big ugly...

it ain't pretty but it is functional..

the mgmt pc is actually a disguised cloud using the hardware loopback i made in windows... works great..  the router host is simply another 7200 router in sheeps clothing... i didn't want the hassle of another virual device, as in a qemu host or vpcs... i looked into vpcs and it requires cygwin, another emulator, but i didn't have a cygwin.dll and that would have required some manouvering that i didn't have the patience for...  i just turned off routing, gave it a gateway, configured an interface an pretended... i have the 7200's set up very well, and they use little resources..

qemu is pegging one of my cpu's, and all told this ugly thing is consuming about a lot of  ram...  fortunately i have 4 gig on this laptop... i'm considering getting an upgrade for it, about fifty bucks...

resources are the collateral damge here, and patience...





so what i'm doing now is puting it through it's paces... baselining it against some documentation to ensure it is running in a default manner...  ospf is up all the way around... devices are pinging where they're supposed to... i make rules in asdm and check them against the cli and vice versa...  this is a great opportunity to finally get comfortable with this thing, really understand how it works... trying to get good with this thing in production is near impossible...

happy friggin firewalling...

with me it's always proving shit is working properly, breaking it, then putting it back together