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Thursday, October 18, 2012

GNS3 doesn't list new VirtualBox Network Devices

Problem

GNS3 doesn't see any new Host-Only Ethernet Adapter created in VirtualBox.

Troubleshooting

We can verify and see that the new interfaces exists on the system.

C:\Users\user>netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces
Idx     Met         MTU          State                Name
---  ----------  ----------  ------------  ---------------------------
  1          50  4294967295  connected     Loopback Pseudo-Interface 1
 37          20        1500  connected     VirtualBox Host-Only Network #2
 21          20        1500  connected     VMware Network Adapter VMnet1
 22          20        1500  connected     VMware Network Adapter VMnet8
 24          20        1500  connected     VirtualBox Host-Only Network
 28          10        1500  connected     Local Area Connection 2
 45          20        1500  connected     VirtualBox Host-Only Network #3

The two above interfaces are missing and don't show in the GNS3 when trying add new VM. Because you don't see them on the GUI can't select them when trying to add a cloud VM to your network topology.

c:\Program Files\GNS3>"Network device list.cmd"

Network adapters on this machine:

NIO_gen_eth:\Device\NPF_{BAB3B416-5025-4142-A041-290EB05E7EA2}
 Name       : VMware Network Adapter VMnet8
 IP Address : 192.168.33.1
 Description: VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter

NIO_gen_eth:\Device\NPF_{AA540984-A0AD-45BC-905F-C39E4A15010C}
 Name       : VirtualBox Host-Only Network
 IP Address : 192.168.56.1
 Description: Sun

NIO_gen_eth:\Device\NPF_{939368AC-34FE-47CB-9D4B-DC26D284D91E}
 Name       : VMware Network Adapter VMnet1
 IP Address : 192.168.91.1
 Description: VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter

NIO_gen_eth:\Device\NPF_{991068D7-DDE1-45AB-B68F-24970ECA951B}
 Name       : Local Area Connection 2
 IP Address : 192.168.0.2
 Description: Marvell Yukon Ethernet Controller

Use as follows:
 F0/0 = NIO_gen_eth:\Device\NPF_{...}

Solution

This is Windows problem that doesn't propagate and advertise new virtual interfaces once created. The solution is to restart the Windows Service called 'NetGroup Packet Filter Driver'.

C:\Windows\system32>net stop npf
The NetGroup Packet Filter Driver service was stopped successfully.

C:\Windows\system32>net start npf
The NetGroup Packet Filter Driver service was started successfully.

References
  1. http://blog.ngocpham.info/blog/2010/04/13/howto-gns3-network-device-list-problem/
  2. http://forum.gns3.net/topic4878.html
  3. http://blog.stephendolphin.co.uk/quick-notes/quick-helpful-list-of-netsh-commands-for-your-windows-server-core-2008r2-installation/
  4. http://www.computerhope.com/netsh.htm

18 comments:

  1. I Appreciate this man, this is really nice.
    I was troubleshooting the issue from last 24 Hrs and finally found the resolution

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  2. Brilliant solution. Thx a million.

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  3. I was about to scream out my frustration before I read your blog. Awesome! thank you so much!

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  4. very informative. Just what I was looking for.

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  5. Thank you! This saved me from having to restart my PC!!! :)

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  6. when i type net start npf it saying "System error 5 has occurred "
    Please help

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    Replies
    1. IDK, but you might try making sure that GNS3 and VM Ware are closed when you run this command. I ran into an issue with it when attempting to run with them open. Once I closed the applications and ran the command it all worked out.

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  7. Oodles of thanks man.I have run into this issue repeatedly over the last few lab build attempts and was about to give up and move on to other (less beneficial) methods of learning once again. I posted my issue over at http://blog.skufel.net/2011/12/vmware-workstation-8-and-gns3-integration/ and someone was nice enough to reply with a link to this post, and thank goodness it resolved my issue. My devices are happily pinging between GNS3 and VMWare. Thanks again.

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  8. nice solved for vmware and wireshark !!

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  9. awesome solved my whole day problem

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