Use Cisco VIRL to Avoid Making Network Change Mistakes
July 08, 2025

Use Cisco VIRL to Avoid Making Network Change Mistakes

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco VIRL (part of The Cisco Learning Network)

I use Cisco VIRL to not only emulate existing network topologies in my environment but it also allows me to create new network topologies in a lab environment. This is immensely valuable as it allows me to lab a specific scenario so that I may better gauge the impact of said change. This is also extremely useful whenever I'm designing or proposing a new solution to my company. It allows me to be very familiar with the new design topology and it's inner workings. Cisco VIRL has also been very helpful when troubleshooting certain scenarios. I can test a particular fix in a lab environment before actually implementing in production. This helps me understand the specific intended outcome of said change.

Pros

  • It allows for labbing complex environment topologies
  • Interconnecting virtual nodes, which emulate network appliances, is extremely easy and intuitive
  • Assuming you meet the minimum hardware requirements to run the virtual images, the nodes run relatively fast

Cons

  • Better support for multi-vendor labs. Since Cisco VIRLs uses KVM as its hypervisor, not all vendor images will be fully supported in the Cisco VIRL/CML environment. For these particular use cases, it's sometimes better to use GNS3 or EVE-NG.
  • Since there are several free offerings out there that allow you to emulate network appliances (especially Cisco IOS based devices), I would love to see Cisco offer more cost-effective alternatives to engineers over their current pricing model.
  • It has allowed me to avoid mistakes when implementing changes on Cisco devices
  • It has allowed me to better plan new network change implementations
  • It has allowed me to be more confident in my network designs by providing me with a predictive model where I can gauge the effect that certain changes and new technology features will have on my network
Cisco VIRL is a great network environment emulation tool when it comes to Cisco devices. However, I have run into some issues when trying to integrate other vendors virtual images into the Cisco VIRL/CML environment. For those specific use cases, I have had better luck with other emulation platforms like EVE-NG.
Cisco VIRL/CML provides a similar emulation environment to GNS3 and EVE-NG but I would argue that it's the best when it specifically comes to Cisco network appliances. This is because you will have access to latest Cisco virtual images with the best support in regards to current feature sets. If you run into any issues, you can also get support from Cisco. The same can't be said about free emulation programs like GNS3 or EVE-NG. However, when it comes to multi-vendor labbing, I have found better success with EVE-NG.

Do you think Cisco VIRL (part of The Cisco Learning Network) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco VIRL (part of The Cisco Learning Network)'s feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco VIRL (part of The Cisco Learning Network) live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco VIRL (part of The Cisco Learning Network) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco VIRL (part of The Cisco Learning Network) again?

Yes

Cisco VIRL/CML is obviously very well suited if you want to lab practically any Cisco based network platform. It does a fantastic job of supporting almost all feature sets in a production appliance. It may not be the best option if you require a very multi-vendor intensive solution for labbing purposes.

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