Innovate, Experiment, and Prototype Networking Solutions using Cisco’s Virtual Internet Routing Lab (VIRL)
Simulation Platform
Anand Singh, Graduate Student, NC State University
Yannis Vinotis, Professor, NC State University
Tom Bryan, Technical Leader, Cisco Systems
Internet2 Technology Exchange October 5, 2015
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VIRL Overview
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What is VIRL? • VIRL is Cisco’s Virtual Internet Routing Lab. • VIRL is a network orchestration and simulation platform
that enables: • Point-and-click network design • Automated configuration creation • Highly-accurate network simulations • Seamless connectivity with ‘real’ networks • Rapid setup and tear-down • Portability • Repeatability • Simulate at scale – 10’s to 1000’s of devices
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“Batteries Included” • Cisco virtual machines • Graphical user interface • Configuration engine • OpenStack • Linux KVM-Qemu • Live visualization of simulated network • Web services • Web-based administration console
© 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public
Why VIRL? • Build, test & deploy networks – virtually • Provides a virtual lab for networking classes and for
research projects • Saves time
• No need to cable physical devices together • Simulate large networks in minutes • Scriptable APIs
• Use data center resources efficiently • Runs on commodity server hardware • Hundreds of network devices per server
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VIRL Architecture
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VIRL Architecture Overview
VIRL Server
Web Services UWM ANK Vis. Live Vis.
AutoNetkit
OpenStack / KVM-Qemu
VM Maestro
Simulation Engine
.virl file
ASAv IOS XRv IOSv
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VIRL Architecture Simulation Engine and OpenStack
VIRL Server
Web Services UWM ANK Vis. Live Vis.
AutoNetkit
OpenStack / KVM-Qemu
VM Maestro
Simulation Engine
.virl file
ASAv IOS XRv IOSv
© 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public
VIRL Architecture Simulation Engine and OpenStack
• The VIRL “back end” • Ubuntu Linux • VIRL web services and software • OpenStack • KVM / Qemu
• Deployment options • Bare metal installation (dedicated VIRL server) • VIRL VM running on VMware
• Web services API • Provides external connectivity to real (physical) networks
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VIRL Architecture Virtualized Platform Operating Systems
VIRL Server
Web Services UWM ANK Vis. Live Vis.
AutoNetkit
OpenStack / KVM-Qemu
VM Maestro
Simulation Engine
.virl file
ASAv IOS XRv IOSv
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IOS XR NX-OS IOS XE IOS
Virtualized in
IOS XRv
Virtualized in NX-OSv
Virtualized in CSR1000v
Virtualized in IOSv and
IOSvL2
Servers
Ubuntu, Cirros, 3rd party Virtual
Machines
Virtual Machines run the operating system but are NOT representations of a particular hardware platform – no fans, no switch fabric, no ASIC models
VIRL Architecture Virtualized Platform Operating Systems
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VIRL Architecture Virtualized Platform Operating Systems
• Virtualized version of Cisco operating systems • IOSv, IOSvL2, IOS XRv, CSR1000v, NX-OSv, ASAv • Does not require additional license for bundled images • Images are data-rate limited
• Real builds of the Cisco network operating systems • It’s not emulation! • OS fidelity but not a representation of a particular hardware platform. • Same: control plane code, management plane code, memory footprint • Different: CPU performance, forwarding plane code
• Some limitations, especially in data plane • Also includes Ubuntu “server” image • Third party virtual machines
© 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public
VIRL Architecture – VM Maestro GUI
VIRL Server
Web Services UWM ANK Vis. Live Vis.
AutoNetkit
OpenStack / KVM-Qemu
VM Maestro
Simulation Engine
.virl file
ASAv IOS XRv IOSv
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VIRL Architecture – VM Maestro GUI • Graphical topology
editing tool • Specify initial configs
manually or using AutoNetkit
• Launch topology simulation
• Telnet to nodes in the simulation
• Control the simulation (start/stop nodes, etc.) • Initiate a packet capture
© 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public
VIRL Architecture – XML Topology File
VIRL Server
Web Services UWM ANK Vis. Live Vis.
AutoNetkit
OpenStack / KVM-Qemu
VM Maestro
Simulation Engine
.virl file
ASAv IOS XRv IOSv
© 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public
VIRL Architecture – XML Topology File • Topology is stored in an XML (.virl) file. • Topology file is
self-contained • Nodes • Connections • External connectivity • Various Properties • Configuration for each node
• Simple to share • E-mail .virl files to other VIRL users • Commit files to SCM repository
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VIRL Architecture AutoNetkit Network Configuration Engine
VIRL Server
Web Services UWM ANK Vis. Live Vis.
AutoNetkit
OpenStack / KVM-Qemu
VM Maestro
Simulation Engine
.virl file
ASAv IOS XRv IOSv
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VIRL Architecture AutoNetkit Network Configuration Engine
• Configure complex features • Set a few high-level properties • “Single Click” config generation for entire topology • Generates configurations across a variety of Cisco
operating systems (IOS, IOS XR, etc.)
• Validate generated configurations visually • Saves time and assists with learning
unfamiliar features and operating systems
AutoNetkit
Network Information
DB
XML Topology Definition
Configurations
Topology Renderings
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VIRL Architecture – Live Visualization
VIRL Server
Web Services UWM ANK Vis. Live Vis.
AutoNetkit
OpenStack / KVM-Qemu
VM Maestro
Simulation Engine
.virl file
ASAv IOS XRv IOSv
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VIRL Architecture – Live Visualization • Provides insight into the running simulation • Visually illustrates how changes affect the network • Integrated syslog capture
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VIRL Architecture User Workspace Management
VIRL Server
Web Services UWM ANK Vis. Live Vis.
AutoNetkit
OpenStack / KVM-Qemu
VM Maestro
Simulation Engine
.virl file
ASAv IOS XRv IOSv
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VIRL Architecture User Workspace Management
• Web-based administration console • Manage users • Monitor or stop running simulations • Monitor system health and resource usage • Add custom or third party VMs • Customize VM “flavors” • Initiate packet captures
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Deploying VIRL
Hardware
Ubuntu Linux
Hypervisor (KVM) OpenStack
VIRL Service Topology Director
AutoNetKit AutoNetKit
Cisco Extensions
Cisco Cisco OpenSource
OpenSource
OpenSource
OpenSource
Cisco IOSv VM
Cisco
VMMaestro Cisco
Bare-‐metal server delivery packaging
IOS XRv NX-‐OSv CSR1000v Other VMs
Cisco provided
Cisco provided
installer
Custom
er provide
d
Hardware
VMWare ESXi Fusion Player
Ubuntu Linux
Hypervisor (KVM)
Mac OSX Windows
OpenStack
VIRL Service Topology Director
Cisco IOSv VM
AutoNetKit AutoNetKit
Cisco Extensions
IOS XRv
VMMaestro
Server Laptop Laptop
Cisco Cisco Cisco
Cisco
OpenSource
OpenSource
OpenSource
OpenSource
NX-‐OSv CSR1000v Other VMs OVA/VMDK delivery packaging
OVA
PAC
KAGE
– Cisc
o provided
Cu
stom
er provide
d
Cisco provided
Hardware
VMWare ESXi
HosUng on VMWare ESXi
Custom
er provide
d
• MulUple independent VIRL instances deployed on ESXi using vSphere • Each VIRL instance is provisioned with N*vCPUs and memory • Number of vCPUs and memory will limit the number of router VMs can be hosted • Disk I/O is a crucial performance factor! • Independent users run VM Maestro UI on their laptops
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Deploying VIRL • Deployment options
• VMware ESXi • VMware Player/Workstation/Fusion • Bare Metal
• System requirements • Memory – more is always better! • CPU
• Virtualization extensions required • Controls for oversubscribing CPU cores
• Minimum ESXi version requirements • Nested virtualization
• Used when running the VIRL back end as a VM • Rules out deployment in many “cloud” infrastructures, such as EC2
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VIRL at NC State University
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VIRL@NC State University
Ø Objective Ø Class Room Activities Ø Research Activities Ø Operation/Administration Experience Ø An Example - BGP Course Module
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Objectives
Ø Simulation Platform in Networking Labs Ø Scaled Research Test Beds Ø Teaching Tool for Instructors Ø Practical Hands-on Platform for Students
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Class Room Activities
Ø For Students • Topology Creation/Visualization • Configuration Management • Traces and Analysis
Ø For Professor/Lab Assistant • Publishing Examples/Topology • Setting up Lab Exercises and Exams
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Demo: BGP Course Module
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Research Activities
Ø Setup/Experiment with L2/L3 Fabrics • Topology Creation • Traffic Generation
Ø Configuration Management
Ø Image Type/Flavor Addition • OpenDayight-IoTDM use case
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Demo: A Research Use Case
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Operation/Administration Experience
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Ø VIRL Setup Infrastructure • Bare Metal • ESXI Servers • VCL (Virtual Computing Lab) Cloud
Ø User Management
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Demo: VIRL User Management
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Conclusion
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Who else is using VIRL? • North Carolina State University • University of California, Santa Cruz • Collège La CIté in Ottawa, Canada • Queen Mary University London, UK • Loughborough University, UK • Estonian Technical College (Tallinn) • Fulda University of Applied Sciences (Germany) • Swinburne University, Australia
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How to get VIRL? • VIRL Academic Edition
• http://virl.cisco.com/ • Individual user • Community support • Limited to 15 nodes
• Contact [email protected] for more information • Research licenses • Institution bundle
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Q&A
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VIRL Architecture VIRL Work-Flow
XML Topology Definition
VM Maestro
Services Topology Director
Topology Views
Router Configurations
Topology Graph
Topology Graph with Router Configurations
Virtual Machines / Switches 2
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5 6 7
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A1-Console: 17000 A1-Aux: 17001 …
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