Additional Tools

netlab can start additional tools after starting the lab topology. For example, you could:

• Use Graphite GUI to display lab topology and connect to lab devices via SSH¹
• Capture traffic between nodes in your lab with Edgeshark
• Visualize the BGP tables on lab devices² with the network-xray tool
• Observe the changes in your network with SuzieQ³

The easiest way to start additional tools without modifying the lab topologies is via environment variables. Set these environment variables to True to enable the above-mentioned tools:

To enable…	… set this variable
Graphite GUI	NETLAB_TOOLS_GRAPHITE_ENABLED
Edgeshark	NETLAB_TOOLS_EDGESHARK_ENABLED
network-xray	NETLAB_TOOLS_NETWORK__XRAY_ENABLED
SuzieQ	NETLAB_TOOLS_SUZIEQ_ENABLED

For example, to enable the Graphite GUI, use:

$ export NETLAB_TOOLS_GRAPHITE_ENABLED=True

Use the unset command to remove an environment variable, for example:

$ unset NETLAB_TOOLS_GRAPHITE_ENABLED

The netlab up command starts the additional tools automatically after it sets up the lab topology. It also prints brief instructions for using the tools, such as the URL needed to access them:

When you start an external tool within a GitHub Codespace, you’ll get a pop-up notification within your browser. Click on the Open in Browser button to connect to the tool in a separate browser tab.

Alternatively, you could click on the Ports tab in the Terminal part of your Codespace page to display the application (tool) ports and connect to them.