Herding Packets

The better part of a year ago when the Cisco CSR1000V was publicly released, I quickly tested the notion of running the Cloud Services Router in VMWare Fusion on the Mac, rather than on a full vSphere server. Since then, I occasionally see that some readers land on my blog after searching for the terms “CSR1000V GNS3” looking for assistance in integrating the CSR with the popular networking simulation platform. The CSR1000V is attractive as it provides a means to run IOS-XE, the same variant as on the ASR-series routers, and unlike Dynamips, Cisco has blessed use of the CSR with the 2.5 Mb/s throughput-limited trial license as a legitimate labbing platform. Last night I decided to see if it could be done. Turns out, it’s easy.

Continue reading →