teeweehoo

Type 1 vs Type 2 doesn't really affect network virtualisation. On most hypervisors the closest thing you'll get to a layer 2 switch is a network bridge. GNS3 in a VM is a decent idea too.

If I'm understanding your screenshot correctly, then I'm guessing VMWare Workstation is only emulating a 1gbit/s network connection (good old e1000). To verify give us a "lspci" and "ethtool ..." from inside the VM.

Any reason you don't want to use Hyper-V? It should provide a better experience than VirtualBox or VMWare Workstaiton.

I would avoid vendor branded drives like this, they may be running custom firmware. They'll probably work, but may not - it's a gamble.

You could manage / deploy those compose files using ansible.