Announcement: UDP Tunnel mode patch for VirtualBox

Discussions related to using the OSE version of VirtualBox.
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Technologov
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Announcement: UDP Tunnel mode patch for VirtualBox

Post by Technologov »

Original Topic: "CALL for HELP: Please patch VirtualBox for UDP Tunneling"
Hi All !

I have recently announced that I ported GNS3 graphical network simulator to VirtualBox engine:
http://www.gns3.net/phpBB/topic3262-10. ... 8b8ee32cb7

However my port is very crude.
VirtualBox lacks some necessary functionality for this to work perfectly in GNS3 environment.
GNS3 automatically connects all of it's nodes via UDP tunnels, and VirtualBox does not support UDP tunnels.
So for now manual bridging configuration is required for it to work.

CALL for HELP: Please patch VirtualBox for UDP networking, so it can work seamlessy in GNS3. I don't know C++, so I can't do this job.

Tip for new VirtualBox developers: look at VDE patch by Renzo here (it can help you port UDP Tunnel functionality from Qemu)
Example UDP mode patches exist for Qemu here.

This is very important for me.

Thanks in advance,
-Technologov
Technologov
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Announcement: UDP Tunnel mode patch for VirtualBox

Post by Technologov »

Excellent news: Patch was written by "Christophe Devriese", and submitted for inclusion in VirtualBox v4.1 !

In addition, I wrote a patch for user manual.
Both patches are licensed under MIT.

Feel free to try them !
They apply against VBox OSE SVN r37019. (Alpha of v4.1)

-Technologov
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Technologov
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Re: Announcement: UDP Tunnel mode patch for VirtualBox

Post by Technologov »

Here is the screenshot of running application.
Switches are emulated by Dynamips engine.

It demonstrates that GNS3 does all the wiring, by connecting UDP sockets of various VMs together.
By design, first NIC is not managed by GNS3.
All VM configuration is done from VirtualBox GUI, except the network part.
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sej7278
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Re: Announcement: UDP Tunnel mode patch for VirtualBox

Post by sej7278 »

cool! i assume it works with dynamips/dynagen and doesn't require the gns3 gui (and/or 16vnics patch) and likewise runs on vbox for linux hosts and linux guests?

4.1.0 is looking a bit low on features (mostly guest additions updates, don't think pci access is going to make it in) so this should be a welcome addition.

junos olive already runs quite nicely from virtualbox, but then its just freebsd4.
Technologov
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Re: Announcement: UDP Tunnel mode patch for VirtualBox

Post by Technologov »

>cool! i assume it works with dynamips/dynagen and doesn't require the gns3 gui (and/or 16vnics patch) and likewise runs on vbox for linux hosts and linux guests?
Hmmm... 16 vNICs patch is not required. (and it was rejected)

GNS3 uses modified version of dynagen, not the standard one. This version of dynagen requires GNS3 GUI.
So you will _have_ to use GNS3 GUI with it, or patch the standard (CLI) version of Dynagen for VirtualBox support. But of course it works with Linux (hosts and guests) -- it was developed on Linux -- both GNS3 port to VBox, and VBox UDP patch.

>4.1.0 is looking a bit low on features (mostly guest additions updates, don't think pci access is going to make it in) so this should be a welcome addition.
I agree. Unless they put WDDM drivers into 4.1 - it has no killer features so far, except UDP Tunnel. (because of GNS3 application, otherwise it has limited use cases). PCI passthough won't support graphics anyway - so they wrote in docs, so it will be useless for desktop users.
Not to mention lack of hardware support: My new XRig 2011 high-end PC for $3000+ doesn't have VT-d. (Core i7-2600K CPU)
But PCI passthough is a _great_ technological achievement by the VBox team. Very hard to do. (I judge, based on the small number of virtualization software, that supports it)

-Technologov
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