This is the official GNS3 Certified Associate course. This course covers the topics you need to know to pass the GNS3CA Exam.

The GNS3 Certified Associate (GNS3CA) program is a multi-vendor, next generation network engineer certification that focuses on the core skills that network engineers need today for the new era of rapidly changing, programmable, automated and intelligent networks.

In today’s rapidly changing networking environment where billions of IoT devices are being added to the Internet every year, it is no longer enough for network engineers to simply configure network devices manually via a Command Line Interface (CLI). Network engineer skill-sets need to diversify to include network programmability and automation skills such as Ansible and Python, programmable APIs, Open Networking technologies, virtualization, Linux and support of multi-vendor environments.

The GNS3CA program will prepare you to have the knowledge and training to:

• Install and build virtual networks using GNS3 with knowledge of multiple vendors and protocols

• Explain and describe GNS3 core functions and architecture

• Identify and troubleshoot GNS3 installation and configuration issues

• Program networks using Python network automation scripts

• Implement OpenFlow based SDN networks within GNS3 topologies

• Implement Docker based appliances within GNS3 topologies

• Describe DevOps terms such as Data Formats, APIs, REST, NETCONF and others

• Program networks using Ansible network automation scripts

• Install and configure Linux based virtual machines and core Linux functions

• Install, configure and troubleshoot hypervisors such as VMware Workstation, ESXi, QEMU and VirtualBox

• Troubleshoot basic network issues

Exam topics:

Core GNS3 Skills

1. Explain GNS3 architecture:

   1. GNS3 GUI

   2. GNS3 VM

   3. Local versus remote VMs

   4. Schema (GUI / Web / Controller / Compute / Emulators)

2. Explain, configure and troubleshoot GNS3 Hypervisor options

   1. VMware Workstation Pro

   2. VMware Workstation Player

   3. Vmware Fusion

   4. VirtualBox

   5. ESXi

   6. QEMU

3. Describe GNS3 cloud solutions:

   1. Packet net

4. Explain and contrast GNS3 device support

   1. Switches

   2. Routers

   3. Firewalls

   4. Servers

   5. Hosts

5. Explain, configure and troubleshoot device types:

   1. Built-in

      1. Hub

      2. Switch

      3. Cloud options

   2. Network Vendors

      1. Dynamips IOS routers

      2. Cisco IOSv appliance

      3. Cisco IOSvL2 appliance

      4. Arista vEOS appliance

      5. Juniper SRXv appliance

      6. FRRouting appliance

   3. Server / PC appliances

      1. Ubuntu Appliance

      2. Network Automation Appliance

      3. Networker’s Toolkit Appliance

      4. DNS appliance

      5. Other popular GNS3 appliances

6. Troubleshoot GNS3 installation issues (GUI and VM)

7. Describe GNS3 best practices

   1. GNS3 GUI

   2. GNS3 VM

   3. Emulation options

   4. Vendor device emulation / simulation options

8. Describe and use GNS3 programmability options

   1. REST API

   2. cURL

   3. Postman

   4. Python scripts

   5. Bash scripts

Python:

1. Describe Python terms including:

   1. Objects

   2. Variables

   3. Strings

   4. Integers and floats

   5. Booleans

   6. Operators

   7. Lists

   8. Dictionaries

   9. Tuples

   10. Loops

   11. Conditions

   12. Functions

2. Explain and troubleshoot Python code snippets including

   1. Text manipulation (split / join / concatenation)

   2. Loops (for / while)

   3. If / else / elseif logic

3. Describe and verify the Python Telnet library for network device automation

4. Describe, verify and troubleshoot the use of Netmiko for network device automation

5. Describe, verify and troubleshoot the use of NAPALM for network device automation

Linux

1. Describe Linux distributions (Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Mint)

2. Describe Linux Text editors (vi, nano)

3. Configure, verify and troubleshoot IPv6 addressing, default gateways and static routes (Ubuntu)

4. Describe and verify Linux Directory structures (Ubuntu)

5. Describe file copying, moving and deleting (Ubuntu)

6. Describe and verify common Linux commands (ls, grep, more, cat, less) (Ubuntu)

7. Describe and verify Linux Permissions (Ubuntu)

8. Describe Linux Processes (Ubuntu)

9. Configure and verify Linux software installation (Ubuntu)

10. Configure and verify Linux DNS server (dnsmasq)

11. Configure and verify Linux DNS server (dnsmasq)

12. Configure and troubleshoot network devices such as Cumulus Linux, Arista, NX9000 and FRR using Linux command

SDN

1. Describe SDN terms and definitions

   1. Controller functions

   2. Plane separation

   3. Northbound interface (APIs)

   4. Southbound interface (APIs)

   5. NFV

2. Describe and contrast SDN visions

   1. Open SDN

   2. SDN via Overlays

   3. SDN via APIs

   4. Automation based SDN

3. Describe SDN protocols

   1. OpenFlow

   2. NETCONF

   3. VxLAN

   4. YANG

4. Describe and contrast Data Formats

   1. JSON

   2. XML

   3. YAML

5. Describe source control using Git

6. Describe APIs

   1. Network Device APIs

   2. REST APIs

7. Describe and contrast SDN controllers:

   1. Open source SDN controllers (OpenDaylight, ONOS, RYU)

   2. Vendor SDN controllers (NSX, ACI, APIC-EM)

8. Describe and verify basic OpenFlow switch flows (OVS / Mininet)

   1. OpenFlow 1.0 and 1.3 only

   2. Proactive vs Reactive flows

   3. Pipeline Processing

   4. Match Types

   5. Match Actions

   6. Message types

   7. OpenFlow Ports

Automation Tools

1. 1. Ansible

      1. Install and configure Ansible for network automation

      2. Describe and contrast agentless vs agent based automation tools

      3. Describe Ansible terms such as Idempotency, Ad Hoc changes, inventory files, plays, tasks and playbooks

      4. Implement and troubleshoot Ansible scripts for network device automation

   2. Describe and contrast Salt, Puppet and Chef

   
   

Virtualization technologies

1. Describe and contrast hypervisors

   1. VMware Workstation Pro

   2. VMware Workstation Player

   3. VMWare Fusion

   4. VirtualBox

   5. QEMU

   6. ESXi

2. Describe and contrast virtual image types (img, qcow2, iso, ova and vmdk)

3. Explain virtualization concepts such as nested virtualization, host virtualization, network NIC virtualization, network device sizing and scaling.

4. Install and configure GNS3 supported hypervisors

5. Install and configure GNS3 with cloud based providers such as Packet net