Cisco has announced an expansion of its DevNet sandbox environments, designed to make it easier for networking professionals to test and develop applications for essential enterprise networking technologies.
Specifically, three new or enhanced sandboxes have been introduced, related to Cisco’s Catalyst Center, network automation software, and Meraki product suites. Cisco claims these updates will accommodate more users and simplify the usability of the environments.
Sandboxes provide virtual lab environments that members of the DevNet developer community can utilize to test various configurations, create simulations, and implement prototypes without any impact on their production networks. In addition, DevNet sandboxes and the community assist users in acquiring new skills and applying them in practical scenarios.
One of the upgraded sandboxes pertains to the Catalyst Center, previously referred to as DNA Center. Catalyst Center serves as a network management suite that functions on Cisco hardware or as a virtual solution. It simplifies network operations and provisioning and has the capability to anticipate or identify potential network issues, thereby accelerating problem resolution, as stated by Cisco.
According to Adrian Iliesiu, a technical leader with Cisco DevNet, the ability to operate Catalyst Center as a virtual machine within AWS or on a VMware virtual environment has significantly simplified the deployment of Catalyst Center instances in virtual lab settings.
“This enables us to scale the Catalyst Center sandboxes to much larger quantities,” Iliesiu mentioned in a blog post regarding the new sandboxes. “For the always-on Catalyst Center sandboxes, we can now support 100 users simultaneously, and for the reservable instances, we have increased availability from 4 to 25.”
“The reservable instances can be yours for a duration of up to 4 days, with the minor note that it takes roughly 60 minutes for all sandbox components to become operational. They are currently utilizing version 2.3.7.4 of Catalyst Center, and a Cisco ISE server is also available for those interested in deploying [software defined access] fabrics.”
A new sandbox introduced by Cisco is specifically designed for creating and testing automation software utilizing continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines.
“I have been promoting the usage of CI/CD pipelines for automation and programmability in infrastructure for some time,” shared Iliesiu, who led a workshop on the subject at Ansible Fest held in Denver earlier this year.
During the workshop, participants followed a guide detailing how to integrate GitLab with Ansible, Cisco pyATS, Cisco CML, and Cisco NX-OS to create a functional CI/CD pipeline for infrastructure automation, according to Iliesiu. The sandbox environment utilized by Cisco at this event is now accessible to the public through the DevNet sandbox catalog, along with the lab that outlines the process of building and using these pipelines.
“At any given time, we offer up to 15 of these sandboxes for reservations lasting up to 5 days. I encourage you to explore them and experience the transformational impact of network automation through CI/CD pipelines,” Iliesiu noted.
According to Iliesiu, Cisco’s Meraki sandboxes have been completely revamped to enhance scalability.
“In the past, we were constrained by hardware when it came to our Catalyst Center sandboxes, limiting the number of Meraki sandboxes we could offer to the community. However, that situation has changed drastically with the introduction of entirely virtual Meraki sandboxes,” Lliesiu stated. “We now have serial numbers available for virtual Meraki devices, allowing us to scale to significantly larger numbers.”
This new sandbox provides users with access to virtual Meraki MX security devices, MS Ethernet switches, and MR wireless access points, enabling them to test enterprise developments effectively.
Iliesiu also mentioned that Cisco will soon be announcing additional new DevNet sandboxes.
“I don’t want to give away too many details regarding those announcements, but if you’ve been eager to test out Catalyst 9000 hardware switches without having access to a lab, that will soon be possible,” Iliesiu commented.
Cisco DevNet provides numerous sandbox environments tailored for networking, data center IoT, network management, and collaboration suites. You can explore its sandbox catalog here.