Whether you're using a large virtual machine or beefy hardware server, running labs with a lot of nodes or labs with resource-hungry nodes in Cisco Modeling Labs (CML) can require a lot of memory/RAM and CPUs. But this can become especially problematic in a multi-user system-until now.

Cisco Modeling Labs offers a new feature called resource limiting, available now in CML 2.5 for Enterprise and Higher Education.Read on to learn more about resource limiting, how to set up resource limits in CML 2.5, and what you need to know as you configure the new feature on your CML server or cluster.

What is resource limiting in CML 2.5?

Resource limiting is one of the new features of the CML 2.5 release. The basic idea here is to limit the resources an individual user or group of users can consume with an administrative policy configured on the CML server or cluster. Since this feature only makes sense within a multi-user system, resource limiting is only available in CML Enterprise and CML for Higher Education. Obviously, there is no reason to have a single user restrict themselves. 

Resources on a CML deployment, defined

Prior to the introduction of resource limiting, a user could grab all resources on a CML deployment. And, as a result, other users were unable to launch their labs and nodes.

For context, resources in a CML deployment refer to: 

• Memory 
• CPU cores 
• Node licenses 
• External connectors 

The first three elements of this list are indeed resources with limited availability. The external connectors, however, can be restricted from a policy point of view. Even though external connectors are almost free in terms of memory and CPU cost, it can make sense to restrict their usage for different users/groups. 

How to configure CML resource limits

By default, no resource limits are present. An administrator can put resource limits in place by creating resource pools, which then are assigned to a user or group of users. 

Create and assign resource pools

You can manage resource pools by navigating toTools