Here is a summary out of 1163 surveys we received.

We are very pleased to know that 45% of the respondents use GNS3 everyday and 38% once or twice a week.

Most of GNS3 users are studying for CCNP certifications (53%) followed by CCNA (40%), CCIE (36%) and Juniper certifications (20%). Interestingly, only 8% are studying for CCENT or not training at all.

Routing and switching is the field of work or study for 92% of the respondents, followed by Security (55%), Service Provider (31%) and Voice (28%).

We haven't been surprised to see that most of our users are interested in training material about studying for a certification using GNS3 to practice (76%), followed by any material about network certifications (69%) and specifically about how to use GNS3 (56%).

Video training is the most used type of training (80%), ebooks came second (70%), free websites and blogs third (70%), physical text books fourth (53%) and finally bootcamps or real classes came last (34%).

80% of the respondents spend on training every year and 73% would pay for a 'premium' version of GNS3, which we won't make (really!), but it shows that most are willing to pay for quality and advanced features. However we will encourage more people to donate.

Concerning the most wanted features for future releases of GNS3, 70% responded they want labs included with GNS3, 67% Cisco IOU support, 64% VMware support. A more intuitive GUI and an easier setup/configuration came behind with respectively 43% and 39%.

Although not listed in the survey, Catalyst switches integration and support for more platforms are without doubt the real most wanted features, however we are facing a brick wall because of custom ASICs used by Cisco. The story is well explained in this article about Dynamips, the IOS emulator used by GNS3.

Currently, our best hope for a full support of Catalyst features is to have IOU in GNS3, however IOU (IOS on Unix) as its name stands for, runs only on Linux or Solaris, which is problematic on Windows (maybe by using Cygwin?). Another path could be to add a simulated multilayer switch, like in Packet Tracer, which would support major switching features.

Finally, here are some interesting ideas that have been brought to us. It doesn't mean we will implement all of them and some are already partially supported:

• Automatic idlepc calculation.
• Better/easier support for PIX, ASA and JunOS.
• Stronger integration of Qemu/KVM, further VM configuration options.
• Integration of virtual switches like OpenVSwitch and VDE.
• Built-in Visio/Network Notepad like diagram tool.
• Built-in hosts with command line support and traffic generator abilities (eg. multicasting).
• Integrated appliances for Qemu/VirtualBox.
• Improve stability (crashes on Windows XP).
• Auto report crashes/bugs to GNS3 developers.
• More guidelines for choosing an IOS version or recommendations for stable IOS images and how to set idlepc values.
• Add serial cards by default or add the possibility to create device templates.
• Create official "lab packs" for CCNA, CCNA Security and CCNP.
• Better Mac OS X and Linux support (with up-to-date packages eg. RPM, DEB etc.)
• Nexus 1000v switch support.
• Support for Openflow/SDN networks.
• Make Superputty the default terminal on Windows.
• Make some specifications/tips/how-to's about every setting from preferences menu, what they are, and how they improve/affect GNS3 (inline help).
• For "windows-labs" (e.g. for MS system certifications) it would be awesome if there would be easy to config routers available to create "simple" labs (Multiple subnets) without using cisco emulation.
• Support for IOS-XR thru XR4U.
• Assign special attributes (packet loss, latency etc) to virtual cables.
• Plug-in feature. It would really be of interest for our company if we could put together a plugin-package for GNS3 with our products, icons and pre-configured vbox appliances etc. And a very easy way to export/import complete setups. And maybe also a CLI so some events could be scripted and automated.

Please, do not hesitate to leave your comments. Your opinion will help us make the new GNS3 software!

Thanks,

_________________
Jeremy, GNS3 Programmer & Benevolent Dictator for Life.

Hey grossmj! Thanks for the summary. Very glad to see the developers are taking the feedback from the users seriously! Any idea on when the new release will be?
About the switching part: You could indeed use or take what packet tracert is using.

Btw to bad there wont be a payd version, ill certenly try to donate when the new version is out.
Regards and best of luck!
Alan.

Nice job.

Im one the person that suggested the Cisco Switch and I know about the wall brick behind the catalyst switch.

However we dont need a switch with all the features just the most important like VLAN, SPT etc like in PT.

Keep working guys.

What about cisco ios base switches ....we are expection cisco ios base switches inside GNS3...


Thanks & Regards,
Noushad

Hi jeremy,

Thank you very much for the quality of the producte GNS3, and I appreciate your efforts to extend it to another dimension and make more and more useful.

But I didn't see in the summery the users feedback on the Chinese devices, Huawei routers and switches.

keeps on fellas, we got your backs ;)

DonImad

Thanks for the Summary.
It seems that all GNS3 developers' agendas are full for quite some time! ;)

Regarding CCNP Labs, you can (down)load my collection from this thread: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/thread/43019?start=0&tstart=0

_________________
A Collection of GNS3 Labs: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/message/232820
i7 4700MQ quad-core 2.6 Ghz and 16 GB RAM
CCNA - CCDA
Beta Test Team
GNS3 0.8.6 on Windows 7 64 bits
GNS3 0.8.6 on Ubuntu 13.10 and Qemu 1.5.2
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As far as Catalyst switch support under IOU, why couldn't that be implemented as a virtual machine or appliance, which you could then "hook into" GNS3. I use Virtual Box under Windows, which is free from Oracle, so conceptually this doesn't seem as if it would be that difficult to design and implement.

_________________
Regards,
BillSt...

Ostinato (http://ostinato.org) VM images can be used as traffic generator with GNS3. If the GNS3 development team is interested we can look into the possibilities of tighter integration of Ostinato and GNS3

Great work gns team!

Sorry I missed the survey. If its not too lat would love to see more support for iOS 15.

And perhaps support for an Isr g1 like a 2800

Apart from that I'm Lovin it. Very handy at work and great for study. Thanks!

I have already mention my opinion in the survey, IOU & VMware will give GNS3 incredible opportunities. I also totally agree with a professional version of GNS3 with a cost 15-30$ or a reminder to the people to donate more often maybe with a banner in GNS3 that will be always visible. My personal experience is that not too many people Donate for free projects and then the projects stopped.

Thank you once again for this project.