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Network simulation with GNS3

Sand Castles

Article from ADMIN 50/2019

By Holger Reibold

The GNS3 network simulator is a convenient open source tool for the design and simulation of Cisco-based networks.

Building an IT infrastructure can seem as precarious as a sand castle on the beach: The desired design is already on the drawing board, and the required components, wiring, and so forth are defined; however, can the plans be implemented with the available means and options, or will unforeseeable problems still lurking in the background, a sudden virtual wave, threaten to take out the beautiful structure in an instant?

Network simulators can help you design the desired network on the virtual drawing board and develop network infrastructures, offering several advantages:

You can design the environment to match your ideas.
The design can be tested virtually at no great expense before implementation; also, you don't have to implement and maintain a real test network, and no risk is involved.
Routers can be rolled out with just a few mouse clicks. You can even build a complex network topology with manageable overhead.
Modeling traffic patterns is easy.

GNS3 Emulator

Although the GNS3 network emulator [1] focuses on Cisco devices, it supports devices from 20 manufacturers. From the graphical user interface (GUI), you simply point and click to put together the desired network architecture and establish and configure connections. From the integrated console, you can adjust all the critical device parameters. GNS3 also integrates analysis tools such as Wireshark, which makes it easy to put a connection through its paces.

Administrators are typically familiar with the virtualization techniques GNS3 uses to emulate the Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS), which you can run on macOS, Linux, and Windows systems. GNS3 is a graphical front end for the DynaGen controller, which in turn is a text-based front end designed to reduce the complexity of operating the Dynamips emulator

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