(upbeat music)
- In this section, I'd like to continue our discussion
about how to determine what IOS software image
is appropriate for you to use, not only from the standpoint
of what's appropriate that can actually run within GNS3
but will support the features and protocols that you want
to practice in your lab.
So that's why I've titled this particular section
Feature Sets, because that's what we're really gonna
focus on in here right now.
So you know at this point you need to somehow get ahold
of some CISCO IOS software.
We've already talked a little bit about what software is
runable, or that you can do within GNS3.
There are certain platforms that GNS3 can emulate,
other platforms that it can't.
So we've already talked about that.
So the next thing is, once you've identified the platform
that you want, now you have to figure out,
if you have a choice that is, what feature set
you want to use for your particular lab
that you want to create or what feature set of software
you want to import into GNS3.
In order to do this, like I mentioned in a previous video,
the thing you're gonna want to go as we see right here
the Cisco Feature Navigator.
Now before we go to all these bells and whistles here,
I always recommend if you can get ahold of it,
if you can get your hands on it, no matter what platform
you're dealing with or what version of software
you're dealing with 12.3, 12.4, 15.2,
if you can get your hands on Advanced Enterprise,
that's where the big, beefy IOS software that covers
everything, that's always pretty much a surefire bet
that that will cover the features and protocols
that you want to test.
So even without going to the Feature Navigator here,
if you have access to some sort of advanced enterprise
flavor of Cisco IOS, 99.9% of the time
that version will do whatever it is that you need to do
in your GNS3 lab.
But for the purpose of explanation, let's say that you don't
have that exact image and you have to choose
from some other ones.
Okay, so from here, right from the Feature Navigator,
once again how you get to this, well, you can just
start Google and just type in Cisco Feature Navigator
and you can see right there it comes right up.
You can click on it, and notice on the upper
right-hand corner here that I'm not even logged in.
Right, it says Log In, so you can access
this Feature Navigator even without a Cisco login at all
which is kinda nice.
So from here you'd click on down here where it says
Research Software.
So click on that.
In my particular case, I'm gonna do it based on Platform.
I know that I want to use a 3725 or a 3745
because I know that that particular model,
among a couple of others, also supports
the EtherSwitch Module.
So I can use that router for both switching and routing.
And I'm gonna select IOS.
My Platform in this particular case, I'm gonna scroll down
through the available options.
Well, it usually gives me some available options here.
There we go, it's a little sluggish today.
So I'm just gonna find in my list here, let's say 3725,
and I'll just pick a version, whatever is available
here in this list.
Once again unfortunately their website or possibly
my browser is a little sluggish.
There we go, alright.
Let's do 12.4T.
And for the Release, how about I'll just
pick one here, (11)T8.
And now for the particular feature, so let's just pick one
out of the hat here just to check.
So let's say I did IP Plus.
So it's gonna search for that version
and that particular feature set.
I don't even know if that particular feature set
is available on this but, yup, clearly it is.
So there we go, and down here in this section,
right now it's thinking about it,
it lists all the features and protocols
that this particular software supports.
And you can see there's quite a bit of stuff
but notice there's also a lot of stuff that's missing.
I mean for example, this thing right down here says
Page 1 of 1, so there are no more pages.
So whatever features you see in this list here
that is what is what you can do with this particular
flavor of Cisco IOS software.
Now there's still a lot.
Okay, so if I scroll over a little bit here,
now I can scroll down a little bit
and see more options.
So let's just expand my browser window a little bit,
maybe fit some more stuff in there.
Okay, that looks a little bit better.
So let's say I'm going through this list here,
and I say okay, I see a lot of stuff.
I see BGP.
You know I can see in here CEF, Cisco Express Forwarding.
I can do some QoS stuff, Class-Based Marking,
so even this particular feature set, if this was all
you had available which was IP Plus,
still a lot of stuff you can do in here.
So if you plan on creating a GNS3 lab and you're wanting
to test a particular thing, a particular feature,
find the software in here first and make sure
that this software you're about to get your hands on
will support the feature that you want to accomplish.
There's nothing more frustrating than going through
the hassle of obtaining some Cisco IOS software image,
only to discover, hey, I wanted to test out Multicast
and this particular software doesn't support it.
I'm trying to type in Multicast commands and it's giving me
an error message.
It doesn't recognize the commands.
So you've gone through all that hassle
to download some software, and the command line
doesn't even recognize the commands
because you're trying to activate some feature or protocol
that's not available in that particular software.
So be aware of that.
If you are one of those lucky people that have a choice
of what Cisco IOS software to download and use
within GNS3, this is one of the things you're gonna have
to think about, finding the appropriate feature set.