Following INE R&S V5.0 on VIRL (on Packet.net)

This article is for people who want to follow INE's R&S v5.0 Workbook on VIRL - Specifically, VIRL on Packet.net simulation.

What this article is NOT about

This article is not about setting up VIRL or running it on packet.net. It is assumed that you are fairly competent with basic functionality of VIRL and that you know your way around VIRL simulations on Packet.

Some background

INE R&S topology for VIRL was first posted on here by Brian back in 2014, along with base configuration files (These configurations actually use INE topology's interface names - as opposed to VIRL interfaces). After L2 supported images were added to VIRL, an updated topology was later posted VIRL community website.

While following the workbook examples against VIRL topology, I found it somewhat confusing, since the interfaces of the devices you're working with are completely different from what's in the Workbook. This was particularly true for L2 section, because in the VIRL topology, there are additional inter-switch links that aren't present in the Workbook. I redraw the INE R&S diagram with VIRL interfaces so that following the Workbook labs would be much easier when working on the simulation.

I also modified VIRL topology such that simulation can be started on packet.net baremetal server without having to change anything. This does not mean you cannot run the topology in your local VIRL instance. If you want to run it on the local machine, make sure you change the management IPv4 addresses from default VIRL on Packet subnet (172.16.11.0/24) to local "Shared Flat Network" subnet.

Additionally I removed the Kali boxes in Brian's VIRL topology and replaced those with generic LXC instances (so that you don't have to do anything when launching the simulation on Packet). In addition to R7 and R10, I also attached an LXC instances to R5, R8, and R9 to simulate LAN segment for end-to-end connectivity testing. The LXC machines in my topology are excluded from booting up on simulation start. You can start the nodes manually or can change the default behavior if that's your preference.

VIRL (on packet.net) Topology and Diagrams

• You can download the VIRL topology, diagrams and base configuration files here

Spanning Tree and Routing topology - IP addresses and Interfaces

INE Interfaces vs VIRL Interfaces

Routing Topology - IP addresses only

Interface labels only

Management IP addresses: This address space is default "Shared Flat Network" for VIRL on Packet. If you want to start the simulation on your local machine, changed to your local Shared Flat Network - The default for local installation is 172.16.1.0/24

Access to devices

Once you start the simulation on VIRL, you should be able to access the network devices (with Telnet) directly from your local machine. For LXC nodes, you need to use SSH.

Default credentials are: cisco/cisco