GNS3 on Fedora Linux

Here are mu notes about installation GNS3 version on Fedora Linux. It shows the basic steps required to successfully install and configure GNS3 for VirtualBox, Qemu, IOU, and Dynamips support. Configuration of individual VirtualBox, Qemu, IOU and IOS images is not discussed.

1. GNS3 GUI and Server Installation and Configuration

1.1 Install Dependencies

$ sudo yum install python3 python3-setuptools.noarch python3-PyQt4 python3-devel gcc

1.2 Download and Extract GNS3 GUI and Server

$ git clone https://github.com/GNS3/gns3-gui.git
$ git clone https://github.com/GNS3/gns3-server.git

$ cd gns3-gui/
$ sudo python3 setup.py install
$ cd ..

$ cd gns3-server/
$ sudo python3 setup.py install

1.3 Configure GNS3 Server Settings

Navigate to Edit-> Preferences-> GNS3 server-> Local server and change path to gns3server.

2. IOU Installation and Configuration

IOU stands for IOS on Unix. IOU images are IOS images that are compiled for x86 / Sparc CPU architecture.

2.1 Install Dependencies

$ sudo yum install gcc gcc-c++ git

2.2 Create Symbolic Link and Prevent IOU to Call Home

$ cd /usr/lib
$ sudo ln -s ./libcrypto.so.10 libcrypto.so.4
$ su -c "echo '127.0.0.127 xml.cisco.com' >> /etc/hosts"

2.3 Generate IOU License

To run IOU on Linux, a license file named iourc must be created with a valid license number tied with the hostname. The format of the file is following.

[license]
localhost = aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa;

The length of the license key is 16 hex number and the hostname is localhost. If it is needed, the hostname can be changed in /etc/hostname.

2.4 Install IOUYAP

Iouyap bridges IOU to tap, UDP and Ethernet interfaces.

$ sudo yum install bison flex
$ git clone https://github.com/GNS3/iouyap.git
$ cd iouyap

$ git clone https://github.com/ndevilla/iniparser.git
$ cd iniparser
$ make
$ sudo cp libiniparser.so.0 libiniparser.a /usr/lib
$ sudo cp src/iniparser.h src/dictionary.h /usr/local/include

$ cd ..
$ make
$ sudo cp iouyap /usr/local/bin

2.5 Configure IOU Settings

Navigate to Edit-> Preferences-> IOS on Unix-> General Settings and select path to licence file iourc.
Navigate to Edit-> Preferences-> IOS on Unix-> General Settings and set path to iouyap.

3. VirtualBox Installation and Configuration

3.1 Vboxwrapper Installation

VirtualBox wrapper is needed for control VirtualBox on Linux.

$ sudo yum install python python-setuptools.noarch

$ git clone https://github.com/GNS3/vboxwrapper.git
$ cd vboxwrapper
$ sudo python setup.py install

Navigate to Edit-> Preferences-> VirtualBox-> General Settings and set path to Virtual box wrapper.

3.2 VirtualBox Installation

VirtualBox installation on Fedora is explained here:

4. Qemu Installation and Configuration

To successfully compile Qemu on Fedora, following Dependencies must be installed.

$ sudo yum group install 'C Development Tools and Libraries'

Qemu installation on Fedora Linux is explained here.

5. Dynamips Installation and Configuration

Dynamips installation on Fedora can be found here.

To configure path to Dynamips binary, navigate to Edit-> Preferences-> Dynamips-> General Settings  and configure an option path to Dynamips.

End.