Network Simulation - HP?

[MikeDangelo]

Hi,
I am aware that there are numerous other posts regarding this, however I am creating one as I am not sure if any have come to light.

I only have Cisco PT, and as far as I know that cannot emulate HP Switches and Routers, more specifically HP A5500's. I've taken a quick look at GNS3 however I wouldn't even know where to begin or how to load HP stuff.

Is there a way to load HP images in Cisco PT? If not, how can you setup that kind of simulation in GNS3?

[Ivan_B]

Hi @MikeDangelo !

Cisco PT emulates only Cisco devices, so this is the dead end for your Comware journey. 

GNS3 uses several back-ends for emulation - Dynamips (emulates very, very old and outdated Cisco switches, IOS 12.x), IOL (runs limited number of Cisco images, deprecated, previously known as IOU, IOS versions up to 15.7) and QEMU. QEMU is the emulator that is used for emulating modern devices, like Cisco IOSv (or vIOS, I'm not sure what is correct abbreviation, those images that are part of VIRL), Arista AOS, HPE VSR1000, ArubaOS-CX and hundreds other virtual appliances.. QEMU is the virtualizer you will work with most of your labbing time.

Now to the state of Comware emulation, since you've mentioned A5500 that was Comware 5-based device, I assume that it is the system you are interested in. Comware 5 is outdated legacy system, there WAS a simulator called 'Simware' and it could simulate Comware 5 devices, but it doesn't work on modern versions of Windows and anyways why wasting your time researching old technology?
For Comware 7 you have two paths, both have their pros and cons. First is HCL, so called H3C Cloud Lab. Search for it on this forum, you will find a lot of information. In HCL you have generic Comware 7 switches and routers. You can practice a lot of technologies there, create various topologies etc. Cons are that it is still a simulator and not all the features are supported there, but it's common for all simulators from all vendors, so really nothing complain about.
Second way is HPE VSR1000 which is a production-grade virtual router that runs Comware 7. Pros - all features advertised in its guides work properly. Runs on production-grade hypervisors like KVM, ESXi. Cons - it is a router and routers are slightly different from switches. Different port numeration, different commands. Many features that are typical for L2 switches are not implemented.

If you want to stick to GNS3, you are pretty much limited to HPE VSR1000 (using QEMU). Unfortunately, there is no Comware 7 switch image that can be run by QEMU.

P.S. If you are interested in ArubaOS-CX, there are OVAs available for download that integrate well in GNS3 (and EVE-NG) as they run fine by QEMU. But it's not Comware, nothing in common.. at all. This OS is successor of old ProVision (ProCurve OS, PVOS, ArubaOS). It's a new kid on the block, we put a lot of efforts in its development and it's definitely something you want to try if you want to stay in HPE Networking world.