Unlock New Possibilities with Cisco Modeling Labs 2.9

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Cisco Modeling Labs (CML) has lengthy been the go-to platform for community engineers, college students, and builders to design, simulate, and check community topologies in a digital atmosphere. With the discharge of Cisco Modeling Labs model 2.9, we’re excited to introduce some new options that improve its capabilities, providing flexibility, scalability, and ease of use.

Containers: A game-changer for community simulation

One of probably the most compelling new options in CML 2.9 is the power to combine Docker containers. Previously, CML was restricted to digital machines (VMs), resembling IOS-XE and Catalyst 9000. Now you may add light-weight, optimized node sorts that devour fewer assets, so you may construct bigger and extra various labs.

CML 2.9 ships with 10 pre-built container pictures, together with:

  • Browsers: Chrome and Firefox for in-lab net entry.
  • Routing: Free-Range Routing (FRR), a light-weight, open-source routing machine supporting OSPF and different protocols.
  • Network Services: Dnsmasq, Syslog, Netflow, Nginx, Radius, and TACACS+ for important community features.
  • Utilities: Net-tools (full of 20+ community instruments like T-shark and Nmap) and a ThousandEyes agent for monitoring.

This opens up an entire new world of potentialities, permitting you to simulate complicated eventualities with specialised instruments and companies straight inside your CML topology. Because containers are light-weight and resource-efficient, you may run extra companies with no heavy impression on system efficiency. Plus, you have got the flexibleness to create and combine your personal customized container pictures from DockerHub or different sources.

Containers in CML combine seamlessly with VM nodes, permitting you to attach them inside the identical community topology and allow full bidirectional communication. Because containers use considerably much less CPU, reminiscence, and disk than VMs, they begin sooner and allow you to run extra nodes on the identical {hardware}. For giant CML labs, use containers and clustering for optimum efficiency. Containers are light-weight, making it attainable to scale labs effectively by operating companies or routing features that don’t require a full VM.

How can I share labs with different customers? 

For groups and academic environments, CML 2.9 introduces a extra fine-grained permission system. As a lab proprietor or system admin, now you can share labs with different customers, giving collaborators entry to work on shared tasks or studying actions. This characteristic helps you to transfer past the fundamental learn/write entry obtainable in earlier variations. The new permission ranges embody:

  • View: Allows customers to see the lab however prevents any state modifications or edits
  • Exec: Grants permission to view and work together with the lab; for example, you can begin and cease nodes
  • Edit: Enables customers to switch the lab, resembling transferring, including, or deleting nodes and altering configurations
  • Admin: Gives you full entry to the lab, in addition to means that you can share the lab with different customers

This enhanced management streamlines collaboration, making certain customers have precisely the suitable stage of entry for his or her duties.

→ See product documentation for particulars on setup and use.

How does node disk picture cloning work?

Tired of repeatedly configuring customized nodes to your labs? Node disk picture cloning in CML 2.9 resolves this difficulty. If you’ve personalized a node’s configuration or made particular edits, now you can clone that node’s disk picture and reserve it as a brand new picture kind. This means sooner lab setup for steadily used gadgets and configurations, saving you useful time.

Node disk picture cloning is superb for saving time in lab setup once you’ve modified a node, resembling Ubuntu, so as to add further instruments and wish to create a brand new node kind that has those self same instruments put in.

How do I handle labs utilizing the exterior labs repository and Git integration?

CML 2.9 introduces Git integration, permitting you to straight tie your CML occasion to an exterior Git repository. This characteristic modifications the way you entry and handle pattern labs. Instead of manually downloading and importing particular person lab information, now you can present a repository URL, and CML will sync the content material, making it obtainable underneath the Sample Labs menu.

Cisco offers a group of pattern labs on the CML Community GitHub on the Cisco DevNet web site, together with certification-aligned labs (resembling CCNA), which will be imported with a single click on.

This characteristic additionally means that you can add Git repositories (resembling GitLab and Bitbucket), empowering you to handle your personal lab content material seamlessly.

CML helps any Git-based repo, however authentication for personal repos shouldn’t be supported. We’ve added some CCNA labs, and we’re working to combine extra superior certification content material, resembling CCNP, into the pattern labs repositories. Offline customers will get a pre-synced snapshot at set up.

 What are different new CML 2.9 enhancements?

Beyond the numerous new options, CML 2.9 contains these enhancements:

  • Increased scalability: The restrict of concurrently operating nodes has risen from 320 to 520.
  • Web framework alternative (FastAPI): The product now makes use of FastAPI as its new API net framework, leading to improved supportability, sooner API efficiency, enhanced documentation, and improved validation.
  • API assist for bulk operations: Simplify your automation efforts with new API capabilities that permit for bulk operations, resembling fence-selecting and deleting teams of nodes with a single API name.
  • Enable all node definitions by default: This quality-of-life enchancment means that you can import all labs by default, no matter whether or not a selected node and picture definition can be found in your system.
  • Custom font for terminal home windows: You can now configure customized fonts to your console terminal home windows to match your most well-liked CLI expertise.
  • IP tackle visibility: You can now view the assigned IP addresses for interfaces related to an exterior NAT connector.

Explore the facility of CML 2.9

CML 2.9 underscores our dedication to delivering a state-of-the-art community simulation platform. As we increase its capabilities and discover additional container orchestration, superior lab automation, and new API developments, we encourage our neighborhood to contribute to the rising library of pattern labs on our DevNet GitHub repository. And we’re working to make including new node sorts even simpler sooner or later.

Ready to discover the facility of CML 2.9? Download it now to check out these new options as we speak.

Leave a remark beneath and tell us what you assume!

 

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