GNS3 Lab Environment

  • One thing I never got working back in 2015-2019 was GNS3 on my work machine as I was trying to use Hyper-V.  It seems like they've made the Hyper-V setup much easier now so things are working on my home machine, and I've begun importing devices into it.
  • My current goal is to first create a test network akin to what I'm used to, then work on WAN routing and get a voice router up so I can build a configuration.  They will likely be similar to what I have shown in my logical diagram example, found here in my projects: Network Diagrams – Logical
  • I recognize that getting updated devices is the challenge so voice setup may not happen (modules on the routers I've imported thus far don't seem to have what I need), but I'm sure the routing will be of major value.
  • Cisco devices will be used for the most part, however I will also look into other vendors I've come in contact with such as F5, Juniper, Cisco ISE, and Palo Alto.  I have done some introductory lessons on Juniper, and used Palo Alto for 5 years, but only looked at an already built F5 BigIP Load Balancer.  I do have some of these images available, so I have a decent start on this.
  • At this moment, I am installing Cisco routers and finding out which appliance images I have that actually work.


  • Logo credit: https://www.virtualizationhowto.com/2016/11/setup-gns3-vm-vmware-esxi/