Installation Guide for UNetLab (UNL) in VMware Workstation

UNL (Unified Networking Lab) is a next generation network simulator. This installation guide is how I installed it in my PC. Hope someone will need this as an easy reference.

1st install the VMware and go to the download page of routereflector.com and download from google drive mirror (about 500 MB).

Before everything check your native PC bios settings for Intel VT-x. You have to find it somewhere in the bios setup and enable if it is disabled.

Go to VMware Workstation & go to File > Open

Select the downloaded .ova file & hit Open

Specify a storage path and hit Import

After import completed go to the settings of the virtual machine (don't run it yet)

Now apply these settings. My native PC has 8 a GB RAM, Core i5 processor
 - Memory : 6 GB (recommended)
 - Processors : Number of processors 2, Number of cores per processors 2
   Virtualization engine preferred mode: Automatic & select Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT
 - Hard disk size : 20 GB
 - Configure Network Adapters in NAT mode. 1st Adapter will be used to get management access
   Add some additional network adapters which will be useful later to connect UNL to external VMs

Now Hit OK & it's the time to boot the VM. It will take an IP from DHCP but it is good to setup a static IP.

Now it will stop here. Log in to VM
Default username : root
Default password : unl

It will go the following step to change the password and host name & DNS domain name.

Don't change them.

Now select static using arrow keys and space bar and hit OK







Now it is the time to find a correct IP address.

Go to Edit > Virtual Network Editor

Here you can see my NAT adapter is VMnet8.
Go to NAT settings.

Select an IP from this range as an example 192.168.47.200
Give it to the dialog box and hit OK
Then give the Subnet mask and hit OK
Then give the Gateway IP and hit OK

Note that the gateway is not 192.168.47.1 or 192.168.47.254

It will be like 192.168.47.2

Next dialog box will be to enter the IP address of DNS primary server. Enter the IP address of the Gateway here too.

Next will ask for a secondary DNS, I gave it the Google DNS 8.8.8.8

Next will be the NTP config. Leave it empty so that it will use the time from the VMware.

Next will be to choose a way to connect the UNL to internet. This is important because UNL updates are coming from internet.

So I gave the direct connection & Hit OK



Now the VM will be restarted.



Now log into the machine using default username and password. It will be like the following now.

 Now try to ping google.com to see whether it can reach internet or not.

Now it's the time to upgrade the current version to the latest UNL version.
1st enter dpkg -l unetlab command to see the current version (click on the image to view in full size)

Enter apt-get update command to get updates. Wait until it finishes.

After it is done, Enter apt-get install unetlab command to install the updates. If it asks for Y/N to install hit Y and enter.

Ok now see the version again by  entering the command dpkg -l unetlab

See, now it is updated from from 1.0.0-8 to 1.0.0-10

Now setting up the UNL is over. Open a browser and go to the IP address given to the UNL

To log in to the simulator, use

Username : admin
Password : unl

Additionally  you will have to install Windows Client Pack to access desktops via QEMU through UltraVNC. It will also come with Wireshark and Winpcap which will be useful to you.
You can download it from the official location from their website.