Nautobot Digital Twin

An app for Nautobot that creates and manages disposable lab environments ("digital twins") from Nautobot source-of-truth data.

What this app does

• Builds topology definitions from Nautobot Location, Device, Interface, and Cable data.
• Deploys and destroys labs using containerlab (SSH to a lab host).
• Supports Golden Config integration:
  • deploy with intended config files,
  • push intended config to running labs,
  • execute "generate intended config" and push in one workflow.
• Adds Location Job Buttons for quick start/stop operations.

Installation

Install from PyPI:

pip install nautobot-app-digital-twin

Enable it in nautobot_config.py:

PLUGINS = [
    "nautobot_digital_twin",
]

PLUGINS_CONFIG = {
    "nautobot_digital_twin": {
        "BACKEND": "containerlab",
        "CONTAINERLAB_SSH_HOST": "172.16.6.128",
        "CONTAINERLAB_SSH_PORT": 22,
        "CONTAINERLAB_SSH_USER": "clab",
        "CONTAINERLAB_SSH_PASSWORD": "clab",
    }
}

Run post-upgrade and restart services:

nautobot-server post_upgrade

Optional: create/update Location job buttons:

nautobot-server ensure_digital_twin_job_buttons

Key settings

Common PLUGINS_CONFIG["nautobot_digital_twin"] settings:

• BACKEND: must be containerlab (only supported backend)
• LOCATION_TYPE_NAME: Location type where Start/Stop buttons are shown
• CONTAINERLAB_SSH_*: credentials/host for remote containerlab server
• CONTAINERLAB_PLATFORM_MAP: map platform names to node kind/image
• REMOVE_CONFIG_LINES / REPLACE_CONFIG_PATTERNS / PLATFORM_ADD_CONFIG_LINES: intended-config filtering pipeline
• DIGITAL_TWIN_AUTO_DESTROY_MINUTES: automatic cleanup timer

See the full docs for all available options.

Documentation

• User Guide: User Guide
• Admin Guide: Admin Guide
• Developer Guide: Developer Guide
• Release Notes: Release Notes

Development

This repository includes:

• GitHub CI and release workflows (lint, test, docs build, PyPI publish).
• MkDocs configuration (mkdocs.yml) and Read the Docs config (.readthedocs.yaml).

Run docs locally:

poetry install --with docs
poetry run mkdocs serve

Support

• Open an issue in this repository.
• For Nautobot community help, join #nautobot on Network to Code Slack.