The NM-16ESW module in GNS3 #2

Basic switch topology in GNS3

After we covered the basics of installing the NM16-ESW module in blogpost #1 we will now get some basic layer 2 action working in GNS3.

First step is to add a router with the NM16-ESW module in it to our topology. The switchports will be  FastEthernet 1/0 to FastEthernet 1/15. To get some layer 2 switching on the device we need some hosts. There are a ton of ways to get hosts in your GNS3 topology but since we only need a little bit of ARP and PING here I suggest we just configure some routers to act like a PC. To do so we need to disable IP routing and get some IP adresses working on the Interfaces:

Router(config)# hostname hostname                   

Router(config)# no ip routing                       
Router(config)# interface fa0/1                      
Router(config-if)# ip address address subnet_mask   
Router(config-if)# no shutdown                       

Now connect the interfaces from you "host routers" to some ports of you switching module (you have to use "manual" connection type!) and you should be able to ping HOST2 from HOST1 and the other way around.


In case you like to use this topology by yourself feel free to download it here.

Note: C3660-jk.bin image file is beeing used in this GNS3 project file.