Re: I am giving up on CML. Going back to VIRL

cslefort · ‎05-22-2020

I have been using

VIRL for a few years
virtual images on ESxi for 5 years
GNS on and off for 15 years
physical hardware for 25 years

my thoughts and feedback of CML

There doesn't appear to be much support for the product. the community is trying to help each other
the supplied OVA is not compatible with VMware 6.5. One of my VMware guys fixed it for me
there is no documentation for CML install on ESXi
the CML CSR1v image won’t accept tagged frames. This is very basic functionality that should have been tested
the console ports stop working at times
i have a 20 node license, but can't have more than 4 IOS-XR, 8 CSR1000v routers and one unmanaged switch without receiving an error that i have exceeded my node count
i restarted CML via the sysadmin page. I have not regained access since. i have tried restarting the CML virtual machine via vSphere to no success. i reach the console of CML, but am unable to ping the CML address from a device on the same subnet. I have tried running the initial ipconfig python script, but it now fails. This was originally successful. I will likely have to re-install. Not sure what kind of licensing issues that will bring me
running the solution to use an external terminal editor is odd. i have had to run this tool on all computers that have access to my CML.
I personally don't think CML is ready for production
i haven't even tried to build real toplogies yet. this will be the true test
i will try it again in a few months, when the kinks are ironed out

Would love to hear from Cisco on my experience

on the positive side

It doesn't seem to require nearly as much CPU and RAM as VIRL

It's a pretty design. I like not having to use maestro

omz · ‎05-22-2020

@cslefort wrote:

on the positive side
It doesn't seem to require nearly as much CPU and RAM as VIRL

Do you have any stats to share?

My biggest concern is the CPU and RAM requirements .. for these images.

I can run appr. 40 IOU nodes in Eve-NG with 8 GB RAM 4 Core CPU.

Would love to see if Cisco can give us something similar .. I would like to use CML due to API support compared to Eve-NG. But CPU and RAM requirements are a downer for me.

Thanks for sharing your feedback.

cslefort · ‎05-22-2020

I shutdown my CML, so can’t check

virl was running 4 xrv9k and 14 csr1000v. Was chewing 20 cpu and about 150gigs of ram

The xrv9k are hogs

cml was a small fraction of virl

pboynton1 · ‎05-22-2020

Agreed,

So buggy at even a basic level.....I prefer packet tracer over this hot mess! Good luck finding any support, as cisco sends you in a web loop when searching for it.

pboynton1 · ‎05-22-2020

and this is the 3rd different official cisco forum for cml that I have come across today

cslefort · ‎05-23-2020

Rebooted CML again.

had to license again

i can now deploy 20 nodes

consoles appear to be working for all devices via breakout

mark-hanley · ‎06-12-2020

I think I too am giving up on CML. I spent 2 weeks in license h3ll, then after all that got straightened out, I started getting Not Ready Errors. Go in and reset the whole thing back to defaults, worked for a couple of hours, then right back to Not Ready Errors.

Downloaded new VM and ISO, allocated 6 cores (on an I7) gave it 26gigs of RAM and expanded the hard drive to 32gigs....and the same error is happening on both VMs.

I think there are other options that are better than CML at better price points. $199 is a bit pricey for a piece of software that is this unreliable. I think it is a good idea, but, not yet ready for prime time.

Stephen Craven · ‎07-31-2020

Do you recall anything about how the VMWare guy fixed your OVA for 6.5?

I feel your pain...

Stephen Craven · ‎07-31-2020

Maybe I found it...
https://community.cisco.com/t5/cisco-modeling-labs-discussions/cml2-0-on-esxi6-5-ova-template-not-valid/m-p/4090985/highlight/true#M549

Thanks!

Manonym · ‎08-03-2020

"the CML CSR1v image won’t accept tagged frames. This is very basic functionality that should have been tested"
Thanks for mentioning this, I was trying to find out why nothing seemed to work with these images. This is so stupid, why is this working with the small IOSv images but not with the CSR1ks?