Cisco Modeling Labs Corporate Edition User Guide, Release 1.5
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The simulation phase is
when you run the simulation of your topology design. The
Simulation
perspective provides a set of views that support the simulation phase. By
comparison, the design and build activities occur in the
Design
perspective, which provides a set of views that support the design activity.
Some views in the
Simulation
perspective can also be viewed in the
Design
perspective.
Simulation
Perspectives and Views
The main areas of
focus within the
Simulation
perspective are the
Simulations view and the
Console view. The following figure highlights the
Simulations and
Console views for a running simulation.
From the
View menu, you
can open additional views in the perspective and arrange the open views by
dragging them within the perspective workspace. See the online help and the
section
Customize Perspectives
for more information.
Note
To reset your
current perspective to its original configuration when the workbench was first
opened, right-click the perspective button and select
Reset .
Determining When a
Node is Fully Operational
When a simulation
starts up, the nodes move through a number of states before their configuration
has been applied completely and they are deemed fully operational.
In previous Cisco
Modeling Labs releases, a node was marked as [ACTIVE] as soon as the virtual
machine had started its boot-up cycle. However, in some cases, it can take any
number of minutes before the node is fully operational. Users who have used the
Live Visualization functionality will have seen that it is able to detect when
a node is responsive to commands. This functionality has been adapted and
expanded and a new state is reported in the Cisco Modeling Labs client and in
the User Workspace Management interface. This new state [ACTIVE - REACHABLE] is
returned when a node has reached the point where its configuration has been
fully applied and the node is reachable on its management interface.
In this example, the
log messages indicate when the nodes have transitioned from startup to the
point where the configuration has been applied and the node is now reachable.
The state is also reflected in the state marker shown in the
Simulations view.
If the management
interface is not configured or is in the shutdown state, the node will be shown
as [ACTIVE - UNREACHABLE].
Cisco Modeling Labs
Active Canvas
The Cisco Modeling
Labs client provides users with an active canvas. When a simulation is started
and the user switches to the Simulation perspective, a new window opens
displaying the network diagram. As the virtual machines start up, the network
diagram updates showing the current state of the simulation. Nodes change color
depending on their current operational state.
For example, the
following figure shows nodes in green which indicates the
Active state.
Nodes in blue indicate the
Build state.
Grey nodes indicate the
Absent state
where a node is yet to be started or has been stopped.
Once a node is in the
active state, you can right-click on the node to perform operations such as
opening an SSH or Telnet connection, extract the configuration of the specific
node and stop/start the node.
Right-clicking on the
background, without selecting a node, enables you to perform simulation-wide
operations such as configuration extraction, launch the live visualization
view, stop the simulation as well as resetting all link latency, jitter and
packet-loss parameters that may be in operation.
If the
Simulations view is closed, it can be reopened by
selecting the simulation from the simulations panel, right-clicking and
selecting the
View Simulation
option.
Link latency, jitter
and packet-loss parameters can be set by selecting a link, right-clicking and
using the
Modify Link
Parameters option.
Packet capture
operations can be performed by selecting a link, selecting the interface (at
one end of the link) and right-clicking to reveal the packet-capture control
menu, as shown.
Once a packet capture
has been configured, an icon will indicate that a packet-capture is present on
the interface, with the Packet capture view listing the .pcap file that is
available for analysis.
Additional diagram
labels are now available including interface name, serial port number
assignment and so on. These can be accessed from the
Show Topology
Labels icon on the Cisco Modeling Labs toolbar.
Launch a
Simulation
To launch a
simulation, complete the following steps.
Before you begin
Complete the
topology design.
Complete the
task of building the nodes and interfaces.
(Optional)
Generate the configuration using AutoNetkit.
Caution
When you manually make changes to a node configuration and
bypass AutoNetkit autogeneration, those changes do not appear in the topology
view of the
Design perspective or
Simulation perspective. For example, if you use the
hostname command to change the host name from
iosv-1 to
Router-1 in the configuration, the node name in the
topology view and in other related views remains as
iosv-1.
Open the desired
topology.
Note
The topology
should be open and visible in the
Topology Editor. If you have multiple topologies open
in the
Topology Editor, simulation will launch for the
currently active view.
Procedure
Step 1
From the
toolbar, click the
Launch
Simulation button.
The
simulation launches and provides a unique identifier, which means that multiple
instances of the topology can be launched and each will have a unique name.
Step 2
In the
Launching
Simulation dialog box, select any of the following actions:
Check the
Always run in the
background check box. All future node start requests, stop
requests, and simulation launch requests run in the background and do not
display dialog boxes.
Note
To control
the background setting, choose
File > Preferences > General.
Click
Run in
Background . The dialog box closes when the node simulation
starts.
Click
Cancel to return
to the
Design view.
Take no
action, and the node simulation launches momentarily.
Tip
When you click
Run in
Background , the status bar displays a progress icon. Click the
icon to display a compact view of the activity progress. If the background
activity encounters an error, the icon shows a red
X . Click the
error icon to display the error dialog.
Step 3
In the
Simulation
launched dialog box, click
OK .
Step 4
When prompted to
switch to the
Simulation perspective, click
Yes .
Note
We recommend
that you switch to the
Simulation
perspective to view the running simulation and to connect to node consoles.
The Cisco
Modeling Labs client tracks the state of the simulations. All launched
simulations appear in the
Simulations view. Status messages are displayed in
the
Console view. After the Cisco Modeling Labs server
has started the simulation launch, a confirmation dialog box appears with an
identifier assigned to the simulation by the Cisco Modeling Labs server.
Jumphost Virtual
Machine (VM)
The jumphost VM is the
default method for accessing the management network of a running simulation.
The jumphost node runs in a separate simulation named
~jumphost and
has two interfaces, eth0 in the project/user management network and eth1 in the
FLAT network.
The purpose of the
jumphost is to provide an access point into a simulated network that remains
fixed, in that there is a single external IP address or port that the user can
access. A user can access the jumphost and then access all the nodes inside the
simulation.
Cisco Modeling Labs
provides two implementations of jumphost:
A VM: Based on the
server VM image type.
A Linux container:
A lighter weight form of a jumphost. See
Linux Container (LXC)
for more information.
The VM implementation
is costly in terms of the memory and CPU used when a jumphost is instantiated.
However, since it is a full-blown server VM, there is value to it, in that you
can install and run any application on it.
To select a jumphost
VM, in the Cisco Modeling Labs client, choose
Properties > Topology > Management
Network > Private project network or
Shared flat
network.
The jumphost VM is per user; a user can create multiple
simulations, but only one corresponding jumphost is created. Therefore,
depending on the type of simulation you are running, you can choose between the
two implementations.
Linux Container
(LXC)
An LXC provides a
means of accessing a topology rather than having to create a full Linux server
VM. All nodes in the network are connected to a hidden OOB management network
that uses the first interface on each of the nodes.
In the Cisco Modeling
Labs client, it is enabled by selecting the management network type
Private simulation
network for your topology. The LXC is automatically connected into this
hidden OOB management network to which all VMs in your simulation are
connected. This enables you to connect into each VM via its management Ethernet
port, removing the need to use the console port connection method.
The LXC is operational
when your simulation is active and terminates when your simulation stops. LXC
uses a significantly smaller memory footprint than the Linux server VM. The LXC
automatically gets an IP address on the FLAT network.
LXC facilitates SSH
access to the VMs; it provides direct SSH access to each VM running inside the
simulation. Telnet is not supported. As shown below, LXC is accessed by
right-clicking the
~mgmt_lxc
[ACTIVE] node and selecting
SSH from the
list.
The LXC is
automatically spun up and provides a jumphost point for access into the
network. Connecting to the LXC means you can see the interfaces to the outside
world and to the OOB network inside your simulation.
A connection is
opened from the Cisco Modeling Labs client to a port on the Cisco Modeling Labs
server and is forwarded to the LXC. The LXC, in turn, opens a connection to the
Management Interface (Gi0/0) of the VM inside the simulation to the node
instance.
Static Port Assignment
to the LXC
When the management
network property
Private simulation
network is set, Cisco Modeling Labs assigns a random port for SSH port
access to the LXC. However, you can statically define this by setting an
extension on your topology.
To set an extension
for your topology, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
Click on the
canvas to open the
Topology tab in
the
Properties view.
Step 2
Click the
Extensions tab.
Step 3
Click the
Add new
extension icon.
The
Edit
Extension dialog box appears.
Step 4
Enter the
following values:
Key:
lxc.host.tcp_port
Value:
30799
Type:
String (from
the drop-down list)
Step 5
Click
OK to add the new
extension.
When the
LXC starts, it will be bound to the TCP port specified in the new extension.
LXC iPerf
Container
The LXC iPerf
container provides a stripped down lightweight Linux container which has been
loaded with the iPerf application available from
Downloads - iPerf.
iPerf is a tool for
the active measurement of the maximum achievable bandwidth on IP networks. It
supports tuning of various parameters related to timing, buffers and protocols
(TCP, UDP, SCTP with IPv4 and IPv6). For each test it reports the bandwidth,
loss, and other parameters.
LXC Ostinato
Container
An LXC container is
available that contains the Ostinato packet traffic generator application. This
application provides data-plane traffic generation capabilities. The Ostinato
drone
(generator) is used in combination with the Ostinato GUI. The GUI can be
obtained from
Downloads –
Ostinato.
When deployed, the
LXC Ostinato container can be accessed using the SSH connection method.
Note
Telnet does not
work.
The Ostinato drone application executes automatically when the
LXC becomes active.
Note
The Ostinato
drone application should not be installed on the host system as the version in
the repositories cannot be executed in the LXC.
Launch a Phased
Simulation
On occasions, you
may need to start your simulation in phases rather than having all nodes
launched at the same time. This functionality is facilitated by the
Exclude node from
simulation launch check box, which allows you to pick and choose which
nodes to start.
To launch a phased
simulation, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
With the
applicable topology open, click on the canvas and move the selection area over
the nodes to be excluded from the running simulation. (Alternatively, you can
double-click a specific node, hold down the
Shift key,
and select the remaining nodes.)
The
Properties > Node view opens.
Step 2
In the
Properties > Node view, check the
Exclude node from simulation
launch
check box.
Step 3
Save your
topology using Ctrl-S.
Note
You can set
this property for each individual node, if you prefer. Select the node on the
canvas, and select the
Exclude node from simulation
launch
check box in the
Properties > Node view.
Step 4
From the
toolbar, click the
Build Initial
Configurations button to build the node configurations.
Step 5
From the
toolbar, click the
Launch
Simulation button.
The
simulation launches.
When the nodes
are running on the Cisco Modeling Labs server, they are displayed in the
Simulations view with the status as
[ACTIVE].
Note
In the
Console view, you can see the message
Node
'<node name>' is excluded from automatic start for the excluded
nodes, and in the
Simulations view, you can see that the excluded nodes have
the state
[ABSENT].
Launch Simulation
Options
In circumstances
where you need to run a simulation for a specified time frame or you want to
specify your own name for a simulation, complete the following steps:
Procedure
Step 1
From the menu
bar, choose the
Simulation
button.
Step 2
From the list,
click
Launch Simulation with
Options .
The
Launch
Simulation dialog box is displayed.
Step 3
If you want to
specify your own name or label for the simulation, check the
User
Specified radio button. Otherwise, leave the default
System generated
( based on a file) radio button checked.
Note
Alternatively, you can specify a simulation name via the
User
Workspace Management interface; select
My
Simulations > Launch New Simulation and enter the
name in the
Simulation
Name field.
Step 4
Set a time
duration for the simulation by entering details for
Days ,
Hours , and
Minutes by
using either the up and down arrows or entering the values directly. Click
OK to apply
your time limit to the simulation.
The
simulation launches.
Note
An
expiration warning is displayed ten minutes (or less) before your simulation is
due to expire.
We recommend that you extract configurations for your
simulation before it expires.
You can extend or
reduce the time limit set for a running simulation in the
User Workspace Management interface. To do this, complete the
following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
Log in to the
User Workspace Management interface.
On the
Overview page, information on running simulations is
displayed. Move to the applicable simulation under the
Session
heading. If your simulation is due to expire in ten minutes or less, the
simulation name is displayed in red.
Step 2
Under the
Options
column, click the down arrow and click
Set expiration .
Step 3
The
Set expiration
for session page is displayed. In the date and time field, enter either a
new expiration date and time, a date only, or a time only for the simulation.
Step 4
Click
Set expiration
to save the changes.
The time
limit for the simulation is updated.
Control Interface
States
In a running
simulation, you are able to change the state of the network interface by
bringing it up or down.
Note
This changes
the state of the underlying communication infrastructure, not the interface
state of the virtual machine.
To control the state
of an interface, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
Log in to the
User Workspace
Management interface.
Note
You must log
in as a user other than the uwmadmin user, for example, guest.
Step 2
On the
Overview page, under
Sessions,
choose the applicable running session.
A list of
active virtual machines and interfaces is displayed.
Step 3
Scroll down to
the
Interfaces section and choose the applicable virtual machine.
Step 4
From the
applicable
Options
drop-down list, click
Update admin
state.
Depending on
the current state of the interface, either a
Bring Down or
Bring Up page is displayed. In this case, the
Bring
Down page is displayed.
Step 5
Click
Bring down
to bring down the network interface.
A message
is displayed indicating that the interface has been brought down.
Step 6
To bring up the
interface at a later stage, click
Update admin
state again.
The
Bring up page displayed.
Step 7
Click
Bring up to bring up the network interface.
A message
is displayed indicating that the interface has been brought up.
Connect to a
Simulation Node Console
Cisco Modeling Labs
provides the capability for you to connect to your nodes via SSH and Telnet.
You can start an SSH session, which connects into the node via the LXC, as
described in
Linux Container (LXC).
This access method
makes use of SSH to the LXC and then Telnet from the LXC to the nodes running
inside the simulation. This does not use the console port of the nodes and is
more reliable and faster to use.
Connect to a
Simulation Node Console via SSH
To connect to a
simulation node console, complete the following steps.
Before you begin
Launch a
simulation.
Ensure that the
Simulation
perspective is active.
Ensure that the
Simulations view and
Console view are displayed.
Procedure
Step 1
To connect to a
console for a specific node, right-click the node in the
Simulations view and choose
SSH > to its Management (via LXC)
port.
A new
Terminal view opens.
Step 2
To disconnect a
terminal from the simulation, click
Disconnect in
the
Terminal view toolbar or click the
Close icon in
the
Terminal view.
Note
When you
disconnect or close a
Terminal view, all text in the view is discarded.
Tip
When you disconnect a terminal but do not close the
Terminal window, you can press
Enter to
reconnect the terminal.
Connect to Multiple
Simulation Node Consoles
To connect to all
consoles for all nodes in a running simulation, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
Right-click the
simulation in the
Simulations view and choose
Telnet > to all <number>
available Console ports.
A new
Terminal view opens for all console ports.
Step 2
To disconnect a
terminal from the simulation, click
Disconnect in
the
Terminal view toolbar or click the
Close icon in
the
Terminal view.
Note
When you
disconnect or close a
Terminal view, all text in the view is discarded.
Tip
When you disconnect a terminal but do not close the
Terminal window, you can press
Enter to
reconnect the terminal.
Terminal Multiplexer
Functionality
A terminal multiplexer
is available for use with the Cisco Modeling Labs client. It permits a number
of terminals to be accessed and controlled from a single terminal. Terminals
can be detached to run in the background and then reattached later.
The terminal
multiplexer is available from
Window > Show View > Other
> General > Terminal
Multiplexer.
When the terminal
multiplexer starts up, a status line at the bottom of the terminal displays
information on the current session and is used to enter interactive commands.
It lists all of the active console sessions. You can select console sessions
individually or all together from the
View Menu
drop-down list. Keyboard commands entered in the command-line text box are
broadcast to the selected sessions.
The terminal
multiplexer also provides a command-line history, which you can access using
Ctrl-Space.
Start a Single
Node
To start a single
node, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
Right-click a
stopped node.
When a node
is stopped, its status is shown as
[ABSENT].
Step 2
Click
Start this node .
The
Requesting start
dialog box appears.
Step 3
Choose one or more
of the following actions:
Check the
Always run in the
background check box. All future node start requests, stop
requests, and simulation launch requests run in the background and do not
display dialog boxes.
Note
To control
the background setting, choose
File > Preferences > General.
Click
Run in
Background .
The dialog
box closes while the node simulation stops.
Click
Cancel to return
to the
Simulations view.
Take no action
and the node simulation restarts momentarily.
Tip
When
you click
Run in
Background , the status bar displays a progress icon. Click the
icon to display a compact view of the progress. If an error is encountered, the
icon displays a red
X . Click the
error icon to display the error dialog box.
Start a Node in a
Running Simulation
In cases where a
phased simulation is running, you can later start those nodes not started with
the initial simulation. To start a node in a running simulation, complete the
following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
In the
Simulations view, right-click the node.
Note
A node not
yet started has the status
[ABSENT].
Step 2
Click
Start this
node .
The
Requesting
start dialog box appears.
Note
The status
of the selected node is changed from
[ABSENT]
to
[ACTIVE],
indicating that the node is up and running.
Start Multiple Nodes
in a Running Simulation
In cases where a
phased simulation is running, you can later start those nodes not started with
the initial simulation. To start multiple nodes, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
In the
Simulations view, click the first node in the list to
be started.
Step 2
Hold down the
Shift key
and select the remaining nodes.
Step 3
Right-click the
selected nodes.
Step 4
Click
Start nodes .
The
Requesting
start dialog box appears.
Note
The status of
the selected nodes changes from [ABSENT] to
[ACTIVE], indicating that the nodes are up and running.
Stop a
Simulation
There are several ways
to stop a simulation. In addition, you can stop multiple simulations at the
same time. These are discussed in the following sections.
Stop a Simulation
from the Toolbar
To stop a simulation
from the toolbar, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
In the toolbar,
click the
Stop
Simulations button.
A
Stop
Simulation(s) dialog box appears.
Step 2
In the
Simulation
column, click once to highlight the simulation to stop.
Step 3
(Optional) To
save the configurations, click the adjacent setting in the
Extract
Configurations? column until the prompt changes to
Yes .
Note
Configurations for server nodes are not extracted.
Step 4
(Optional) To
close the internal terminals associated with the simulation, click the adjacent
setting in the
Close
Terminals? column until the prompt changes to
Yes .
Note
External
terminal connections are not stopped as part of this operation and must be
closed manually.
Step 5
To stop the
simulation, click the adjacent setting in the
Stop
Simulation? column until the prompt changes to
Yes .
Step 6
Click
OK to stop the
simulation, or click
Cancel to leave
the simulation running.
On OS X, you
update the values for
Extract
Configurations? ,
Stop
Simulation? , and
Close
Terminals? in the columns directly. You do not need to select the
name of the simulation.
Stop a Simulation
from the Simulations View
To stop a
simulation, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
In the
Simulations view, right-click the simulation name and
select
Stop
Simulation .
The
Stop Simulation
Confirmation dialog box appears.
(Optional)
Check the
Extract Configurations before
Stopping the Simulation check box to save the current
configurations.
(Optional)
Check the
Close Associated Terminal
Views check box to close all the open internal terminals
associated with the specific simulation. External terminals are not closed.
Step 2
Click
OK to stop the
simulation.
Once
selected, all nodes in the simulation start shutting down. It may take a few
minutes for the simulation to shut down completely and to disappear from the
Simulations view.
Note
For instances
where a user account expires, all running simulations for that user continue to
run. Since the user account can no longer log in to stop them, they will remain
active until the next system reboot or until the system administrator
explicitly stops them.
Stop Multiple
Simulations from the Simulations View
To stop multiple
simulations, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
In the
Simulations view, click the first simulation in the
list to stop.
Step 2
Hold down the
Shift key
and select the remaining simulations.
Step 3
Right-click the
selected simulations and select
Stop
Simulations .
The
Stop Simulations
Confirmation dialog box appears.
(Optional)
Check the
Extract Configurations before
Stopping the Simulation check box to save the current
configurations.
(Optional)
Check the
Close Associated Terminal
Views check box to close all the open internal terminals
associated with the specific simulation. External terminals are not closed.
Step 4
Click
OK to stop the
simulations.
Once
selected, all nodes in the simulations start shutting down. It may take a few
minutes for the simulations to shut down completely and to disappear from the
Simulations view.
Note
For instances
where a user account expires, all running simulations for that user continue to
run. Since the user account can no longer log in to stop them, they will remain
active until the next system reboot or until the system administrator
explicitly stops them.
Stop a Single
Node
To stop a single node
in a simulation, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
In the
Simulations view, right-click the node to stop and
select
Stop this Node .
The
Are you sure?
dialog box appears.
Step 2
Click
OK to stop the
node. Alternatively, click
Cancel to abandon
the operation and return to the simulation.
Note
When you click
OK , the node
stops without saving any changes to the configuration.
When a node
is stopped, its status changes to
[ABSENT].
Stop Multiple
Nodes
To stop multiple
nodes in a running simulation, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
In the
Simulations view, click the first node in the list to
stop.
Step 2
Hold down the
Shift key
and select the remaining nodes.
Step 3
Right-click the
selected nodes.
Step 4
Click
Stop Nodes .
The
Are you sure?
dialog box appears.
Step 5
Click
OK to stop the
nodes. Alternatively, click
Cancel to
abandon the operation and return to the simulation.
Note
When you
click
OK , the nodes
stop without saving any changes to the configuration.
When the
nodes are stopped, their status changes to
[ABSENT].
Modify a Node
Configuration in the Simulation
You can modify node
configurations in a running simulation. To do this, the type of connection
available, either SSH or Telnet depends on the option set for the topology
property
Management Network.
When
Management Network is set to
Private simulation network, SSH and Telnet are available.
When
Management Network is set to
Shared flat network,
Private project network, or
not specified, only Telnet is available.
Modify a Node
Configuration in the Simulation via SSH
To modify a node
configuration in a running simulation via SSH, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
Right-click the
node in the
Simulations view and choose
SSH > to its
Management (via LXC) port.
A new
Terminal view opens.
Step 2
If no banner or
router prompt is visible, press
Enter.
You are now
working with the operating system running on the node, for example, Cisco IOSv
virtual software.
Step 3
Use the
operating system commands to view or modify the node configuration.
Note
Changes you
make to the configuration do not appear in the canvas of the
Topology Editor.
Modify a Node
Configuration in the Simulation via Telnet
To modify a node
configuration in a running simulation via Telnet, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
Right-click the
node in the
Simulations view and choose
Telnet > to
its Console port.
A new
Terminal view opens.
Step 2
If no banner or
router prompt is visible, press
Enter.
You are now
working with the operating system running on the node, for example, Cisco IOSv
virtual software.
Step 3
Use the
operating system commands to view or modify the node configuration.
Note
Changes you
make to the configuration do not appear in the canvas of the
Topology Editor.
Modify Multiple Node
Configurations in the Simulation
To modify multiple
node configurations in a running simulation, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
Right-click the
topology in the
Simulations view and choose
Telnet > to
all <number> available Console ports.
A new
Terminal view opens for each of the consoles.
Step 2
If no banner or
router prompt is visible, press
Enter.
You are now
working with the operating system running on the node, for example, Cisco IOSv
virtual software.
Step 3
Use the
operating system commands to view or modify the node configuration.
Note
Changes you
make to the configuration do not appear in the canvas of the
Topology Editor.
Extract and Save
Modified Configurations
To extract and save
modified configurations, complete the following steps.
Before you begin
You have
modified a configuration within one or more nodes running within the simulation
and want to save the changes.
Ensure that all
routers in the simulation are operational before attempting to extract their
configurations.
Procedure
Step 1
In the
Simulations view, right-click the topology name,
making sure not to click the node name, and select
Extract
Configurations .
A
confirmation dialog box appears.
Step 2
Ensure that all
external Telnet connections to the simulation are closed before proceeding.
Note
You must
close all external Telnet connections to the simulation before you can proceed.
Step 3
Click
OK .
The Extracting
Configurations dialog box appears indication that the extraction is in process.
When the
extraction is complete, a message is displayed.
Note
The
configuration information is extracted and saved in the filename.virl file that
corresponds to the topology. For example, the file New_Topology that is running
as a New_Topology-dkIFaW simulation has its configuration extracted to the file
New_Topology.virl.
Step 4
Click
OK.
Partial Configuration Extraction
During a configuration
extraction, if the process encounters issues or fails for a particular node,
the problem node is identified and reported.
The extraction process
then continues for all other nodes in the simulation and returns collected
configurations to you.
Linux Server
Snapshot Support
When a Linux server
is present in a running simulation, you can use the
User Workspace Management interface to take a snapshot of the
disk content of the server. This newly created user-specific disk image can be
used in other simulated sessions.
To take a snapshot of the server's disk contents, complete the
following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
Log in to the
User Workspace Management interface.
Note
You must log
in as a user other than the uwmadmin user, for example, guest.
Step 2
On the
Overview page, under
Sessions,
select the applicable running simulation.
A list of
active VMs is displayed.
Step 3
Select the
applicable Linux server, and from the
Options
drop-down menu, click
Create
snapshot .
Project details
for the newly created snapshot are displayed.
Reuse the Image
Snapshot
To reuse the image
snapshot, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
Create a new
topology or open an existing topology.
Step 2
On the canvas,
add a node to the topology.
Step 3
Select the node
on the canvas.
The
sample topology opens in the
Topology Editor canvas.
Step 4
In the
Properties > Node
view, click
Browse
beside the
VM Image field.
The
Select VM Image dialog box appears.
Step 5
Select the
applicable image snapshot and click
OK.
Details
for the image snapshot are visible in the
VM Image
field under
Properties > Node
view.
Latency, Jitter and
Packet Loss Control Options
The availability of
link-level parameters allows users to investigate and understand the impact on
services of transmission characteristics encountered in the physical world.
With a running simulation, you are able to select links between the nodes in
the simulation and set latency, jitter and packet-loss values on those links.
This enables you to create links that have properties seen in the physical
world such as transatlantic or transcontinental latencies or packet-loss.
The link parameters
can be applied on any link, except for those connected to a FLAT or SNAT
external connector. The values set by the user are applied bi-directionally,
meaning that setting a latency value of 100ms results in 100ms from node A to
node B and 100ms from node B to node A for the return path. That is 200ms in
total. The same is true for packet-loss. Ten packets sent from node A on a link
with 10% packet-loss results in 9 packets being received on node B. The packet
loss will also be applied on the return path meaning that another packet may be
lost between node B and node A.
You can set these
link-level parameters in one of three ways:
In the
Cisco Modeling Labs Client client.
In the
User Workspace Management interface.
In the
Live Visualization view of the running
simulation.
Coordinated Packet
Capture
When inspecting
traffic passing across the network, it can be valuable to be monitor more than
one interface at a time and also to start the packet capture at the same time.
Coordinated packet capture capabilities is provided in the User Workspace
Management interface. When a simulation is up and running, you can select one
or more interfaces and mark them for traffic capture. You are then able to
specify the traffic capture parameters including the packets to match (using
PCAP filter syntax), the time to run the capture, or the number of packets to
capture. You can either start the capture on the marked interfaces immediately,
or do so at a later point in time.
Once complete, you can
either download the per-interface .PCAP files or output to a .ZIP file
containing the .PCAP files for each interface.
Using the
Coordinated Packet Capture Feature
To use the
coordinated packet capture feature, complete the following steps.
Procedure
Step 1
From the Cisco
Modeling Labs client toolbar, click
Launch a
Simulation to start the simulation.
Step 2
Log in to the
User Workspace Management interface and click the
My
simulations option as shown.
Step 3
Under the
Interfaces
panel, select the applicable interfaces.
Step 4
Once all
interfaces are selected, click the
Traffic
Capture option.
The
Create
Capture page is displayed.
Figure 39. Create
Capture Page
The selected interfaces are displayed in the
Interfaces panel.
Note
You can change your interface selection at this time. You
can add new interfaces or remove the selected interfaces.
Step 5
Under
General
Settings, provide a name for your capture grouping.
Step 6
Specify any
packet capture limits for packets (count), size (MB), and time (seconds) in the
Capture
Limits panel.
Step 7
Click
Create.
A
confirmation message is displayed indicating that the capture group was
successfully created.
Step 8
Under the
Traffic
Captures panel, all entries are listed, with the running status
False, as
shown.
Step 9
Click the
Start icon to start the capture.
Note
All of the packet captures are run simultaneously and the
running statuses change to
True. If you continue to watch the Traffic Capture panel,
you will see as the packet captures complete, the running statuses change to
False again.
Step 10
You have the
option to download each .PCAP file individually or all of them together in a
.ZIP file.
Click the applicable option.
Step 11
For the ZIP file option, you can see the list of packet capture
files, as shown.
You can view the packet capture details as required.
Real-time Traffic
Visualization
When a simulation is
running, you can log into the User Workspace Management interface as the user
under which the simulation was launched. If you choose
My Simulations
and select the applicable simulation, the
Show Traffic
option is available on the right-hand side, as shown.
Choosing this option displays a table of all of the interfaces in
the simulation, with traffic counters showing the amount of traffic sent and
received on each interface.
You can select a
subset of the interfaces that you want to display as a graph using the
Add Graph. This operation displays the data from the last 1, 5 or
10 minutes or from a Live graph.
Note
In cases where
the RX/TX packet and byte counters report loading and do not populate with
values for a running simulation, clearing your browser cache will resolve this
issue.