Cisco ASA on GNS3

My struggle for installing Cisco ASA on GNS3 lead me to write this procedure which is already floating around in various versions around the internet but this attempt was to write a concise and still informative  procedure to configure Cisco ASA successfully on GNS3.

The relevant snapshots will be updated shortly  :-)
Requirements:
   1. latest version of GNS3, 1.2.1 is the latest at this point of writing.
   2. ASA 8.4.2 image file.
   3. Unpack-0.1_win.zip

This setup has been tested on Windows7 (32bit).

Procedure:
   1. Install GNS3 on windows7.
   2. Unpack cisco ASA image.bin file.
   3. Create FLASH file.
   4. Configure Qemu to install ASA.
   5. Create topology in GNS3.

Install GNS3 on windows7
   1. Run the GNS3 setup and follow the wizard.
  2. Reboot the system.

Unpack cisco ASA image.bin file.
  1. C:\Unpack>unpack.exe –format ASA8 asa802-k8.bin
   2. Copy below two files to location say "E:\Software\ISO\ASA-8.4"
asa842-initrd.gz
asa842-vmlinuz

Create FLASH file

1.    Open CMD
2.     cd C:\Program Files\GNS3\qemu-2.1.0
3.     qemu-img create E:\Software\ISO\ASA-8.4\FLASH 256M

1024 MB RAM is selected by default while 512 MB is the required to run ASA on GNS3 but if you want to run it on 256MB you will have to create FLASH file which acts as a FLASH memory.

Configure Qemu to install ASA.

1. Start GNS3 --> go to Edit --> Preferences --> Qemu VMs --> New.
2. Type Name and Type of image as shown below and click next.
3.    Set the RAM value to 256MB and click Next.
4. Select the previously extracted ASA imgae files as shown below amd click finish.
5. Now you should see the ASA listed under Qemu VMs Preferences as shown below.
6. Select ASA from the listed VMs and click on Edit.
7. Go to HDD tab --> Selct the FLASH file we created earlier.
8. Now go to Advance Setting Tabs --> Copy the below settings under "Kernal Command Line"

 ide_generic.probe_mask=0x01 ide_core.chs=0.0:980,16,32 auto nousb                console=ttyS0,9600 bigphysarea=65536 ide1=noprobe no-hlt

9. Copy below setting under "Additional Settings"
-icount auto -hdachs 980,16,32 -vga none -vnc none

Create Topology in GNS3

1. Start GNS3 --> Drag n Drop the ASA object into topology pane and start the VM.
2. Right click on ASA object and select console option to start the console.
3. Login into the device.

Note:The enable password is blank, some features such as the failover are disabled by default and if you want to activate all of the features then type these two commands.
  activation-key 0x4a3ec071 0x0d86fbf6 0x7cb1bc48 0x8b48b8b0 0xf317c0b5
activation-key 0xb23bcf4a 0x1c713b4f 0x7d53bcbc 0xc4f8d09c 0x0e24c6b6

Note: It will take about 15 minutes to complete the license setup. Once the key is verified you can use all the features such as failover.

4. Reload  the device using  ciscoasa# reload command

Note: After reboot key validation and verification will take another 5 to 10  min

Error 1:
          ciscoasa# wr mem
Building configuration…
Cryptochecksum: 6e33e06b 255d8b92 90c27d70 9f5b4de4
%Error opening disk0:/.private/startup-config (No such file or directory)
Error executing command
[FAILED]
ciscoasa#

Solution: ciscoasa(config)# copy run disk0:/.private/startup-config

Error 2: Below console error keeping popping
127.0.0.1 (ASA-1) Network error: connection refused!- (inactive)

Solution: Ensure firewall object is powered ON, Check console port number is configured correctly under Qemu, verify if any local firewall is not causing interruption and finaly reboot the machine.