GNS3 and...I don't think my laptop likes VBox very much...

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Rick Butler

Rick Butler

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    • Aug 8, 2019
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    #1
    So, excitedly, I began to start setting up my environment for the CASP+ TTT.

    However, it seems that VBox 6.1.28 decided to throw this error in the first tantrum of the morning:

    Call to NEMR0InitVMPart2 failed: VERR_NEM_INIT_FAILED (VERR_NEM_VM_CREATE_FAILED).

    Result Code:E_FAIL (0x80004005)
    Component:ConsoleWrap
    Interface:IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}

    According to this forum: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=104175&p=507408, there are issues with VBox 6.1.28 in running the GNS3 VM. Not sure what other VM's may be having trouble, but I rolled it back to 6.1.26. No go.

    For some reason, despite having shut down every Hyper-V thing and even having Windows report that Hyper-V was down, only to have VirtualBox tell me in the log files that it wasn't, I took a sip of coffee and said, "well, heck..it's just a VM, so I guess we're going Redmond and rocking GNS3 on Hyper-V. It can't be all that bad...right?"

    Well, seemed like everything was going smooth, until the GNS3 decided to tell me that eth0 wasn't configured. What? You should be getting IP information from Hyper-V...right?

    > Get-NetNat

    Nope...dead...like my dreams.

    I guess I had to set up a different vEthernet switch, configure manually, configure eth0 in the VM to go manual...and after three cups of coffee and several colorful metaphors, scaring off the Amazon guy with a growl of frustration, and watching the minute hands on both of my wall clocks swing round about 3-4 times, I THINK I have it working now. I think it all makes sense.

    Downloading Lee's project files - I think that's gonna take a little bit, so I'll finish up the bit of the preso from last night.

    Didn't someone say this was the fun part...getting it to work? I'd like to have a little talk with that individual.

    Anyone else have as much "fun" as I did? Comments and other snide comments below...

    /r
     
    #3
    Jarrel said:
    Seems like you had lots of "fun" there.
    Nonetheless, kudos in getting it working!

    I already had mine setup so I didn't had "fun" much like you.
    Click to expand...
    And mine is still not working well. Semaphore issues when I bring up Lee's project file, causes the GNS3 VM to freeze up. So far, I've put the VM to two cores and 4GB RAM...no joy yet.
     
    #5
    Jarrel said:
    Do you have issues when GNS3 runs on its own, without link to virtualBox?
    Likewise, do you have issues when virtualbox runs on its own, without link to GNS3?
    Click to expand...
    Again, not using VBox - I'm on Hyper-V, since VBox at the moment hates my system.

    The VM runs fine, it's only when I fire up the project file. I might try a different hardware platform. /r
     
    #6
    For some reason, despite having shut down every Hyper-V thing and even having Windows report that Hyper-V was down, only to have VirtualBox tell me in the log files that it wasn't,
    Click to expand...
    These days, VirtualBox will run fine on Win10 + Hyper-V, but you will need to enable an extra service/feature: the Windows Hypervisor Platform, I think it's called. That way they won't clash and VBox will use a few kernel extensions offered by Win10.

    You know. For future reference.

    Mind you, if I only had laptop hardware I would seriously consider running the GNS3 VM elsewhere, like on a cloud instance or a VMWare ESXi box at home. I realize that most people won't have the latter, and cloud can be tricky. Then again, at CASP+ level you'd hope people to be capable of spinning up a cloud VM rather securely.

    Didn't someone say this was the fun part...getting it to work? I'd like to have a little talk with that individual.
    Click to expand...
    No, you're right. Frustration long before you even start learning and practicing is not beneficial to anyone's motivation. Hence why I dry-run my first day of Linux+ a few times before starting a new semester. Plus I give students detailed prepwork and I try to make sure we have a proper ISO hosted locally.

    Downloading Lee's project files
    Click to expand...
    I was about to ask "which project files", but then I realized which forum we're in. Apparently Lee is using/suggesting GNS3 for the CASP+ TTT! Huh, that's not something I'd expected. Nifty.
     
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    #7
    Tess Sluijter said:
    These days, VirtualBox will run fine on Win10 + Hyper-V, but you will need to enable an extra service/feature: the Windows Hypervisor Platform, I think it's called. That way they won't clash and VBox will use a few kernel extensions offered by Win10.
    Click to expand...
    I had tried that. Didn't want to play. It might be that my laptop (a beefy system in it's own right, 10th Gen Core i7, 32GB RAM 1TB M.2, nVidia 1650) is just so laden down with this and that, that it might need a full wipe and reload. But I may be giving up this machine for an even more powerful system here in about a month, so I am not really looking to sink too much time into making it work.

    Tess Sluijter said:
    Mind you, if I only had laptop hardware I would seriously consider running the GNS3 VM elsewhere, like on a cloud instance or a VMWare ESXi box at home. I realize that most people won't have the latter, and cloud can be tricky. Then again, at CASP+ level you'd hope people to be capable of spinning up a cloud VM rather securely.
    Click to expand...
    Yeah, but I'm a cheapskate at heart and the cloudy people want gold to play in their sandbox. I think I have machine that will suffice for what I want to do. And I'll be able to run it on Ubuntu, rather than WIndoze.

    Tess Sluijter said:
    I was about to ask "which project files", but then I realized which forum we're in. Apparently Lee is using/suggesting GNS3 for the CASP+ TTT! Huh, that's not something I'd expected. Nifty.
    Click to expand...
    Well, that's @Lee McWhorter for you. While the first domain covers primarily managerial, administrative topics, when we get into some of the good stuff, Lee will want to use his PenTest labs to demonstrate and cement those concepts. I, personally, am looking forward to running those exercises with him.

    I always like to see how other instructors teach hands-on related materials. And that old cliche applies - you always have something to learn, you always have something to teach.

    /r
     
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    #8
    Well, I ended up setting up a dev system running Windows Server 2016, and GNS3 on VBox - which I think I like better. Machine has a sweet i9-9900K proc, 32GB RAM and SSD. Gave the VM four cores and 4GB RAM. The environment lit up like a Christmas tree. Still spiked to 100% in a few places. But, at least it's running now...

    Anyone else out there still having fun with their GNS3 setups?

    /r
     
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    #17
    MCT said:
    Good day. Rick. after resetting and importing "GNS3 VM" again into Virtual box. Vir box says "KVM support available: false." It says that my CPU does not support KVM. My question is, could that be the reason why the green light for : "GNS3 vm" does not come on?
    Click to expand...
    To clarify what Rick is asking: in your BIOS/UEFI you should have an option to enable VT-x (on Intel) or AMD-V (on AMD).

    This provides virtualization acceleration and para-virtualization.

    If that is in working order, the second question is whether you are using VirtualBox on Windows 10. If yes, then you will need to enable the "Windows Hypervisor Platform" functionality in Windows, which is not enabled by default. Without it, you will not be able to use VM-inside-VM virtualization which is what GNS3 uses.
     
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