netreplica / graphite

Visualization for Network Topologies – NetBox, Containerlab, Netlab

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Netreplica Graphite

Visualization for Network Topologies

Supported software

NetBox

Support for NetBox DCIM system includes:

• Visualization of network topologies exported by netreplica/nrx command-line tool
• Does not require installation of a plugin on a NexBox instance
• Filtering based on Device role, site and/or tag information to select devices for visualization
• User-customizable topology data definitions via Jinja2 templates

To export a topology for visualization from NetBox run nrx with the following parameters. See more in nrx documentation.

nrx.py --config netbox.conf --input netbox --output graphite --site SITE --tag TAG

Once the data is exported, run Graphite using of the methods described here to see the topology via a browser.

Containerlab

Support for Containerlab network emulation software includes:

• Visualization of live topologies, including dynamic information about network nodes – for example, management IP addresses.
• WebSSH access to running Containerlab nodes from the topology visualization.
• Launching Graphite as part of Containerlab topology by including it as a node in the topology YAML file.

The easiest way to use Graphite with Containerlab is to add the following code to a topology YAML file under the nodes: section. For a full topology example see examples/2host.yaml.

    graphite:
      kind: linux
      image: netreplica/graphite
      env:
        HOST_CONNECTION: ${SSH_CONNECTION}
      binds:
        - __clabDir__/topology-data.json:/htdocs/default/default.json:ro
        - __clabDir__/ansible-inventory.yml:/htdocs/lab/default/ansible-inventory.yml:ro
      ports:
        - 8080:80
      exec:
        - sh -c 'graphite_motd.sh 8080'
      labels:
        graph-hide: yes

Once added, deploy the topology with sudo -E containerlab deploy -t <topology.yaml>. Note -E parameter for sudo – it is needed to pass SSH_CONNECTION variable.

Look for Graphite visualization 🎨 http://<ip_address>:8080/graphite Containerlab output. If you are running Containerlab on a VM via an SSH session, the <ip_address> in the URL should be the one you are using to connect to the VM, so there is a good chance the link will just work. If not, you might need to replace <ip_address> with proper address to connect to Graphite.

Detailed instructions on using Graphite with Containerlab

Follow step-by-step reference to learn how to use Graphite with ContainerLab.

Running Graphite as a standalone Docker container

To be able to visualize multiple Containerlab topologies, including those that are not currently running, you can launch Graphite as a standalone container. Follow the guide to learn how.

Copyright notice

Copyright 2022-2023 Netreplica Team

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.