You might be wondering what GNS3Vault is all about?

Dynamips is software that lets you run Cisco IOS on your PC or Laptop. In other words, you are now able to run multiple routers on your own computer, so you don't need real hardware anymore. This is convenient in many ways...no more cabling, no need to buy used hardware on ebay, no high electricity bills!

GNS3 is a GUI for Dynamips which makes your life even more easier.

GNS3Vault was built by Rene Molenaar, a freelancer dedicating his time to IT. The idea behind GNS3Vault is to have a single resource with labs ready for you to download and start configuring. All labs have the same format, and they are categorized in a number of technologies. Goal of the website is to have a clear overview, that's why all the labs have the same "setup"

• Scenario: A short story about the lab, and what you need to achieve.
• Goal: The goals you need to achieve to finish the lab.
• IOS: The IOS version that was used to build the lab.
• Topology: Picture to show what the network looks like.
• Video Solution: some of the labs have a youtube video explaining you how to solve the lab.

Why the name GNS3Vault? Well the explanation is easy:

GNS3 is the name of the software.

Vault because this website will be like a vault full of interesting stuff....in this case, labs!

Enjoy our labs!

Rene Molenaar
GNS3Vault

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Comments (31)

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written by Kevin Gee, August 24, 2010

Hi,
Thanks for the site, it should be very useful as I strive to get my CCNP.

I have just done a first lab, EIGRP beginner, there are a couple of errors which will confuse people;


Subnet mask is incorrect on loopback addresses, should be /32

I think this

•Change the bandwidth so traffic from router Z to router Y uses the link between Y and Z

Should be : X and Z (or X and Y)


Regards,
Kevin.

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EIGRP Beginner Lab
written by Rene Molenaar, August 25, 2010

Hello Kevin,

Thanks for your comment. You are correct about the "change bandwidth" one, I fixed it

About the loopbacks...it doesn't matter if you use a /24 or /32 or something else, it all works. In a real life situation you probably won't do this because you are wasting IP addresses if you use a /24 or something.

For this lab, if you forget about the 'no auto-summary' command in EIGRP, then by default it'll summarize to classfull networks, in this case to 172.16.0.0/16.

Good luck with your CCNP...and keep the errors coming if you spot them

Kind Regards,

Rene

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How to become the binary and subnetting Artist! link in the article does not work
written by alan, August 26, 2010

the link in the article does not work

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Link Ebook
written by Rene Molenaar, August 26, 2010

Hi Alan,

I just sent you an e-mail, I tried the link and it was working here...so i'm curious what is going wrong, would be bad if it's not working and people can't buy me Ebook Please let me know what error you ran into...

Kind Regards,

Rene

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GNS 3
written by Nkosana, September 07, 2010

Hi

I have been trying to use the 3640 IOS as a switch as it has been said it can support both switching and routing.Because it does not support the VLAN command I am new to networking I was trying (interface vlan1) and it does not support vlan.Plaese assist me if that is possible.

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3640 as a switch
written by Rene Molenaar, September 07, 2010

Hi Nkosana,

The 3640 has "some" switch features but the commands are completely different from a real switch. Personally I think it's useless if you want to learn switching. It's better to get 2x Cisco 2950's or something and practice with that...then you'll learn the same commands you need in real life or for the exam.

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Great Work
written by Cyril Jones S, September 11, 2010

it ll b better to if u post the solutions for all labs as soon as possible

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Solutions
written by Rene Molenaar, September 12, 2010

I will sometime, takes a lot of spare time for me to do so...something for the future

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Great Work
written by shivlu jain, September 17, 2010

The site is really good. I am also working on Cisco Products and may be I could contribute to it also

regards
Shivlu Jain
http://www.mplsvpn.info

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Solutions
written by Omar, September 21, 2010

Hi.. just one question.. why dont you post the solutions to the labs? I think it would be great as it helps you to check what are the errors that you make or get in perspective what might be a better solution. I´ve done other labs posted in another web-sites and this helps a lot. Hope that you might consider this as your website is great.

BR,
Omar

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Solutions
written by Rene Molenaar, September 21, 2010

Hello Omar,

Thanks for your input. I will for sure add all the solutions for the labs, it's just a matter of time. It takes me not much time to create a lab, since there are a lot of labs that I configured in the past or use in class when i'm teaching.

My goal is to have a video walkthrough for every lab, the startup config and the final config. Check out the basic MPLS VPN lab for an example.

Only problem right now is time...I hope that I can upload some solutions/videos this week

Rene

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...
written by joshua burman, October 03, 2010

Great job on the site so far! I just did the EIGRP beginner lab and it was spot on. I like how you don't have the solutions posted, so I had to do some of my own research.

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OSPF Over Frame-Relay: Point-to-Point FinalConfigs?
written by David Parker, October 17, 2010

FYI,
The OSPF Over Frame-Relay: Point-to-Point FinalConfigs are actually the starting, configs. Can these be reposted with the actual final configs?

BTW, Great site!

Thanks,
David

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written by Dai_Welsh, January 21, 2011

I cant register a new user for this site,
Username: Scotty1413
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
It says the input data is not valid?????????? what the heck, please sort out.

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Site Fail
written by Site Fail!, January 23, 2011

Can't register to download GNS3 labs.
It says the input data is not valid on username and email fields.
Make some time.

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Account problem
written by Rene Molenaar, January 24, 2011

Are you using any special characters in your username or password? Last 2-3 days about 30 people registered with new accounts so i'm not sure what is going wrong for you.

See if another username/password works...otherwise send me a mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and i'll create an account for you. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Rene
-GNS3Vault

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Trying to reset password
written by Rob K, February 23, 2011

Thanks for creating the site, but I am trying to retrieve a lost password. Then I get the token and link via email, I go to the link, enter the token, but always gives me token invalid. I have tried this numerous times.

Please advise.

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...
written by Gabriele Gerbino, February 24, 2011

Many thanks for your hard work...it's really appreciated

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Not able to register
written by venky, June 24, 2011

hi this is venky..i am new to Gns3vault,i am not able to create new account..please help me,thanks in advance.

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...
written by Ejaz Munir, July 14, 2011

I want to join this forum but i am not getting how to register here because there is no registration option. Kindly tell me plz.

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CCNP Switch Lab Advice Requried
written by Sakayaraj, July 30, 2011

Hi Rene,

I am a CCNP student, and I thought of buying actual switches for the CCNP Switch exam.

Could you please tell me the number of switches and the model of switches that I need for my exam.

Since GNS3 has great Route abilities, I have decided to spend my lab funds completely on Switches.

Thank You

Raj

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Dlink Quad NIC
written by Omar, August 08, 2011

Hi... in your building CCIE lab post I saw that you used DLINK 580 tx to build your server but I am having a hard time finding those on ebay. I found 570 tx instead and want to know if those should work fine too or if you know of another model that will be stable. I also see tha you used Ubuntu, what verision did you installed on your box? Thanks!!!

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CCIE Lab
written by Rene Molenaar, August 12, 2011

Hi Omar,

I think the 570TX will work just fine. I used the latest version of Ubuntu 11.04 but any version or any other linux distribution will work just fine.

Ubuntu was the fastest way since it has GNS3 in its repositories.

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Thank you
written by Mike Burley, August 12, 2011

Fantastic Site!!!!! great work!!!! Looking forward to the IP SLA lab...

Thanks,
Mike

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...
written by P.J.Caesar, September 07, 2011

Thanks for all the good stuff here. Please allow a question: When I register for an account, I am forced to define a strong password for the account credentials but you send it in an open email back to me. Why do you do so? Caused by this security issue my "strong" password is not longer strong but very weak because you have shown it to "everyone" on the internet and if the registering member uses a systematic to build his passwords on the net than you give away his secret without any need. An additional point: please think about to use an SSL certificate to secure the accounts by enabling https. You can get it for free on CAcert.org, thx.

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Passwords / Certificates
written by Rene Molenaar, September 07, 2011

Hello Caesar,

Good question and you have a good point here. I'm going to look into the issue to see how I can improve security. This is the default setup of Joomla so I'll have to see how to do this...

Rene

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Good work
written by Rui9876, October 20, 2011

Hi. I'm taking the CCIP, then I'll be going for the CCNP... and who knows, maybe one day the CCIE. I've been searching for GNS3 labs on the web, because until now I made them all by myself, but now I'm getting lazy.

GNS3vault is until now the best site I've found, mainly for 2 reasons:
- Labs are very neat, well documented and explained, and they also have the final solutions and a video tutorial.
- Labs are organized, are they cover a lot of topics.

One suggestion: I saw your post where you say the recommended order for the MPLS labs. That was great for me, since it's what I'm studying now. I would like to see more of that: topics suggesting a certain number of labs, in a recommended order, to cover a certain Cisco exam.

So, when you finally pass the CCIE R&S, I hope you do that.
Also, it would be nice to see more switching labs.

Another suggestion: having few labs is bad, but having lots of them can be also bad if they are redundant, because people get lost searching for them. The best balance is achieved having just the right amount of labs, or by having those recommendation lists I talked about.


Keep up the excellent work.

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Future Labs
written by Rene Molenaar, October 20, 2011

Hi Rui9876,

Thanks for your great comment. It's really good to hear that you like my stuff here!

There are many labs now that cover one single feature, basically everything you can find on the CCIE R&S blueprint but now some of the other labs are harder to find. Once I have a little more time I'll create "blueprints" with all the topics you need to know per exam/technology and in what order to do them. That'll help people.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Rene

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information in the CCNA book Incorrect
written by Nauman, November 13, 2011

Hi rene
i recently purchased the CCNA book (how to master CCNA)
and i think there is mistake in this books "shown below"
Here‟s a little overview with the CIDR notation and the full subnet mask:
255.0.0.0 /8
255.128.0.0 /9
255.192.0.0 /10
255.224.0.0 /11
255.240.0.0 /12
255.248.0.0 /13
255.252.0.0 /14
255.254.0.0 /15
255.255.0.0 /16
255.255.128.0 /17
255.255.192.0 /18
255.255.224.0 /19
225.225.240.0 /20
255.255.248.0 /21
255.255.252.0 /22
255.255.254.0 /23
255.255.255.0 /24
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Incorrect from here >>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
255.255.128.0 /25 >>> shouldn't this be 255.255.255.128
255.255.192.0 /26>>>> shouldn't this be 255.255.255.192
255.255.224.0 /27 >>> shouldn't this be 255.255.255.224
255.255.240.0 /28 >>> shouldn't this be 255.255.255.240
255.255.248.0 /29 >>> shouldn't this be 255.255.255.248
255.255.252.0 /30 >>> shouldn't this be 255.255.255.252

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Error
written by Rene Molenaar, November 14, 2011

Hello Nauman,

Thanks for showing me this, seems I was a little too quick with copy/pasting those subnet mask tables I'll fix it.

Rene

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You are a Legend
written by nauman, November 15, 2011

Hi Rene
you are a Legend
i love your portal , it,s amazing,and the best thing is everything is free
thank you so much,
much appreciated

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