Setting up NSO Environment

• Activate NSO environment variables:

  source /home/NSO/nso-5.3/ncsrc
• Navigate to the NSO directory:

  cd /home/NSO/ncs-run/

2. Launching NSO:

   ncs

Now, let's proceed with setting up a minimal NSO installation.

For development purposes, the tool commonly used is netsim, which allows network simulation. In this initial setup, we'll create a basic environment with two IOS devices:

ncs-netsim --dir ~/src/netsim create-network cisco-ios-cli-3.8 2 ios

This command creates simulated IOS devices within the specified directory.

Next, we'll initialize an NSO instance:

ncs-setup --dest ~/src --netsim-dir ~/src/netsim
cd ~/src

This sets up a development instance within the current directory. You can use the ls command to view the files created.

ls

The ncs-netsim script generates simulated IOS devices, while the ncs-setup script copies default NSO configuration files and generates necessary configurations.

To start the environment, first, launch netsim:

ncs-netsim start

Then start NSO itself:

ncs

This process may take a few seconds. Once completed, you'll have a fully functional NSO instance ready for exploration and development.

Exploring NSO

1. Understanding the Environment

# List the contents of the current directory to understand the directory structure
ls

2. Exploring NSO Documentation

# Access NSO documentation (replace <version> with your NSO version)
firefox https://developer.cisco.com/docs/nso/<version>/ 

3. Experimenting with Configuration

# Access NSO CLI
ncs_cli -u admin
 
# Configure a device (replace <device-name> with your device name)
config
devices device <device-name>
config
<configuration-commands>
commit
exit

4. Developing Custom Functionality

# Access NSO development environment
ncs_cli -C
 
# Create a new service package (replace <package-name> with your desired package name)
packages package <package-name> create
 
# Create new service models, Python scripts, or YANG models

5. Engaging with the NSO Community

# Join NSO Community Forum
firefox https://community.cisco.com/t5/network-services-orchestrator-nso/bd-p/4566-discussions-nso

These commands will help you get started exploring NSO and its various capabilities. Feel free to replace placeholders like <version> and <device-name> with appropriate values for your setup.