The advent of AI has introduced a new type of data center, the AI factory, purpose-built from the ground up to handle AI workloads. AI workloads can significantly vary in scope and scale, but in every case, the network is key to ensuring high performance and faster time to value.
To accelerate time to AI and offer enhanced return on investment, NVIDIA Air enables organizations to build digital twins of network infrastructure. In the cloud-based NVIDIA Air interface, you can model each switch, adapter, and cable in your AI factory.
This digital twin provides a virtual environment for testing and validating network provisioning, automation, security policies, and more. Network admins can get started with these Day 0 operations before a single piece of hardware has shipped.
The NVIDIA difference
NVIDIA Air specifically targets simulating real-world data center environments. It offers the immense speed, resources, and networking functions needed to perform such feats. You can spin up new servers in seconds, and tens or even hundreds in a matter of minutes.
It also provides different network operating systems to install on your switches, including NVIDIA Cumulus and SONiC, from a wide range of versions. You can even bring your own into NVIDIA Air if you like. You can integrate your simulation with handy networking tools such as NetQ.
NVIDIA Air is designed to remove the need for a hypervisor, which can be a great bottleneck of resources and time. It requires no hardware, compatibility, or integration requirements. It is cloud-based and runs right in your browser. You don’t have to install or download any software. You can even log into NVIDIA Air from your cell phone.
NVIDIA Air is a platform built by the networking experts of the world. You can be confident in the NVIDIA commitment to your success with the following resources.
- Comprehensive documentation
- Fully baked, preconfigured marketplace labs
- Knowledgeable, on-call support
Building Simulations
NVIDIA Air provides many ways to build new simulations and topologies. For now, here are the two main ways you can do so within NVIDIA Air:
- Demo Marketplace
- Drag-and-drop builder within NVIDIA Air
Demo Marketplace
NVIDIA Air offers many prebuilt simulations in the Demo Marketplace. These demos, also called labs, can be spun up anytime as copies in your account. They are completely yours to learn from, explore, destroy, and rebuild.
The labs span a wide range of topics and environments. Some labs provide step-by-step instructions to teach you about something and other labs show off different fabric options for a controlled topology. Some labs demonstrate full-fledged configurations fit for large data centers and run a three-tier spine-leaf architecture.
To get started with any lab, navigate to Demo Marketplace and choose Launch. For more information about any lab, choose Documentation for the link to the GitLab repository.
NVIDIA Air drag-and-drop builder
An alternative to the Demo Marketplace when building simulations is the drag-and-drop editor built directly into NVIDIA Air. The builder allows for fully custom topologies. For more information and instructions, see the Custom Topology step-by-step instructions in the detailed NVIDIA Air documentation.
Drop servers and switches from the System Palette on the right into the workspace. Then, you can click on the node to set its properties. Name the node, choose an operating system, and set CPU, memory, and storage. Directly connect nodes together using the Connectors area. There are also some Advanced Options you can set, such as enabling UEFI Secure Boot.
Out-of-Band Management Network
On the System Palette page, there is an option to toggle Enable OOB. Toggling this setting enables the out-of-band management network that connects each node with each other. It also adds oob-mgmt-switch and oob-mgmt-server to your simulation.
The oob-mgmt-server is typically the starting point for configuring your simulation, and it is connected to all other nodes in your simulation through an out-of-band management network, automatically handled by NVIDIA Air when you create your lab.
When you enable the SSH service in a simulation, this is the node that you connect to using SSH from your local machine. This way, you can more easily copy files such as Ansible scripts, binaries, and config files to configure your lab with than using the built-in console.
It is strongly recommended to enable this setting, unless your environment specifically does not call for it, such as requiring strict network isolation or regulation concerns.
Your Simulations
Click on your sim from the Simulations homepage to view it. You’ll see its topology, and you can also view the Nodes and Links tabs. Single click on a node to view its Node Properties. Note that once a sim has been started for the first time, you cannot edit these properties. Double click on a node to open its console.
Rebuilding and resetting simulations
You can rebuild or reset individual nodes or the entire simulation:
- Rebuilding nodes reverts the node to its original state. If you created a simulation from the Demo Marketplace, rebuilding reverts the node to the launch configuration.
- Resetting a node reboots the node.
For more information, see Rebuild and Reset Nodes.
Editing simulations
You can edit various aspects of your simulation:
- Rename it
- Assign an Organization
- Set sleep and expiration dates
Setting a sleep date means that the simulation is stored and the state is saved. The nodes do not power off. An expiration date means the simulation is deleted outright, so be careful with this setting.
For more information, see Edit Simulations.
Sharing simulations
When you share a simulation by using the Manage Users button, you share the exact simulation, not a copy. The user is not notified about sharing but will see the simulation in the Simulations list.
You can choose whether they have read-only access. Read-only access restricts what they can do with the simulation within NVIDIA Air. They can view the simulation but not make any modifications or delete it. However, they can still access the node consoles and make changes that way.
For more information, see Share Simulations.
Ready to get started?
Get started with your first simulation and start exploring NVIDIA Air today. For more information, see the NVIDIA Air User Guide.
