Edited by Xuan Ly NGUYEN THE

Cisco ASA 8.4(2) on GNS3 1.x.x with ASDM 7.1(1)

I. CLI Setup

* This assumes you have a default GNS3 install on Windows 7/8/8.1/10. For this tutorial
my version of GNS3 is 1.x.x-All in one.

1. Download ASA 8.42 files from my source (beam.to/ronglon), after downloading and
unzipping, we have 2 files: asa842-initrd.gz; asa842-vmlinuz

2. Open GNS3, browse to Edit  Preferences  QEMU and select ASA tab

3. Enter any Identifier name. For example: asa842

4. Enter 1024 for RAM

5. Type the following parameters into Qemu Options:

-vnc none -vga none -m 1024 -icount auto -hdachs 980,16,32

6. Browse to your downloaded files, assign asa842-initrd.gz for Initrd and asa842-vmlinuz
for Kernel

7. Type the following parameters into Kernel cmd line

no-hlt -append ide_generic.probe_mask=0x01 ide_core.chs=0.0:980,16,32 auto nousb

console=ttyS0,9600 bigphysarea=65536

8. Now click Save then OK

9. Drag Cisco ASA to your workspace  right click on it  click Start

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10. Right click on ASA  click Console. If everything has been configured properly, it will
boot normally like this:

11. Default license is accepted

12. Type enable to activate privileged mode, when password required, just press Enter

13. Activate full license by typing as follows:

activation-key 0xb23bcf4a 0x1c713b4f 0x7d53bcbc 0xc4f8d09c 0x0e24c6b6

Waiting 15  20 minutes, activation key will be accepted like this:

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14. Now type write memory then reboot ASA by using reload command

15. During the reboot, it will take some time for key validation phase. Nothing to be
worried. Wait for 15-20 minutes.

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16. Now you have a full-fledged Cisco ASA Firewall running inside your computer

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II. ASDM GUI Setup in Windows

1. Setup a loopback adapter

a. Open a command prompt as Administrator (Right-click run as Administrator)
b. Type hdwwiz.exe to open the Add Hardware Wizard
c. Click Next once opened
d. Choose "Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (Advanced)" and
click Next
e. Select "Network adapters" and click Next
f. Select "Microsoft" under Manufacturer and "Microsoft Loopback Adapter" under
Network Adapter
g. Reboot Windows

2. Configure the loopback adapter: IP: 172.16.1.2/24 Gateway: 172.16.1.1

3. Create the following diagram in GNS3:

4. Configure your Cloud use the loopback adapter

5. Before turning on the ASA, connecting devices

* You will get an error if you try to add a link while the ASA is running

6. Configure the interface you linked to the switch with an IP address in the
same subnet as your loopback adapter
en // no password, just press enter
conf t
int gi 0
ip address 172.16.1.1 255.255.255.0
nameif management
management-only
no shut
end
wr

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7. Now ping the loopback adapter at 172.16.1.2

* If you cannot ping, make sure that Qemu and Qemu Wrapper are allowed

through the Windows Firewall or just turn off the firewall

8. Download ASDM 7.11 file from my source (beam.to/ronglon)

Filename: asdm-711.bin File size: 17,789,808

9. Open your TFTP server (I use TFTPD32 because it's free and works well)

10. Click Browse to folder containing ASDM file in TFTP Server Tab

In the TFTP Client tab, enter 172.16.1.1 for Host and 69 for Port (TFTP = UDP: 69)

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11. From the ASA console, copy the ASDM bin file to the flash

copy tftp://172.16.1.2/asdm-711.bin flash

Wait for a few minutes to complete copying. You could check your copied

file by using “show flash” command

12. Set the ASA to load the ASDM at next boot, enable the HTTP server and

setup access:

conf t

asdm image flash:asdm-711.bin

http server enable

http 172.16.1.2 255.255.255.255 management

username cisco password cisco privilege 15 //or any username/password

end

wr

13. Reboot the ASA: reload

14. While the ASA is rebooting, configure the security of Java:

Start  Java  Configure Java  Security  Edit Site List  Add https://172.16.1.1 

OK

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15. Once the ASA is rebooted, open the web browser then enter https://172.16.1.1

* Note: Java may ask for upgrading to the latest version, just click Later

Choose “Install ASDM Launcher” to download the installer then install it.

16. ASDM-IDM Launcher will start automatically after setting up. If not, just
double click ASDM icon in your Desktop. Now enter the IP of ASA and your
configured account.

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Security Warning dialog will appear, just click Continue

If everything is success, you would get the GUI of ASDM as following:

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