GNS3 is a graphical network simulator that allows simulation of complex networks.
To provide complete and accurate simulations, GNS3 is strongly linked with:
- Dynamips, a Cisco IOS emulator.
- Dynagen, a text-based front end for Dynamips.
- Qemu, a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer.
- VirtualBox, a free and powerful virtualization software.
GNS3 is an excellent complementary tool to real labs for network engineers, administrators and people wanting to study for certifications such as Cisco CCNA, CCNP, CCIP and CCIE as well as Juniper JNCIA, JNCIS and JNCIE.
It can also be used to experiment features of Cisco IOS, Juniper JunOS or to check configurations that need to be deployed later on real routers.
Thanks to VirtualBox integration, now even system engineers and administrators can take advantage of GNS3 to make labs and study for Redhat (RHCE, RHCT), Microsoft (MSCE, MSCA), Novell (CLP) and many other vendor certifications.
This project is an open source, free program that may be used on multiple operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and MacOS X.
Features overview
Important notice: users have to provide their own IOS/IPS/PIX/ASA/JunOS to use in their labs with GNS3.
GNS3 0.8.3 released BY JEREMY, ON JULY 12TH, 2012
New features
- Option to freely use the first VBox interface inside VMs (i.e. eth0 on Linux).
- New base configuration (startup-config) for devices with NM-16ESW (named baseconfig_sw.txt).
- Console and headless mode support for VirtualBox devices.
- Embedded console/terminal server to access VirtualBox VM consoles using Telnet.
- Support for drag & drop of topology files inside GNS3.
- Double quote support for Qemu options and ASA kernel/initrd command lines.
- Import & export for GNS3 configuration file (gns3.ini).
- Global TCP port tracker to allocate ports and avoid conflicts (console + AUX ports for IOS routers and console ports for Qemu-like/VirtualBox devices are tracked).
- Scripts for using consoles with VBox VMs (Windows only).
- Backup nvram export when Dynamips has crashed.
- New command line option for patched Putty on Windows (for details: http://forum.gns3.net/topic4859-20.html).
- Experimental live pipe capture (Windows only).
- Option (activated by default) to use the VirtualBox VM names to name VirtualBox devices in GNS3.
- Complete IPv6 support (with correct functions).
- Support for binding on specific addresses when loading a topology.
- Option to track opened node consoles in order to close them when the node gets deleted.
- New Dynamips 0.2.8-RC4 community (full IPv6 support), only included in Windows all-in-one package for now.
- A patched putty is included (Windows packages). Details here
Fixes and other improvements:
- Fixed issue when saving as a project.
- Workaround: sparse memory feature is not activated on c2600 and c1700 platforms because Dynamips can freeze after IOS restarts (Windows only).
- Added Idle PC help button to gives some hints how to get good idle pc values.
- Prevent tail processes staying in memory after stopping captures.
- Fixed/improved some console command lines (SecureCRT, TeraTerm, Putty).
- Fixed issue when connecting recent Qemu (new -net syntax) to other non-Qemu devices.
- Fixed vboxwrapper loading issue for DMG version on OSX.
- Fixed rpcap interface name parsing on Windows.
- Improved securecrt.vbs to “press” a enter into the device console to show the prompt.
- Modified default IOS startup-config (baseconfig.txt).
- Handle connection lost during Idle pc calculation.
- Warn users if their working directories are not accessible and/or writable.
- Allow dash and brackets for device hostnames.
- Option to clear stopped captures from the captures dock.
- Italian and Chinese translations updated.
- Fixed bug that prevented loading topologies with non-existing IOS paths.
- Some minor fixes for recent files menu (add saved file paths, order, non existing path entries are removed etc.).
- New key shortcuts for object rotation (notes, ellipses, rectangles). ALT and + (or P) / ALT and – (or M).
- Removed default shell execution for console programs.
- Default delay between each device start when starting all devices is now 1 second.
- Auto-increment base AUX port for external hypervisors.
- MessageBox “Object moved to a background layer …” is now displayed only once by execution.
- Fixed issue when starting a capture on a node without any links (!)
- Fixed problem with version comparison in “Check for Update” feature.
- Fixed multi-window opening issue with snapshot dialog.
- Added recent files button for the project window.
- Press escape to stop adding a link.
- Detect old GNS3 configuration and ask user to clear it.
- Fixed minor issues with the Ethernet Switch.
- Prevent capture for Pemu and decorative nodes.
- Show VirtualBox version in ver command.
- Support for more characters (e.g. #) in annotations.
- New wrappers installation directory on Linux.
- Prevent to use the same VBox VM multiple times.
- Check that the first 10 ports of every TCP base are free to use when testing the settings in preferences.
- Fixed minor issue with path normalization on Windows.
- Time reference for debugs, auto saving messages and logged exceptions.
- Log file dynagen_exception.log has been renamed import_exception.log (date + GNS3 version is added into the file).
- Command ‘show ports’ to display all port allocations.
- NVRAM configuration extractor utility for Windows.
- Smarter handling of errors when starting/stopping/suspending all nodes.
- Do not show special cursors when a rectangle or ellipse is on the background layer.
- Qemuwrapper base UDP has been changed from 20000 to 40000.
- Qemuwrapper base console has been changed from 3000 to 3001.
- VBoxwrapper base console has been changed from 3900 to 3501.
Download -
Windows
New users to GNS3, it is recommended to download the all-in-one package below.
- GNS3 v0.8.3 all-in-one (installer which includes Dynamips, Qemu/Pemu, Putty, VPCS, WinPCAP and Wireshark)
- GNS3 v0.8.3 standalone 32-bit (archive that includes Dynamips, Qemu/Pemu, Putty, VPCS)
- GNS3 v0.8.3 standalone 64-bit (Windows 64-bit only, archive that includes Dynamips, Qemu/Pemu, Putty, VPCS)
Mac OS X
Sources
Visit WebsITE -
Documentation -
Screenshot-
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