Adding Comware devices to GNS3

There were some difficulties when adding Comware devices that running on VirtualBox to GNS3. Unlike, adding normal VirtualBox VM to GNS3, the difficulties lie on the usage of Host Machine's network adapters. I found that the two following additional steps were needed for integration of softwares version I used in my setup.

• Installing Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter
• Re-installing WinPcap_4_1_3.exe
• Generating Simulated Comware (Simware) devices
• Integrating Simware devices to GNS3

Installing Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter

Lesson learnt:

By default, created the VMs on VirtualBox are connected to VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter. For some reasons, Comware devices created by HNS on VirtualBox would need to connect to Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter, in order to work when integrating with GNS3. The following footprint shows the installation of Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter.

Note: on step-1, on Device Manager, click Network adapters first, before Action > Add legacy hardware.

Re-installing WinPcap_4_1_3.exe

Lesson learnt:

After adding new Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter, I had to re-install WinPcap, else GNS3 threw error when connecting to it.

Generating Simulated Comware (Simware) devices

HNS is used only to generate Simware devices on VirtualBox. Once successfully created, GNS3 will take over / control the operation of Simware devices.

1. Ran HNS; Loaded it with the following script.

HP Network Simulator - Script:
        #*********************************************************************
        #device 1
        device_id = 1
        device_model = SIM2100 
        board = SIM2101 : memory_size 512
        
        #*********************************************************************
        #device 2
        device_id = 2
        device_model = SIM2100 
        board = SIM2101 : memory_size 512
        
        #*********************************************************************
        #connect host interfaces
        device 1 : interface 1 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        device 1 : interface 2 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        device 1 : interface 3 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        device 1 : interface 4 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        device 1 : interface 5 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        device 1 : interface 6 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        device 1 : interface 7 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        device 1 : interface 8 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        device 2 : interface 1 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        device 2 : interface 2 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        device 2 : interface 3 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        device 2 : interface 4 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        device 2 : interface 5 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        device 2 : interface 6 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        device 2 : interface 7 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        device 2 : interface 8 <---> host : "Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter"
        #*********************************************************************
        
    

2. Saved the topology to lab.
3. Ran the topology by pressing Run(F6) icon. On this step, HNS created the two Simware devices on VirtualBox.
4. VirtualBox popped up and showed the two Simware devices were successfully created under lab group, i.e. lab-device1 and lab-device2.
5. Simware device 1, i.e. SIM2100 model, has 8 network adapters; all are connected to Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter.
6. Simware device 2, i.e. SIM2100 model, has 8 network adapters; all are connected to Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter.
7. Once the VMs were created on VirtualBox, I could stop the HNS project. Stop(F7)
8. Confirmed to stop the HNS project.
9. Confirmed to close the HNS.

From here onwards, GNS3 will take over / control the VirtualBox Simware devices operation.

Integrating Simware devices to GNS3

1. Ran GNS3; Navigated to Edit > Preferences.
2. Under VirtualBox, selected VirtualBox VMs. Clicked New, selected Run this VirtualBox on my local computer. Then Next.
3. Waited for VirtualBox VM list to be populated. On VM list, selected the newly created Simware device from previous step, i.e. lab-device1.
4. lab-device1 was selected. Then Finish.
5. lab-device1 was successfully integrated to GNS3. Repeat the step. Clicked New, select Run this VirtualBox on my local computer. Then Next.
6. lab-device2 was selected. Then Finish.
7. After both Simware devices were successfully integrated to GNS3, selected lab-device1. Clicked Edit, to revise few parameters.
8. On General settings tab, updated Default name format: Comware-device{id}; Symbol: L3switch.png; Category: Switches; Console type: telnet.
9. On Network tab, updated Adapters: 8; checked/enabled Allow GNS3 to use any configured VirtualBox adapter. Then Ok.
10. Selected lab-device2. Clicked Edit, to revise few parameters as shown above. Then Apply and OK.
11. lab-device1 and lab-device2, which were created on VirtualBox are ready to use in GNS3.

Simware devices view after integration with GNS3

After the integration, I revisited the VirtualBox and checked the status of Simware devices (VMs) and found the following.

Apparently, after the integration, the network adapters of Simware devices had been replaced from Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter to Generic Driver,'UDPTunnel' with destination IP dest=127.0.0.1. This indicates that communication between GNS3 and VirtualBox is between GNS3-VM's 192.168.113.128 and VMnet1 192.168.113.1. As such, at this point, the logical representation of my setup had become the following.

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