Graphical Network Simulator

" GNS 3 "

GNS3 is not a network emulator program as most people think, but rather it
is a graphical interface for the dynamic network emulator, and the last is an
open source program that works on all types of systems, including
Windows, Linux and Macintosh, and its function is to simulate Cisco
devices. For GNS3 to work, it needs to 3 important things :-

1. Firstly: It needs Dynampis, which in turn is the heart of the system

that will simulate Cisco systems by simulating the IOS.

2. Secondly: It needs the Dynagen, which is the link between the core
of the Dynamips system and the user, and it is done by transferring
written orders from us to the device that is simulated.

3. Thirdly: It needs WinPcap, which is a program that captures and

transmits Packet in the network over a set of protocols .

Building a Network with GNS3: -

GNS3 software needs more memory and a faster

processor depending on the number of devices to be
emulated. Considering today’s computers, the 4-core
Intel Core i5 or equivalent processor is sufficient for
satisfactory device emulation. The number of different
images and different router models used in GNS3 is
another factor that increases the amount of processor
and ram usage.
For example: A computer with the following hardware is used to
create a virtual network with 20 mid-range routers:

 Intel Core i5
 16 GB RAM
 250 GB HDD

In the laboratory environment to be installed, Cisco 3725 IOS will be

used and 256 MB DRAM will be assigned for each router. Since there
are 26 devices that can be used by students in the lab environment, it
means 6700 MB RAM for the created virtual 26 routers. Considering
the system needs and the virtual machine requirements, it requires at
least 8 GB of RAM or 16 GB of RAM for a healthy operation, but
considering the benefits, GNS3 offers to us, these costs are very low.

What is VMware?
Simply put, VMware develops virtualization software.

Virtualization software creates an abstraction layer over computer

hardware that allows the hardware elements of a single computer—
processors, memory, storage, and more— to be divided into multiple
virtual computers, commonly called virtual machines (VMs). Each
virtual machine runs its own operating system (OS) and behaves like
an independent computer, even though it is running on a portion of
the actual underlying computer hardware.

As you can imagine, virtualization enables more efficient utilization of

computer hardware and enables a greater return on an
organization’s hardware investment. It also enables cloud providers
— public or private— to serve more users with their existing physical
computer hardware.
Benefits
Using VMware products and services for virtualization brings several
benefits. These include the following:

 Improved return on investment (ROI): VMware enables you to use

more of a physical computer's resources. Administrators don't
like running multiple mission-critical applications on a single
server OS because if one application crashes, it can make the
OS unstable and crash other applications. One way to eliminate
this risk is to run each application in its own OS on its own
dedicated physical server, but this is inefficient because each
OS might only use 30% of a server's CPU power. With
VMware, you can run each application in its own OS on the
same physical server and make better use of the physical
server’s available CPU power,
 More efficient use of energy and space: VMware lets you run
more applications using fewer physical servers. Fewer physical
servers require less space in your data center and less energy to
power and cool
 GNS3 Program Toolbar :-

1. To start a new project.

2. To amend the project.
3. To pre-launch a project stored on the device.
4. To save the project.
5. To save the project without extension.
6. To clean the plugin that we designed.
7. To show or hide the type and number of each interface.
8. To show or hide the name of each router.
9. To select the type of connection wire between the routers.
10. To take a picture of the blog and save it.
11. To import or export configuration files (startup-config).
12. To open a connection with the router via the console.
13. To run the rotors.
14. Pausing the rotors.
15. Turn off the rotors.
16. To write on the caption.
17. To put a specific image on the tabloi.
18/19. To draw some shapes on the tabloi.
Simulation of two routers with explanations:-

 We will first pull the Router 3600 from the left menu to
the center of the program.
  Then we press the right button on the router and choose
“configure” to set up the SLOT and in it we choose the number
and type of ports that we want to use in the router and we can
also specify the amount of RAM and the size of the hard disk .

 NM-1FE / for adding one Fast Ethernet port.

 NM-1E / for adding one Ethernet port.
 NM-4E / Add four Ethernet ports.
 NM-16ESW / We are selecting this Slot if we want to do a
simulation.
 Switch because Dynamips can not simulate a switch.

 NM-4T / to add four ports of cereal type and after we finish we

press OK and we add another router and we do the same process to
connect the two routers with each other, therefore we choose the
cable type according to the type of Slot that we have chosen as shown
in the picture:

 Then we click on the first router and choose the port number and
we connect it with the second router as shown.
  We press Start from the Toolbar in order to start working, and in
order to be able to set the router, we press the console button
from the toolbar and finally. An explanation of the characteristics
of each router as shown in the picture :

 Configure / for router numbers and it configures the slot selection,

RAM quantity, etc.
 Show- hide / to hide and show the router name from the tab.
 Change the hostname / to change the router's name.
 Change console port / To change the console port number.
 Console / to communicate with the router via console.
 Start / to start the router.
 Stop / switching off the router.
 Pause / Pause.

 Idle PC / one of the most important things and its benefit is to

specify a certain value from the processor to relieve pressure on it. It
is determined that we first turn on the router and then press the Idle
PC and wait a while to see several numbers and choose the value with
an asterisk next to it as shown in the picture:

 Startup-config / to choose the name of the configuration file.

 Delete / to remove the router.
Comparison of Graphical Network Simulator and Cisco
Packet Tracer:-

If we compare GNS3 with another popular software used in

education; Cisco Packet Tracer is a very widely used simulation
software especially in the Cisco Network Academy Program. The
biggest difference of GNS3 software from Cisco Packet Tracer
software is that GNS3 is an emulator and Cisco Packet Tracer is a
simulator. So while GNS3 runs the operating system used on a real
router, Packet Tracer uses a software-defined virtual operating
system. While this prevents us from using all configuration
commands in the Packet Tracer software, all commands valid for IOS
used in GNS3 can be used. Another important difference is that
switching devices (switch) are not emulated in GNS3, while this is
possible in packet tracer. In GNS3 software, switching devices can be
used only as unmanageable switches. Although the switching
devices available by default in the GNS3 software are
unmanageable, this can be overcome by using routers as a switching
device. There are a number of operations that need to be
implemented with the module support provided by GNS3 to turn a
router into a switching device. For example, this can be
accomplished by adding the NM-16ESW module.
 References :-

 Networkset :

https://www.networkset.net/2010/03/06/%D8%B4%D8%B1%D8%AD-gns3-
%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%A9-
%D8%A3%D8%AC%D9%87%D8%B2%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D9%8A
%D8%B3%D9%83%D9%88-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA
%D9%81%D8%B5%D9%8A%D9%84/

 CiscoPods :

https://www.ciscopods.com/what-is-gns3/

 IBM :

https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/vmware