Any easy, clean way to connect all nodes to a management switch?

[fooooo]

Is there any easy way to connect all nodes in a lab to a single switch, but have it not shown on the main topology page? I'd love to have everything connected to a single OOB flat network to automate pushing out configurations and verifications without having to worry about inband connectivity working. Unfortunately, it would create an absolute mess on the topology page if I already have a large, intricate topology and then need to add another hub and spoke every device to it. It could either be bridged out to a physical NIC or just aggregated internally and connected to unix vm inside the simulation (don't need help with those parts). I'm open to any other sort of weird work-arounds to make this work too.

Thanks in advance!

[Uldis (UD)]

Yes,
add bridge network on topology and connect all you need in flat network.
UD

[fooooo]

Thanks, UD, but that's not exactly what I was asking, sorry if I wasn't clear.

I'd like to avoid seeing all those connections to/from the bridge network just to keep the overall visual of the topology cleaner. Say I have a leaf/spine architecture, then a core network for my DCI and then another leaf/spine on the other side - so say 30 nodes or so relatively neatly displayed. If i was to add another bridge/switch/something and 30 more connections, all of a sudden my topology gets a lot messier and tougher to understand visually. I was hoping to be able to hide those sets of connections or figure out another way to keep my topology cleaner. Does that make sense?

[Uldis (UD)]

One option is use cloud interface. It will look like interrupted connection but reality is same flan network. Like, take cloud9 and multiply it where you need it on topology.
Such example I did in my secv5 lab.
http://www.eve-ng.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3319

Or second option is add logical topology in the lab, and map it with nodes. Make active on click)
Video 11
http://www.eve-ng.net/index.php/documentation/howto-s-2

UD

[fooooo]

Thanks, UD - appreciate the feedback. I didn't realize I could do multiple cloud0 objects - that works well enough to meet my needs without messing up the topology too much

The second option is pretty cool too - but lots more work to build a pretty looking visio to go over the top...one day. This option would be a little better for me, since I could then tie everything in to a managed switch that speaks lldp - would give some more options for dynamically generating a configuration based on the port it's connected to using some fancy Arista ZTP scripts

I know you're working hard on getting the pro version going with already a long list of features (and i'm ready to pay for it!), but along with my original request I'd like to see if sometime in the future you could do one of the following things:

-Have the ability to hide a node and all connections to it on the topology view - that way i could connect everything back to a switch, but since the lines would be criss-crossing the whole topology, i could simply right click and hide it from view - but it's still there working

-Show an actual node multiple times, like with the cloud example you gave, so i can connect everything directly to a management switch, which is shown in multiple places on the map, but is actually just one node (again, a managed, intelligent switch that I can define)

-Have everything with a management interface on it by default (Arista, IOS-XR, NX-OS, others I'm sure..) automatically have a connection to some sort of management switch. This is probably the hardest and least flexible, but just wanted to throw it out there too

Again - those two options you gave me are helpful and I love the product! Just a few suggestions that would work well for me, and I assume others, in the future.

Thanks again!

[Uldis (UD)]

Answers below.

-Have the ability to hide a node and all connections to it on the topology view - that way i could connect everything back to a switch, but since the lines would be criss-crossing the whole topology, i could simply right click and hide it from view - but it's still there working

UD: This I do not promise, because lot of work and no actual reason for that. Best is custom mapped topology for that.

-Show an actual node multiple times, like with the cloud example you gave, so i can connect everything directly to a management switch, which is shown in multiple places on the map, but is actually just one node (again, a managed, intelligent switch that I can define)

UD: Same answer, you can show multiple times same node on custom topology and map it to single node. Physical topo is physical, but logical which can be loaded as custom topology. Created on VISIO or other tool.

-Have everything with a management interface on it by default (Arista, IOS-XR, NX-OS, others I'm sure..) automatically have a connection to some sort of management switch. This is probably the hardest and least flexible, but just wanted to throw it out there too.

UD: EVE-NG is mutivendor tool. Such scripting is possible on same vendor nodes like Cisco using it in VIRL. Authorization for mgmt is not expected in EVE.

Again - those two options you gave me are helpful and I love the product! Just a few suggestions that would work well for me, and I assume others, in the future.

Thanks again!

[ARPost]

It is an interesting question.