Introduction
DevNet Sandbox gives you packaged Cisco environments, called Sandboxes. Each Sandbox covers one Cisco product, such as Cisco Modeling Labs, Catalyst Center, or Network Services Orchestrator, with the supporting network, servers, and tooling already provisioned.
Use a Sandbox to:
- Develop and test code against a real Cisco product API.
- Learn how to configure a product, without buying hardware.
- Run demos, hackathons, and training sessions.
Sandboxes are free
The Cisco DevNet team provides and runs them for the developer community at no cost. There is no license to buy, no subscription, and no Cisco support contract required.
Start at the DevNet Sandbox landing page or go straight to the Sandbox catalog.
See Reserve a Sandbox for what the catalog looks like and how to reserve from it.
Before you start
You need a Cisco.com account to reserve a Sandbox. It is the same account that you use for Learning Labs, the Cisco DevNet community, and Stack Automation by Quali, the platform DevNet Sandbox runs on.
DevNet Sandbox accepts Cisco.com accounts only: a Cisco Connection Online (CCO) account if you are an external user, or a Cisco Employee Connection (CEC) account if you work at Cisco. If you do not have a Cisco.com account, create a Cisco account. It is free.
Two types of Sandbox
Every Sandbox in the catalog is either always on or on demand. The card tells you which. Both types need a reservation. They differ in whether the environment is shared and how long it takes to be ready.
| Always on | On demand | |
|---|---|---|
| Environment | Shared with other users | Private to your reservation |
| Admin access | Restricted | Full admin access to the Sandbox's devices |
| Ready in | A few minutes | Longer |
An always on Sandbox runs continuously. You still reserve it, because the reservation generates your credentials and scopes them to your session. Several Sandboxes issue credentials dynamically per reservation, and those credentials exist nowhere else. Expect a short wait of a few minutes while Stack Automation sets up the reservation.
Stack Automation builds an on demand Sandbox for your reservation, and it is yours alone for the session. It takes longer to provision, and in exchange you get admin rights and an environment nobody else uses.
Neither type keeps state. When your session ends, Stack Automation removes the environment and everything you configured inside it, so export configs, scripts, and captures before then.
You can hold one active reservation at a time, across every Sandbox. See Reserve a Sandbox for how the limit works.
Choosing between them
Always on Sandboxes are the quickest way to try an API or confirm how a device responds.
Always on Sandboxes are shared, so you can break them for other people. They share one environment across reservations. Changing device management settings, credentials, or interface configuration affects everyone using that Sandbox at the same time, and it is possible to break the management plane so nobody can reach it. If your work involves changing configuration rather than reading it, reserve an on demand Sandbox and get a private environment.
If you find a Sandbox that someone else has left in a broken state, report it on the DevNet Sandbox community forum so the team can reset it.
Each Sandbox sets its own session length. The Sandbox's detail page shows its own default and maximum, in the panel on the right and in its Instructions section.
Where you reserve, and where the Sandbox runs
DevNet Sandbox runs on Stack Automation by Quali, a hosted platform that provisions and runs the environments. You use two products and move between them:
- The DevNet Sandbox catalog on developer.cisco.com: where you discover Sandboxes, read what they provide, reserve one, and manage the reservation.
- Stack Automation: where your running environment lives, with your credentials, setup instructions, and the environment's status.
You can start a reservation from either one. Start at the developer.cisco.com catalog, because that is where the full catalog and its filters are. Reserving from Stack Automation directly also works, but these pages describe the catalog route.
What happens after you reserve
- You confirm the reservation on developer.cisco.com and land on the Reservations page.
- Stack Automation sets up the environment. Open sandbox takes you to the Stack Automation environment page for that reservation, where your credentials and setup instructions are.
- You reach most on demand Sandboxes over a VPN connection. Not every Sandbox needs one. See Connecting to Your Sandbox for your access details and how to connect.
Stack Automation also emails you as the reservation moves through its lifecycle. Treat email as a convenience: your credentials, connection details, and setup instructions are always available in Stack Automation through Open sandbox on the Reservations page, even if the email does not reach you. See Reserve a Sandbox for what each email means.
Next steps
- Getting Started: find, reserve, and call your first Sandbox.
- Reserve a Sandbox: the full walkthrough.
- Connecting to Your Sandbox: access details and VPN setup.
- Errors and Troubleshooting: what each reservation error means and what to do about it.