Cisco Modeling Labs (CML) is provided for free for labs up to 5 virtual network devices andn unlimited number of unmanaged switches and external connectors. It is suited for CCNA certification training labs.
CML can be installed ina Virtual Machine with VMware ESXI, VMware Workstion, or VMware Player. Despite CML has been reported to work on AMD CPU, an intel CPU is required to be able to run some of the bundeled platform images without issue.
What's new in Cisco Modeling Labs 2.8.0
Cisco Modeling labs features the following new features :
- Smart Annotations
- Rotation Support for Rectangle and Ellipse Annotation Types
- Ability to paste text into VNC sessions
- Node Disk Usage
- Base virtual machine based on Ubuntu 24.04
- LDAP Group Support
- Custom MAC Address
- FMCv and FTDv Support and Images
Cisco Modeling Labs 2.8.0 system requirements
CML 2.8 can be installed on a bare-metal server or in a virtual environment (both on-premises or cloud virtualization supported. The following minimum configuration is required to be able to use CML 2.8 :
- Memory : 8 GB
- CPU : Intel processor with a at least 4 physical cores. As CML VM starts network device virtualmachines using nested virtualization, CPU must support Intel VTx/EPT.
- Network : 1 Interface
- Disk : 32 GB or more free space
Important advice: As VMware hypervisor has tobe capable to use Intel VTx, Windows 11 HyperV virtualization features (WSL2, Credential Guard, ...) must be disabled with the "bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off" command to make VMWare workstation pro start the CML virtual machine. CML virtual machine will fail at startup if HyperV is enabled.
Cisco Modeling Labs 2.8.0 free-tier step by step installation guide
Download the Cisco Modeling Labs OVA image and start a new VM in VMWare workstation using this OVA. Intel VT-X CPU extensions have to be usable by the virtual machine (hyper-v and windows 10/11 VBS features have to be turned off). The following splash screen is displayed when the CML virtual machine starts for the first time.
Read and accept Cisco Modeling Labs End User Licence Agreement (EULA)
Review the useful keyboard shorcuts you will have to use to configure data in the following setup screens:
- CTRL+P or CTRL+N to navigate fields
- Tab to switch between input fields
- Space tab to select items
- Return to advance to the next screen
- CTRL+U to erase the content of a text field
Pass the welcome screen.
Confirm that a single network interface is used and that Cisco Modeling Labs will be used in a standalone all-in-one deployment.
