ncs_netsim_manager

Declarative, config-based netsim management for reproducible, versionable ncs-netsim networks.

Installation

Clone this repository locally (or download it as a zip file) and set netsim_manager.py to executable:

chmod +x netsim_manager.py

You may also choose to symlink netsim_manager.py to a directory within your PATH variable, for example:

ln -s /path/to/netsim_manager.py /usr/bin/netsim_manager

This module requires ruamel.yaml and click modules, which can be collected from PyPI:

pip install ruamel.yaml click

Usage

The manager.yml file is the config file responsible for the netsim network. This needs to be in the current working directory when netsim_manager.py is called. A minimal yaml file defines prefixes and the netsim_dir directory under settings:

prefixes:
  - ned: /var/opt/ncs/packages/ncs-5.8.5-cisco-iosxr-7.43.4.tar.gz
    prefix: xr-
    num_devices: 2
  - ned: /var/opt/ncs/packages/ncs-5.8.5-cisco-ios-6.88.2.tar.gz
    prefix: ios-
    num_devices: 3
settings:
  netsim_dir: /var/netsim/

The init command creates the ncs-netsim network under the netsim_dir directory. This assumes no netsim instances exist under the directory or onboarded on NSO. Unpredictable behavior is expected if other netsim instances current exist. init also creates a directory for loading and saving configs to each netsim device in the network.

$ ./netsim_manager.py init
DEVICE xr-0 CREATED
DEVICE xr-1 CREATED
DEVICE ios-0 CREATED
DEVICE ios-1 CREATED
DEVICE ios-2 CREATED

Use start to start netsim instances.

$ ./netsim_manager.py start
DEVICE xr-0 STARTED
DEVICE xr-1 STARTED
DEVICE ios-0 STARTED
DEVICE ios-1 STARTED
DEVICE ios-2 STARTED

Use onboard to add your devices to a local NSO instance via the CLI. This naturally requires NSO to be running and the current user to have CLI access.

$ ./netsim_manager.py onboard
Device xr-0 onboarding status on NSO:
Loading.
1.43 KiB parsed in 0.00 sec (227.04 KiB/sec)
Commit complete.
result true
Device xr-1 onboarding status on NSO:
Loading.
1.43 KiB parsed in 0.00 sec (265.23 KiB/sec)
Commit complete.
result true
Device ios-0 onboarding status on NSO:
Loading.
1.43 KiB parsed in 0.00 sec (266.31 KiB/sec)
Commit complete.
result true
Device ios-1 onboarding status on NSO:
Loading.
1.43 KiB parsed in 0.00 sec (247.84 KiB/sec)
Commit complete.
result true
Device ios-2 onboarding status on NSO:
Loading.
1.43 KiB parsed in 0.00 sec (193.28 KiB/sec)
Commit complete.
result true

Once the device is onboarded to NSO, you are free to modify its config as you want. In order to save the current configuration for all devices in XML format, use the save command.

$ ./netsim_manager.py save
Configuration for xr-0 saved to /root/git/netsim_manager/configs/xr-0/config.xml
Configuration for xr-1 saved to /root/git/netsim_manager/configs/xr-1/config.xml
Configuration for ios-0 saved to /root/git/netsim_manager/configs/ios-0/config.xml
Configuration for ios-1 saved to /root/git/netsim_manager/configs/ios-1/config.xml
Configuration for ios-2 saved to /root/git/netsim_manager/configs/ios-2/config.xml

Saving XML configurations is very useful for creating reproducible test environments for larger teams, as the xml configs for netsim can be saved together with the ncs package in order to provide an easy-to-use dev environment for specific packages. This can even be integrated into a CI/CD pipeline!

To load configurations saved under the device's config.xml file, use the load command.

$ ./netsim_manager.py load
Loaded configuration for xr-0 from /root/git/netsim_manager/configs/xr-0/config.xml
Loaded configuration for xr-1 from /root/git/netsim_manager/configs/xr-1/config.xml
Loaded configuration for ios-0 from /root/git/netsim_manager/configs/ios-0/config.xml
Loaded configuration for ios-1 from /root/git/netsim_manager/configs/ios-1/config.xml
Loaded configuration for ios-2 from /root/git/netsim_manager/configs/ios-2/config.xml

To remove the netsim devices from your NSO instance, use remove followed by stop.

$ ./netsim_manager.py remove
Device xr-0: Remove OK
Commit complete.

Device xr-1: Remove OK
Commit complete.

Device ios-0: Remove OK
Commit complete.

Device ios-1: Remove OK
Commit complete.

Device ios-2: Remove OK
Commit complete.

Execution Summary:
 SUCCESS: 5
 SKIPPED: 0
 FAILED: 0
$ ./netsim_manager.py stop
DEVICE xr-0 STOPPED
DEVICE xr-1 STOPPED
DEVICE ios-0 STOPPED
DEVICE ios-1 STOPPED
DEVICE ios-2 STOPPED