Installing GNS3-Server on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver)

So, I attempted to use the apt-get binaries to install gns3-server on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver). The issue I ran into is that the package is linked to a specific version of python3. The installation was linked to the python3 version 3.5 libraries as evidenced by the output:

cp: cannot stat '/usr/bin/python3.5': No such file or directory

My install of Ubuntu 18.04 came with python3 version 3.6.5. I really didn’t feel like mucking about trying to rebuild the virtualenv of the package to point to the proper python3 libraries, so instead, I just installed gns3-server from scratch. I took this opportunity to write down the procedure to help others, but really, I documented this so that I can repeat the process myself.

I started with a fresh install of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver), however this same process should work on subsequent versions of ubuntu as well. Note that I took care of some of the housekeeping, like setting the static IP address and hostname of the linux box before starting this procedure.

Step 1: Update your distro and install needed packages

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt-get install build-essential git libpthread-stubs0-dev libpcap-dev qemu-kvm libvirt-bin virtinst bridge-utils cpu-checker cmake install libelf-dev
sudo apt-get install python3-setuptools python3-aiohttp python3-psutil python3-jsonschema

Step 2: Install ubridge, dynamips, docker, and gns3 from source

Install ubridge

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/GNS3/ubridge.git
cd ubridge
make 
sudo make install

Install dynamips

cd ~
git clone git://github.com/GNS3/dynamips.git
cd dynamips
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DDYNAMIPS_CODE=stable
sudo make install

Install gns3-server

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/GNS3/gns3-server.git
cd gns3-server/
sudo python3 setup.py install

Install Docker

cd ~
sudo apt install docker.io
sudo systemctl enable docker

Step 3: Create user, group membership, & startup script

Create the gns3 user and add it to the needed groups

sudo adduser gns3
sudo adduser gns3 kvm
sudo adduser gns3 docker

Copy the gns3 startup template from the source tree to the init directory

sudo cp ~/gns3-server/init/gns3.service.systemd /lib/systemd/system/gns3.service

I usually reboot here, just to be sure I have the correct permissions and everything is ready to go.

Step 3.5: (Optional) Install a few useful Docker containers

sudo docker pull gns3/kalilinux
sudo docker pull gns3/endhost

Step 4: Startup and enable the gns3 server

Enable the gns3 service by default

sudo systemctl enable gns3

Manually start the gns3 service

sudo systemctl restart gns3

You can verify the server started or troubleshoot any issues by looking the journal logs.

sudo journalctl -xe
Jun 19 20:31:34 delores systemd[1]: Starting GNS3 server...
-- Subject: Unit gns3.service has begun start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
--
-- Unit gns3.service has begun starting up.
Jun 19 20:31:34 delores systemd[1]: gns3.service: Can't open PID file /var/run/gns3/gns3.pid (yet?) after start: No such file or directory
Jun 19 20:31:36 delores gns3server[8140]: No configuration file could be found or read
Jun 19 20:31:36 delores systemd[1]: Started GNS3 server.
-- Subject: Unit gns3.service has finished start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
--
-- Unit gns3.service has finished starting up.
--
-- The start-up result is RESULT.

And by looking for the running binary.

ps -ef | grep gns3
gns3 8150 1 3 20:31 ? 00:00:01 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/gns3server --log /var/log/gns3/gns3.log --pid /var/run/gns3/gns3.pid --daemon

Step 5: Connect with the gns3 gui client

Then, from my mac, I load up the gns3 client and configure the “Remote main server” field to point to my Ubuntu gns-server installation.

You should now be in business and ready to run gns3 and build your virtual environments!

Follow up: If you find that speeds from your virtual hosts to the physical network are slooooowwwww, check out my blog entry on solving this.