.qcow2 Images from Cisco

[joywanjeri]

Hallo all,

I can't seem to find any qcow2 files for any of the switches ar routers e.g. C9200, C9300, ISR C1100 in the software download site. Where can I find these files? 

Thanks for your help.

[Ramblin Tech · Accepted solution]

Why are you looking for qcow2 files for these devices rather than the bin files that you would install in them?  Are you wanting to load the qcow2 files into some virtual environment?  If so, be aware that the software files for hardware elements such as you mentioned (eg, Cat 9200) are built to execute on the actual hardware and not on x86 servers. To execute these files in a virtual environment, you would need a near 100% faithful hardware emulator written in software, which virtual environments such as CML, GNS3, and EVE-NG do not provide. These environments can execute a hardware emulator that is packaged up as a VM or LXC/Docker, but the hardware emulator itself is beyond the scope of what these environments provide.

If you are looking for images to run in a virtual environment, search for Cisco virtual products which are built to execute as VMs/containers on x86 hosts; these commonly have a "v" appended to their names (eg, CSR1000v, Catalyst 8000v, ASR9000v, etc) and are available in qcow2 formats.

[joywanjeri]

@Ramblin Tech Thanks so much for the detailed info. I am looking to use the images in CML and it's only now that I notice the 'v' on the images in CML. Thanks for that. I will look for such images.