After some years, it’s time again to prepare for my next CCNP re-certification. I was pleasantly surprised that running full-featured Cisco L2 p_w_picpaths is now made entirely possible with the new “IOS on Unix (IOU)” function on GNS3. I documented my new setup here according to the GNS3 v1.5.2 running on a Windows x64 host.
You’ll need to get hold of the following files beforehand:
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Cisco IOU L2 and L3 p_w_picpaths (by Googling)
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Cisco IOU license file iourc (see this forum discussion)
Once you have obtained the above files, you can now proceed with the following steps:
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Download and install the all-in-one GNS binaries from gns3.com
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Download the GNS3 VM OVF p_w_picpath as well. Ensure that the version of both GNS server and the OVF p_w_picpath must match i.e. 1.5.2 in this case.
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Download and install either VMWare Workstation Player or Oracle VirtualBox in your host.
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Import the GNS3 VM OVF into either virtualization software and start running it. Ensure that at least one network interface is of NAT type (enabled by default)
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Note down the IP address stated on the screen on the GNS3 VM.
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Start GNS3 and go to Edit | Preferences
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Edit the path to vmrun for VMWare or the path to VBoxManage for VirtualBox.
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Go to Server | Remote Servers. Add the new remote server with the IP address noted in step 5 above. You should see something similar as follows: cdn.com/mpr/mpr/shrinknp_800_800/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAf0AAAAJGZhNDNkMmYwLTJlMzktNDRmMy04M2Y2LTRkMzBiYjRjYjY1Zg.png”>
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Click on IOS on Unix. Edit to the path to the iourc license file that you have prepared. Click the Apply button.
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Click on the IOU Devices below it. Click the New button.
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Add the L3 and L2 devices by browsing to the IOU p_w_picpath files that you have downloaded beforehand.
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Drag and drop the new devices that you just added. Test out the L2 commands (e.g. switchport, spanning-tree etc) on the consoles.
Note: if you are unable to start the new IOU devices, you may need to modify the hostname on your GNS3 VM according to your iourc file content. For example:
gns3@gns3-vm~#sudo hostnamectl set-hostname gns3-iouvm
gns3@gns3-vm~#bash
