Onboarding GNS3 EXOS virtual switches in XIQ: is it possible?

[lorisman]

I'm doing some labs with GNS3 and I've obtained some Pilot training licenses. I've tried to onboard a couple of EXOS virtual switches on XIQ, their SIMxxxx-0000 serials are accepted, but they stays "Disconnected".

The 'show iqagent discovery detail' command output is:

IQAgent discovered on VR VR-Mgmt
    HTTP proxy                         : Not configured
    User configured FQDN/IP            : Not configured
    DHCP opt 43, sub-opt 225 (FQDN)    : Not provided
    DHCP opt 43, sub-opt 226 (IP)      : Not provided
    Redirector                         : hac.extremecloudiq.com
        Resolved IP                    : 34.253.190.222
        XIQ Status                     : Service available
        Data Center [SIM0B26-0000]     : ie-hac.extremecloudiq.com
            Resolved IP                : 34.253.190.245
            XIQ Server Status          : Not available; HTTP status code 404

Any hints? Did someone had success doing this?

Thanks

[PumpkinEater99]

I don't personally have experience with virtual/simulated EXOS switches., but I have some ideas on what can be checked. Do your virtual switch(es) have proper time synced via NTP/SNTP?

There is also the firewall configuration guide that outlines IP blocks with ports that need to be opened outbound from your LAN to ExtremeCloud IQ.

Here's a KB that walks you through how to find the FW configuration guide for your specific VIQ/RDC. Please note, the KB has a screenshot example of some of the IP blocks & ports, those might NOT align with the IP's and ports that your specific VIQ needs.

https://extreme-networks.my.site.com/ExtrArticleDetail?an=000079399 

[lorisman]

Thank you for your kind answer, and sorry for the late response.

Unfortunately it looks like there is something else, or it could be it's not supported at all.

I've tried with two simulated switches, one NATed (my preferred solution) and the other one bridged: it looks like I haven't firewall constraints (my homelab is a Mac Studio on my home network). Here are the details of my testing:

**********************************************************************************************************************************
*
* TESTS ON NATed SWITCH (SW01, S/N: SIM0B26-0000)
*
**********************************************************************************************************************************

* SW01.1 # show ntp server
VR Name Name IP Address Type Flags Key Index
==================================================================================================================================
VR-Mgmt it.pool.ntp.org 162.159.200.123 Server - -

Flags: (I) Initial Burst, (B) Burst

* SW01.2 # show dns-client
Number of domain suffixes: 0
Number of domain servers: 2
Name Server 0: 8.8.8.8 VR-Mgmt
Name Server 1: 8.8.6.6 VR-Mgmt

* SW01.4 # nslookup it.pool.ntp.org
Host name : it.pool.ntp.org
Host IPv4 Address: 85.199.214.99

* SW01.5 # show time detail
Current Time: Mon Dec 8 15:03:35 2025
Boot Time: Mon Dec 8 14:51:54 2025
Timezone: [Auto DST Enabled] GMT Offset: 60 minutes, name is CET.
DST of 60 minutes is currently not in effect, name is CEST.
DST begins every last Sunday March at 3:00
DST ends every last Sunday October at 3:00
Source: SNTP it.pool.ntp.org

* SW01.6 # show iqagent discovery detail
IQAgent discovered on VR VR-Mgmt
HTTP proxy : Not configured
User configured FQDN/IP : Not configured
DHCP opt 43, sub-opt 225 (FQDN) : Not provided
DHCP opt 43, sub-opt 226 (IP) : Not provided
Redirector : hac.extremecloudiq.com
Resolved IP : 34.253.190.223
XIQ Status : Service available
Data Center [SIM0B26-0000] : ie-hac.extremecloudiq.com
Resolved IP : 34.253.190.246
XIQ Server Status : Not available; HTTP status code 404

**********************************************************************************************************************************
*
* TESTS ON BRIDGED SWITCH (EXOS-VM, S/N: SIM57CF-0000)
*
**********************************************************************************************************************************

EXOS-VM.1 # show ntp server
VR Name Name IP Address Type Flags Key Index
==================================================================================================================================
VR-Mgmt it.pool.ntp.org 151.22.209.90 Server - -

Flags: (I) Initial Burst, (B) Burst

EXOS-VM.3 # show dns-client
Number of domain suffixes: 1
Domain Suffix 0: homenet.telecomitalia.it (DHCP)
Number of domain servers: 3
Name Server 0: 8.8.8.8 VR-Default
Name Server 1: 8.8.6.6 VR-Default
Name Server 2: 192.168.1.254 VR-Mgmt (DHCP)

EXOS-VM.6 # show dns-client
Number of domain suffixes: 1
Domain Suffix 0: homenet.telecomitalia.it (DHCP)
Number of domain servers: 3
Name Server 0: 8.8.8.8 VR-Default
Name Server 1: 8.8.6.6 VR-Default
Name Server 2: 192.168.1.254 VR-Mgmt (DHCP)
EXOS-VM.7 # nslookup it.pool.ntp.org
Host name : it.pool.ntp.org
Host IPv4 Address: 89.46.74.148

* EXOS-VM.25 # show time detail
Current Time: Mon Dec 8 15:15:18 2025
Boot Time: Mon Dec 8 14:51:54 2025
Timezone: [Auto DST Enabled] GMT Offset: 60 minutes, name is CET.
DST of 60 minutes is currently not in effect, name is CEST.
DST begins every last Sunday March at 3:00
DST ends every last Sunday October at 3:00
Source: SNTP it.pool.ntp.org

* EXOS-VM.35 # show iqagent discovery detail
IQAgent configured on VR VR-Mgmt
HTTP proxy : Not configured
User configured FQDN/IP : Not configured
DHCP opt 43, sub-opt 225 (FQDN) : Not provided
DHCP opt 43, sub-opt 226 (IP) : Not provided
Redirector : hac.extremecloudiq.com
Resolved IP : 34.253.190.223
XIQ Status : Service available
Data Center [SIM57CF-0000] : ie-hac.extremecloudiq.com
Resolved IP : 34.253.190.246
XIQ Server Status : Not available; HTTP status code 404

From the output above, it looks like my area is covered by the Amsterdam Regional Data Center, so I tested connectivity towards the IP addresses indicated in https://extremecloudiq.com/support/Amsterdam.html (non all, but a representative subset). Since EXOS doesn't seems having connectivity tools like Netcat, I did my testing from an Ubuntu virtual machine connected to the very same virtual network than the GNS3 virtual machine. Towards the end, you could see some "failed: Connection refused", but I think they're caused by nothing listening on the other side: from the MacOS, the same command answers "failed: Operation timed out".

**********************************************************************************************************************************

*

* CONNECTIVITY TEST FROM AN UBUNTU VM ON THE SAME NETWORK OF THE GNS3 VM

*

**********************************************************************************************************************************

uadmin@ubuntu01:~$ nc -zv redirector.aerohive.com 443

Connection to redirector.aerohive.com (54.172.0.252) 443 port [tcp/https] succeeded!

uadmin@ubuntu01:~$ nc -zv redirector.aerohive.com 80

Connection to redirector.aerohive.com (54.172.0.252) 80 port [tcp/http] succeeded!

uadmin@ubuntu01:~$ nc -zvu redirector.aerohive.com 12222

Connection to redirector.aerohive.com (54.172.0.252) 12222 port [udp/*] succeeded!

uadmin@ubuntu01:~$ nc -zv hmupdates-ng.aerohive.com 443

Connection to hmupdates-ng.aerohive.com (54.86.95.132) 443 port [tcp/https] succeeded!

uadmin@ubuntu01:~$ nc -zv extremecloudiq.com 443

Connection to extremecloudiq.com (18.194.95.1) 443 port [tcp/https] succeeded!

uadmin@ubuntu01:~$ nc -zv cloud-rd.aerohive.com 443

Connection to cloud-rd.aerohive.com (34.253.190.223) 443 port [tcp/https] succeeded!

uadmin@ubuntu01:~$ nc -zvu stun.extremecloudiq.com 12222

Connection to stun.extremecloudiq.com (18.194.95.14) 12222 port [udp/*] succeeded!

uadmin@ubuntu01:~$ nc -zv 34.253.190.222 80

Connection to 34.253.190.222 80 port [tcp/http] succeeded!

uadmin@ubuntu01:~$ nc -zv 34.253.190.222 443

Connection to 34.253.190.222 443 port [tcp/https] succeeded!

uadmin@ubuntu01:~$ nc -zv 34.253.190.222 8090

nc: connect to 34.253.190.222 port 8090 (tcp) failed: Connection refused

uadmin@ubuntu01:~$ nc -zv 34.253.190.222 2083

nc: connect to 34.253.190.222 port 2083 (tcp) failed: Connection refused

uadmin@ubuntu01:~$ nc -zv 34.253.190.222 20000

nc: connect to 34.253.190.222 port 20000 (tcp) failed: Connection refused

uadmin@ubuntu01:~$ nc -zv 34.253.190.222 20256

nc: connect to 34.253.190.222 port 20256 (tcp) failed: Connection refused

uadmin@ubuntu01:~$