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GNS3 Certified Associate Exam Official Course (GNS3A). (Udemy.com)

This is the official GNS3A course (exam author). Learn GNS3, Python, Ansible, Linux, SDN and more from David Bombal

4.5
273 reviews

Created by: David Bombal

Last updated January 2023

Our take

Based on the ratings of 273 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in January 2023. No course pays to be reviewed.

David Bombal's course is the official prep for the GNS3 Certified Associate exam, and the headline calls him the exam author. It runs 67.7 hours across 695 lectures. The syllabus shows long stretches on installing GNS3 on ESXi, VMware and in the cloud, then appliance after appliance: Cisco, Arista, Juniper, Windows, Cumulus. Later sections move into Python, Netmiko and NAPALM. The level says Beginner, but the requirements ask for CCNA-level networking, and that is the real bar.

Reviewers keep coming back to the teaching. One calls Bombal amazing, another says he is thorough and detailed, and Mark Smith says he finds himself rewinding to take notes. People like the hands-on examples and say the appliance setups are easy to follow. Criticism is thin. Of 273 reviews, 192 are five stars and only five are two stars or lower. One 2019 reviewer hit a missing Quick Start lecture that blocked the exercises, and another said the content did not satisfy.

The course was last updated in January 2023, so expect some appliance versions and screens to have moved on. The data shows no quizzes or practice tests, which is a gap if the exam is your goal, so plan to test yourself elsewhere. Still, with 4,117 students and a 4.5 rating, it is a solid pick for engineers who want real lab skills. Skip it if all you need is a short GNS3 primer.

Best forCCNA-level network engineers who want GNS3 lab skills plus Netmiko and NAPALM automation, and maybe the GNS3CA cert.
Skip it ifYou want a quick GNS3 intro or a drill-based exam prep with quizzes and practice tests.

Pros

  • Bombal's walkthroughs are easy to follow, and reviewers praise the hands-on examples
  • Covers many appliances, including Cisco, Arista, Juniper, Cumulus, Windows and Ubuntu
  • Netmiko and NAPALM sections add automation skills that go beyond the exam
  • Rated 4.5 across 273 reviews, with 192 of them five stars

Cons

  • Last updated January 2023, so some appliance images and versions may be dated
  • No quizzes or practice tests, which is a gap for exam preparation
  • Needs CCNA-level knowledge, so the Beginner label is misleading
Very good tutorials, lots of interesting information paired with very good examples and many hands-on exercises, simply perferk! Many thanks for that David!
Rolf Gebert, a student

Labeled beginner, but it asks for CCNA-level networking and basic GNS3 knowledge, so it suits working or studying engineers.

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What you will learn

  • Pass the GNS3 Certified Associate Exam
  • Learn network programmability with GNS3 and Python

Course content

76 sections · 695 lectures · 68 hours of video 6 articles

  1. 1Welcome 3 free previews8 lectures · 1.2 hours
  2. 2GNS3 Setup3 lectures · 57 min
  3. 3GNS3 installation in the cloud5 lectures · 31 min
  4. 4GNS3 installation on ESXi2 lectures · 21 min
  5. 5GNS3 Installation: VMware Player2 lectures · 22 min
  6. 6GNS3 Preferences & VMware settings1 lecture · 5 min
  7. 7GNS3 Installation on Mac OS1 lecture · 12 min
  8. 8Upgrading Docker Containers in GNS31 lecture · 12 min
  9. 9GNS3 2.X Architecture2 lectures · 15 min
  10. 10GNS3 Version 2.0 updates11 lectures · 1.2 hours

Who it is for

The instructor says it suits

  • Network Engineers
  • Network Architects
  • If you want to pass the GNS3 Certified Associate Exam

What you need before you start

  • Basic Networking Knowledge (CCNA Level)
  • Basic understanding of GNS3

How it compares

Against the other 848 rated Udemy courses in IT Certifications on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.5 out of 5higher than 43% of them
  • Reviews273#524 of 849 by number of reviews
  • Length67.7 hourslonger than 99% of them
  • Last updatedJanuary 2023earlier than 86% of them

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Course Description

This is the official GNS3 Certified Associate course. This course covers the topics you need to know to pass the GNS3CA Exam.

The GNS3 Certified Associate (GNS3CA) program is a multi-vendor, next generation network engineer certification that focuses on the core skills that network engineers need today for the new era of rapidly changing, programmable, automated and intelligent networks.

In today’s rapidly changing networking environment where billions of IoT devices are being added to the Internet every year, it is no longer enough for network engineers to simply configure network devices manually via a Command Line Interface (CLI). Network engineer skill-sets need to diversify to include network programmability and automation skills such as Ansible and Python, programmable APIs, Open Networking technologies, virtualization, Linux and support of multi-vendor environments.

The GNS3CA program will prepare you to have the knowledge and training to:

  • Install and build virtual networks using GNS3 with knowledge of multiple vendors and protocols

  • Explain and describe GNS3 core functions and architecture

  • Identify and troubleshoot GNS3 installation and configuration issues

  • Program networks using Python network automation scripts

  • Implement OpenFlow based SDN networks within GNS3 topologies

  • Implement Docker based appliances within GNS3 topologies

  • Describe DevOps terms such as Data Formats, APIs, REST, NETCONF and others

  • Program networks using Ansible network automation scripts

  • Install and configure Linux based virtual machines and core Linux functions

  • Install, configure and troubleshoot hypervisors such as VMware Workstation, ESXi, QEMU and VirtualBox

  • Troubleshoot basic network issues

Exam topics:

Core GNS3 Skills

  1. Explain GNS3 architecture:

    1. GNS3 GUI

    2. GNS3 VM

    3. Local versus remote VMs

    4. Schema (GUI / Web / Controller / Compute / Emulators)

  2. Explain, configure and troubleshoot GNS3 Hypervisor options

    1. VMware Workstation Pro

    2. VMware Workstation Player

    3. Vmware Fusion

    4. VirtualBox

    5. ESXi

    6. QEMU

  3. Describe GNS3 cloud solutions:

    1. Packet net

  4. Explain and contrast GNS3 device support

    1. Switches

    2. Routers

    3. Firewalls

    4. Servers

    5. Hosts

  5. Explain, configure and troubleshoot device types:

    1. Built-in

      1. Hub

      2. Switch

      3. Cloud options

    2. Network Vendors

      1. Dynamips IOS routers

      2. Cisco IOSv appliance

      3. Cisco IOSvL2 appliance

      4. Arista vEOS appliance

      5. Juniper SRXv appliance

      6. FRRouting appliance

    3. Server / PC appliances

      1. Ubuntu Appliance

      2. Network Automation Appliance

      3. Networker’s Toolkit Appliance

      4. DNS appliance

      5. Other popular GNS3 appliances

  6. Troubleshoot GNS3 installation issues (GUI and VM)

  7. Describe GNS3 best practices

    1. GNS3 GUI

    2. GNS3 VM

    3. Emulation options

    4. Vendor device emulation / simulation options

  8. Describe and use GNS3 programmability options

    1. REST API

    2. cURL

    3. Postman

    4. Python scripts

    5. Bash scripts

Python:

  1. Describe Python terms including:

    1. Objects

    2. Variables

    3. Strings

    4. Integers and floats

    5. Booleans

    6. Operators

    7. Lists

    8. Dictionaries

    9. Tuples

    10. Loops

    11. Conditions

    12. Functions

  2. Explain and troubleshoot Python code snippets including

    1. Text manipulation (split / join / concatenation)

    2. Loops (for / while)

    3. If / else / elseif logic

  3. Describe and verify the Python Telnet library for network device automation

  4. Describe, verify and troubleshoot the use of Netmiko for network device automation

  5. Describe, verify and troubleshoot the use of NAPALM for network device automation


Linux

  1. Describe Linux distributions (Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Mint)

  2. Describe Linux Text editors (vi, nano)

  3. Configure, verify and troubleshoot IPv6 addressing, default gateways and static routes (Ubuntu)

  4. Describe and verify Linux Directory structures (Ubuntu)

  5. Describe file copying, moving and deleting (Ubuntu)

  6. Describe and verify common Linux commands (ls, grep, more, cat, less) (Ubuntu)

  7. Describe and verify Linux Permissions (Ubuntu)

  8. Describe Linux Processes (Ubuntu)

  9. Configure and verify Linux software installation (Ubuntu)

  10. Configure and verify Linux DNS server (dnsmasq)

  11. Configure and verify Linux DNS server (dnsmasq)

  12. Configure and troubleshoot network devices such as Cumulus Linux, Arista, NX9000 and FRR using Linux command


SDN

  1. Describe SDN terms and definitions

    1. Controller functions

    2. Plane separation

    3. Northbound interface (APIs)

    4. Southbound interface (APIs)

    5. NFV

  2. Describe and contrast SDN visions

    1. Open SDN

    2. SDN via Overlays

    3. SDN via APIs

    4. Automation based SDN

  3. Describe SDN protocols

    1. OpenFlow

    2. NETCONF

    3. VxLAN

    4. YANG

  4. Describe and contrast Data Formats

    1. JSON

    2. XML

    3. YAML

  5. Describe source control using Git

  6. Describe APIs

    1. Network Device APIs

    2. REST APIs

  7. Describe and contrast SDN controllers:

    1. Open source SDN controllers (OpenDaylight, ONOS, RYU)

    2. Vendor SDN controllers (NSX, ACI, APIC-EM)

  8. Describe and verify basic OpenFlow switch flows (OVS / Mininet)

    1. OpenFlow 1.0 and 1.3 only

    2. Proactive vs Reactive flows

    3. Pipeline Processing

    4. Match Types

    5. Match Actions

    6. Message types

    7. OpenFlow Ports

Automation Tools

    1. Ansible
Read More Beginner Beginner Level product length iconTime: 67.7h

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Instructor Details

David Bombal

David Bombal (CCIE  #11023 Emeritus) passed his Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert Routing and Switching exam in January 2003 and is one of a small percentage of Cisco Engineers that pass their CCIE labs on their first attempt. 

David qualified as a  Cisco Certified Systems Instructor (CCSI #22787) many years ago! He has been training Cisco  courses for over 20 years and has delivered instructor led courses in various  countries around the world covering a wide range of Cisco topics from CCNA to  CCIE. 

David is very active on social media and has over 2 million YouTube subscribers and has posted over 1,000 free videos.

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Reviews

4.5

273 ratings on Udemy

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By Juniar Sinaga,S.Kom,.M.Kom on 3/21/2025

good totor & materi

By Rolf Gebert on 9/12/2024

Very good tutorials, lots of interesting information paired with very good examples and many hands-on exercises, simply perferk! Many thanks for that David!

By Charlie Rosario on 11/3/2022

I've been watching David Bombal on Youtube and I'm excited to find his course here. He's very thorough and detailed.

By Mark Smith on 7/18/2021

David sets the standard and challenges in his content I find myself rewinding and taking notes as a great practice at viewing his presentations. I would encourage anyone to upgrade/ sharpen their skills with this course.

By Samuel Clark on 1/9/2021

I need to give this course six stars. It's great information presented excellently. This course is very thorough and the instructor is very knowledgeable.

By Roberto Belluco on 7/21/2020

The course is interesting and very comprehensive of many concepts of tradidional and new concepts of networking.

By Luny Celicourt on 8/25/2019

Everything done by David Bombal is always wonderful. He teaches how to walk then how to run. Would take any class that is thought by him. This course contains everything thought by David Bombal about networking. It was a super great purchase.

By Patrick Po on 6/4/2019

The course was good, I was able to follow setups for different appliances. I also learn network programmability that is new to me and hoping could apply it in the future.

By Anonymized User on 3/18/2019

Course content is not satisfying.

By Steve Truelove on 2/23/2019

I like David's approach and teaching style. He is easy to follow and gives you a lot of information.

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Overall Score : 90 / 100

GNS3 Certified Associate Exam Official Course (GNS3A).
Visit course on Udemy Write a review
  • Video Duration: icon 67.7h
  • Price: See price on Udemy
  • Provider: icon Udemy
  • Updated: icon January 2023
  • Level: Beginner Beginner
  • Language: icon English
  • Certificate: icon Yes
  • Lectures:695 in 76 sections
  • Students:4,117
  • Subtitles:2 languages
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