Have you thought about seeing or visualizing OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, VRF and more on your network with a simple, color-coded view on your computer screen? Recently I shared with you a network visualization tool called nuVML that can be used to visualize or see what is happening on your network, physical or virtual. Traffic and routing protocols are presented in different colors, on a 3-dimensional view, and is updated in real-time. Zoom into individual routers to see Layer 2 and Layer 3 information, physical and logical interfaces connected. How can a network engineer benefit from it in real world?

Two main use cases of nuVML™

With a simulation backend engine such as Cisco VIRL, nuVML can be used for green-field network design, change validation and testing in a lab environment. Students who are working on their CCNA, CCNP and CCIE can use it to study network topologies, traffic flow and routing table changes. With 2D and 3D views of packet flow inside your network in real-time, it makes the learning easy and fun.

The second use case is for production network discovery. In this case, nuVML works independently without the need of a backend simulation engine. When dealing with a large scaled, multi-layered production network, engineers find it is specially challenging to have a overall understanding of what’s going on on the network. A Visio network diagram can never keep up-to-date with what’s running in production today. With nuVML’s network discovery feature, it gives a holistic view of the live network. Routers and network topology are discovered via routing table lookup, CDP, ARP and more. Traffic flow is shown in real-time. More importantly, after the discovery, can you create a copy of the production network and replicate it in a virtual environment for troubleshooting and change validations.

Here are some video tutorials on how to visualize OSPF, EIGRP, ISIS, BGP, VPNv4, iBGP/eBGP, VRF, MPLS LDP, and live traffic.

nuVML is not a network simulation tool like Cisco VIRL, CML and GNS3. When working together with one of the network simulation tools, nuVML can be used for network design, capacity planning, proof of concept, change validation, “what if” scenario testing and more. nuVML also runs as a stand-alone application to discover and visualize an existing network physical or virtual. To learn more, go to nuVML Virtual Modeling Lab page. A Quick Start Guide is also available.

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