GNS3-registry

This is the GNS3 registry where user can share appliances and symbols.

Policy for new appliances

We welcome pull requests for new appliances.

Regarding images / disks referenced in new appliance files, we accept links that point to well-known vendor websites or other trusted source websites.

For new contribution, we accept links depending on multiple criteria: the kind of appliance, who submits it and especially if scripts to build the images(s) are provided (packer scripts are recommended for Qemu appliances). Then we will build on our side, verify and upload the image(s) on the GNS3 Sourceforge account.

For Docker appliances, please provide a Dockerfile. We will then build and push the image on Docker hub.

Adding a new appliance

There are two ways to create a new appliance:

• Copy and paste a JSON from the appliances directory
• Run new_appliance.py

After that you can send us a pull request on Github

In schemas/appliance.json you have a JSON with a schema for controlling the file and can be use as documentation for each field.

Versioning

GNS3 checks the schema version, if the schema of an appliance is not supported it shows the error "Please update GNS3 in order to install this appliance".

Schema	min. GNS3 version	Additions
2	1.4.0
3	1.5.0	docker
4	2.0.0	availability qemu/cpus qemu/hd?_disk_interface: sata versions/images/bios_image
5	2.1.0	qemu/console_type: spice
6	2.2.0	qemu/custom_adapters qemu/console_type: spice+agent all/console_type: none
7	2.2.36	qemu/tpm
8	2.2.43	See below

Schema version 8

Schema version 8 has introduced many changes in the appliance schema. The most important are:

• Support for uefi_boot_mode property in Qemu template properties.
• Possibility to have multiple set of settings to use with different image versions. Default settings are specified if

1. a default field set to true exists
2. there is only one set present.

Notes

A template_type field must be added to tell GNS3 what template to create (qemu, iou, dynamips or docker), mixing different template types is not supported at the moment. All template specific properties are defined in a template_properties field.

Example

"settings": [
    {
        "default": true,
        "template_type": "qemu",
        "template_properties": {
            "platform": "x86_64",
            "adapter_type": "e1000",
            "adapters": 1,
            "ram": 1024,
            "console_type": "vnc"
        }
    },
    {
        "name": "i386 settings",
        "template_type": "qemu",
        "template_properties": {
            "platform": "i386",
            "adapters": 8
        }
    },
    {
        "name": "ARM settings",
        "template_type": "qemu",
        "template_properties": {
            "platform": "arm",
            "ram": 512
        }
    }
],
"versions": [
    {
        "name": "1.0",
        "images": {
            "hda_disk_image": "disk1.qcow2"
        }
    },
    {
        "name": "2.0",
        "settings": "i386 settings",
        "images": {
            "hda_disk_image": "disk2.qcow2"
        }
    },
    {
        "name": "3.0",
        "settings": "ARM settings",
        "images": {
            "hda_disk_image": "disk3.qcow2"
        }
    },
]

• The default settings are inherited by other settings set, this can be blocked by setting inherit_default_properties to false
• The controller template default is used if a template property is not defined or inherited from the default settings.
• The md5sum field is renamed checksum. The md5sum field is still accepted for easier migration from previous format versions.
• New optional checksum_type field for future development. The default and only checksum type remains MD5 for now.
• New optional default_username and default_password fields at the appliance and version levels.
• New optional installation_instructions field at the appliance and version levels to give download/unpack instructions to some appliances.
• New optional compression_target field to be used along with the compression field in future development.
• The idlepc field in versions section is moved to the template_properties for the dynamips template type
• The first_port_name, port_name_format, port_segment_size and linked_clone fields are moved to the template_properties for the qemu template type (these fields are only valid for Qemu templates).
• The arch field for qemu has been renamed platform to match the template properties on the controller side.
• The kvm field has been dropped and no longer required. Installing an appliance shouldn't take into account the available servers and their capabilities (e.g. capable of running kvm etc.)
• The category, usage and symbol fields can be defined in any template_properties. Defaults are at the appliance level or version level (they will be injected in template_properties if there aren't already defined there).
• The appliance version installed will be injected in the version field of the template (only controller version >= v3.0)
• Add name and default_name_format fields to all template properties.
• Add console_resolution, extra_hosts and extra_volumes to Docker template properties.
• Allow spice+agent in console_type for Qemu template properties.

Full example

{
    "appliance_id": "709c2a9b-5dc3-4362-b147-fb848a0df963",
    "name": "My appliance",
    "category": "router",
    "description": "This is my new appliance",
    "vendor_name": "Cisco",
    "vendor_url": "http://www.cisco.com/",
    "documentation_url": "https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/routing/xxx",
    "product_name": "Appliance product xxx",
    "product_url": "https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/xxx/index.html",
    "registry_version":8,
    "status": "experimental",
    "maintainer": "GNS3 Team",
    "maintainer_email": "[email protected]",
    "installation_instructions": "This is how to install this appliance",
    "usage": "This is how to use my appliance",
    "symbol": "router.svg",
    "default_username": "cisco",
    "default_password": "admin",
    "settings": [
        {
            "name": "Default template settings",
            "default": true,
            "template_type": "qemu",
            "template_properties":
                {
                    "symbol": "multilayer_router.svg",
                    "first_port_name": "ethernet0",
                    "port_name_format": "ethernet{port1}",
                    "adapter_type": "e1000",
                    "adapters": 2,
                    "ram": 4096,
                    "cpus": 1,
                    "hda_disk_interface": "scsi",
                    "platform": "x86_64",
                    "console_type": "vnc",
                    "boot_priority": "cd",
                    "options": ""
                }
        },
        {
            "name": "Custom settings for version 7.10.2",
            "template_type": "qemu",
            "inherit_default_properties": false,
            "template_properties":
                {
                    "adapters": 4,
                    "ram": 8192,
                    "cpus": 1
                }
        }
    ],
    "images": [
        {
            "filename": "file.iso",
            "version": "7.10.2",
            "checksum": "ef8712e655fcbc92dc1a1551ee2e4a80",
            "checksum_type": "md5",
            "filesize": 1287245824,
            "download_url": "https://software.cisco.com/download/home/286307342/type/286307754/release/7.10.2"
        },
        {
            "filename": "file2.iso",
            "version": "6.10.4",
            "checksum": "68232f77da8f78cdc9aa6f3266a4d4c0",
            "filesize": 3949459594,
            "download_url": "https://software.cisco.com/download/home/286307342/type/286307754/release/6.10.4"
        },
        {
            "filename": "empty100G.qcow2",
            "version": "1.0",
            "md5sum": "1e6409a4523ada212dea2ebc50e50a65",
            "filesize": 198656,
            "download_url": "https://sourceforge.net/projects/gns-3/files/Empty%20Qemu%20disk/",
            "direct_download_url": "https://sourceforge.net/projects/gns-3/files/Empty%20Qemu%20disk/empty100G.qcow2/download"
        }
    ],
    "versions": [
        {
            "name": "7.10.2",
            "settings": "Custom settings for version 7.10.2",
            "images": {
                "hda_disk_image": "empty100G.qcow2",
                "cdrom_image": "file.iso"
            }
        },
        {
            "name": "6.10.4",
            "default_username": "admin123",
            "default_password": "admin123",
            "installation_instructions": "This is how to install this version",
            "usage": "This is how to use this version",
            "symbol": "ethernet_switch.svg",
            "images": {
                "hda_disk_image": "empty100G.qcow2",
                "cdrom_image": "file2.iso"
            }
        }
    ]
}

Adding a new symbol

Look for examples in the symbols directory.

Docker container

This repository also contains the source of Docker container published by the GNS3 team and that can be used as an appliance in GNS3.

Tools

All tools require python3 and dependencies can be installed using pip:

python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Check appliance files

python3 check.py
python3 check_urls.py

Create a new appliance

python3 new_appliance.py

Prettify appliances JSON

This will indent the JSON of all appliance and sort the key in same order as the JSON schema.

python3 prettify_appliances.py