Now that my topology in GNS3 is exactly as in INE Workbook 1 I can share it with you if you don’t want to do all the basic configurations and connections by yourself.
After spending too much money on different rack rentals in the past few months I decided that I will definitely need to try to use GNS3 for simulating my CCIE labs. It will be the only solution if I didn’t want to spend all my money and then have no more left to pay myself trip to Cisco HQ.
After one whole day of struggling with different GNS3 issues I did succeed to configure almost everything. From now I am able to use GNS3 for almost all chapters of my loved INE Workbook VOL.1 and probably VOL.2 also.
There are some things that are not available on GNS3 simulated IOS and I will try to list them below at some point. Other thing that took me some time are that the interfaces are named differently. Cisco Etherswitch Module is added to router in GNS3 order to simulate some basic switch features that is normally not available in GNS3. There is no way to use 0/0 – 0/21 port names on that Etherswitch Module. The interfaces are 1/0 – 1/15 so you cannot do nobrainer paste of config to those “switch” devices. Some serial interfaces are for example Serial 0/0 and in the workbook they are Serial 0/0/0 so this is another one. There are furthermore some other changes to witch interfaces are different devices connected but all the devices now are connected to all other devices exactly as in VOL.1 physical topology. This file down there is prepared for BGP lab chapter of INE Workbook 1. but keep in mind that it can be good for all other parts of the Workbook as the interface configuration is not changed across the Workbook 1 so you just need to modify routing to get started with other chapters.
Do the topology by yourself, you will learn more!
From my perspective it is even better that the topology is messed up a little in GNS3. Furthermore GNS3 does not follow the interface names and that is also somehow better. Do the topology by yourself and try to get most things to work connecting all the devices from scratch. Maybe you are thinking now, I don’t want to do this, how can this be better, I will lose a lot of time to get this lab to work!
Yes, maybe you will, but that is the primary reason for learning for the CCIE exam, right? You just love to type in some configs on Cisco devices and get the out a nice and working topology. You will catch yourself thinking Layer2 and then Layer3 and then back to Layer2 and this altogether will be in future crucial to pass the exam.
Long story short, Use my topology, especially if you know the basics and want to go straight to BGP
This topology together with all connections and device configurations is Basic BGP Routing initial configurations from INE’s rack topology number 1 but created from scratch so the interface names are changed and some other things are changed in order for everything to work nicely. EIGRP and basic BGP are configured here and working. You can simply take this file, open it in GNS3 and start with 18th task in BGP chapter. Please note that for the first 17 tasks you need to load Initial BGP initial configurations that is basically Basic configuration if you remove BGP configuration from all devices.
I am thinking to make others chapters topology file with configuration too but I will do it as I am getting to those chapter later on.
DOWNLOAD
- BGP initial topology zip file
- To make everything work without any tuning of the configuration and topology files I did prepare this in a way that if you unzip the file directly to C:\ it will put there GNS3_INE folder from which you can simply start the topology file.
- If you unzip somewhere else, you will need to change the path for IOS image and config files directory inside topology file. (topology.net)
If there is something that does not work please leave a comment so I will try to fix it. I hope this will help you get started with GNS3 learning.
Valter, Thank you for creating this topoligy in GNS3. I am going to try to use it starting from RIP chapter.
thanks for your all effort..
Thank you. Loaded in gns3 perfectly. Now if we can just get the workbooks. Pretty please. Or the link from which I can download the workbook. I googled it but couldn’t find it.
Unfortunately I will not give you the books. Those workbooks are product of @inetraining hard work and it would not bee fair if I give their work away for free. To be sincere I needed to save money for few months in order to be able to buy some of them as they are really expensive from, place that I am from, point of view. Though, those workbooks are the best and buying them will eventually get you the money back when you get your numbers 🙂
what is the name of ios image in these routers?
The IOS that GNS3 will use for this topology is defined inside topology.net file and can be changed to any other 3745 IOS image that you own. Consider that not all versions are the same and some of them will not enable you the IPv6 and other features. But from configuration perspective of GNS3 you can edit the .net file in notepad and change the path to your 3745 IOS image in order to get this topology working
I appreciate your work and sharing. BTW do you have other setups like OSPF/EIGRP/etc chapter-by-chapter?
Hello Yu,
This topology is ready to get all ine.com Workbook 1 configurations inside the routers as they all use the same physically connected topology. You just need to open ine.com config files for EIGRP/OSPF/.. part and replace Serial 0/0/0 to Serial 0/0 | Serial 0/1/0 to Serial 0/1 on couple of places (I thi nk on one router config only) and you are ready to paste the config on this lab setup. For those having long config try not to paste all in once as it will choke the console buffer. Do it in few blocks 🙂
Dear Valter,
Are u gonna build GNS3 topology for INE v Advance technologies LAbs
Hi,
I am not planing to do all different labs in GNS3. I think you can use this one topology and change starting config on routers to do all on FullScale labs and even the Advance technologies ones. If you go and see how the topology is connected it is basically very easy to see that all INE labs can be done on this topology.
If you need more info, just hit reply here.
V
Thank you very much for the great work
Valter,
I love what you did with the switch to create the lab. I duplicated your technique and created my INE v5 Advanced Technology Lab on top of the NetMap and have gone through a couple of labs today. Thanks again for your efforts. I found that I am not happy with the trip time and packet loss with the generic switch. I attempted to configure ports on a switch module on other router platforms without success. My question to you is, do you have a config for switchports on a switch module for platforms such as 3700 or 3600? Again, thanks for your enlightening efforts
Unfortunately I did not experiment with switch module on other router platforms so I don’t know if it’s even possible in GNS3 to do that.
hi
i started to built my initial configs/set ups for the ine workbook myself too and i have a question. you used layer 2 connectivity and vlans, is their any special reason for that as you can work it with layer 3 connectivity at least for routing problems/tests
thanks
Hi,
If I understand you correctly it is true that I used sub-interfaces. The reason for that are initial configs from INE Workbooks that are ready for use in this kind of setup. I just made the lab in GNS3 compatible for initial configs.
I hope this helps,
Hi,
Thank you for the topology!
I have been trying to simulate basic ospf from INE using your topology however the spokes establish adjacency only if they are configured as “point to multipoint non-br” along with the hub. But if the hub is configured as “p2mp nb” with neighbor command specified and spokes as p2p then no adjacency is formed. Nothing comes up in the debug logs too. Am I missing something here?