nrx - netreplica exporter

nrx reads a network topology graph from NetBox DCIM system and exports it in one of the following formats:

Topology file for Containerlab tool for container-based networking labs
Topology file for Cisco Modeling Labs platform for network simulation
Topology data for visualization using Graphite
Graph data as a JSON file in Cytoscape format CYJS

It can also read the topology graph previously saved as a CYJS file to convert it into other formats.

This project is in a proof-of-concept phase. We're experimenting with the best ways to automate software network lab orchestration. If you have any feedback, questions or suggestions, please reach out to us via the Netreplica Discord server linked above, #netreplica channel in NetDev Community on Slack, or open a github issue in this repository.

Capabilities
Compatibility
Prerequisites
How to install
How to configure
Templates
How to use
Credits
- Original idea and implementation
- Copyright notice

Capabilities

Data sourcing capabilities:

Connects to a NetBox instance over an API using a user-provided authentication token
Exports a network topology graph for
- a specific Site
- multiple Sites interconnected via point-2-point Circuits
Only Devices with Roles from a customizable list will be exported
Uses Tags to further narrow down a list of Devices for export
Direct connections between Devices via Cables will be exported as topology edges
Connections via Patch Panels and Circuits will be exported as well with help of NetBox Cable Tracing API
Only Ethernet connections will be exported
As an alternative to sourcing live data from NetBox, imports a graph from a previously exported file in CYJS format

Export capabilities:

Exports the graph as a Containerlab topology definition file in YAML format
Exports the graph as a Cisco Modeling Labs topology definition file in YAML format
Exports the graph in JSON format for visualization with Graphite
Uses NetBox Device Platform slug field to identify node templates when rendering the export file
Creates mapping between real interface names and interface names used by the supported lab tools
Calculates level and rank values for each node based on Device Role to help visualize the topology
Exports the graph into CYJS format that can be later converted into a topology definition file, or used by 3rd party software

Compatibility

The following minimum software versions were tested for compatibility with nrx:

NetBox v3.4
Containerlab v0.39
Cisco Modeling Labs v2.5
Netreplica Graphite v0.4.0

Prerequisites

Python 3.9+. In the commands below we assume use have python3.9 executable. If you have a different name, change accordingly.

PIP

curl -sL https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python3.9 -

Virtualenv (recommended)
```
pip install virtualenv
```
Containerlab – not required for nrx, but is needed to deploy Containerlab topologies
```
bash -c "$(curl -sL https://get.containerlab.dev)"
```
Cisco Modeling Labs – not required for nrx, but is needed to deploy CML topologies
Netreplica Graphite – not required for nrx, but is needed for topology visualization

How to install

Clone this repository and create Python virtual environment

git clone https://github.com/netreplica/nrx.git --recursive
cd nrx
python3.9 -m venv nrx39
source nrx39/bin/activate

Install required modules
```
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
```

How to configure

nrx accepts the following configuration options, in the order of precedence:

Command-line arguments
Environmental variables
Configuration file

Command-line arguments

Command-line arguments take the highest priority.

./nrx.py --help
usage: nrx [-h] [-c CONFIG] [-i INPUT] [-o OUTPUT] [-a API] [-s SITE] [-k] [-d] [-f FILE] [-T TEMPLATES]

nrx - network topology exporter by netreplica

optional arguments:
  -h, --help                show this help message and exit
  -c, --config CONFIG       configuration file
  -i, --input INPUT         input source: netbox (default) | cyjs
  -o, --output OUTPUT       output format: cyjs | gml | clab | cml | graphite
  -a, --api API             netbox API URL
  -s, --site SITE           netbox site to export
  -t, --tags TAGS           netbox tags to export, for multiple tags use a comma-separated list: tag1,tag2,tag3 (uses AND logic)
  -k, --insecure            allow insecure server connections when using TLS
  -d, --debug               enable debug output
  -f, --file FILE           file with the network graph to import
  -T, --templates TEMPLATES directory with template files, will be prepended to TEMPLATES_PATH list in the configuration file

Note: NB_API_TOKEN is not supported as an argument for security reasons.

Environmental variables

As an alternative to a configuration file, use environmental variables to provide NetBox API connection parameters.

# NetBox API URL
export NB_API_URL='https://demo.netbox.dev'
# NetBox API Token
export NB_API_TOKEN='replace_with_valid_API_token'

Configuration file

Use --config <filename> argument to specify a configuration file to use. The sample configuration file is provided as nrx.conf.

Templates

nrx renders all topology artifacts from Jinja2 templates. Depending on the desired output format, the required templates are taken from a matching subfolder. For example, if the output format is clab for Containerlab, then templates are searched under clab subfolder. For Cisco Modelling Labs cml format the subfolder would be cml.

Most templates are unique for each node kind. Value of kind is taken from NetBox device.platform.slug field. Interface mapping templates do not depend on the output format, since they are determined by the NOS images used by each kind. Therefore, there is a single dedicated folder for them. The full list of template search rules:

<format>/topology.j2: template for the final topology file.
<format>/kinds/<kind>.j2: templates for individual node entries in the topology file.
<format>/interface_names/<kind>.j2: templates for generating emulated interface names used by this NOS kind.
interface_maps/<kind>.j2: templates for mappings between real interface names and emulated interface names used by this NOS kind. Not all kinds support such mappings.

This repository includes a set of netreplica/templates as a submodule. See more details about available templates in the templates/README.md.

By default, nrx searches for the template files in the current directory. You can provide a list of folders to search for the templates via TEMPLATES_PATH parameter in the configuration file, or use --templates argument.

How to use

Start with activating venv environment

source nrx39/bin/activate

Containerlab example

Run ./nrx.py --output clab to export a topology graph from NetBox in Containerlab format. See How to configure for details. Here is an example of running nrx.py to export a graph for NetBox Site "DM-Albany" from NetBox Demo instance:
```
export NB_API_TOKEN='replace_with_valid_API_token'
./nrx.py --api https://demo.netbox.dev --site DM-Albany --templates templates --output clab
```
Now you're ready to start the Containerlab topology. Here is the example for "DM-Albany" site
```
sudo -E containerlab deploy -t DM-Albany.clab.yaml --reconfigure
```

Without --output clab argument, nrx.py will save data from NetBox as a CYJS file <site_name>.cyjs

export NB_API_TOKEN='replace_with_valid_API_token'
./nrx.py --api https://demo.netbox.dev --site DM-Albany

If you have a CYJS file, run ./nrx.py --input cyjs --file <site>.cyjs --output clab to create a Containerlab topology file from the CYJS graph you exported in the previous step. For example, run:
```
./nrx.py --input cyjs --file DM-Albany.cyjs --templates templates --output clab
```

Cisco Modeling Labs example

Run ./nrx.py --output cml to export a topology graph from NetBox in CML format. See How to configure for details. Here is an example of running nrx.py to export a graph for NetBox Site "DM-Akron" from NetBox Demo instance:
```
export NB_API_TOKEN='replace_with_valid_API_token'
./nrx.py --api https://demo.netbox.dev --site DM-Akron --templates templates --output cml
```
Now you're ready to start the "DM-Akron" topology in CML.
- Open your CML Dashboard in a browser
- Choose "IMPORT"
- Use DM-Akron.cml.yaml as a file to import. The import status should be Imported.
- Choose "GO TO LAB". In SIMULATE menu, choose START LAB
- Use NODES menu to monitor the status of each node

Without --output cml argument, nrx.py will save data from NetBox as a CYJS file <site_name>.cyjs

export NB_API_TOKEN='replace_with_valid_API_token'
./nrx.py --api https://demo.netbox.dev --site DM-Akron

If you have a CYJS file, run ./nrx.py --input cyjs --file <site>.cyjs --output cml to create a topology file from the CYJS graph you exported in the previous step. For example, run:
```
./nrx.py --input cyjs --file DM-Akron.cyjs --templates templates --output cml
```

Topology Visualization with Graphite

A combination of netreplica nrx and graphite tools can be used to visualize NetBox topology data. Unlike typical plugin-based visualizers, this method can work with a standard NetBox instance without any plugins installed. You also don't need an administrative access to the NetBox host in order to use this type of visualization.

Follow a two-step process:

Export topology data from NetBox in the Graphite format: nrx.py -o graphite. For example, let's export "DM-Akron" site from the NetBox Demo instance:

export NB_API_TOKEN='replace_with_valid_API_token'
./nrx.py --api https://demo.netbox.dev --site DM-Akron --templates templates --output graphite

Start Graphite to visualize "DM-Akron" site:

TOPOLOGY="$(pwd)/DM-Akron.graphite.json"
docker run -d -t --rm \
    --mount type=bind,source="${TOPOLOGY}",target=/htdocs/default/default.json,readonly \
    -p 8080:80 \
    --name graphite \
    netreplica/graphite:latest

Open http://localhost:8080/graphite to see the topology. If you're running Graphite on a remote host, or inside a VM, use this helper to show a working URL:

docker exec -t -e HOST_CONNECTION="${SSH_CONNECTION}" graphite graphite_motd.sh 8080

The visualization should be similar to

To stop Graphite, run

docker stop graphite

If you'd like to be able to switch between multiple exported topologies without restarting Graphite, use one of the methods described in Graphite documentation.

Credits

Original idea and implementation

This is a NANOG-87 Hackathon project. The original project slides. The project team:

The implementation is inspired by ContainerLab random labs by Renato Almeida de Oliveira.

Copyright notice

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

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