So to answer you question: Yes, you need specific images. You can also use networking software provide as a docker container by a vendor. For these VMs you can use different VM providers like qemu, VMWARE or VirtualBox. A third option is to use Cisco IOU (IOS for UNIX) which is also a Linux with IOS Code inside but it's espacacily build for lab and learning environments, not to actually route or switch traffic. It started as an GUI for dynamips which can emulate certain older Cisco hardware and the images for this hardware.įor some time now you can use 'virtual' networking hardware, like Cisco ASR1000v which is basically a Linux VM running the IOS Code inside. GNS3 is a front end for different kinds of 'virtual' network hardware.
