Then it says I'll create the full lab

topology in CML. It figured out the data

model that it needed to use to create

that and then it pushed that out to CML

with this configuration, roughly this

topology. And if I go back to Firefox, I

have a three EBGP. I didn't even ask for

EBGP. It just I said BGP and it said I

will do EBGP. And I don't want to take

Dalton's thunder, but we've got

something else coming

that will make this even cooler for our

wireless engineers.

>> is amazing. So Justin, if you see this

video, dude,

really impressed, man. You have now made

the lives of network engineers so much

easier. Okay, Joe, this is fantastic. Is

there some more stuff you can show us?

>> Absolutely. I can show you not only

building the lab, but building a

scenario and getting some coaching tips.

>> And one of the really cool things about

this is whenever you drag this client

across the canvas, it actually changes

the signal strength based on how far it

is on the screen from the AP. So it

really kind of mimics what it would look

like if you were physically moving away

from the AP.

>> Everyone, David Bombal back with two

very special guests. Joe, great to have

you back on the show.

>> It's great to be here.

>> Dalton, great to have you on the show.

>> Thanks. Thanks for having me.

>> So it's your first time, so perhaps you

can tell us a bit a bit about yourself.

>> Sure. Yeah, my name is Dalton Ortega.

I'm the product manager for CML and I've

been with the group since about, yeah, 4

years ago. It'll be 4 years ago later

this month.

>> Joe, you're really well known. Come on,

you've got to do this, dude.

>> Oh.

>> Come on, show us that.

>> Yes, I've collected quite a bit.

>> You've done a lot. So, I mean, you're

very well known. Just for people who

don't know who you are, though.

>> Uh yes, normally you and I speak about

the the network at Cisco Live Europe,

but this time I'm here doing Cisco

Modeling Labs um at Cisco. I actually

turned 28 at Cisco Monday. Uh so I've

done a lot. I started in TAC. Uh now I

work in our Learn with Cisco um group

and I do I work with the Cisco Modeling

Labs team. I work with our Continuing

Education program. I do standards work

at the IETF, and I'm just an all-around

network geek.

>> You're the guy I love to talk to, you,

man. So, really looking forward to this.

CML, there's been some updates, so

perhaps you guys can bring us up to

speed. Tell us what's what you guys are

doing and why the product is just

getting better and better.

>> You know what, Dalton? Why don't you, as

the product manager, yeah.

>> absolutely. So, we just released our

latest version, CML 2.10, a couple weeks

ago, and it's a pretty big one,

honestly. Yeah, there's some really cool

things we're going to show off today,

like MCP server that's been integrated

into CML. I'm going to show off a very

new wireless fabric that we have in CML,

essentially end-to-end wireless without

needing real radios. And there's a lot

of other features, too, like RADIUS

authentication, XRD, like a Docker

containerized version of a service grade

service provider routers.

A lot more other things, too, like

packet capture streaming, be able to

send your packet capture directly to

Wireshark, rather than downloading a

pcap and exporting, so a lot of fun

stuff.

>> That's great.

So, Joe, you got to you got to demo for

us, I hope.

>> I do. So, um

it wouldn't be Cisco Live in 2026 if we

didn't talk about AI. And so, CML is no

exception. We are on the AI bandwagon,

and Dalton mentioned MCP, so model

context protocol. It's one way that all

products, all applica- all things can

connect to generative AI. Um and one of

the challenges people have always had

with CML, there's been a few, but one of

the big challenges is how do I get going

quickly? We

all the time, do you have sample labs to

this and that and the other thing? And

but while we do have some static sample

labs, it's kind of fun to just think,

what do I want to learn today? Or what

do I want to play with today? And use

your natural language, whatever that may

be, English, Spanish, French, whatever,

and say, "CML, make me a lab." And that

is what this MCP server allows us to do.

Um so, here I've got my my CML, you see

that? My mouse is moving, nothing up my

sleeve, just a long badge. Um this is

I've got a lot of labs in here. I

collected a lot of craft over the years.

I've been using CML as a fanboy for a

while, but I want to create a new lab

here. I'm going to do it fairly quickly.

So, I'll come over here to cursor. So,

this is cursor. It's like a VS code.

But, what I want to point out is even

though I'm going to use cursor for this

demo, I could do this with Claude

desktop. I could do this with VS code. I

could do this with LM Studio or Ollama

and just local models if I have my own

GPU. But, I'm going to ask it, "Hey, can

you build a CML lab with three IOL

routers and a simple BGP config?" And

I'm going to send that in. And what what

happens here is MCP exposes a list of

what are called tools. And tools are

nothing more than functions. In this

case, they happen to be Python

functions.

And CML was written with API first. So,

everything I do in CML, so if I come

back over here to Firefox and I like go

down here to a lab like this Wi-Fi lab

and I click and I move around, all of

these things are actually making API

calls in the background. So, what these

tools are going to do is allow the LLM,

which is right now thinking about what

I'm asking. So, the model I'm using in

the background here is is Claude 46

Sonnet. It's thinking about what I want.

It says, "Ah, you asked for IOL routers.

So, I'm going to look and see what node

definitions." So, it went out and called

the tool to get the node definitions out

of CML. And this is simply the the LLM

translates my natural language request

into functions that it needs to call and

it figures out what arguments to pass to

those functions. So, all of this gets

done automatically. And then it says,

"Haha, I thought for 42 seconds." And I

said, "The IOL node definition is

available at this.

I'm going to use this. Now, I'll create

the lab with three IOL routers. You

asked for a simple BGP config, Joe. So,

let me come up with this IP address. You

didn't give me any IPs, so I'll just

invent something.

Um then it says I'll create the full lab

topology in CML.

Let me click on that. I'll show you it

figured out the data model that it

needed to use to create that. And you

can see that all here. And then it

pushed that out to CML with this

configuration, roughly this topology.

And if I go back to Firefox,

back to my lab list, scroll all the way

down, I have a three EBGP. I didn't even

ask for EBGP. It just I said BGP and it

said I will do EBGP.

>> So, Joe, this is great, but you know,

being the cynical old network engineer

that I am, can you just show us a

console and do a show run or something

so we can see that it actually did some

BGP?

>> Not yet. I will show you that I'm going

to I'm going to do this in two phases.

Once, I'm going to This is the day zero

config, but it didn't notice it didn't

start the lab. I didn't ask for the lab

to be started. So, let me come over here

and I'll say

great.

>> Okay.

>> Uh

this will start really quick because I

did IOL.

And look, I'm being very glib with my

I'm not saying please start this lab,

use this ID. It will say, "Okay, I need

to figure out to start a lab. Great,

I've got this."

My tool here for starting a lab um

takes a lab ID. It needs that, but

there's this optional wait for

convergence argument. I didn't say start

the lab and wait for it to be up. It

just figured you probably want me to

wait and tell you that the lab is up.

But now if I go back here, you can see

the devices are starting.

>> Oh, I see.

>> Now I can give you that console you

asked for.

I'm sure the devices are coming up.

Should be pretty quick to get the uh

prompts on router three here. Still

booting. There we go. So, router three.

So, you wanted a show run?

>> Now I can see BGP there, so yeah.

>> Yep. So, there's the show run.

>> I can trust you, Joe, but I'm you know

>> you can trust the config is there, but

let's see what show

show IP BGP summary says.

Yeah. Says I got some peers, so there

you go.

>> Well done. Well done.

>> Check's in the mail.

>> Okay, gentlemen, this is fantastic. Is

there some more stuff you can show us?

>> Absolutely. I can show you not only

building the lab, but building a

scenario and getting some coaching tips.

>> You got to show us that.

>> A lot of your listeners, a lot of the

people who come to us and learn with

Cisco, they are on a certification or a

career journey. They want to not only

learn something, but they want to make

sure they know it well and they want to

practice it with intention. So, one of

the other things that's really great, if

you're looking for a study partner, if

you're looking for someone who can help

you

test you, quiz you, that type of thing,

we have the ability to create not only

labs like I did, but scenarios.

So, you may have heard we just released

a new blueprint for the CCNA. We've

up-leveled that to include more

troubleshooting skills. So, I uploaded

that blueprint to Cursor and I said,

"Look, I'm preparing for my CCNA, man,

but

>> [gasps]

>> this troubleshooting thing, it's got me

a little worried. I don't know if I'm at

that level to do the troubleshooting.

So, can you look at this blueprint,

figure out what is a good

troubleshooting task for me to do, and

spin up a scenario for me,

let me work through it, and then take a

look at what I did, take a look at my

console history, take a look at this the

config that I finally ended up with, and

evaluate me and give me hints." So, it

built the lab, it built this lab over

here.

Down here it says CCNA troubleshooting.

So, two routers, two switches, two

clients.

And then I went through earlier and I

did some things. I

went in and I I tried to fix some of the

problems. How did I know what problems I

needed to fix? Well, the LLM used the

CML guide to tell me everything I'm

supposed to do to make this scenario

work. It sent me a broken scenario what

to do. So, I did a few things, but I

didn't do everything.

>> have to interrupt you, right? You're the

guy who made the MCP, right?

>> I'm the guy who wrote the MCP server.

>> done, dude. Sorry to interrupt you.

>> Um so, but it's a team effort. I it it

needs to

>> Credit where credit is due, dude.

>> needs it needs the creativity. So, the

LLM said, "Okay, great. You did some

things." And then it said, "Here's don't

peek into what you tried." Okay, so I

scrolled down and I said, "Okay, can you

check where I'm at? I didn't do

everything. How I've done so far, give

me an eval and some coaching tips."

It went in and it said, "Well, what you

did well was you went into router two

and you ran some show commands ahead of

you. You didn't just start making

configuration changes. You looked and

set and saw what was wrong. And then

you fixed all of that, great. And then

what I what I like here is what you got

right down here in exercise three, you

ran show IP route and you saw this, but

you missed a critical part. There's a

missing route for your network." So,

[snorts] now I have not only an

evaluation of did I get it right or did

I get it wrong, but it gives me some

some both positive cuz LLMs love to be

effusive and positive, but also, "Hey,

here's where you could have done a

little bit better. Here are things that

you could have

done that made that would make you a

more effective network engineer or a

more effective troubleshooter." And

these are great use cases

for the MCP server. The last thing I

want to show you is let's say you're

dealing with a very complex topic. This

is BGP. It can take the packet capture

from CML and analyze it down to a ladder

diagram and explain to you how a

protocol works. So, it pulls out all of

that packet capture, shows me the entire

flow of BGP all the way down to here

where you can see the updates with the

NLRI, with the routes being learned. And

this helps me to really crystallize some

of these complex things. And this is all

available in all flavors of CML. The MCP

server itself ships with 2.10, but it's

open source and works all the way back

to 2.9. So, we're really hopeful that

people start to do this. I mentioned I

appreciate you give me the credit, but

it needs the creativity and we would

love to hear from people to see what

kind of use cases they come up with

this.

>> Beats, I'm impressed.

>> Thank you.

>> Fantastic, man. So, I know you're really

humble,

but that MCP thing was amazing. Dalton,

you've got some more, right? But there's

more.

>> But there's more, but wait.

>> [laughter]

>> I do. Yeah, so I'm going to show you our

new wireless fabric that we have in CML.

So, this has always been kind of one of

the problems with CML or really any

virtualization platform is to do a

wireless simulation you still have to

connect externally to a physical radio,

physical AP. So, with this new wireless

fabric you can actually run that inside

CML. So, what we're doing with this

first kind of approach that is running a

Ubuntu-based WPA supplicant for our APs

and for our clients. So, what that

allows us to do is to be able to connect

these clients. So, in this lab for

example, I've got two APs. They're both

sharing the same SSID. And I can see

with this client right here the signal

strength between that AP and this

client. And one of the really cool

things about this is whenever you drag

this client across the canvas, it

actually changes the signal strength

based on how far it is on the screen

from the AP. So, it really kind of

mimics what it would look like if you

were physically moving away from the AP.

So, you'll see signal degradation. You

can actually simulate roaming. So, for

example, if I go way past that AP1 over

here to AP2, it's going to recognize

that. And I've got a BG scan set up in

here. So, when it passes like a certain

threshold, it'll automatically search

for another SSID. So, that's what this

is going to do. Yeah, and as you can see

here, it just automatically snapped over

to our other AP. Yeah, it's really fun

to play with. How on earth do you get

Wi-Fi in a lab, though? Is this Is this

is amazing because it's always It's been

a problem forever.

>> Right. Yeah.

>> So how do you Is it just like magic?

>> It is. No.

>> [laughter]

>> I wouldn't really know how to describe

that, actually.

>> So, um the

I did not write this one. This is Justin

Quan

um he he created this. He had this

vision. He's had it for a while. He He

was a wireless engineer. I think he's a

wireless CCIE.

Um he figured out that there is a way to

multiplex what the wireless um the

wireless type of network does with uh

what CML does. And he's got a patent

pending on this, actually. Uh Cisco had

this thing internally because we need to

test our own gear called WSim, the

wireless simulator. He extracted bits

from that and figured out that there was

a emulated or virtual version of the

kernel module that does Wi-Fi for Linux

that he could adapt into CML. And he

created

network engineer software developers,

especially, they're they're kind of um

they're kind of geeky in how they think.

So, he created two components, the air

handler and the air duct. It's wireless,

so it's over the air. So, these are

back-end processes that enable that

wireless fabric to work together between

the client and the AP. But the cool

element that Dalton's showing you is

this

at the fore- at at the foreground of

this or in the in the in the um

uh you have the back end and the front

end. That's the word I'm looking for,

the front end. It's all regular Linux

wireless. So, WPA supplicant on the

client, host APD on the AP. And I don't

want to take Dalton's thunder, but we've

got something else coming.

>> Um that will make this even cooler for

wireless engineers.

>> this is amazing. So, Justin, if you see

this video, dude,

>> Very good.

>> really impressed, man. You have now made

the lives of network engineers so much

easier. Sorry, Dalton. Carry on.

>> Yeah.

>> there's more.

>> Yeah, and even to add on to that. So,

this is kind of our first stab at doing

wireless inside CML. So, it is based on

Ubuntu WPA supplicant, but in the future

here very soon we're going to have

actual Cisco virtual access points

shipping with CML. So, they'll have like

the full tool set, the GUI, all that.

So, you can stand up your your 9800 WLC,

you can have the Cisco VAP on there, you

can have some clients, and then really

have a pretty robust wireless network.

>> So, this is great. Just show me like how

do I build this? Is it just like I drag

like in like a router or switch in the

same kind of process I drag a wireless

device in?

>> Yeah, same kind of process. So, it'll be

in your nodes definition, your node

pallet. So, if you were to just drag

that on there, and then you can come in

here

and I did create a day zero config with

a BG scan. By default, it doesn't have

that on there. So, if you do want it to

have like the ability to do those kind

of scans past a certain threshold,

you'll have to import that. But, yeah, I

know you can come in here, you can

actually manually force roam if you want

to, you can see what's happening on the

link directly and which AP you're direct

you're connected to at the time. You can

even run like packet capture on those

links. I think that's one thing I didn't

talk about yet is running wireless

packet capture.

>> Are you serious?

>> Yeah. So, I'll run that and you can see

see what happens when I go from say AP1

to AP2.

So, there's AP1 right there the AABFF2.

And when I come over here, once it snaps

over, you should see it start connecting

to What is this other one? AA06. See, I

give it a second. The UI catches up with

it eventually, but it is in beta, so

that is expected. There it goes. So,

yeah, that is snapped over. So, now it's

on AA062F.

So, yeah, you can actually see that

happening in real time. And like I

mentioned, you can stream this directly

into Wireshark, too. So, if you wanted

to have Wireshark running on another

monitor, have your wireless simulation

here in CML, you can have that.

>> So, you're saying that I can run Wi-

Sorry, I can run run Wireshark and

capture all the Wi-Fi stuff.

>> Correct.

>> From the AP side or the client side?

>> So, the the AP packet capture um right

now filters on packets originating from

the source because because it's shared

medium. If you did everything it gets

very noisy but you do get the dot 11

frames which is super cool if you're

trying to learn wireless and understand

what those frames look like.

>> Wow, that is an that's a massive update.

It's a big one.

>> I mean MCP, Joe what you did is amazing,

what Justin did yes amazing. Dalton you

managing a bunch of rockstars dude.

>> I know I'm lucky to have them for sure.

>> So Dalton you talked about the the

streaming packet capture this is

actually a really cool feature because

if I'm trying to troubleshoot something

yes I can like I want to know what's

happening with my BGP here so I can

click on this link I can right click and

I can say packet capture and I can say

start it up here and it runs I can come

back over to here and do a clear IP BGP

star and I get stuff but you know

it's nice I can drill in but there are

other features of Wireshark that I would

like to use. So now in 2.10 there's a

new version of the breakout tool so if

you've never seen the breakout tool you

go to tools breakout tool

you download this you need to get the

new one that comes with 2.10 cuz there's

this new feature um I got this packet

capture running I'll come over here to

my breakout directory and I run breakout

pcap and it will list all of the active

packet captures I've got running on the

server I need to get this key so this is

the one active one I've got I'll rerun

it but I'll add the key this time it'll

automatically launch Wireshark for me

now I'm I'm I'm sucking in all those

live packets so let's go ahead and redo

that clear IP BGP again

and check out what Wireshark sees.

Now we're not on we're seeing all of the

packets here I can filter them I can

follow TCP stream I can look at latency

very easily between packets and I can

drill in remember I talked about that

those update messages that the LLM was

describing I can see all of that here as

well.

>> That is great.

>> And this is a great troubleshooting

tool. This is a great learning tool to

be a companion with your CML.

>> And then what I love about what you guys

have done, right?

Is it's there's a free version.

>> Mhm.

>> And this all all that we showed works

with the free version.

>> That's amazing.

>> Yeah.

>> When you studying for CCNA or any

networking cert, you need hands-on. And

I mean, this is fantastic.

>> Thank you.

>> Really, thanks so much. This is amazing.

>> Thanks for having us.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

>> Thank you.

>> We'd love to get to your follower, let

them know this is um it's there for you.

Download it now. Start playing today.

Let us know what you think.

>> Yeah, so guys, please put in the

comments what your thoughts are about

this and what else you want to see. I'm

sure everyone's got an opinion. Give

feedback. The product just gets better

every single year. Guys, thanks so much.

>> Thank you. We appreciate it.