I am looking for a full feature Cisco simulator that I can use for developing new networks. I don't really want one targeted at the various CCXX labs and courses. Everything I have found so far seems targeted at the student and is very LABcentric. If it does allow for free form design, has a limited device library. About the best I have found so far is Boson's CCNP offering which while it will allow for some free form design is somewhat limited in it's device library (at least the demo version is anyway). Anyone able to recommend anything? Thanks
Its not a simulator, but an emulator - which is good, and bad.
It's good since it is a real IOS router (an arbitrary number of which you can run on a PC), but bad since you need a real IOS image. Well only bad if you can't get one:-( Anyone with a clue or a service contract can:-)
Obviously the number of routers that can be emulated on a PC is resource constrained but 6 or 8 or 10 seemed OK on a dual core 2GHz x 2GB DRAM laptop on windows (cygwin). - YMMV. I have the idea that native linux might well be a LOT faster but have not yet evaluated it.
There is also a graphical front end for dynagen. gns3 looks like it, never tried it tho'.
To run a load of routers on a single PC needs a bit of care. It's all documented. Use less exotic routers, 2600, 3600 instead of 7200, use sparse memory, use (oh I forget) whatever they call it that allows a single code image to service >1 router. Use 2 instances of dynamips since unless on 64bit OS there is not enough virtual memory. If you like use >1 computer. All beautifully seamless. I think dynamips is single threaded so if you have dual core you need two instances of dynamips to use them - can't really recall that exactly either. Have a go yourself.
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