confDynagen
powerful network configuration generator for Dynamips
confDynagen is a build of Dynagen with support for dynamic reconfiguration. It allows you to change the topology of your labs while running the lab - without the need to restart it. It also supports hot-plugging of port adapters while the routers itself are online. Another great feature confDynagen has is support for pemuwrapper which allows the emulation of PIX firewall.
what is Dynagen?
Dynagen is a front-end for use with the Dynamips Cisco router emulator. It uses an INI-like configuration file to provision Dynamips emulator networks. It takes care of specifying the right port adapters, generating and matching up those pesky NIO descriptors, specifying bridges, frame-relay, ATM switches, etc. It also provides a management CLI for listing devices, suspending and reloading instances, determining and managing idle-pc values, performing packet captures, etc.
what is Dynamips?
Dynamips is a free open-source Cisco router hardware emulator, created by Christophe Fillot. Its main advantage compared to other similar products (so called cisco ios simulators) is that it runs original Cisco IOS. It accomplishes this task by emulating the hardware of the router, not the software. This way it is possible to virtualize almost 100% of the functionality of Cisco IOS (sometimes even 100% of the non-functionality of Cisco IOS Wink. Its main use is as a training platform for getting CCNA, CCNP and CCIE, or to simulate and try out new IOS features. It certainly cannot replace real cisco routers, because of its low performance. Dynamips is very easy to use (one needs to have proper experience with Cisco gear), it runs in a special hypervisor mode, allowing to create many instances of virtual routers and connect them with virtual links. The only boundaries are the capabilities of your computer. On todays typical computer, simulating 6 or 7 instances with 12.4T IOS is not a problem. It is even possible to distribute the hypervisor instances onto many computers, so actually there is no limitation in number of routers in the simulation.
features
confDynagen introduces a special configuration mode that allows you to dynamically change your lab, by editing the .net config on the fly - interactively. You can add/change/remove all lab/router options that are available in the .net files without restarting your lab. You can also add/change/remove hypervisors without restarting your lab.
Here is a short list of features:
- pemuwrapper support
- create/delete connections online
- add/remove slots online (only 7200 supports OIR), manually or automatically
- create/delete routers online
- modify/delete default sections from lab
- modifying router parameters (without restarting the lab, but of course this does not work when router is running)
- reseting the hypervisor
- setting dynamips variables online (debug, workingdir) without restarting the lab
- various "show" commands:
- show run
- show run <device_name>
- show start
- show start <device_name>
- show device
- show device <device_name>
- saving your running config:
- copy run start
download
Basically you need three things:
- dynamips hypervisor by Christophe Fillot for Cisco router emulation
- pemuwrapper by Thomas Pani for PIX firewall emulation
- (conf)Dynagen for controlling both of the above, and running the lab files
tutorial
- for beginners with dynagen first read the excellent dynagen tutorial
- configuration console tutorial
- pemuwrapper tutorial
history
0.11.121107
- confDynagen&Dynagen merge!!!
- as part of merge I moved the downloads to Greg's interim release page
- Resolves crash when invalid port specified on adapter (http://7200emu.hacki.at/viewtopic.php?p=15685)
- Dynagen now warns if a router does not have an image set
- The prefix "PA-" for the 7200 IO adapters is optional (i.e. PA-C7200-IO-2FE" or "C7200-IO-2FE").
- reload pemu on linux issue fixed
- export command fixed
- NIO_linux_eth in config fixed
- start /all fixed
0.11.110907
- various bug fixes
- ATMBR config mode, add/remove ATMBR mappings online
- ETHSW config mode, add/remove ETHSW mappings online
- ETHSW 'show run' support
- various improvements in error handling
- ETHSW, ATMBR, FRSW, ATMSW 'show device' support
0.11.101907
- fixed bug with pemuwrapper 0.2.1 version check
- fixed bug with removing interfaces
- ATM bridge support (need dynamips 0.2.8 RC2), see sample_labs/atmbr.net for example
- ATMSW confDynagen support
- much faster 'show run' output
- better handling of errors in .net file. Try loading sample_labs/pemu12.net
- 525 serial number handling fixed
0.11.100307
- merge with latest dynagen rev 83
- "show run" output for firewalls and c1700
- Bridge, ETHSW connection to pemu
- validation and error checking of port numbers and connections
- pemuwrapper version check
- loopback optimization in pemuwrapper
- config console for c1700
- dns resolve in pemuwrapper 0.2.1-RC2
- conf localhost -> 7200 bug fixed
- other various bugfixes
0.10.091907
- new web page http://code.google.com/p/confdynagen/
- pemuwrapper support. (and a slight change in .net syntax).Big THANKS to Thomas Pani for his work on pemuwrapper.
- merge with dynagen 0.10.1
0.9.3.071707
- various bugfixes
- PEMU support
0.9.3.061807
- merge with dynagen 0.9.3
0.9.2.051207
- various bugfixes
- merge with latest dynagen 0.9.2
- reorganization of code into separate confConsole.py file
- passive support for frame-relay, ATM and ETH switches, "show run", "show router" support, try IEWBv4 lab f.e.
- active reconfiguration for FR switches:
- addition of "frsw <frsw name>" command for creating FRSW switch or jumping into FRSW conf mode
- "no" version of previous command
- addition of <port_number>:<dlci> = <port_number>:<dlci> command for creating of DLCI mapping similarly to creating mappings in dynagen
- inverse "no" version of previous command for deletion of mapping
0.9.0.022607
- THE initial release
