ASAv in GNS3 2.0

I tried to run a Cisco ASAv 9.7 firewall in GNS3 2.0.3 which is great security solution in a cloud (AWS or Azure) and or any virtualized environments.

To run the ASAv firewall in GNS3, go to Edit > Preferences > QEMU > Qemu VMs > New

 

Click Run this Qemu VM on the GNS3 VM > Next.

Type a Name (ASAv) > Next.

 

Change the default 256 MB to a higher value (1024 MB) depending on your machine’s total RAM size.

Choose telnet > click Next.

Browse for your ASAv image and GNS3 will ask to copy it to the default images directory > click Yes > Finish.

 

Edit the ASAv VM > Network > allocate a number of Adapters and Name Format to be used.

Go to Advanced settings tab > tick Active CPU throttling > type 80% for Percentage of CPU allowed > leave default setting for Use as a linked base VM as ticked. 

You can optionally change the device template by doing a right-click > Configure Template > Symbol > Browse > find the ASA icon. Click Allow access on Windows firewall to run the QEMU.

I tried using VirtualBox for the VM server but VM Workstation worked in my setup. Go to File > Open > browse for GNS3 VM.vmx

Edit > Preferences > GNS3 VM > Enable the GNS3 VM > VMWare Workstation/Player > Apply > OK.

 

Click Next > then Yes to install ASAv.

The Qemu binary is automatically selected > click Next.

 

A Summary of the appliance settings and bootup disclaimer are shown. Click Next > Finish > OK.

 

Drag the ASAv icon > right-click Start > Console.

Boot the ASAv twice. The bootup process will take several minutes to complete.

Type these commands in order for console and telnet access to work:

copy disk0:/coredumpinfo/coredump.cfg disk0:/use_ttyS0

copy startup-config disk0:/startup-config
configure terminal
boot config disk0:/startup-config
copy running-config disk0:/startup-config

reload

Right-click Stop the ASAv > General settings: Console type: telnet > Apply > OK.

 

Go to Advanced settings > Optimization > Activate CPU throttling > Percentage of CPU allowed: 80%