Setting up Cisco IP Communicator with GNS3

[eric.williamson1980]

I'm trying to use GNS3 to work on lab stuff for CCNA Voice.  I'm in the early stages and things are slow going.  I can get my 2691 router in GNS3 setup to connect to my cloud (which is associated with my computer's NIC).  I can also get the router to pull the CME files from the computer (which is setup as a TFTP server).  My router deals out IP's via DHCP to the Cisco IP communicator softphone but I cannot get the IP communicator to get the firmware files from the router - not even the default XML firmware file.

The hang-up seems to be getting the router setup with the CME GUI and the firmware files needed for the Cisco IP Communicator.

Has anyone else had this issue?  I plan on using this forum for help in the future as I see it gets alot of traffic and visibility.  I know I probably have left out some pertinent info so PLEASE just ask and I will do my best to clarify any of your questions.

I will provide more details later today after I get home to give it another look.

Thanks!

Eric

[cadet alain]

Hi,

Can you give output of sh run | be tele, sh telephony-service tftp-binding.

Have you configured CIPC with CUCME as TFTP server.

Regards.

Alain.

[eric.williamson1980]

I will note the output when I return home in about 6 hours - I REALLY appreciate any and all help on this.  CCNA Voice is a cert that is bugging me because I find it interesting - few people in the realm of networking choose to learn about it - but from a lab sense I really don't want to spend $2k on a home lab when GNS3 should work just fine.  I always have the right intentions going in, and try to follow the book step by step the first time or two through the procedures but always get hung up.  I have a friend who got his CCIE using primarily just GNS3!  I would like to go for my CCNA Voice and CCNP Voice (eventually) pretty much the same way.

In the meantime, if you have any suggestions on how a decent CCNA Voice home lab topology would look using GNS3 it would help me out TONS!

I figured I'd have a stub network (with my router being the DHCP server and CME) connected into a cloud (which is linked to my laptop's NIC) and then I could have a magic jack which would allow me to put my VOIP connection to good use and actually make external calls with it.  My phone would be Cisco IP Communicator and it would be linked into a GNS3 switch and then into my router.  I ultimately would like to have a computer come off of the phone but that feature is not that important as doing voice vlans is not exactly a ground breaking procedure.  I could add bells and whistles to this but so far it's what I have in mind.  I would be accessing the CME GUI via the cloud (which would actually be my laptop).

I would also like to see if there are ways of doing test calls with my other laptop running Cisco IP Communicator and it would be coming off of my wireless router and would therefore be on the same network.

If I could finally get this GUI setup with a couple of working laptops running CIPC for test calls I dare say I'd be good to go!  "Cookin' with gas" as they say!  The magic jack thing is just a seperate idea.

Tell me if I'm talking crazy here or if perhaps I'm on the right track.

Please check back later and I will have listed more information.

Thanks!

[cadet alain]

Hi,

CCNA Voice with GNS3 only is feasible but you won't be able to test CUE and PSTN as these are not supported.

You can't emulate UC500 series also but apart from that it's ok.

CCNP Voice with GNS3 only, same problem with fxs and fxo ports as for CCNA but here the focus is on CUCM and so you can put

it in a VM along with Unity( for Voice mail).But I would suggest buying real ip phones on ebay, 2 should be ok and an ATA to play with for real world.

I'm learning for this cert also so if you want we can help each other.

Regards.

Alain.

[dijohn]

ACK. will look into this one :-)

[eric.williamson1980]

As promised I'd put out an update - turns out I lost my initial configs so I'm sorta starting from scratch.

I have two 1751V routers - each running an old version (I think v3) of Cisco Call Manager - not exactly what I need and they don't have the memory to support a huge upgrade - but they do have FXO and FXS ports.  I have two laptops neither of them has a serial port so consoling into the device has to happen with a USB console adapter to work with the traditional blue cisco roll-over cable.  I also have a 24 port PoE switch - 3500 series.  But all these real devices will not allow me console access using putty or hyperterminal.  I know for a fact the baud rate is hard set to 9600 so using either of these methods should not be a problem yet I cannot get in.  This is old borrowed equipment and I'm about to just wash my hands of it - it never seems to work!

So for me - GNS3 is what I'd prefer to use for most of it.  My 2691 GNS3 router has an IP hard set that's within the subnet that my computer is on.  My computer (which is simulated as the "cloud") is getting an IP via DHCP from my wireless router and I know there are no duplicate IP's being dealt out anywhere - I can ping back and forth from the computer and the router is able to extract the .tar file for the CME 7.0.1.1.  Included in the flash is the following files:

7921 dictionary

7921 font

7921 kate.utf-8.xml

7921-kate.xml

be-sccp.jar

g3-tones.xml

gp-sccp.jar

ipc-sccp.jar

mk-sccp.jar

tc-sccp.jar

td-sccp.jar

CME-locale-en_US-English - 7.0.0.1.tar.cfg

These are my current hang ups right now....I'll deal with the rest as they come up....

1.Which one of these files should be the load file for the CIPC?  Or did I download the wrong .tar file?

2.Currently the CIPC is not pulling an IP and I've configured my dhcp pool already.

3. I'm not sure if I need to get a license for the CIPC.  If I do, where on Cisco can I get it?  Because I don't recall ever getting a license for the CME to support x number of users and I dont recall ever getting a license for CIPC IP softphone.  I have a cisco CCO account but need some help knowing whether I have everything I need.

PLEASE!  I'm starting to get desperate to finally get this lab moving forward.

Oh and if anyone out there is working on CCNA Voice - by all means I'd LOVE to have some online study pals and pick their brains on how they setup their labs, configs used, etc - just to bounce ideas off of.

Thanks!

Eric

[cadet alain]

Hi Eric,

I can tell you how I set up lab with dynamips for my CCNA Voice studies.

Add me as friend because I've had issues with it now.

Regards.

Alain.

[eric.williamson1980]

To be honest Alain, I don't yet know the optimum way to set it up yet.  I'm still sorta in the process of getting my router setup with all the software it needs to function properly.  I need to make sure that my licenses for the CME and the phones are good to go.  Then I need to make sure I have the CME GUI all setup as well.

There are probably various different ways to setup labs in GNS3.  It will depend on the chapter - but what I'm planning on doing is using my wireless network at home which has two laptops - each one with Cisco IP Communicator.  I will use my GNS3 laptop as the TFTP server and the link to the outside world - SOMEONE please tell me if there's a better way to do this.  Then I will have my other laptop as the other CIPC for receiving calls.

GNS3 will probably only have a couple 2691 routers with maybe a switch coming off of one.  I haven't gotten much past that - but I figure if you can get interconnectivity between the routers you'll hopefully be able to simulate an H323 environment.  Again - I'm still new at this.  There's alot of stuff I WANT to do - but until I get the GUI setup and phone licenses as well I'm sorta dead in the water.

Today at work I have roughly 10 hours - I'm going to attempt to get as far as possible with a spare 2811 router at work with a couple 7960 phones and a 24 port switch too.  Wish me luck - I'm sure it'll be a work in progress.

Eric

P.S. I sent a request to you Alain.  Lets keep in touch - I need someone to push me this year to getting certified in CCNA Voice and Security.  Once voice is done - I'm betting security will be easier to setup from an equipment standpoint!  Let's hope!

[cadet alain]

Hi Eric,

I sent  you a message.

Regards.

Alain.

[PATRICK GESCHWINDNER]

You usually don't need any files for the CIPC to register with CME. The most often made mistake I

see when phones are reluctant to register with CME is the missing "create cnf" under ""telephony-service". The tricky thing is that "create cnf" will not be taken if you paste a config in. If the config is taken from NVRAM during boot time, then it will be recognized. When you watch closely then the router will throw a notification that he is busy right after enabling "telephony-service". If you return to "telephony-service" after the config has been pasted in, then it will accept the "create cnf".

Cheerio

    Patrick