Setting up EVE-NG for ALL level studies, includes multiple vendor node support, an absolutely amazing study tool to check out ASAP!

This obviously is the most basic test setup you can possibly make within EVE-NG, I am completely new to this emulator, but have seen huge Topologies from fellow Cisco geeks on LinkedIn and wanted to make a quick post on guides I found helpful to get up and running quick.

I personally use an older version of VMware Workstation I got years ago while studying for a VMware cert, however the .OVA files should work with VMware Player (free) as well, I just use Workstation because I have it handy.

Be sure to check out the “IDLE PC” link at the very bottom, as the image files do not have the correct IDLE PC values by default, these will need to be gotten and reset.

NOTE – FOR ANY SUPPORT NEEDED TO GET IT RUNNING: There is a live chat support that the admins will help you get even the non-pain community version running via live chat / TeamViewer at the URL below (or google eve support chat):

https://www.eve-ng.net/index.php/live-helpdesk/

^^^EVE Support is A++++, do not hesitate to ask any question, and they will assist!

This is important as I’ve found the “7200” series routers have the most robust feature set for labbing, and they have fairly high resource utilization once you get to 8+ nodes, so this is very important to keep things running smoothly.

Tons of links to get everything you need to start rocking labs in EVE-NG

First you will need VMware Player free edition found here:

https://my.vmware.com/en/web/vmware/free#desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_workstation_player/15_0

Next will be the EVE-NG “Community” edition OVA file to open in VMware Player:

https://www.eve-ng.net/index.php/download/#DL-COMM

^^You will want to download both the .OVA file as well as the “Windows Integration Pack” within the “Client side” links just below the .OVA links.

For initial setup, this tutorial is very awesome, be advised the login creds for the VM are root/eve while the http://x.x.x.x web GUI is “admin/eve” for credentials:

https://www.brianlinkletter.com/how-to-set-up-the-eve-ng-network-emulator-on-a-linux-system/

Be aware I only used ^^ this link to get the initial VM up and running, however I also used the videos below to verify steps, and used solely the videos for importing IOS and IOU files into EVE-NG for Node setup.

I personally found this video most helpful, in the comments it includes links to WINSCP for TFTP of the Cisco image files into EVE, and the video is a very good tutorial to get the lab up and running quick:

I’ve only imported these two IOS types for now, I will be adding layer 2 devices later tonight to start really building out Topologies, however again look in the video description for links to download all the things used in the video for setup!

Video for setting up Layer 2 devices within EVE:

I have not done this yet, but will be working to get a lab up and running ASAP to finally be able to configure and play with GLBP, as my 3750v2 switches IOS did not have the ability to fully configure that, I’m very familiar with the configuration but having never really configured it I am stoked make and break that lab a few times!

I also just found this link while looking for ASAv for my lab that provides images and setup instructions to run Cisco ASA’s in your lab:

This link goes right to the “Client side” Windows integration install link, which installs telnet / ssh clients to access nodes by simply double clicking them, and a pop-up windows with a Telnet session allows access (this also includes Wireshark download!!!):

https://www.eve-ng.net/downloads/windows-client-side-pack

Here is a secondary resource for downloading / installing the Windows Integration pack:

https://www.eve-ng.net/documentation/howto-s-2/91-3-how-to-install-local-management-telnet-vnc-and-wireshark-for-windows

Here is a link to help you find and adjust the IDLE PC value for your images as well:

https://medium.com/everyday-tinkering/adding-and-configuring-dynamips-supported-cisco-images-to-eve-ng-d582cea73b90

This will be very important to tweak, as the images as they come do not have correct idle PC values, so the only way to correct these are by using this articles guide to get the idle pc value from the VM itself (not the routers within EVE) and replace the current idle PC value with the correct value found!

That is very important, that took my labs from taking up 100% CPU constantly, to about 3% CPU after the initial loading spiked to 100% for 5-10 seconds.

How to get your labs nodes to use the “startup-configs” you set for them in EVE!

After trying “wr mem” and copying “sh run” of each device to its corresponding node in “Startup-Configs” shown below, support finally advised how to get devices to actually boot up with existing configs – You must “Wipe all nodes” and restart your lab and they will boot up using the contents of “Startup-config” information:

• Startup configs – Paste the “sh run” from each SSH session to this menu, and set the node to be ‘On’ so it boots up using that startup-config
• More Actions – Where you find a majority of items as noted below
• Start all nodes – Exactly what it says, starts all nodes in the lab
• Stop all nodes – Turns all nodes off, be sure to grab config changes before doing this!
• Wipe All Nodes – This forces all nodes to look to “Startup configs” upon next boot
• Edit Lab – I use this every time I am done labbing to “Save” to make sure changes save, not sure if this is how its officially done, but it works

Again when making changes a “wr” / “copy run start” doesn’t seem to work, you will want to do a quick “sh run” and paste the output to the nodes startup-config and give that node a wipe so it uses the updated Startup Config upon booting!

I will end it here, as I just wanted to spread the good word of EVE-NG and throw out the helpful links to get up and running quick, as it took a bit of google-fu for me

I’d really spend a night setting this up and getting the kinks worked out even if your currently on the hunt, as this tool is incredibly powerful, having one platform to allow studies from CCNA up to CCIE and other vendor Expert certifications is mind blowing.