27 May

How to change the SSL certificate in CML 2.0

How to change the SSL certificate in CML 2.0

In the previous article I described my first impressions after launching the successor to Cisco VIRL, the Cisco Modeling Labs 2.0. I pointed out that one of the potentially strong points of CML 2.0 will be its API. However, for the proper functioning of the API, it would be appropriate to change the default SSL certificate. I have prepared an instructions on how to do it – this is unfortunately not an easy task, but anyone can install their own SSL certificate in CML 2.0

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15 May

Why CML 2.0 is quite a disappointment

Why CML 2.0 is quite a disappointment

Finally, after weeks of waiting, I could test the successor of the famous VIRL – the Cisco Modeling Labs 2.0. Earlier, the product was known under the working name VIRL2, but it was finally renamed as CML 2.0. Yes, I know. There are already a lot of reviews on the web, both written or in the form of video. Unfortunately, I am not a Cisco employee to have access to internal versions for a long time, or user of the Enterprise version that was released a month earlier and due to the price probably not available for many companies. Fortunately, CML 2.0 Personal is out, and I had the opportunity to take a look at it. This is my first impression. There are a few things that I think deserve attention (this is not a complete list for sure).

This article has been originally posted on my polish blog Szkoła DevNet (DevNet School)

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23 Nov

Dynamic VIRL inventory for Ansible playbooks

Ansible is one of the powerful tools providing us an automation of recurring tasks. In the current world, it is impossible to manage infrastructure manually efficiently. Many people still do this but the world has already changed and we need to progress otherwise our business will be cost ineffective. You can provide static inventory – list of the devices where you want to execute the playbook. But in dynamic environments, such as Cisco VIRL simulations you don’t want to edit inventory file manually. That is why I use Python script that will generate Dynamic VIRL inventory for Ansible playbook for me.

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13 Oct

How to install multiple ASAv firmwares on Cisco VIRL

Cisco VIRL

Cisco VIRL is powerful network simulation tool. There are weeks when I run simulations 24/7 because of some projects or learning are ongoing. With VIRL you get almost the latest firmware for supported platforms. Almost – sometimes you have to wait for next release for a new firmware to be available. I experienced it a few months ago when with ASA 9.7(1) release Cisco introduced the route-based VPNs (VTIs). At this point VIRL users got the 9.6(2) release bundled into latest simulator release. In other simulation, you may want to use different ASAv firmware versions for various nodes, so your simulation is more similar to your production network.

Cisco VIRL uses real firmware in the simulations. I will show you how you can add different ASAv firmware and use it in parallel with the software available on VIRL repository.

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28 Aug

VIRL 1.3 – the first impression

Cisco VIRL

Last week Cisco released the VIRL PE 1.3 (previously called just VIRL). This version includes major technology upgrade to the underlying infrastructure; only minor adjustments are visible to the users. That was something everyone expected as old Ubuntu used for VIRL 1.2 regularly asked for packages updates.

I worked with new VIRL for few hours. I must say I am not impressed. Some old problems got back, at least in my installation. Frequent snapshots of the VIRL VM are something required again. Here is my quick summary of my thoughts and experience so far

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24 Aug

IGMP Snooping on single switch

The IGMP Snooping is a nice feature to limit propagation of multicast traffic in Layer 2 Ethernet network. It listens to IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) messages traversing the network to learn about source and receivers. Using this information switch builds a map of links where it replicates the multicast frames. What if we do not have this feature enabled? The switch will treat multicast frames as an unknown type and will broadcast over all active ports no matter is there is receiver interested in frames from the particular multicast group or not.

IGMP Snooping on a single switch is useful to limit propagation of multicast frames when source and receivers are in same layer 2 broadcast domain, in the same VLAN. IGMP Snooping is enabled on Cisco switches by default, but it does not mean it will work out-of-box.

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18 Aug

Generate multicast​ traffic in VIRL using Ostinato

Cisco and VIRL logos

Ostinato is a traffic generator. You can use it to craft packets and send flow into your network. You can even send multiple streams if required. It is a tool that network admins and developers should use for testing the system or application against various scenarios. Ostinato is by default available on Cisco VIRL so we can use it as a packet generator in our simulations.

Ostinato consists of two components – the LXC image run in a simulation that generates the traffic and GUI frontend. In this article, I will show you how to use it to generate a multicast stream in VIRL simulation.

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