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Category: Network simulation and modelling

GNS3 – How to change the Solar-PuTTY font size

To change the Solar-Putty font size follow these steps:

  1. Open the Solar-Putty SSH client (for example by opening the console of a GNS3 device)
  2. Click on three dots in the upper left corner
  3. Select Settings,
  4. Go to the bottom menu item “GENERAL
  5. Look at the bottom of the window for “FONTS & COLORS”
  6. Click on the “Launch Putty” link. As the result the Putty configuration window will be opened
  7. Click on the Default settings inside the Saved sessions
  8. At the left menu select Window => Appearance
  9. Click on the Change button and set your preferred font and its size. When you will finish click on Ok.
  10. At the left menu select “Sessions” and “Default settings” again
  11. Click on Save
  12. You may close the window now. It is done!

Here are screenshots:

Netacad Packet tracer – how to activate Security feature for Cisco IOS and VPN labs

Cisco Packet Tracer (PT) simulator allows performing site-to-site VPN exercises. However, the security feature of the router’s IOSs is disabled by default and has to be enabled. Then required VPN commands (crypto and etc.) will be available. The activation is quite simple and functionality was tested for PT versions 7.3 and 8.0.1:

  1. Start the packet tracer and place an 1841/1941 router on a workspace or open an existing project that is using such routers

2. Open CLI and type show version. We may see that the security feature is not activated:

How to later integrate Solar-Putty with GNS3 as the preferred console application

Starting the GNS3 version 2.1.10, Solar-Putty is packaged as the default SSH client. However, how to integrate it to GNS3 later? As it was not selected during the GNS3 installation? Follow:

1. Download the Solar Putty application from https://www.solarwinds.com/free-tools/solar-putty. Puty is zipped, therefore after the download has completed, unzip the Solar-PuTTY.exe application file to your preferred application folder. I used the C:\Program Files (x86)\Solar-Putty\ for that.

How to easily add Open vSwitch to GNS3

Open vSwitch (OVS) is a multilayer (MLS) virtual switch licensed under the open-source Apache 2.0 license which is widely used in the field of virtual networking. With this open-source MLS switch, we can easily extend GNS3 switching capabilities. We can add this switch to GNS3 very quickly using a GNS3 OVS appliance. No base Linux system VM is required, no ISO images.

In this post I’m going to describe how to add and run OVS MLS inside of the GNS3 (local or remote).

Running Fortigate FW VM inside of GNS3

In this post we describe how to run Fortigate FW VM appliance inside of the GNS3 (local or remote).

Prerequisities and environment

  • GNS3
    • In my case of version 2.1.1 running on a remote linux server (physical HW, not GSN3 VM).
    Fortigate VM Image for KVM
    • In my case FortiGate for KVM platform Version 6.2.
    • Download from HERE using Fortigate.ONE account (may create for free).
    GNS3 Fortigate Appliance

    Note: FortiGate VM evaluation license

    FortiGate VM includes a limited embedded 15-day trial license that supports: