Examples

This page provides a few simple examples on how to use the VIRL ² Client Library:

from virl2_client import ClientLibrary
client = ClientLibrary("https://192.168.1.1", "username", "password")

A custom SSL certificate bundle can be passed in ssl_verify:

client = ClientLibrary("https://192.168.1.1", "username", "password", ssl_verify="./cert.pem")

You can pass a certificate using the CA_BUNDLE environment variable as well.

If no username or password are given then the environment will be checked, looking for VIRL2_USER and VIRL2_PASS, respectively. Environment variables take precedence over those provided in arguments.

It’s also possible to pass the URL as an environment variable VIRL2_URL.

Disabling SSL certificate verification (not recommended):

client = ClientLibrary("https://192.168.1.1", "username", "password", ssl_verify=False)

Creating a lab with nodes and links

This creates a lab, adds two nodes, interfaces and a link between them:

lab = client.create_lab()

r1 = lab.create_node("r1", "iosv", 50, 100)
r1.config = "hostname router1"
r2 = lab.create_node("r2", "iosv", 50, 200)
r2.config = "hostname router2"

# create a link between r1 and r2
r1_i1 = r1.create_interface()
r2_i1 = r2.create_interface()
lab.create_link(r1_i1, r2_i1)

# alternatively, use this convenience function:
lab.connect_two_nodes(r1, r2)

# start the lab
lab.start()

# print nodes and interfaces states:
for node in lab.nodes():
    print(node, node.state, node.cpu_usage)
    for interface in node.interfaces():
        print(interface, interface.readpackets, interface.writepackets)

lab.stop()

lab.wipe()

lab.remove_node(r2)

lab.remove()

Stopping all the labs

This snippet loops over all labs and stops them:

for lab in client_library.all_labs():
    lab.stop()

Getting all lab names

Get a list of all the lab names the user owns:

all_labs_names = [lab.name for lab in client_library.all_labs()]

Stopping all labs of a User

The following code loops over all labs the user owns, stops the lab, wipes the lab and then removes the lab from the controller:

lab_list = client_library.get_lab_list()
for lab_id in lab_list:
    lab = client_library.join_existing_lab(lab_id)
    lab.stop()
    lab.wipe()
    client_library.remove_lab(lab_id)

Uploading an image disk file

This shows how to upload a local disk file to the controller. It can then be used with to create a image definition for a given node type:

filename = "/Users/username/Desktop/vios-adventerprisek9-m.spa.158-3.m2.qcow2"
client_library.definitions.upload_image_file(filename, rename="iosv-test.qcow2")

Using the Client Library with Netmiko

The following example shows how the VIRL2 client library can be combined with Netmiko.

The code shows how to identify a XRv node in a specific lab and how to create crypto keys which require special handling as the creation is done in exec mode and is interactive:

import getpass
import netmiko

from virl2_client import ClientLibrary

LAB_USERNAME = 'cisco'
LAB_PASSWORD = 'cisco'
VIRL_CONTROLLER = 'cml2-controller'
VIRL_USERNAME = input('username: ')
VIRL_PASSWORD = getpass.getpass('password: ')

client = ClientLibrary(VIRL_CONTROLLER,
                       VIRL_USERNAME,
                       VIRL_PASSWORD,
                       ssl_verify=False)

# this assumes that there's exactly one lab with this title
our_lab = client.find_labs_by_title('my_lab')[0]
xr_node = our_lab.get_node_by_label('pe2')

# open the Netmiko connection via the terminal server
# (SSH to the controller connects to the terminal server)
c = netmiko.ConnectHandler(device_type='terminal_server',
                           host=VIRL_CONTROLLER,
                           username=VIRL_USERNAME,
                           password=VIRL_PASSWORD)

# send CR, get a prompt on terminal server
c.write_channel('\r')

# open the connection to the console
c.write_channel(f'open /{our_lab.id}/{xr_node.id}/0\r')

# router login
# this makes an assumption that it's required to login
c.write_channel('\r')
c.write_channel(LAB_USERNAME + '\r')
c.write_channel(LAB_PASSWORD + '\r')

# switch to Cisco XR mode
netmiko.redispatch(c, device_type='cisco_xr')
c.find_prompt()

# get the list of interfaces
result = c.send_command('show ip int brief')
print(result)

# create the keys
result = c.send_command('crypto key generate rsa',
                        expect_string='How many bits in the modul us \[2048\]\: ')
print(result)

# send the key length
c.write_channel('2048\n')

# retrieve the result
result = c.send_command('show crypto key mypubkey rsa')
print(result)

Licensing the System

The following example shows how to apply a license to the system using a token and retrieve licensing status using the the VIRL2 client library:

import getpass
import json
from virl2_client import ClientLibrary

VIRL_CONTROLLER = "cml2-controller"
VIRL_USERNAME = input("username: ")
VIRL_PASSWORD = getpass.getpass("password: ")
SL_TOKEN = input("smart license token: ")
PRODUCT_CONFIG = input("product configuration: ")

client = ClientLibrary(VIRL_CONTROLLER, VIRL_USERNAME, VIRL_PASSWORD, ssl_verify=False)

# Get the licensing handle from the client as a property
licensing = client.licensing

# Set the product configuration
licensing.set_product_license(PRODUCT_CONFIG)

# Setup default license transport (i.e., directly connected to the external
# Smart License server)
licensing.set_default_transport()

# Register with the Smart License server.
# Wait for registration and authorization to complete.
result = licensing.register_wait(SL_TOKEN)

if not result:
    result = licensing.get_reservation_return_code()
    print(
        "ERROR: Failed to register with Smart License server: {}!".format(result)
    )
    exit(1)

# Get the current registration status.
# This returns a JSON blob with license status and authorization details.
status = licensing.status()

# Get the current list of licensed features.
# This returns a JSON blob with licensed features.
features = licensing.features()

print(json.dumps(status, indent=2))
print(json.dumps(features, indent=2))

The output for this would look something like the following:

{
  "registration": {
    "status": "COMPLETED",
    "expires": "2021-06-10 20:17:39",
    "smart_account": "Foo",
    "virtual_account": "Bar",
    "instance_name": "cml-controller.cml.lab",
    "register_time": {
      "succeeded": null,
      "attempted": "2020-06-10 20:22:33",
      "scheduled": null,
      "status": null,
      "failure": "OK",
      "success": "SUCCESS"
    },
    "renew_time": {
      "succeeded": null,
      "attempted": null,
      "scheduled": "2020-12-07 20:22:40",
      "status": null,
      "failure": null,
      "success": "FAILED"
    }
  },
  "authorization": {
    "status": "IN_COMPLIANCE",
    "renew_time": {
      "succeeded": null,
      "attempted": "2020-07-25 16:44:09",
      "scheduled": "2020-08-24 16:44:08",
      "status": "SUCCEEDED",
      "failure": null,
      "success": "SUCCESS"
    },
    "expires": "2020-10-23 16:39:07"
  },
  "features": [
    {
      "name": "CML - Enterprise License",
      "description": "Cisco Modeling Labs - Enterprise License with 20 nodes capacity included",
      "in_use": 1,
      "status": "IN_COMPLIANCE",
      "version": "1.0"
    },
    {
      "name": "CML \u2013 Expansion Nodes",
      "description": "Cisco Modeling Labs - Expansion node capacity for CML Enterprise Servers",
      "in_use": 50,
      "status": "IN_COMPLIANCE",
      "version": "1.0"
    }
  ]
  "reservation_mode": false,
  "transport": {
    "ssms": "https://tools.cisco.com/its/service/oddce/services/DDCEService",
    "proxy": {
      "server": null,
      "port": null
    },
    "default_ssms": "https://tools.cisco.com/its/service/oddce/services/DDCEService"
  },
  "udi": {
    "hostname": "cml2-controller",
    "product_uuid": "00000000-0000-4000-a000-000000000000"
  },
  "product_license": {
    "active": "CML_Personal",
    "is_enterprise": False
  }
}

[
  {
    "id": "regid.2019-10.com.cisco.CML_ENT_BASE,1.0_xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx",
    "name": "CML - Enterprise License",
    "description": "Cisco Modeling Labs - Enterprise License with 20 nodes capacity included",
    "in_use": 1,
    "status": "IN_COMPLIANCE",
    "version": "1.0",
    "min": 0,
    "max": 1
  },
  {
    "id": "regid.2019-10.com.cisco.CML_NODE_COUNT,1.0_xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx",
    "name": "CML \u2013 Expansion Nodes",
    "description": "Cisco Modeling Labs - Expansion node capacity for CML Enterprise Servers",
    "in_use": 50,
    "status": "IN_COMPLIANCE",
    "version": "1.0",
    "min": 0,
    "max": 300
  }
]

This example can also be found in the examples directory as licensing.py.

Using Link Conditioning

The next example applies link conditioning to a link identified by the user. It requires to provide a username, password and a labname. It will then list all links inside of this lab. The user will then identify a link where the current link condition will be shown first (or {}, an empty JSON object if there’s none applied). Then the user can enter new values or “None” if the condition should be removed:

import getpass
import re

from requests.exceptions import HTTPError

from virl2_client import ClientLibrary

VIRL_CONTROLLER = "cml2-controller"
VIRL_USERNAME = input("username: ")
VIRL_PASSWORD = getpass.getpass("password: ")
LAB_NAME = input("enter lab name: ")

client = ClientLibrary(VIRL_CONTROLLER, VIRL_USERNAME, VIRL_PASSWORD, ssl_verify=False)

# Find the lab by title and join it as long as it's the only
# lab with that title.
labs = client.find_labs_by_title(LAB_NAME)

if not labs or len(labs) != 1:
    print("ERROR: Unable to find a unique lab named {}".format(LAB_NAME))
    exit(1)

lobj = client.join_existing_lab(labs[0].id)

if not lobj:
    print("ERROR: Failed to join lab {}".format(LAB_NAME))
    exit(1)

# Print all links in the lab and ask which link to condition.
i = 1
liobjs = []
for link in lobj.links():
    print(
        "{}. {}[{}] <-> {}[{}]".format(
            i,
            link.interface_a.node.label,
            link.interface_a.label,
            link.interface_b.node.label,
            link.interface_b.label,
        )
    )
    liobjs.append(lobj.get_link_by_interfaces(link.interface_a, link.interface_b))
    i += 1

print()
lnum = 0
while lnum < 1 or lnum > i:
    lnum = input("enter link number to condition (1-{}): ".format(i))
    try:
        lnum = int(lnum)
    except ValueError:
        lnum = 0

# Print the selected link's current conditioning (if any).
link = liobjs[lnum-1]
print("Current condition is {}".format(link.get_condition()))
# Request the new conditoning for bandwidth, latency, jitter, and loss.
# Bandwidth is an integer between 0-10000000 kbps
# Bandwidth of 0 is "no bandwidth restriction"
# Latency is an integer between 0-10000 ms
# Jitter is an integer between 0-10000 ms
# Loss is a float between 0-100%
new_cond = input(
    "enter new condition in format 'BANDWIDTH, "
    "LATENCY, JITTER, LOSS' or 'None' to disable: "
)
# If "None" is provided disable any conditioning on the link.
if new_cond.lower() == "none":
    link.remove_condition()
    print("Link conditioning has been disabled.")
else:
    try:
        # Set the current conditioning based on the provided values.
        cond_list = re.split(r"\s*,\s*", new_cond)
        bw = int(cond_list[0])  # Bandwidth is an int
        latency = int(cond_list[1])  # Latency is an int
        jitter = int(cond_list[2])  # Jitter is an int
        loss = float(cond_list[3])  # Loss is a float
        link.set_condition(bw, latency, jitter, loss)
        print("Link conditioning set.")
    except HTTPError as exc:
        print("ERROR: Failed to set link conditioning: {}", format(exc))
        exit(1)

This example can also be found in the examples directory as link_conditioning.py.