CREATE A GNS3 TOPOLOGY:

 

Once you have integrated the new virtual machine with GNS3, you can now create topologies that contain the new VM.

 

To create a new GNS3 topology, select a group of devices in the Devices Toolbar by clicking the Browse End Devices button

 

The new virtual machine is now available to be added to a GNS3 topology:

 

Drag and drop the selected node (device) to the GNS3 Workspace. An instance of the node becomes available in the Workspace. In this example, the TinyCore PC is now available:

 

 

Drag and drop another node into the GNS3 Workspace. In this example, a router was added to the GNS3 workspace. The devices available will depend on your GNS3 configuration:

 

Click the Toolbar Device button again to collapse the group:

 

 

Click the Add a Link button to start adding links to your topology. The mouse cursor will change to indicate that links can be added:

 

 

Click on the VM device in your topology to display available interfaces. In this example Ethernet0 is available (this is device dependant):

 

 

Click the interface and then select another device in the topology to connect the interface to. In this example Ethernet 0 on TinyCore-Local-VMware was selected and the link was joined to R1:

 

Select an interface on the second device to complete the connection. In this example, FastEthernet 0/0 on R2 was selected:

 

Click the Add a Link button to stop adding links. The mouse cursor will change back to normal to indicate that you have stopped adding links:

 

Click the Show/Hide interface labels button on the GNS3 Toolbar to display interface labels in your topology:

 

You are now ready to power on your network devices. Click the Start/Resume button on the GNS3 Toolbar to start up your network devices:

 

 

GNS3 indicates that the devices have been powered on by turning the interface connectors from red to green:

 

You are now ready to configure your devices. Click the Console connect to all devices button on the GNS3 Toolbar to open a connection to every device in the topology:

 

A console connection is opened to the router in the topology:

 

You can access the virtual machine console using VMware:

 

In this example, R1 is configured as follows:

R1# configure terminal
R1(config)# interface fastEthernet 0/0
R1(config-if)# ip address 10.1.1.1 255.255.255.0
R1(config-if)# no shutdown
R1(config-if)# end
R1#

 

Configure the VM with an IP address in the same subnet. In TinyCore, this is done by first selecting the Control Panel:

        

Click Network:

        

Configure the relevant IP addressing information and click Apply and then Exit:

        

In this example the following settings have been used:

Interface: eth0

IP address: 10.1.1.2

Mask: 255.255.255.0

Broadcast: 10.1.1.255

Gateway: 10.1.1.1

DNS: 8.8.8.8

 

Open a terminal on the virtual machine:

 

Ping R1 from the TinyCore PC:

        

 

Result: The New TinyCore PC can ping the GNS3 router R1.

 

Congratulations! You have integrated a new VMware virtual machine with GNS3.