- I've got some great news for you. Cisco DevNet have created a hosted version of a Cisco VIRL, or as it's called now,
Cisco Modeling Labs. You can now access CML for free, using the hosted solution,
hosted by Cisco DevNet. You don't need any software. You don't need IOS images. All you need to do is
download a VPN client. So AnyConnect client from Cisco DevNet, and then you'll be able to access labs using the DevNet Sandbox. Hank Preston has created
this lab in a previous video which I've linked here and below, I showed you how to
use Cisco VIRL for free using one of the Cisco DevNet Sandboxes, but this Sandbox is specifically
using CML or VIRL 2, as it was called. And the fantastic thing about the Sandbox is you don't have to use
a pre-built topology. Hank has created a pre-built topology, with a whole bunch of devices. Nexus devices, ASA, IOSv-Layer2, IOSv, etc, but you don't have to use that topology. You can create your own lab, for free now, using the Cisco DevNet Sandbox. I think this is fantastic news because a lot of people can't afford $200 a year for Cisco VIRL. So rather than paying for VIRL, and running it locally on your computer, you can use CML, in the cloud, hosted by Cisco DevNet for free. Now there are some limitations. You have to firstly book this lab to be able to use it. So depending on how busy it is, you may not get a spot, and there's a maximum
of four hours currently. So, you can only use the
lab for up to four hours. But I think it's fantastic that, Cisco DevNet are providing this, so big shout-out to Hank
Preston, to Susie Wee and the DevNet team, for making this available for everyone. Hank has told me that he's gonna be creating new labs or additional labs. So this is the first
lab using CML or VIRL 2, new labs will be created. So depending on when you're watching this, you'll be able to access this one lab or additional labs hosted on Cisco DevNet. Some more good news is, I've been speaking with Hank Preston and he's gonna, once again, be creating videos with
me, about DevNet topics. So if you've got any questions or topics that you want him to cover, then please put it in the comments below. Now this is only one
of multiple surprises. I'm gonna be announcing a lot more stuff in the next few days and next few weeks. So if you wanna win a free
course, as an example, you have to be quick for
some of my giveaways. So make sure that you've
subscribed to my YouTube channel, make sure that you click on
the bell to get notifications, and if you enjoy this
video please like it. That really helps me
with the YouTube robots. Now after the time of this recording, CML personal edition hasn't been released. It's gonna to be released
on the 12th of May. So if you wanna get hands-on using CML, in preparation for the release date, now's your chance. CML Enterprise is available but CML personal edition isn't. The main difference between
enterprise and personal, is the expansion up to 300 nodes. As well as TAC support. The software is the same. I've spoken to the VIRL developers, and they've told me that it's
exactly the same software used in enterprise as
well as personal edition. Personal edition is however limited to 20 nodes, so 20 Cisco nodes. You can run Linux nodes
in addition to that. So the built in Linux
nodes, as an example, can be added to your topology, to get you over that 20 node limit. So as an example, you could have 20 Cisco
routers and switches as well as 10 Linux hosts
running in your topology. You also don't get support from Cisco. It's community support, so people like me are
sharing and contributing to the community to help everyone use CML personal edition. Now in this example, I'm gonna be using a Windows laptop, process is very similar on Windows or on a Mac, as an example. You need to download the
Cisco AnyConnect client which basically sets up a VPN to Cisco DevNet so that
you can access the labs. You have to install that software. Okay so enough said. Let's get started and
I'm gonna show you now, step by step how to
access the DevNet labs. How do you connect to them, and build your own topologies (upbeat music) Now to make it easier to reserve a lab, I've created a bit.ly link so, if you use bit.ly/freecml, that'll take you to this specific Sandbox. Now you need to login. So in my example I'm gonna login with a Cisco ID but you could login with Facebook or with
Google or with Github or Webex but I'm gonna click on login with a Cisco ID. This is once again free, so if you don't have a Cisco ID, you don't wanna use social media accounts, then just create an account. You'll be prompted for
your username and password. And once you've logged in, you'll be able to see the lab. So I can see it says Cisco Modeling Lab. There's a Devbox, there's VLAN 1, which is a connection to the switch. There's some information
here, on the left hand side, but the most important thing, is you probably wanna reserve a lab. So click on reserve on the top right. Specify how long you want the lab. They only allow you to
reserve up to 4 hours. So you can't specify
days or weeks or minutes. Maximum is 4 hours. And then specify when you want the lab. You can specify date and time. I'm gonna specify that
I want it right now. So I'm gonna leave this as, start now, duration is 4 hours, click reserve to reserve the lab. Now it does take time for this lab to be set up. So what you'll notice
is they have a countdown telling you when the
lab will be available. It takes at least 10 minutes for the lab to be available. So if you wanna access
the lab immediately, reserve it, go and get a
coffee and then come back. But it's probably better
or wiser to reserve ahead of time, so try and reserve a lab for when you want it like tomorrow or next week, so that
you know it's available. This is a shared resource, so it might not be available when you wanna to use it. That will depend on how busy the labs get. How many people are trying
to reserve these labs. Now a few minutes before
the lab becomes available, you'll get an email from Cisco DevNet, stating that they're setting up the lab. So it takes about ten minutes to set up. One of the things you need to do is download the Cisco
AnyConnect VPN client. So if you haven't got that installed, then download that and install it. And I'll show you in a
moment how to do that. And then when the lab is available, you'll get one more email
with your login credentials. So again you're told if
you don't have AnyConnect installed on your system
you need to download that. They've also got an installation guide to help you install the software if you're not sure how to do that. If you do have it already
installed on your system, then you can connect to your lab. So we're given the lab address, as well as a username
and password to login. So the first thing you need to do is download the AnyConnect client. So go to developer, Cisco.com,
site, Sandbox, AnyConnect, or use the link that they provided. Download the software for
your operating system. In this example I'm using Windows, so I'm gonna download
the Windows software. It's about 32 meg. in size. If you're using a Mac then download the AnyConnect client for Mac. Okay the software has downloaded, so I'm going to double
click on the zip file and then double click set.exe, Windows is complaining that this isn't a Microsoft verified
app I'm happy with that, so I'm gonna click install. I'm gonna click yes to allow the app to make changes to my device. I'll close some of these windows. And notice here we're given
a whole bunch of options. I'd recommend that you don't go with all of these options. So I'm gonna select all to
uncheck all of these options and the only thing I'm going to install is the core and VPN. I'm not gonna do all the other options. Like starting before login, stuff like, that I don't need that. I just wanna use this, for this lab. So I'm gonna manually start it up. So I'm gonna to click install selected and then click OK to install the software. I need to agree to the License Agreement. Software is now installed. Okay so the software has installed. I'll click okay. Okay so what I'm gonna do now, is start up the AnyConnect client, and what I'll do is copy my lab address that I was given via email, and I'll paste that in and click connect. That'll connect to Cisco DevNet. I need to put in my username, put in the password that I've been allocated and click OK. And if my reservation is currently active, this will connect to the VPN. And as you can see, I've now
connected to Cisco DevNet. Okay so back on Cisco DevNet's website. I'm told that I can connect to the server using this IP address 10 10 20 161, username is developer,
password is Cisco12345. So I'll open up a browser and I'll browse to 10 10 20 161. I'm told that the
connection is not private that's good. Cisco CML is using a
self-signed certificate so I wanna proceed to that server. Now my connection here is very slow. I'm currently in South Africa in lockdown. That's why my hair is so long. So the connection may not be that great. Hopefully it'll be better for you. This is one of the problems
using a hosted solution. You need a decent connection. Mine isn't at that great. So I'm gonna login with
the username developer, password is C1sco12345, per the DevNet documentation. Ok so I'm having a problem at the moment. My connection is broken. So based on my experience, what I've found is that
if you have this issue, if you've just installed the VPN client and you have this issue, where you can't get
access to the internet, notice I can't ping any sites. So google.com, cisco.com, doesn't resolve. What I'm gonna do is disconnect the connection and I'm
going to quit the software and then I'm gonna run it again. So I'm gonna run the VPN
client for a second time. So I'm currently disconnected, from the VPN, and notice I can ping google.com. So I'm gonna make that a continuous ping, so hopefully when I connect
the ping will continue. So I'll click connect. It's remembered my username. I'll add my password and click OK. The ping to Google should
continue succeeding, while this is established. So I've now connected and I've got connectivity to Google. So that looks a lot better. So what I'll do is refresh
my login page to Cisco VIRL. Things are still working to Google and I've got a connection
to the VIRL server. So that's something I've experienced. Windows 10, with the AnyConnect client. So I'm gonna say developer,
password is C1sco12345 and hopefully I'll be able to login now. Things are still working and there you go. I've been able to log into Cisco VIRL. There is a default topology once again. Hank has created this default topology, so I could, as an example, access the console of, the ASA. Now in this case I've made the mistake of using Brave as my browser. Recommend that you don't use Brave but use Chrome or another
browser to access, the lab. So I'll start up Chrome. You can get it to work on Brave, but it's a lot of work so let's just switch to using Chrome. So that we don't have this
server disconnect issue and other issues accessing the topology. So again, I'll bypass the warning about the certificate. I'm using Chrome in this example. Username is developer, C1sco12345. Click login, and there you go. I'm back in using Chrome. I'll click on this topology again. Click on the ASA. Click on console. Click open console. And there you go. I've now connected, to the ASA, in this topology. Now I'm not gonna explain all the options in Cisco VIRL. I've got a whole bunch of other videos that you can watch starting at this video in the playlist. So have a look at this video, if you wanna learn how
to install Cisco VIRL. I've got a whole bunch of
other videos on YouTube that you can watch if you
wanna setup Cisco VIRL. But what I'd like to show you here, is I could ,as an example, stop this lab and then add my own lab. So I'm gonna create my own lab here. I could rename that lab,
as, let's say test1. And then what I'll do,
is just drag a router and a switch and a router it to the topology. I'll zoom in here. Now if you watch any of my other videos you'll notice the interface
is exactly the same. This is Cisco VIRL as
if it's running locally. It's just running, in this
example, on the cloud. So I'll connect the first interface to the first
interface on the switch. Connect the switch to the
router, second interface. I'll click simulate, start
lab to start the lab up. You can see the devices are booting. I'll click on the layer2 switch. Click on console, open console and hopefully we'll see that booting up. And there you go, it's busy booting. While that's booting up, if I go back to lab manager, notice this topology
has now been turned off. And I'm running my own topology. You can run your own
topology using this free VIRL server running within Cisco DevNet. Totally free. There's no cost for using this. The disadvantage here, is
it's a shared resource. You may not be able to use the lab when you want to you because it's busy. Because lots of other
people wanna use this lab. You can also only reserve
one session at a time. So fantastic. If you haven't got Cisco VIRL locally, personally I've purchased Cisco VIRL because I wanna to run it
locally on my local laptop. It also gives me the ability to use it whenever I want to. I'm not reliant on this lab, but I think this is a fantastic resource that you can use. You can access Cisco VIRL for free, when it's available. There's absolutely no cost to use this. This is sponsored by Cisco DevNet. They have a whole bunch of
labs that you can access. Free labs to learn and study. Now depending on when
you're watching this, Hank is building an SD-WAN lab. So you could study for your CCMP, or other certifications
using the SD-WAN lab. They've got DNA Center labs, a whole bunch of labs are available directly from developer.cisco.com. Okay so, just to show you this, let's complete this lab. I'm gonna bypass the initial configuration of the router. Do the same on the other router, bypass the initial configuration. Go back to the first router. You can see that interfaces are coming up. Got a whole bunch of log messages. But I press Enter a whole bunch of times. Notice I've got access to the console. I can type enable to go to privilege mode. conf t, give the router a name. Let's configure the Ethernet interface with an IP address. 10 1 1 1 /24 mask. I'll ping 10 1 1 2, that won't work because I have to configure
this router first. So on router2, enable host router2 interface gigabit is 0/0, no shut it. IP address 10 1 1 2 /24 mask. Back on router1, I probably forgot to
no shut the interface. Which I did forget to do. So go back on the interface, no shut it. And hopefully, the ping will now succeed. So I'll press up key. There's my ping. Can we ping 10 1 1 2? Yes we can, so router1 can ping router2. So again that's how you access a free of VIRL server
hosted by Cisco DevNet. There's no cost to use this. Now if you enjoyed this video, please consider subscribing
to my YouTube channel. Please like this video and please click on the
bell to get notifications. I'm David Bombal. I wanna wish you all the very best. (upbeat music)
