Dynamips - The Best Cisco Hardware Emulator: 2007

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Become a CCIE with Simulator

Several months ago I wrote 'How to Become a CCIE', a step-by-step for wanna-be-CCIE out there based on my own experience passing two lab exams. In point no. 3 I mentioned that it's compulsory to have a home lab to be able to practice anytime.

How if we can save some money by not buying the equipment but using simulator instead? Thanks to Christophe Fillot, the author of Dynamips - Cisco 7200 Simulator, now it's possible to have a full CCIE lab in our PC.

The idea of this simulator is to emulate Cisco 7200 environment with MIPS processor in normal PC, so we can boot the genuine IOS for Cisco 7200 with 12.2 and 12.4 version. It can simulate various type of network modules such as PA-4T or PA-TE-FX to provide enough serial and ethernet interfaces. The simulator offers virtual ATM, FR and ethernet switch too. If we can simulate 8-9 routers, with ATM, FR and ethernet switch, and put proper interconnection between those routers..voila! we have a complete CCIE lab!

READ MORE...

Credit: Original published in Himawan Nugroho's blog

Monday, September 10, 2007

1700 Series Current Hardware Emulated

===========1700s===========
1710
Slots: 0 (available)
WIC slots: 0
CISCO1710-MB-1FE-1E (1 FastEthernet port and 1 Ethernet port, automatically used)
Note, interfaces do not use a slot designation (e.g. “f0”)
1720
Note, interfaces do not use a slot designation (e.g. “f0”)
1721
Note, interfaces do not use a slot designation (e.g. “f0”)
1750
Note, interfaces do not use a slot designation (e.g. “f0”)
1751
1760
Slots: 0 (available)
WIC slots: 2
C1700-MB-1ETH (1 FastEthernet port, automatically used)

Cards:
- WIC-1T (1 Serial port)
- WIC-2T (2 Serial ports)
- WIC-1ENET (1 Ethernet ports)

Credit: http://dynagen.org/tutorial.htm

2600 Series Current Hardware Emulated

===========2600s===========
2610
Slots: 1 (available)
WIC slots: 3
CISCO2600-MB-1E (1 Ethernet port, automatically used)
2611
Slots: 1 (available)
WIC slots: 3
CISCO2600-MB-2E (2 Ethernet ports, automatically used)
2620
Slots: 1 (available)
WIC slots: 3
CISCO2600-MB-1FE (1 FastEthernet port, automatically used)
2621
Slots: 1 (available)
WIC slots: 3
CISCO2600-MB-2FE (2 FastEthernet ports, automatically used)
2610XM
Slots: 1 (available)
WIC slots: 3
CISCO2600-MB-1FE (1 FastEthernet port, automatically used)
2611XM
Slots: 1 (available)
WIC slots: 3
CISCO2600-MB-2FE (2 FastEthernet ports, automatically used)
2620XM
Slots: 1 (available)
WIC slots: 3
CISCO2600-MB-1FE (1 FastEthernet port, automatically used)
2621XM
Slots: 1 (available)
WIC slots: 3
CISCO2600-MB-2FE (2 FastEthernet ports, automatically used)
2650XM
Slots: 1 (available)
WIC slots: 3
CISCO2600-MB-1FE (1 FastEthernet port, automatically used)
2651XM
Slots: 1 (available)
WIC slots: 3
CISCO2600-MB-2FE (2 FastEthernet ports, automatically used)

Cards:
- NM-1E (Ethernet, 1 port)
- NM-4E (Ethernet, 4 ports)
- NM-1FE-TX (FastEthernet, 1 port)
- NM-16ESW (Ethernet switch module, 16 ports)
- NM-NAM
- NM-IDS
- WIC-1T (1 Serial port)
- WIC-2T (2 Serial ports)

Credit: http://dynagen.org/tutorial.htm

3000 Seires Current Hardware Emulated

===========3600s===========
3660
Slots: 6 (available)
3640
Slots: 4
3620
Slots: 2

Cards:
- NM-1E (Ethernet, 1 port)
- NM-4E (Ethernet, 4 ports)
- NM-1FE-TX (FastEthernet, 1 port)
- NM-16ESW (Ethernet switch module, 16 ports)
- NM-4T (Serial, 4 ports)
- Leopard-2FE (Cisco 3660 FastEthernet in slot 0, automatically used)

===========3700s===========
2691 (The 2691 is essentially a 3700 with 1 slot)
Slots: 1 (available)
WIC slots: 3
3725
Slots: 2 (available)
WIC slots: 3
3745
Slots: 4 (available)
WIC slots: 3

Cards:
- NM-1FE-TX (FastEthernet, 1 port)
- NM-4T (Serial, 4 ports)
- NM-16ESW (Ethernet switch module, 16 ports)
- GT96100-FE (2 integrated ports, automatically used)
- NM-NAM
- NM-IDS
- WIC-1T (1 Serial port)
- WIC-2T (2 Serial ports)

Credit: http://dynagen.org/tutorial.htm

7200 Series Current Hardware Emulated

===========7200s===========
7206
Slots: 6 (available)

Chassis types:
- STD
- VXR

NPEs:
- NPE-100
- NPE-150
- NPE-175
- NPE-200
- NPE-225
- NPE-300
- NPE-400
- NPE-G1
- NPE-G2 (Requires the use of NPE-G2 IOS images)

Cards:
- C7200-IO-FE (FastEthernet, slot 0 only)
- C7200-IO-2FE (FastEthernet, 2 ports, slot 0 only)
- C7200-IO-GE (GigabitEthernet, slot 0 only)
- PA-FE-TX (FastEthernet)
- PA-2FE-TX (FastEthernet, 2 ports)
- PA-4E (Ethernet, 4 ports)
- PA-8E (Ethernet, 8 ports)
- PA-4T+ (Serial, 4 ports)
- PA-8T (Serial, 8 ports)
- PA-A1 (ATM)
- PA-POS-OC3 (POS)
- PA-GE (GigabitEthernet)

Credit: http://dynagen.org/tutorial.htm

Dynagen v 0.10.0 and 0.10.1 released

Greg has just release these 2 versions at Dynagen.org

V.0.10.0 mainly to support new features in Dynamips v.0.8.0-RC1 such as 1700 Series, WIC modules, NM-NAM + NM-CIDS and several bugs fixed.

V.0.10.1 Bugs Fixed for NM-16ESW in Dynagen

Download lastest version of Dynagen >> HERE

More info: www.dynagen.org

Dynamip v 0.2.8-RC1 Released

Finally, after the long waiting period, new version of Dynamips has come :D

Changes in this release :

- Introduce 1700 series platform

- WIC modules available to use :
1.WIC-1T, WIC-2T and WIC-1ENET for 1700 series
2.WIC-1T and WIC-2T for 2600 series, 3725 and 3745

- Support NM-NAM and NM-CIDS (read HERE for more information)
- Added ISL support for NM-1FE-TX card
- Bugs fixed

We can use 1700 series with WIC replace some of higher spec routers in topology to make CPU and Memory usage more effective.

Download Dynamip HERE

ps. To using WIC, Chris suggests to use Dynagen to handle it, less complicate and more easy.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Changing Telnet client for Dynagen

By default, when using command "telnet XX" in Dynagen for connect to the router console, Dynagen will lunch Windows Telnet which inconvenience for you.
But we can change it by modify file 'dynagen.ini' in folder
C:\Program Files\Dynamips\
there are some configuraions have been prepared

1. Windows Telnet:
telnet = start telnet %h %p
2. Terra Term SSH users:
telnet = C:\progra~1\TTERMPRO\ttssh.exe %h %p /W=%d /T=1
3. For PuTTY users:
telnet = start C:\progra~1\PuTTY\putty.exe -telnet %h %p

or if you wanna use SecureCRT version 5.xx which supports tap windows
telnet = start C:\progra~1\SecureCRT\SecureCRT.EXE /telnet %h %p /T
New telnet session will open in tap windows, it's better to manage when you got more routers to console.

Enjoy!!

How to find Cisco IOS

It quit difficult to find IOS to use with Dynamips for who doesn't work for Cisco Partner company like me. After I search around, I found few ways that we can download them.

Here are some methods that still working.
1. Use Torrent search web site such as IsoHunt or TorrentZ and download them using torrent client program like BitComet
2. Use ED2K clients to search what other people are sharing and download it.
3. Go to Sadikhov Forum and do some search in their "STUDY GUIDES REQUESTS AND SHARES" section.

From Sadikhov forum I got a useful link that have a huge collections of Cisco IOS, have a look here
hxxp://rapidshare.com/users/5F6T7J

Enjoy!!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Running Dynamips - Dynagen on USB Stick

Few people asked about running dynamips/dynagen from USB without installation. The problem was winpcap. I found a tool from wireshark website that allows you to run wireshark/windump from USB without installing!
I check how it works. The only thing needed are two dll files: packet.dll and wpcap.dll.

I think I got a working solution:

1. Install dynagen on a pc
2. Copy \Program Files\Dynamips to the USB.
3. Copy the dll from the attached files to the dynamips directory on the USB. HERE
4. Enjoy...

I tested it with the new capturing feature and it worked

Few notes:
1. Remember that the .net files are not a associated with dynagen.exe, so you will have to run it from the command line
2. Put the workingdir configuration in yours .net file
2. I copied putty.exe to the usb and pointed dynagen.ini to putty.
3. Use relative directories when referring to files inside the .net files (image, working dir, conf....)
4. What good will capture do if you can't watch the capture? Search for windump.exe. It is just like tcpdump.

Credit - danshtr @ http://7200emu.hacki.at

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Dynagen - Dynamips Front-end

This powerful text based front-end created by Greg Anuzelli.

"Dynagen is a front-end for use with the Dynamips Cisco router emulator. It uses an INI-like configuration file to provision Dynamips emulator networks. It takes care of specifying the right port adapters, generating and matching up those pesky NIO descriptors, specifying bridges, frame-relay, ATM switches, etc. It also provides a management CLI for listing devices, suspending and reloading instances, determining and managing idle-pc values, performing packet captures, etc.

Available on the Downloads page is a Windows installer package that includes Dynamips and Dynagen. The only dependency is Winpcap 4.0.

RPMs for are now available in the download section. Thanks to Sean Walberg for performing the packaging."

More Info
- Download all apcket HERE
- Winpcap HERE (required for Windows users)
- Dynagen Tutorial HERE
- More about Dynagen HERE
- Hacki's technical forum HERE

Credit - http://dynagen.org

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Current Hardware Support

At this time, the emulator I have programmed is able to boot a large number of Cisco IOS releases available for the 7200, 3600, 3700 and 2600 platforms, including the latest 12.2S and 12.4T.

The following devices are emulated in the current release (0.2.7):

MIPS64 and PowerPC CPU processors. The instruction sets are not completely emulated now (MIPS FPU support is lacking, TLB support is not finished and other minor things), but it is sufficient for IOS ;
DRAM and Packet SRAM memory ;
Non-Volatile Memory (NVRAM) ;
Signetics SCN 2681 DUART (C7200 Console and AUX ports) ;
National Semiconductors NS16552 DUART (C3600/C3700/C2600 Console and AUX ports) ;
Dallas DS1620 Temperature Sensors and Voltage Sensors, allowing the C7200 Environmental Monitor to work properly ;
NMC93C46 Serial EEPROM ;
Bootflash of 8 Mb (Intel 28F016SA) ;
Galileo GT64010/GT64120/GT96100 PCI controllers, DEC 21x50 PCI bridges and so ;
PCMCIA ATA disk emulation (C7200 only at this time).

The following Cisco 7200 Port Adapters (PA) are currently supported:

FastEthernet cards "C7200-IO-FE" and "PA-FE-TX" based on DEC21140 chip
FastEthernet cards "C7200-IO-2FE" and "PA-2FE-TX" based on Intel i8254x chips
GigabitEthernet cards "C7200-IO-GE-E" and "PA-GE" based on Intel i8254x chips
Ethernet cards "PA-4E" and "PA-8E" based on AMD Am79c97x chips
ATM card "PA-A1" based on Texas Instruments Tneta1570 chip
Serial cards "PA-4T+" and "PA-8T"
POS (Packet over Sonet) card "PA-POS-OC3" (experimental, only works with recent IOS images)

The following Cisco 3600 (3620,3640,3660) Network Modules (NM) are currently supported:

Ethernet cards: "NM-1E", "NM-4E" and "NM-1FE-TX", all based on AMD Am79c97x chips
Ethernet switching module: "NM-16ESW"
Serial card "NM-4T"

The following Cisco 2691/3725/3745 Network Modules (NM) are currently supported:

FastEthernet cards: "NM-1FE-TX"
Ethernet switching module: "NM-16ESW"
Serial card "NM-4T"

The following Cisco 2600 Network Modules (NM) are currently supported:

Ethernet cards: "NM-1E", "NM-4E" and "NM-1FE-TX"
Ethernet switching module: "NM-16ESW"

Credit - http://www.ipflow.utc.fr/index.php/Cisco_7200_Simulator

Introduce to Dynamips

Dynamips is the best Cisco emulator software created by Christophe Fillot.

Here's his declaration,

"I started in August 2005 a project to emulate a Cisco 7200 on a traditionnal PC. Now, it also supports Cisco 3600 series (3620, 3640 and 3660), 3700 series (3725, 3745) and 2600 series (2610 to 2650XM, 2691).

The goals of this emulator are mainly:

To be used as a training platform, with software used in real world. It would allow people to become more familiar with Cisco devices, Cisco being the world leader in networking technologies ;
Test and experiment the numerous and powerful features of Cisco IOS ;
Check quickly configurations to be deployed later on real routers.

Of course, this emulator cannot replace a real router: you should be able to get a performance of about 1 kpps (depending on your host machine), to be compared to the 100 kpps delivered by a NPE-100 (the oldest NPE model). So, it is simply a complementary tool to real labs for administrators of Cisco networks or people wanting to pass their CCNA/CCNP/CCIE exams.

Current status