{"id":16417,"date":"2025-12-15T12:19:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T12:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/two-new-ways-to-bring-netbox-into-your-cml-networks\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T12:19:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T12:19:24","slug":"two-new-ways-to-bring-netbox-into-your-cml-networks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/two-new-ways-to-bring-netbox-into-your-cml-networks\/","title":{"rendered":"Two New Ways to Bring NetBox Into Your CML Networks"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I had a very busy fall this year, and now I can\u2019t believe\u00a0it\u2019s been three months since my last blog,\u00a0\u201cBringing Some Source of Truth to Your NetAI Agentic Playground.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0That\u2019s far longer than I had planned when I made my \u201cpublic accountability statement\u201d about my next blog post being about the work I had done to bring NetBox into my CML simulations in an easy and seamless fashion.<\/p>\n

But today, I\u2019m back. And eager to reveal two new contributions to the Cisco Modeling Labs (CML) community for your immediate use:<\/p>\n

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  1. A CML node and image definition for a NetBox server<\/li>\n
  2. CML2NetBox, a Python utility that auto-populates NetBox based on a CML lab<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Let\u2019s dive into each of these options and see how they work!<\/p>\n

    NetBox server node for Cisco Modeling Labs<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Not every CML network I build needs a NetBox server, but whenever I\u2019m working on a new network automation project, or something that involves creating a replica (or close replica) of our production network\u2014a \u201cdigital cousin,\u201d so to speak\u2014I will want to have a source of truth populated with data from the network simulation.<\/p>\n

    In the past, I have manually populated NetBox with data using APIs, scripts, or CSV imports. However, these options aren\u2019t great, and they weren\u2019t part of the lab itself. That\u2019s where this new node definition comes in.<\/p>\n

    Now I can simply drag the \u201cNetBox\u201d node into the topology and configure it to auto-populate from the CML lab definition itself.<\/p>\n

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