EVE, The New Emulated Virtual Experience

Within this industry we have many tools available that allow us to test new technologies and better our skills. If like many, you find it hard to get your hands on physical lab equipment, you tend to revert back to virtual labs in order to do what you need to do, but with so many platforms, sometimes it’s hard to decide which one to use.

If I was to name a few virtual software platforms, capable of allowing one to build labs, I would probably say;

  • Virl
  • GNS3
  • Packet Tracer
  • UNetLab

But wait….. “What about EVE?” Never heard of it? neither had I until recently. So if your intrigued to find out more, look no further because in this article we will focus on what ‘EVE’ is and some of the features it has to offer.

EVE is kinda like “an old dog with new tricks”, the abbreviation is short for Emulated Virtual Environment and it is a derivation of UNetLab. Yes, the developers of UNetLab have purposely rebuilt a totally new platform aimed at network and security professionals and from what I have seen, I am keen to try it.

The developers seem to have focused on four main areas;

  • Learning
  • Efficiency
  • Design
  • Flexibility

They also say “It’s the world’s first clientless, multivendor network emulation software” and it can be downloaded for FREE (Community Edition). EVE offers two ways in which you can download and start using it, one is by downloading .OVA and the other is by downloading the .ISO files. The cool thing about the .ISO and .OVA offerings is that you can install them on bare metal servers or using ESXi.

EVE has massive support for IOS, IOU and QEMU’s some of which include the following:

  • Cisco ISE (various versions)
  • ASA (various versions)
  • Cisco vIOS L3 & L2 versions
  • Cisco vWLC (various versions)
  • Cisco CUCM 11.5.1.11900-26

…And a whole lot more, you can view the entire list here.

 

Some of the features include:

  • KVM hardware acceleration
  • Topology designer with a click and play option
  • The ability to import and export configuration files
  • A multiuser mode which I’m assuming gives one the ability to work on labs together
  • The ability to interact with physical networks
  • Backwards compatible with UNetLab

And a whole lot more, click here for the full breakdown.

Users that are new to the virtual labbing experience need not worry because EVE have included FAQ’s, how to documents and known issues to save you time.

Although I haven’t tried EVE yet, I am eager to get my hands on it, but until then I leave you with this article on what could potentially be a promising lab experience. You can find the website at http://www.eve-ng.net/

If you’ve used EVE and want to share your experiences, please leave a comment below.

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iwiizkiid

Kelvin is a Cyber Security professional with years and experience working with organisations in different verticals, both large and small. He enjoys contributing to the Network Wizkid knowledge base and he also creates technical content. Kelvin enjoys learning new things and often does this by working on achieving new technical certifications. He holds many professional certifications and academically, he has achieved a Bachelors and Master's degree in both Computer Networks and Cyber Security.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. sunshine1308site 24/04/2017 Reply

    Hi there! ^_^ I’m so glad that I came across this blog 🙂 I needed a professional’s advice on networking and I was wondering if you could help me out . I really want to do my higher studies on networking but I don’t think there’s like a Masters program on this So if I do want to do my major on ccna what and where should I apply for this program. I’ve googled on the net but I needed a professional’s advice. I still haven’t given the CCNA exam but I’m planning to right after I graduate. Also, can you tell me what I’m supposed to do after I give this CCNA exam I’m so sorry for the countless questions 😦 but you seemed perfect for solving my problem TIA ^_^

    1. Kelvin 24/04/2017 Reply

      Hey, thank you for re-posting. FYI this is where I blog now so feel free to subscribe via email.

      Okay so from the post I understand you want to pursue the CCNA certification but don’t know how to go about it? You want to know if you should get networking knowledge by attending an higher education course?

      To answer the questions above; You don’t need to study an Higher Education to gain networking experience/skills, this all depends on whether the potential future job you are looking for requires a degree. The CCNA Routing and Switching certification is a good foundation, industry recognized certification that will give you the required networking knowledge to apply for jobs such as a networking support engineer. This will then allow you to further enhance your networking skills and progress with certifications and your career.

      Hope that answers your questions.

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