Cisco 1700 Series
1700s have one or more interfaces on the motherboard, 2 subslots for WICs (excepting on 1710s), an no NM slots.
1710
- 1 FastEthernet and 1 Ethernet fixed ports (CISCO1710-MB-1FE-1E).
- WIC slots: 0
- Note that interfaces do not use a slot designation (e.g. “f0”)
1720, 1721 and 1750
- 1 FastEthernet fixed port (C1700-MB-1ETH).
- WIC slots: 2 (maximum of 2 Ethernet ports or 4 serial ports).
- Note that interfaces do not use a slot designation (e.g. “f0”)
1751 and 1760
- 1 FastEthernet fixed port (C1700-MB-1ETH).
- WIC slots: 2 (maximum of 2 Ethernet ports or 4 serial ports).
WIC cards
Cisco 2600 Series
2600s have one or more interfaces on the motherboard, 2 subslots for WICs and 1 Network Module (NM) slot.
2610
- 1 Ethernet fixed port (CISCO2600-MB-1E).
- NM slots: 1 (maximum of 4 Ethernet ports or 16 FastEthernet ports).
- WIC slots: 3 (maximum of 6 serial ports).
2611
- 2 Ethernet fixed ports (CISCO2600-MB-2E).
- NM slots: 1 (maximum of 4 Ethernet ports or 16 FastEthernet ports).
- WIC slots: 3 (maximum of 6 serial ports).
2610XM, 2620, 2620XM and 2650XM
- 1 FastEthernet fixed port (CISCO2600-MB-1FE).
- NM slots: 1 (maximum of 4 Ethernet ports or 16 FastEthernet ports).
- WIC slots: 3 (maximum of 6 serial ports).
2611XM, 2621, 2621XM and 2651XM
- 2 FastEthernet fixed ports (CISCO2600-MB-2FE).
- NM slots: 1 (maximum of 4 Ethernet ports or 16 FastEthernet ports).
- WIC slots: 3 (maximum of 6 serial ports).
Network Modules
- NM-1E (1 Ethernet port)
- NM-4E (4 Ethernet ports)
- NM-1FE-TX (1 FastEthernet port)
- NM-16ESW (switch module: 16 FastEthernet ports)
- NM-NAM (Network Analysis Module, not working).
- NM-IDS (IDS Network Module, not working).
WIC cards
Cisco 3600 Series
3600s have 2 to 6 Network Module (NM) slots.
3620
- NM slots: 2 (maximum of 8 Ethernet ports, 32 FastEthernet ports or 8 serial ports).
3640
- NM slots: 4 (maximum of 16 Ethernet ports, 32 FastEthernet ports or 16 serial ports).
3660
- 2 FastEthernet fixed ports (Leopard-2FE).
- NM slots: 6 (maximum of 24 Ethernet ports, 32 FastEthernet ports or 24 serial ports).
Network Modules
- NM-1E (1 Ethernet port)
- NM-4E (4 Ethernet ports)
- NM-1FE-TX (1 FastEthernet port)
- NM-16ESW (switch module: 16 FastEthernet ports, maximum of 2 modules per router)
- NM-4T (4 serial ports)
Cisco 3700 Series
3700s have 2 FastEthernet interfaces on the motherboard, 3 subslots for WICs and 1 to 4 Network Module (NM) slots.
2691
- 2 FastEthernet fixed ports (GT96100-FE)
- NM slots: 1 (maximum of 16 FastEthernet ports or 4 serial ports).
- WIC slots: 3 (maximum of 6 serial ports).
- Note: the 2691 is essentially a 3700 with 1 NM slot.
3725
- 2 FastEthernet fixed ports (GT96100-FE)
- NM slots: 2 (maximum of 32 FastEthernet ports or 8 serial ports).
- WIC slots: 3 (maximum of 6 serial ports).
3745
- 2 FastEthernet fixed ports (GT96100-FE)
- NM slots: 4 (maximum of 32 FastEthernet ports or 16 serial ports).
- WIC slots: 3 (maximum of 6 serial ports).
Network Modules
- NM-1FE-TX (1 FastEthernet port)
- NM-16ESW (switch module: 16 FastEthernet ports, maximum of 2 modules per router)
- NM-4T (4 serial ports)
- NM-NAM (Network Analysis Module, not working).
- NM-IDS (IDS Network Module, not working).
WIC cards
Cisco 7200 Series
7200s have a different architecture. Only the 7206 is supported, it has 6 Port Adapters (PA) slots.
7206
- PA slots: 6
- Note: VXR chassis, NPE-400 and C7200-IO-FE are the default in GNS3.
Chassis types
- STD
- VXR
Network Processing Engines (NPEs)
- NPE-100
- NPE-150
- NPE-175
- NPE-200
- NPE-225
- NPE-300
- NPE-400
- NPE-G2 (requires the use of NPE-G2 c7200p IOS images)
Input/Output Controllers
Can be inserted into slot 0 only.
- C7200-IO-FE (1 FastEthernet port)
- C7200-IO-2FE (2 FastEthernet ports)
- C7200-IO-GE-E (1 GigabitEthernet port, Ethernet port is not functional)
Port Adapters
Online Insertion and Removal (OIR) is supported, allowing you to replace PAs while the router is running.
- PA-FE-TX (1 FastEthernet port)
- PA-2FE-TX (2 FastEthernet ports)
- PA-4E (4 Ethernet ports)
- PA-8E (8 Ethernet ports)
- PA-4T+ (4 serial ports)
- PA-8T (8 serial ports)
- PA-A1 (1 ATM port)
- PA-POS-OC3 (1 Packet-Over-SONET port)
- PA-GE (1 GigabitEthernet port)
Cisco Catalyst Switches
At this moment, it is not possible to emulate Catalyst switches with Dynamips/GNS3. This is due to the impossibility to emulate ASIC processors used in those type of devices. However you can use the EtherSwitch module with 2600s, 3600s and 3700s Series. Keep in mind that this module works differently (uses the vlan database etc.) and doesn’t support the following features:
- Access Switch Device Manager (SDM) Template
- ACL – Improved Merging Algorithm
- ARP Optimization
- BGP Increased Support of Numbered as-path Access Lists to 500
- BGP Restart Neighbor Session After max-prefix Limit Reached
- BGP Route-Map Continue Support for Outbound Policy
- Clear Counters Per Port
- DHCP Snooping
- DHCP Snooping Counters
- Diagnotics Options on bootup
- ErrDisable Reactivation Per Port
- ErrDisable timeout
- EtherChannel – Flexible PAgP
- Etherchannel Guard
- Fallback Bridging
- Flex Link Bi-directional Fast Convergence
- Flex Link VLAN Load-Balancing
- Flex Links Interface Preemption
- GOLD – Generic Online Diagnostics
- IEEE 802.1ab, Link Layer Discovery Protocol
- IEEE 802.1s – Multiple Spanning Tree (MST) Standard Compliance
- IEEE 802.1s VLAN Multiple Spanning Trees
- IEEE 802.1t
- IEEE 802.1W Spanning Tree Rapid Reconfiguration
- IEEE 802.1x – Auth Fail Open
- IEEE 802.1x – Auth Fail VLAN
- IEEE 802.1x – VLAN Assignment
- IEEE 802.1x – Wake on LAN Support
- IEEE 802.1X Multi-Domain Authentication
- IEEE 802.1x RADIUS Accounting
- IEEE 802.1x with Port Security
- IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation (LACP)
- IEEE 802.3af Power over Ethernet
- IGMP Fast Leave
- IGMP Version 1
- IGRP
- IP Phone Detection Enhancements
- IP Phone Enhancement – PHY Loop Detection
- IPSG (IP Source Guard)
- Jumbo Frames
- L2PT – Layer 2 Protocol Tunneling
- MAC Authentication Bypass
- MLD Snooping
- Multicast Etherchannel Load Balancing
- NAC – L2 IEEE 802.1x
- NAC – L2 IP
- NAC – L2 IP with Auth Fail Open
- Packet-Based Storm Control
- Per Port Per VLAN Policing
- Port Security
- Port Security on Private VLAN Ports
- Private VLANs
- QoS Policy Propagation via Border Gateway Protocol (QPPB)
- Rapid-Per-VLAN-Spanning Tree (Rapid-PVST)
- Reduced MAC Address Usage
- Remote SPAN (RSPAN)
- Smart Port
- Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) – Loop Guard
- Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) – PortFast BPDU Filtering
- Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) – Portfast Support for Trunks
- Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) – Root Guard
- Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) – Uplink Load Balancing
- SRR (Shaped Round Robin)
- Standby Supervisor Port Usage
- STP Syslog Messages
- Switching Database Manager (SDM)
- Trunk Failover
- Trusted boundary (extended trust for CDP devices)
- Unicast Mac Filtering
- UniDirectional Link Detection (UDLD)
- VLAN Access Control List (VACL)
- VLAN Aware Port Security
- Weighted Tail Drop (WTD)
Cisco PIX firewalls
A special version of Qemu called PEMU is embedded into GNS3 for emulating the PIX 525 Security Appliance. PIX software up to version 7.2(4) is supported.
Cisco ASA firewalls
Qemu/GNS3 emulates ASA5520 (ASA 5520 Series Adaptive Security Appliance) hardware to run ASA software up to version 8.0(2).
Cisco IDS sensors
Qemu/GNS3 emulates an IDS 4235/4215 Sensor. The software IPS is known to run with release 6.0.
Juniper routers
JunOS, the Operating System for Juniper routers is based on FreeBSD, an UNIX Operating System that runs on PCs. At this date JunOS versions for Juniper M series are known to work in GNS3.
Hosts
Thanks to Qemu and VirtualBox, GNS3 can run many operating systems like Linux or Windows as well as a lot of appliances. To save you time, we provide ready-to-use Qemu and VirtualBox images that integrate Linux Microcore (command line) and Linux Tinycore (small graphical interface). These images are designed to not use much memory, allowing you to run many virtual hosts. They include the following tools and features:
- Console support
- IPv6 support
- iperf, tcpdump, iproute2 and iptables
- SSH and telnet servers
- D-ITG (Distributed Internet Traffic Generator)
Performance
Dynamips/GNS3 uses a fair amount of RAM and CPU in order to accomplish its emulation magic. Instructions can be found in the user documentation to reduce this but you may also consider the following advices:
- Use c36xx, c37xx or c7200 IOS images. They are usually more stable with Dynamips.
- Run Dynamips/GNS3 on Linux or Mac OS X if you can, performance is better and Dynamips is far more stable.
- Try to not use the latest IOS images, for instance versions >= 12.4, depending of the IOS features you want, running 12.3 or 12.2 versions requires a lot less memory and CPU.
Of course, the number of routers you can run at the same time also strongly depend of your amount of RAM and CPU. On average users can run 10 to 15 routers with routing protocols configured without any problem. Some have even ran more than 100 routers on the same PC.
