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Okay, I admit it; I’m a Dynagen n00b! It’s sort of embarrassing, so to help save anyone the shame, I figure that I will document the process. To that end, I am planning to write a series of articles about my experiences with Dynagen.

For the un-initiated, Dynagen is an easier front end to the Dynamips Cisco Emulator. The good thing about Dynagen is that it simplifies the  construction of quite complex switching and routed networks by providing an easy to understand syntax to automate the connection of devices used.

Dynagen can be installed on both Windows and Linux platforms. From observed results, there is better performance on the Linux platform, however, this article will focus on the installation and operation in a Windows environment. From observed results on a Lenovo X60 Tablet (Core Duo CPU L2400 1.66 Ghz, 1.99GB RAM), it will happily run eight 3660 routers.

First thing’s first: getting Dynagen. The Dynagen website is simple and easy to use. In the picture below, all I need to do is click on the “Download” link to be taken to a sourceforge.net page. The release I am using at the moment is Dynagen 0.10.1 and Dynamips 0.2.8-RC1 Windows XP installer released on September 9, 2007.

The only dependency Dynagen has is Winpcap 4.0.  From the Winpcap site, ,”… it allows applications to capture and transmit network packets bypassing the protocol stack, and has additional useful features, including kernel-level packet filtering, a network statistics engine and support for remote packet capture.” The version I used is WinPcap 4.0.2 (current at March 6, 2008).

Once you have these two programs downloaded, install Winpcap and then the Dynagen installer. Both are point and click installations. Nice and easy. Here, though, we strike a small hurdle; Dynagen, by default, installs itself into the C:\Program Files\Dynamips directory. Once successfully installed you can safely move the directory elsewhere on a local hard drive. The significance? Between nvram files for routers and other required files, the Dynmips directory can blow out to a fairly significant chunk of the hard drive it’s on. And we all know how Windows loves having a full system drive, so I say why tempt fate?

Now you have WinPcap and Dynagen successfully installed!! In the next article, we’ll look at what to do with the program and some advanced installation configuration.

In the meantime, some excellent resources are out there on the internet. Sites like Hacki’s Forum, The Dynamips Blog are excellent for extra information. And then there’s the ever amazing Ardenpackeer.com.

Until next time, remain a virtual-oso!