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What is Cisco NSO (Network Services Orchestrator)?

Last Modified: April 3, 2024

Introduction

As time advances, networks become more complex, and traditional manual ways of managing them are no longer good enough. Organizations need to have streamlined network management solutions in order to run networks smoothly. Cisco NSO emerges as a game-changer, offering automation and orchestration capabilities that enable organizations to adapt, scale, and innovate with agility.

By automating repetitive tasks and simplifying complex workflows, it gives the freedom to businesses to enhance operational efficiency, reduce errors, and, most importantly, accelerate service delivery. Empower your network automation journey with Cisco NSO training. In this blog, we will discuss the Cisco network services orchestrator (NSO) use cases in detail, along with its download and installation. We will also explain different network service orchestration tools and look into the basic Cisco NSO vs Ansible.

Before getting into more details, let’s first understand what Cisco NSO really is.

What is Cisco NSO?

Cisco NSO or Network Services Orchestrator is a powerful tool developed by Cisco Systems and mainly designed to automate the deployment, configuration, and management of network services across multi-vendor and multi-technology environments. Moreover, it acts as a centralized orchestrator that mainly abstracts the complexity of the underlying network devices and technologies. This allows network administrators to define as well as deploy services through a single interface.

By using a model-driven approach, Cisco NSO makes it possible to ensure consistency as well as accuracy in network configurations. Further, this will help in reducing human errors and any misconfigurations.

NSO is used by various organizations irrespective of size. Some of these are:

Service Providers: Simplify the provision of services and oversee complicated network infrastructures.
Enterprises: Enhance internal user service delivery by automating network operations.
Cloud Providers: Manage cloud infrastructures with multiple tenants and automate service provisioning.

Now, many are curious about how Cisco NSO works. Let’s understand the working in detail.

How Does Cisco NSO work?

NSO takes a model-driven approach, defining and managing network services via a graphical interface or code. This model-based approach allows:

Rapid service deployment

Services may be created and delivered rapidly and consistently, avoiding human configuration problems.

Centralized Management

Network administrators may administer all services from a single point of management, which increases operational efficiency.

Visibility and Control

NSO gives a comprehensive picture of the network and allows for fine-grained control over service behavior.

Let’s now understand some of the benefits associated with Cisco NSO.

Benefits of Cisco NSO

Below, we have explained the different benefits that Cisco NSO can offer.

Multi-vendor Support: It works with different network devices and vendors, and side-by-side ensures interoperability and flexibility in network environments.
Automation and Efficiency: It helps in improving operational efficiency by reducing manual configuration errors and repetitive tasks.
API-driven Architecture: It allows custom automation and integration workflows by enabling integration with third-party tools as well as systems.
Real-time Network Visibility: It allows proactive troubleshooting and performance optimization as it provides real-time monitoring and visibility into network operations.
Scalability and Flexibility: In terms of scalability, it can support large and complex network infrastructures. Whereas, in terms of flexibility, it can adapt to the changing business needs with ease.

Cisco NSO Architecture

The Cisco NSO architecture is like a central hub that helps manage and automate network services. It consists of several key components that work together to make this happen.

Architecture of Cisco NSO showing its various components such as Network Element Driver, VNF Lifecycle Manager, etc.

CDB (Configuration Database): CDB acts as a storage space that holds all the network service configurations. It includes the service manager, which is mainly utilized in order to handle the creation as well as modification of service configurations. Apart from a service manager, CDB also has a device manager that directly interacts with the network devices in order to apply these configurations. Finally, CDB has a package manager that organizes and manages the different service packages.
Device Abstraction: It acts as a translator between the network devices and the NSO system. Further, it assists NSO in understanding the specifics of each device and communicate with them effectively.
ESC (Element and Service Controller): This acts as a manager for the VNFs (Virtual Network Functions). If we talk about its functioning, it is responsible for handling the life cycle of VNFs, from deployment to scaling to termination. Apart from this, it also monitors the performance of VNFs and, side-by-side, ensures they are running smoothly.

Note: Cisco NSO architecture is like a smart system that keeps track of network configurations, talks to network devices, manages virtual functions, and makes sure everything is working as it should be.

Cisco NSO Download & Installation

In order to get started with Cisco NSO, one must first download the software from the official Cisco website. To download, simply visit the Cisco website download section or click on the given link, i.e., https://developer.cisco.com/site/nso/. Now, select the appropriate version based on your requirements and follow the installation instructions.

Note: Cisco NSO only supports either Linux systems or macOS. If someone is using a window, it is not possible to install it natively on their systems. One can install NSO either on a Linux virtual machine or in a container. If someone is using a docker, there are options for them to install pre-built system images.

After downloading the Cisco NSO image file, it’s time to install it on a system. The installation process is straightforward and well-documented. We have provided step-by-step instructions in order to help individuals in setting up the platform quickly and efficiently. The installation process generally involves setting up the necessary infrastructure, configuring the software components, and integrating Cisco NSO with the existing network environment.

Let’s now understand the Cisco NSO use cases.

Cisco NSO Use Cases

Cisco NSO offers a wide range of use cases across various industries and network environments. Some common use cases include:

Service Orchestration

Automating the provisioning and deployment of network services such as VPNs, firewalls, and load balancers.

Configuration Management

Managing and maintaining network device configurations in a consistent and scalable manner.

Network Automation

Streamlining repetitive tasks and workflows to improve operational efficiency and reduce manual errors.

Multi-Vendor Support

Integrating and orchestrating services across heterogeneous network environments with different vendor devices.

Self-Service Portals

Empowering end-users to request and provision network services through self-service portals, enhancing agility and responsiveness.

We now have a good knowledge of Cisco NSO, let’s discuss some of the most famous Network service orchestration tools.

Network Service Orchestration Tools

Network service orchestration tools are a kind of software program that helps in automating the provision, configuration, and management of network services. These tools assist in streamlining complex network operations, reduce manual errors, and enhance overall network efficiency.

Further, Network service orchestration can be classified into 3 categories. These are:

Policy-Based Automation (PBA)
Software-Defined Networking (SDN)
Intent-based networking Systems (IBNS)

Now, some of the most popular Network service orchestration tools are:

Cisco NSO: It simplifies network management through automating as well as orchestrating network services. In order to allow efficient delivery and reduce manual configuration errors, it offers a single point of control for all network devices.

Ansible: Ansible is one of the most powerful automation tools for various IT tasks, which include configuration management, application deployment, and orchestration. It makes use of simple YAML scripts to define tasks. With Ansible, it is easy to automate complex workflows and streamline IT operations.

VMware NSX: It is a software-defined networking solution that virtualizes network services. This allows organizations to create secure, agile, and scalable networks. It also helps in providing network virtualization and security features. With VMware NSX, organizations can easily improve network performance as well as simplify their network management.

HPE Intelligent Management Center (IMC): It is a network management platform that offers end-to-end visibility as well as control over network infrastructure. There are various other features that are offered by HPE (IMC), such as network monitoring, configuration management, and performance optimization, that help many organizations to efficiently manage their network resources.

Puppet: Puppet is a configuration management tool that automates the deployment and management of IT infrastructure. It uses declarative language to define system configurations, ensuring consistency across servers and reducing manual intervention. Puppet helps organizations streamline their IT operations and improve infrastructure reliability.

There are many other tools apart from the ones that we defined above, such as Juniper Contrail, OpenStack, SaltStack, VMware vRealize Automation, etc.

To get more information about the tools, one can go through the Network service orchestration tools.

Now moving on to the next section, where we will be discussing the difference between the two most used network orchestration tools, i.e., Cisco NSO and Ansible.

Cisco NSO vs Ansible

While both Cisco NSO and Ansible are popular automation tools in the networking industry, they serve different purposes and have distinct use cases. We have explained some of the basic differences between the two in a tabular form based on different factors.

Factor	Cisco NSO	Ansible
Vendor	Cisco Systems	Red Hat
Primary Use	Network automation and orchestration	IT automation and configuration management
Language	YANG modeling language	YAML (Yet Another Markup Language)
Complexity	Suitable for complex network environments	Simple and easy to use for general automation tasks
Scalability	Highly scalable for large networks	Scalable for managing multiple devices and configurations
Integration	Integrates well with Cisco devices and other vendors	Integrates with a wide range of devices, platforms, and tools
Community Support	Strong community support and documentation	Large and active community with extensive resources
Learning Curve	Steeper learning curve due to network-specific concepts	Relatively easier to learn and use for general automation tasks
Commercial Support	Available through Cisco	Available through Red Hat and other vendors
State Management	Built-in state management capabilities	Limited state management features
Use Cases	Ideal for service providers and large enterprise networks	Suitable for IT operations, cloud provisioning, and application deployment
Execution Mode	Agent-based architecture for network devices	Agentless architecture for managing remote systems
Cost	Typically higher costs due to enterprise-level features	Generally lower cost with the open-source version available

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. What is Cisco NSO?

Cisco NSO (Network Services Orchestrator) is a software platform by Cisco that is mainly used to automate as well as orchestrate network services. It allows efficient management and provisioning of network resources in a scalable manner.

Q2. Is Cisco NSO free?

Yes, Cisco NSO is available to download from DevNet, but only for non-production use. Although the terms of the download are outlined under a click-to-accept license, in simple terms, anybody can use it whatever they choose as long as it is not being used for production purposes.

Q3. What is NSO tool?

A Network Orchestration Tool is a software platform used to automate and streamline the management of network resources, configurations, and services dynamically and efficiently. Some of the examples of NSO tools are Cisco NSO, Ansible, etc.

Q4. Which language is used in the Cisco network services Orchestrator NSO?

Yang modeling language is used in the Cisco network services Orchestrator NSO.

Conclusion

Cisco NSO is a network service orchestration tool that allows organizations to automate as well as streamline their network operations. In this blog, we have explained the Cisco network services orchestrator along with its functioning and benefits. We also have covered its use cases and different types of network services orchestrator tools. We also have compared the basic differences between Cisco NSO and Ansible for better understanding.