topic vIST not working in GNS3 with FabricEngine >=8.10.1.0 in ExtremeSwitching (VSP/Fabric Engine)

vIST not working in GNS3 with FabricEngine >=8.10.1.0

Yoann_Jonard — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 11:10:38 GMT

Hello,

If I can prevent you from wasting your time wondering why some things do not work in GNS3, I'd be happy :

vIST:

As stated in the github, starting with 8.10.1.0 the virtual images are based on a 5520, with a data plane similar to a XA1400. Before (8.8 and below), it was based on a VSP8284XSQ for both the control plane and the dataplane (but limited as well).

The result is you can configure a vIST with VOSS 8.8, but you won't be able to do so if using any newer images. I've tried everything: removing ZTF, configuring everything by hand, nothing makes the vIST link comes up in FE 9.1.0, while it turns up immediately in VOSS 8.8 with the same configuration.

Multicast:

The same goes for multicast over L3VSN. You will be able to ping accross a L3VSN from different subnet in FE9.1.0, but you won't be able to do multicast over L3VSN, because it is not supported in XA1400.

So keep in mind that everything is not yet supported under GNS3, even if it's getting better and better. And keep a look at what's supported on a XA1400 before diving into your lab.

Best regards,

Re: vIST not working in GNS3 with FabricEngine >=8.10.1.0

RobertD1 — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 17:06:44 GMT

Thanks for sharing Joann. I have 8.8 and don't see the commands to configure a virtual-ist (or show virtual-ist). It could be that the build on Github was updated to support it of course.

Re: vIST not working in GNS3 with FabricEngine >=8.10.1.0

BCyberSecurity — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 14:08:51 GMT

Thanks for this hint, I almost went crazy in my GNS3 setup trying to figure out why this wasn’t working. I built everything using 9.3 images. After reading your post, I tried it again with 8.8 images. However, now I’m facing the issue that ports 1–8 are shown as up even though no end device is connected. Does anyone know this behavior? Any kind of IP traffic doesn’t seem to work at all.