1 00:00:08,518 --> 00:00:10,582 - In this module, I'd like to talk a little bit 2 00:00:10,582 --> 00:00:12,925 about Cisco platform considerations. 3 00:00:12,925 --> 00:00:15,518 Now, what do I mean by that? 4 00:00:15,518 --> 00:00:18,585 I'm assuming that you're a first time user of GNS3 5 00:00:18,585 --> 00:00:20,230 and as such, you need to be aware 6 00:00:20,230 --> 00:00:22,794 that in order to use this application, this software, 7 00:00:22,794 --> 00:00:24,430 at minimum, you're gonna need 8 00:00:24,430 --> 00:00:27,240 to download two pieces of software. 9 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:30,072 You're gonna have to download the GNS3 software itself, 10 00:00:30,072 --> 00:00:31,488 which actually comes bundled 11 00:00:31,488 --> 00:00:34,346 with a whole bunch of other stuff, which is kind of neat. 12 00:00:34,346 --> 00:00:35,844 And then you're also gonna have to download 13 00:00:35,844 --> 00:00:38,798 at least one Cisco IOS software image, 14 00:00:38,798 --> 00:00:42,043 possibly more, depending on what you need to do. 15 00:00:42,043 --> 00:00:44,561 So the order that you do that in is really up to you. 16 00:00:44,561 --> 00:00:46,283 Doesn't matter to me whether you download 17 00:00:46,283 --> 00:00:49,521 the GNS3 software first or the Cisco IOS. 18 00:00:49,521 --> 00:00:51,065 But I'm just gonna start with the assumption 19 00:00:51,065 --> 00:00:52,554 that the first thing on your mind 20 00:00:52,554 --> 00:00:56,088 is which Cisco IOS software image is appropriate 21 00:00:56,088 --> 00:00:58,127 for what I wanna do with GNS3. 22 00:00:58,127 --> 00:01:00,891 So let's talk a little bit about that. 23 00:01:00,891 --> 00:01:05,058 Because GNS3's main job is to emulate Cisco hardware, 24 00:01:06,416 --> 00:01:09,365 in other words, you're using real Cisco IOS software 25 00:01:09,365 --> 00:01:12,730 within the GNS3 application, but you don't have a chassis, 26 00:01:12,730 --> 00:01:15,407 you don't have anything physical that you can feel and touch 27 00:01:15,407 --> 00:01:18,260 and yet that software needs to believe 28 00:01:18,260 --> 00:01:21,483 that it's running within a real Cisco router, 29 00:01:21,483 --> 00:01:23,569 and that's the real power of GNS3, 30 00:01:23,569 --> 00:01:25,374 that's exactly what it does. 31 00:01:25,374 --> 00:01:29,377 It creates these virtual routers running real software. 32 00:01:29,377 --> 00:01:31,923 But because of that, if you know anything about Cisco, 33 00:01:31,923 --> 00:01:34,002 you know that Cisco has hundreds and hundreds 34 00:01:34,002 --> 00:01:36,525 of makes and models of routers and switches 35 00:01:36,525 --> 00:01:40,153 and there's no way that GNS3 could emulate all of them. 36 00:01:40,153 --> 00:01:43,731 So for that reason, GNS3 only emulates or simulates 37 00:01:43,731 --> 00:01:46,413 certain router platforms. 38 00:01:46,413 --> 00:01:47,484 So you need to know that 39 00:01:47,484 --> 00:01:49,235 because there would be nothing more frustrating 40 00:01:49,235 --> 00:01:50,618 than if you went through all the process 41 00:01:50,618 --> 00:01:54,622 of getting ahold of and downloading a Cisco IOS image 42 00:01:54,622 --> 00:01:56,358 and one of three things happening. 43 00:01:56,358 --> 00:01:58,749 Either the IOS image you downloaded is not supported 44 00:01:58,749 --> 00:02:01,665 by GNS3 at all, and then you'd have to contend 45 00:02:01,665 --> 00:02:04,181 with all the error messages and things that you're seeing, 46 00:02:04,181 --> 00:02:06,817 or possibly, it is supported by GNS3, 47 00:02:06,817 --> 00:02:09,816 but it's buggy, it has all sorts of problems 48 00:02:09,816 --> 00:02:11,869 and maybe leads to all sorts of errors, 49 00:02:11,869 --> 00:02:14,964 or the third scenario is the software you download 50 00:02:14,964 --> 00:02:17,691 runs just great within GNS3, 51 00:02:17,691 --> 00:02:21,249 but because it's not the platform that you really needed, 52 00:02:21,249 --> 00:02:24,017 it doesn't support the features that you want. 53 00:02:24,017 --> 00:02:27,070 For example, what if you're doing a lab on ATM, 54 00:02:27,070 --> 00:02:28,548 asynchronous transfer mode, 55 00:02:28,548 --> 00:02:30,859 and you download software for a router 56 00:02:30,859 --> 00:02:32,670 that doesn't support ATM, 57 00:02:32,670 --> 00:02:34,612 it doesn't even have, in the real world, 58 00:02:34,612 --> 00:02:38,784 any modules or adapters or interfaces that support ATM. 59 00:02:38,784 --> 00:02:40,979 Well now your GNS3 supports that software 60 00:02:40,979 --> 00:02:42,714 but you can't configure ATM 61 00:02:42,714 --> 00:02:47,027 because the software you selected doesn't run that feature. 62 00:02:47,027 --> 00:02:50,746 So, let's just focus for the moment in this video 63 00:02:50,746 --> 00:02:53,948 on how do we figure out what Cisco IOS software 64 00:02:53,948 --> 00:02:56,202 is supported by the GNS3 platform 65 00:02:56,202 --> 00:02:58,073 and works the best on that. 66 00:02:58,073 --> 00:02:59,240 So to do that, 67 00:03:00,406 --> 00:03:03,389 I'd recommend that you go to the GNS3 website, 68 00:03:03,389 --> 00:03:06,253 as you can see right here, gns3.com. 69 00:03:06,253 --> 00:03:07,749 And if you haven't already done so, 70 00:03:07,749 --> 00:03:10,442 make sure that you go to the sign up button right here 71 00:03:10,442 --> 00:03:12,716 and you're gonna want to create a username and password, 72 00:03:12,716 --> 00:03:15,554 basically register on their website. 73 00:03:15,554 --> 00:03:16,930 So once you click on that, 74 00:03:16,930 --> 00:03:18,429 you'll just type in your email address 75 00:03:18,429 --> 00:03:20,265 and then whatever password you want, 76 00:03:20,265 --> 00:03:21,769 and then at that point, you'll have the ability 77 00:03:21,769 --> 00:03:24,681 to download the software and participate in the community 78 00:03:24,681 --> 00:03:25,935 if you ever have any questions 79 00:03:25,935 --> 00:03:27,352 or if you just wanna look up some of the questions 80 00:03:27,352 --> 00:03:29,062 that other people have asked. 81 00:03:29,062 --> 00:03:32,838 So let's go ahead and do that, let's log in. 82 00:03:32,838 --> 00:03:34,578 And depending on your network speed and everything else, 83 00:03:34,578 --> 00:03:35,929 it might take a certain amount of time. 84 00:03:35,929 --> 00:03:37,301 So now we're logged in. 85 00:03:37,301 --> 00:03:39,831 Here it comes, coming back up. 86 00:03:39,831 --> 00:03:42,990 Great, okay, so at this point, once you're logged in, 87 00:03:42,990 --> 00:03:44,669 now remember, the question we're trying to ask is 88 00:03:44,669 --> 00:03:48,765 what Cisco IOS software images are supported by GNS3. 89 00:03:48,765 --> 00:03:52,201 So to answer that question, we're gonna wanna go right here 90 00:03:52,201 --> 00:03:55,827 and click on where it says support. 91 00:03:55,827 --> 00:03:57,833 So go ahead and click on support. 92 00:03:57,833 --> 00:04:00,977 And then from here, we're gonna go to documentation. 93 00:04:00,977 --> 00:04:03,775 Now there's multiple ways to get this question answered, 94 00:04:03,775 --> 00:04:06,521 this is just one way that I've discovered. 95 00:04:06,521 --> 00:04:09,156 So once we click on documentation, 96 00:04:09,156 --> 00:04:11,828 so here within the getting started section, 97 00:04:11,828 --> 00:04:15,878 what we wanna look at is adding IOS images, 98 00:04:15,878 --> 00:04:18,461 that's where we're gonna go to. 99 00:04:19,412 --> 00:04:20,969 Click on that link. 100 00:04:20,969 --> 00:04:23,735 Now this whole document, if you read through it, 101 00:04:23,735 --> 00:04:24,959 is actually about, 102 00:04:24,959 --> 00:04:28,184 once you have your Cisco IOS software image, 103 00:04:28,184 --> 00:04:30,664 how do you get it loaded into GNS3, 104 00:04:30,664 --> 00:04:32,570 how do you get GNS3 to recognize it 105 00:04:32,570 --> 00:04:35,842 so it can create a virtual router out of that software. 106 00:04:35,842 --> 00:04:37,537 But we're not even at that point yet. 107 00:04:37,537 --> 00:04:39,036 Right now, we just have to figure out 108 00:04:39,036 --> 00:04:41,834 what software is compatible with GNS3. 109 00:04:41,834 --> 00:04:43,238 So to answer that question, 110 00:04:43,238 --> 00:04:47,358 right here in this sentence, right there, 111 00:04:47,358 --> 00:04:51,070 it says Cisco IOS image listed in this document, 112 00:04:51,070 --> 00:04:52,992 that is actually a link. 113 00:04:52,992 --> 00:04:54,730 So if you go ahead and click on the words there, 114 00:04:54,730 --> 00:04:59,121 in this document, that will take you to another document 115 00:04:59,121 --> 00:05:02,512 that actually displays the various Cisco IOS images 116 00:05:02,512 --> 00:05:04,842 that are supported by GNS3. 117 00:05:04,842 --> 00:05:07,914 You can see here it supports the 1700 series images, 118 00:05:07,914 --> 00:05:12,121 the 2600 series, 3620's, on and on and on 119 00:05:12,121 --> 00:05:14,866 all the way down to, at the very bottom here, 120 00:05:14,866 --> 00:05:16,449 is the 7200 series. 121 00:05:17,724 --> 00:05:19,382 Couple of things to point out about this. 122 00:05:19,382 --> 00:05:21,695 Now number one, as I do this recording, 123 00:05:21,695 --> 00:05:25,862 it's currently mid-February of 2016, so keep that in mind. 124 00:05:26,813 --> 00:05:29,544 So as of right now, when I'm doing this recording, 125 00:05:29,544 --> 00:05:31,189 if you wanna practice features 126 00:05:31,189 --> 00:05:33,943 that are only found in the 15 train, 127 00:05:33,943 --> 00:05:36,526 like 15.1M or something of IOS, 128 00:05:37,611 --> 00:05:41,778 the only software currently that GNS3 supports for that 129 00:05:42,719 --> 00:05:44,302 is the 7200 series. 130 00:05:45,557 --> 00:05:48,267 Okay, so if you select any of the other platforms, 131 00:05:48,267 --> 00:05:53,190 you'll have to use 12.3, or 12.4, or something like that. 132 00:05:53,190 --> 00:05:58,187 Now, if you are preparing for your CCNA or even your CCNP, 133 00:05:58,187 --> 00:06:00,541 chances are you won't necessarily need 134 00:06:00,541 --> 00:06:02,798 some of the newer bells and whistles 135 00:06:02,798 --> 00:06:05,937 that are in the 15 train of Cisco IOS. 136 00:06:05,937 --> 00:06:08,154 12.4 should be more than sufficient for you 137 00:06:08,154 --> 00:06:09,970 for whatever you need to do. 138 00:06:09,970 --> 00:06:13,084 So you can choose from any of these platforms right here, 139 00:06:13,084 --> 00:06:14,584 and those should get you working. 140 00:06:14,584 --> 00:06:17,268 Now, let's say that you're pursuing your Cisco CCNA, 141 00:06:17,268 --> 00:06:18,654 and you're watching this video, you're saying 142 00:06:18,654 --> 00:06:20,471 "But Keith, I don't know anything 143 00:06:20,471 --> 00:06:22,459 "about the differences between Cisco routers. 144 00:06:22,459 --> 00:06:24,279 "You know, I've got a login for Cisco, 145 00:06:24,279 --> 00:06:26,898 "I can get ahold of Cisco IOS images 146 00:06:26,898 --> 00:06:30,059 "for pretty much any router, but which one should I choose, 147 00:06:30,059 --> 00:06:31,906 "you know there's about seven or eight routers 148 00:06:31,906 --> 00:06:34,465 "in this list here, which one should I pick, 149 00:06:34,465 --> 00:06:35,730 "since I don't really know the differences 150 00:06:35,730 --> 00:06:39,267 "between one router and another?" 151 00:06:39,267 --> 00:06:41,692 What I would recommend in that particular case, 152 00:06:41,692 --> 00:06:44,546 if we go up here, I would suggest 153 00:06:44,546 --> 00:06:47,627 that you get ahold of software images 154 00:06:47,627 --> 00:06:50,828 that support either the 3725 series of router, 155 00:06:50,828 --> 00:06:53,998 or the 3745 series of router. 156 00:06:53,998 --> 00:06:56,939 If you can get ahold of those, those would be the best. 157 00:06:56,939 --> 00:07:00,695 Why is that, well, a little bit later in this video series, 158 00:07:00,695 --> 00:07:04,081 I'm gonna talk about switching in the world of GNS3 159 00:07:04,081 --> 00:07:05,939 and how you accomplish switching. 160 00:07:05,939 --> 00:07:07,282 And if you get a software image 161 00:07:07,282 --> 00:07:09,669 for one of these 3700 series of routers, 162 00:07:09,669 --> 00:07:13,387 that comes along with it, a switching module. 163 00:07:13,387 --> 00:07:16,187 Nothing else you have to download, nothing you have to do. 164 00:07:16,187 --> 00:07:19,067 But basically, you can turn on a switch 165 00:07:19,067 --> 00:07:22,751 that operates within, or inside, of that router, 166 00:07:22,751 --> 00:07:25,035 and now you can do switching and routing. 167 00:07:25,035 --> 00:07:26,394 Most of the other platforms 168 00:07:26,394 --> 00:07:28,320 don't support that switching module. 169 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:31,140 So if you don't know anything about Cisco routers at all 170 00:07:31,140 --> 00:07:32,318 and you're just looking for advice 171 00:07:32,318 --> 00:07:35,260 on which particular one to choose for your IOS image, 172 00:07:35,260 --> 00:07:38,427 I would select a 3725 or a 3745 image. 173 00:07:40,788 --> 00:07:43,316 So with that, we'll conclude this particular video 174 00:07:43,316 --> 00:07:45,108 and in the next one or two videos after this, 175 00:07:45,108 --> 00:07:46,687 I'll just show you one or two other things 176 00:07:46,687 --> 00:07:50,340 you wanna think about about selecting a Cisco IOS image. 177 00:07:50,340 --> 00:07:53,271 In other words, we'll look at memory considerations, 178 00:07:53,271 --> 00:07:56,549 you know, how much memory does each software image use, 179 00:07:56,549 --> 00:07:58,923 because it's gonna use memory in your laptop 180 00:07:58,923 --> 00:08:00,990 when you run GNS3. 181 00:08:00,990 --> 00:08:02,958 And secondly, we wanna think about, well, 182 00:08:02,958 --> 00:08:04,593 various different software images 183 00:08:04,593 --> 00:08:06,274 support different features. 184 00:08:06,274 --> 00:08:09,001 There's Cisco's IP services, which is different 185 00:08:09,001 --> 00:08:13,028 than Cisco's advanced enterprise feature sets. 186 00:08:13,028 --> 00:08:13,861 And you wanna make sure 187 00:08:13,861 --> 00:08:15,591 that when you're downloading software, 188 00:08:15,591 --> 00:08:18,103 it runs the features that you need for your topology. 189 00:08:18,103 --> 00:08:22,270 We'll talk about that in the next upcoming videos.