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How to build a voice lab with GNS3 and VMWare
Posted by Josh under CCIE , Cisco , Cisco Routers , Cisco VOIP , GNS3 , Voice LAB , virtualization -Is it possible to build a voice lab without actual hardware? The answer is yes and no. You can build a very good lab using GNS3 and VMWare but it is not possible to build a complete lab. The underlying emulation engine for GNS3 (dynamips) does not support digital signal processors (dsps) or voice cards.
Over the next few months, I will show you how to build a very good lab without any hardware. If you want a more complete lab, you will need to obtain at least one router with dsps and voice cards. I have a 2611XM router with DSPs, a vic-2fxs card, a vic-2fxo card and an ATA-186.
Disclaimer and Due Credit:
This tutorial series is heavily based on CCIE Voice Home lab with Dynamips/VMware by Jayanm of Chicago, IL. Jaynam has obtained the following Cisco Certifications: CCIE (Voice) - CCVP - CCSP - CCNA - CQS (PIX,VPN,IDS) - VMWare Certified Professional.
I really appreciate the ground breaking research by Jaynam.
Updates and Videos in the series:
I will include future videos in this section as they are created. It is a good idea to bookmark this particular post or subscribe to our RSS Feed if you would like to keep up on all future tutorials.
- How to install Call Manager 4.x in VMWare
- How to install Call Manager 6.x in VMWare
- Basic Call Manager Preparation
- How to run multiple IP Blue softphones on a single PC
- Voice lab - Running GNS3 as root
- Voice Lab - Headquarters build
Hardware
I am using a fairly basic pc with a 3Ghz hyperthreading CPU and 2GB Ram. By today’s standards, it is nothing special.
Optional Hardware
As I mentioned before, I have a 2611XM router with a couple voice cards and some dsps. This is not manditory but I will include this hardware with the lab series for those that would like to purchase the hardware to follow along.
Emulated Hardware
I will be emulating 3725 routers because they will be seen on the CCIE lab. Although the 3725s call for 256 MB requirements, I have found that they only actually use ~192MB ram on my PC.
Jaynam and others have opted to use 2691’s. You may find this works better for you also.
Software
I have chosen to use Ubuntu Linux for my host operating system due to better performance over XP, stability, availability, ease of use and price.
Host OS: Ubuntu 8.0.4
PC Emulation: VMWare Server v1.0.6
Router Emulation: GNS3 v0.5
IOS: c3725-adventerprisek9_ivs-mz.124-15.T6.bin
What is possible without hardware?
It is possible to test lots of different Cisco VOIP Technologies. Here is a short list. I am sure I will make mistakes with this list or leave things out. Feel free to email me or make a comment to help me get a more complete list.
Call Manager Features
- Call Routing - Partitions, CSS, Time of Day routing, Route Groups, Route Lists, Route patterns, Translation Patterns, Line Groups, Hunt Lists, Hunt Pilots, 4 digit dialing
- Media Resources - Software Based Media Resources only - Music on Hold, Software Conference Bridge
- IP Phone registration and dialing
- Redundancy - SRST, AAR
- Call Admission Control - Locations based and Gatekeeper
- Unity Integration
- Extension Mobility
- Attendant Console
- IPMA
IOS Features
- Call manager Express
- Gatekeeper
- IPIPGW
- Digit manipulation
- Auto Attendant
- TCL Scripts
- Voicemail Integration from CME to Unity
- WAN QOS
- Frame Relay
- Class of Restriction (COR)
- SRST
What is not possible without hardware?
- Xcoder registration and testing
- Hardware based conference bridges
- Router based MOH
- voice port configuration
- t.37 fax store and forward
- Fax relay
- MGCP
- Anything related to hardware not emulated, VG248, ATA, CAT6500, Catalyst 3550 switch.
August 10th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
thnx for such a wonderful job, it’s gr8 for persons like me,who can’t afford to build labs with real devices(as its so costly).
You had written “Over the next few months, I will show you how to build a very good lab without any hardware.” I would be waiting for this kind of lab.
August 10th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
@vijay,
You’re welcome. I will have short posts going over each part of the lab. It will take a while to get through it all but it will all be in video tutorials. Stay tuned.
Josh
August 11th, 2008 at 6:20 am
Dear Josh
Thanks and wonderful creation. However, your video does not go after a awhile.I just want to know whether this lab tutorial is piece by piece or not.
Thanks once again
August 11th, 2008 at 9:47 am
@Joseph,
You are welcome. The building of the lab will be piece by piece. Over the next few months, I will create several videos demonstrating each piece of the build or referencing other video tutorials already completed to give assistance in building your own lab.
Josh
August 11th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Thank you for showing us how to setup this lab.
Will each router setup be posted as a setup?
Will you show us how to get multiple instances of IP blue phones to register with CCM or CME?
I passed my CCVP recently. However where I work does not have any voice stuff. So I need to build a lab to strengthen my skill set.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Can we use a 1760 with all the voice modules?
August 11th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Josh,
Great tutorial and website. I am really looking forward to your next video.
August 12th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
@AK,
I am not sure exactly how I will post the stages. At this point, I am thinking about posting in regards to steps instead of devices…1) Frame-Relay connectivity 2) vmware networking 3) cme installation … etc..
Yes, you can use a 1760 with voice modules.
Josh
August 12th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Rockin, I am looking forward to more posts like this! Thanks Josh!
August 13th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Josh,
Great website and great tutorials, keep up the good work.
I made the same lab year ago, you can find the topic for my lab here:
http://www.sadikhov.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=99053
But being busy with my CCIE R&S and CCIE Voice took most of my time and i did not update my topic.
Thanks again for this great website.
I could be reached via my email Cisco_Godfather@hotmail.com if you need any help bro.
Thanks
August 13th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
@Cisco_Godfather,
You are welcome and thanks for the offer! I will contact you if I get hung up on something.
If you want to forward others from your topic over here, I will be walking through the lab with videos…but I’ll leave that up to you.
Josh
August 17th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
What dont you guys make reference to the original source of all this setup .
http://corner-il.blogspot.com/2007/05/ccie-voice-home-lab-with-dynamipsvmware.html
August 17th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
@adal,
I did make reference. If you are the original author, I would like to thank you for your hard work. The disclaimer and due credit is the first thing mentioned. I also included a link to your site.
—–
Disclaimer and Due Credit:
This tutorial series is heavily based on CCIE Voice Home lab with Dynamips/VMware by Jayanm of Chicago, IL. Jaynam has obtained the following Cisco Certifications: CCIE (Voice) - CCVP - CCSP - CCNA - CQS (PIX,VPN,IDS) - VMWare Certified Professional.
I really appreciate the ground breaking research by Jaynam.
—
Josh
August 18th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
ooopsss! my apologies I had been used to seen at other forums this configuration without given the proper credits. keep up the good work !
August 18th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
@Josh
I will be glad to point them to your blog.
Regards
August 21st, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Is it possible in anyway to emulate unity?
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Adal,
No problem. I understand the original author deserves credit.
Cisco_Godfather,
Thanks!
demo,
Yes, it is possible to run Unity in VMWare but the voice quality is not that great. It is still good for studying though. I will create a tutorial for installing Unity as part of the voice lab series.
Josh
August 25th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I had/have unity running in vmware. I did play with it a little in vmware with how much memory I would give. Finally 2 gb of memory worked the best thats the most I could give its a little slow and choppy but works great for lab purposes. I have unity running on ubuntu and CCM 6 on my vista (I hate vista) laptop. Anyone know where to get IPCC I have been looking but can not find it…..Great blog by the way.
August 25th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Thank you for putting this all together, I’m having difficulty with the vmware aspect though.
When I create three vmnets and enable all three in windows or vmware I can no longer reach the internet from the host. The packets don’t seem to go to the router and a persistent route works but only temporarily.
Did you experience this when building your lab?
August 26th, 2008 at 6:30 am
hi Josh,
I trully appreciate your tutorial!
Can you share .net file for GNS3?
Thanks for all.
Joseph
August 31st, 2008 at 12:54 am
luke,
Thanks for sharing your experience!
holicanmc,
It is important that you do not put a default gateway on any of the vmnet interfaces.
Joseph,
I will be walking through this lab step by step as I get time.
Josh
August 31st, 2008 at 1:33 am
[...] this is the first tutorial following the Virtual Voice Lab Series introduction, the first tutorials were recorded and posted several months [...]
September 3rd, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Does anyone know if its possible to get IPCC Express/UCCX running on VMWare? I am trying to get it setup in a lab and presented with the invalid hardware popup upon install. Also cant find much on the net on this topic.
Thanks
Chad
September 7th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Chad,
You can run UCCX on VMWare; I recently installed IPCCX 4.05 on VMWare Server 1.06 without any problems. However, you will need a valid license file to continue with AppAdmin setup which may also require a VMWare host MAC-Address change as well.
You can look for more detailed steps here:
http://pushkarbhatkoti.wordpress.com/category/how-to-install-ipcc-on-top-of-ccm-publisher/
-Hunter
September 10th, 2008 at 1:04 am
[...] is the fourth tutorial in the Virtual Voice Lab Series for CCIE and CCVP [...]
October 9th, 2008 at 7:43 am
I was wondering if there is any other new lab video by josh after the initial 10:04 minute lab. Sound like a dumb Question but I justy couldn’t find any link for new part of lab. Thanks.
October 9th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Fahim,
It has been a little while sense my last video. I have plans to do some recording this weekend though.
I will post new videos as blog posts and link to them from the ‘Updates and Videos in the series’ section of this post.
You can subscribe to the RSS feed for notificaitons of new videos.
Josh
October 29th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Hey Josh,when you are using CUCM6 user management console ,do you get any error like “apache tomcat” error? Any one who knows where I go wrong with this one?
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:35 am
Bonjour Bobjour
Toute d’abord, j’aimerai bien te remercie pour ton site web, vraiement c’est un tres bon travail que tu as fait, je suis a la recherche de CISCO CALLMANAGER 5.0 et 6.0, ainsi que CISCO UNITY 5.0 et 6.0, je cherche les version vmware, pour les installer sur mon portable et les testes, je vais etre tres apprecier si tm les envoies.
FARID FERRAH
November 5th, 2008 at 1:14 am
bibo,
I have gotten that error when I try to login immediately after boot, in 6.
Josh
November 5th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Farid,
I can’t send you the media and I will not allow anyone posting links to media on this site.
There are many ways to get it. You will just have to research a bit more.
Sorry,
Josh
November 18th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
[...] I’ve been playing with this a little bit fumblimg around and then I read the blindhog.net posts on this: You’ve gotta check this out [...]