Installing vESR via GNS3

Virtualization system requirements

GNS3 version 2.2.53 or later is required to install and launch vESR.

Creating a virtual machine

1) GNS3 allows virtual machines to be included in topologies using appliance and qcow2 (the QEMU virtualization system volume image format). Therefore, to launch vESR in GNS3, a .qcow2 file must be obtained from the .iso file, following the instructions in Installing vESR via QEMU/KVM (the "Creating a virtual machine" and "Installing vESR" sections), or an existing .qcow2 image from the files supplied with vESR can be used.

2) Save the checksum.

After creating a qcow2 image, the file checksum obtained with the md5sum command must be saved:

host@host:~$ md5sum vesr.qcow2
46a351c7061138b50ddf33ad318af27d  vesr.qcow2

3) Save the image size.

For further work, the size of the qcow2 image must also be saved:

host@host:~$ ls -la vesr.qcow2
-rw-r--r-- 1 host host 320995328 Feb  7 17:20 vesr.qcow2

4) Next, a template for GNS3 must be prepared.

Create the "vESR.gns3a" file with the following content:

{
    "appliance_id": "da593cf4-fdeb-4be4-9c1e-963263f9368f",
    "name": "vESR",
    "category": "router",
    "description": "virtual Eltex service router",
    "vendor_name": "Eltex",
    "vendor_url": "http://www.eltex-co.ru",
    "documentation_url": "https://docs.eltex-co.ru/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=52497571",
    "product_name": "vESR",
    "product_url": "https://eltex-co.ru/catalog/service_gateways/virtualnyy_servisnyy_marshrutizator_vesr/",
    "registry_version": 4,
    "status": "stable",
    "availability": "free-to-try",
    "maintainer": "Eltex",
    "maintainer_email": "",
    "usage": "Default credentials: admin/password\n\nUntil the standard password is changed, the device will not allow further configuration. To change the password, enter the command 'password <new password>', where the new password is the password that the user chooses and remembers.\n\nAfter changing the password, you need to accept the changes and save them with the command 'commit', and then additionally confirm your decision with the 'confirm' command.",

    "qemu": {
        "adapter_type": "e1000",
        "adapters": 4,
        "ram": 3072,
        "cpus": 1,
        "hda_disk_interface": "ide",
        "arch": "x86_64",
        "console_type": "telnet",
        "kvm": "require"
    },

    "images": [
        {
            "filename": "vesr.qcow2",
            "version": "1.37",
            "md5sum": "46a351c7061138b50ddf33ad318af27d",
            "filesize": 320995328
        }

    ],
    "versions": [
        {
            "name": "1.37",
            "images": {
                "hda_disk_image": "vesr.qcow2"
            }


        }
    ]
}

The following fields can be edited:

appliance_id — the unique template ID. It is used only within the laboratory to identify the device. Therefore, it can be filled in manually using an arbitrary string of characters, or a GUID provided by an online GUID generator;
ram — the size of the virtual RAM specified during installation;
cpus — the number of CPUs, which must also match the value specified during installation;
images: filename — the name of the created qcow2 file;
images: md5sum — the vesr.qcow2 checksum obtained with the md5sum command in step 2;
images: filesize — the image size obtained with the ls -la command in step 3;
versions: images — the name of the created qcow2 file, which must match images: filename.

The template for import into GNS3 is ready.

Importing the appliance into GNS3

1) In the "FIle" drop-down menu, select "Import Appliance":

2) Next, select "Install the appliance on your local computer":

3) Next, the qemu settings selection is loaded. If the field is not filled in automatically based on the template, select "qemu-system-x86_64":

4) In the next window, select "vESR", click "Next" and then "Yes".

If the vESR disk is not displayed in the list, specify the path to the previously created vesr.qcow2 disk image manually via the "Import":

5) Read the template instructions, click "Finish" and "OK":

6) The created vESR instance can be seen in the "Routers" tab on the left; it can be moved to the workspace and started:

7) Launch the vESR console by choosing "Console" in the context menu:

8) vESR is successfully installed and started.

Connecting network interfaces

1) To connect a network interface, add a "Cloud" element to vESR (the "End Devices" tab on the left). Connect the objects with a link ("Add a link" on the left).

For vESR — any interface (in the example GNS3 displays the interface as Ethernet0; for vESR this is the gi 1/0/1 interface). For Cloud — the computer network card:

2) The interface status can be checked on vESR with the show interfaces status command:

vesr# show interfaces status
Interface               Admin   Link    MTU      MAC address         Last change      Mode
                       State   State                          (d,h:m:s)
--------------------   -----   -----   -----    -----------------   -------------    ------------
gi1/0/1                Up      Up      1500     0c:33:cc:25:00:00   00,00:10:23      routerport
gi1/0/2                Up      Down    1500     0c:33:cc:25:00:01   00,00:12:51      routerport
gi1/0/3                Up      Down    1500     0c:33:cc:25:00:02   00,00:12:51      routerport
gi1/0/4                Up      Down    1500     0c:33:cc:25:00:03   00,00:12:51      routerport

3) Interface configuration:

vesr# configure
vesr(config)# interface gigabitethernet 1/0/1
vesr(config-if-gi)# ip address 198.51.100.2/24
vesr(config-if-gi)# exit
vesr(config)# exit
Warning: you have uncommitted configuration changes.
vesr# commit
Configuration has been successfully applied and saved to flash. Commit timer started, changes will be reverted in 600 seconds.
vesr# confirm
Configuration has been confirmed. Commit timer canceled.
vesr# ping 198.51.100.1
PING 198.51.100.1 (198.51.100.1) 56 bytes of data.
!!!
--- 198.51.100.1 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.150/0.223/0.313/0.069 ms