ASA – GNS3 Deployment

  
ASA Virtual Setup in GNS3 1.x / 2.x

 The ASAv image file is added to GNS3 as a QEMU VM Template.

STEP 1:

 Download the Cisco ASAv hda image file (asav952.qcow2) website.

 Download VMware Workstation and install using the default settings.
 Download the GNS3 VM for VMware Workstation from the GNS3 website.

STEP 2:

 Extract the contents of the GNS3 VM zip to a folder.

STEP 3:

 Start the VMware workstation and open the GNS3 VM file. It will ask you to location
where you want to import the GNS3 VM. After importing the VM, start the GNS3 VM.
 Once imported there appears to be no configuration required, close the VM for now by
selecting “Shutdown” from the menu.

STEP 4:

 Open GNS3 application, click “Help” from the menu bar.

 Select “Setup Wizard”.

 Select “Run modern IOS ( IOSv or IOU),ASA and appliances from non Cisco
manufactures”, click Next.
STEP 5:
 Select “VMware (recommended), modify the vCPU and RAM settings if required.

 Click Next to continue.

 The Local GNS3 VM will now automatically start.

 The VMware Workstation application should automatically appear and load the GNS3
VM. You can safely minimise this.
 STEP 6:

 Continue the GNS3 Setup Wizard – Select “Add a Qemu virtual machine”. Click Finish.

 Select “Server Type” as “Run the Qemu VM on the GNS3 VM”, click Next.
 Appropriately name the VM eg “ASAv”, click Next.

 Select the correct Qemu binary from drop down list; select enough memory for the
ASAv – 2048MB works. Click Next.

 You can select 512 MB or 1024 MB also as per your available RAM in system.
 Import is now complete, click Edit to complete the configuration of the ASAv Template.

STEP 7:

 Under the “General Settings” change the “Category” to “Security Devices”.

 Change the icon by changing the symbol by browsing to the ASA symbol.

 Change “Console Type” to be “vnc”.

 Under the “Network” tab within the QEMU VM Configuration.

 The first interface on an ASAv is the Management Interface, change “First port name” to
Management” or something equivalent.
 As default the name format for the remaining interfaces is “Ethernet” this is the label within
GNS3 but not within the ASAv – the interfaces are GigabitEthernet. This may be confusing to
some people, regardless I change the “Name Format” to “Gig0/{0}”
 STEP 8:

 On the “Advanced Settings” tab I “Activate CPU throttling” and set 80%.

 Un-tick “Use as a linked based VM” FOR NOW – we’ll come back to that later.

 Click Ok to finish configuration of the ASAv Template.

 Once configuration is now complete the ASAv should appear under “Security Devices”
window on the main GNS3 screen.

 Create a new project and start the ASAv image running.

 Wait until the device finishes configuring itself and is at the login prompt.
 STEP 9:

 The ASAv serial port is disabled by default. The software seems to require a file on the root
of Disk0: called use_ttyS0 to enable the serial interface.

 Use these commands to clone it:

ciscoasa#conf t
ciscoasa(config)# cd coredumpinfo
ciscoasa(config)# copy coredump.cfg disk0:/use_ttyS0
(That’s S zero not S and the letter O)

STEP 10:
  Verify the file exists with the command dir disk0:/

 Once it's there, reload the ASA. There's no need to save the config at this point. We just want
the ASA to reload with that file in place. It should show the GRUB boot loader, and boot, but the
interaction will stop with the message "Lina to use serial port /dev/ttyS0 for console IO". At this
point it has transferred the interactive control to the serial port.

STEP 11:

 Power the ASAv off. Right click it, and select configure. Change the console type from vnc to
telnet.
 Power the ASAv back on and double click to open the console.

Now YOU are ready with ASA LAB environment over GNS3. BEST OF LUCK!