how they are improving their product and how using GNS3 violates Cisco licensing.

You see if I were boson I'd take GNS3 and run with it. AFAIK dynamips is all opensource so they could build a more professional GUI ontop of it and fix all the bugs. Also, maybe they could add support for more devices.

Cyanic

Oh one other thing, I took a lab there that was running on a virtual network. Sh ver displayed a string that contained "Solaris" and the instructor said that it was indeed a virtual network running on a Solaris server. The trainer was from FireFly and this is what they use in their training courses. It was an official Cisco made Dynamips or similar. I asked if there was anyway to get my hands on it or if Cisco planned on releasing it, he laughed and said no.