Output Formats

The netlab create command (also invoked by the netlab up command) can call one or more output modules to create files that can be used with Vagrant, Ansible, containerlab, graphviz, D2, or graphite tools. The output modules are specified with one or more -o parameters. When no -o parameter is specified, netlab create calls all modules specified in the ‌defaults.netlab.create.output topology default.

Each -o parameter specifies an output module, formatting modifiers, and output filename in the module:modifiers=file(s) format:

• module is the desired output module. It can be one of ansible, config, graph, json, pickle, provider, report, tools, or yaml.

Tip

• The ‌netlab show outputs command displays the available output modules.

• Use the ‌none output module when you want to test the lab topology transformation without generating any outputs.

• Some output modules use optional formatting modifiers – you can specify Ansible inventory format, graph type, or parts of the transformed data structure that you want to see in YAML or JSON format

• Most output formats support an optional destination file name. The default file name is either hard-coded in the module or specified in defaults.outputs part of lab topology.

The following output modules are included in the netlab distribution; you can create your own by adding modules to the netsim/outputs directory. Use netlab show outputs to display the up-to-date list of the output modules.

• Ansible Inventory Output Module
• Declarative Diagramming (D2) Output Module
• Simple Device Inventory Output Module
• Topology Graph (Graphviz) Output Module
• Virtualization Provider Output Module
• Creating Reports with Custom Output Formats
• YAML and JSON Output Modules