Getting Started · End-User Guide

Welcome to the NetBrain AI Lab

Spin up real, multi-vendor network labs just by describing them in plain English. No hardware, no manual setup — your own private lab is ready in just a few minutes.

Sign in & get started 

Set Up

Get going in three steps

Sign up & sign in

Go to ai-lab.netbrainlab.com/login and sign in with your work email and password. If it's your first time, register an account there (if registration is closed, email lab_team@netbraintech.com for access).

Set up two-factor authentication (required)

Every account is protected with two-factor authentication (2FA). On first login you'll be guided through a one-time setup:

  • Open an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Authy, 1Password, etc.).
  • Scan the on-screen QR code.
  • Enter the 6-digit code to confirm.
  • Save your recovery codes somewhere safe — they're your backup if you lose your phone.

After setup, you'll enter a fresh 6-digit code from your app each time you sign in.

Your private lab gets created automatically

The first time you sign in, the system quietly builds a private lab environment just for you — typically ready in about 2–3 minutes. A progress banner keeps you posted. Once it's green, you're ready to start chatting. You only wait for this once; it's reused on every future visit.

What You Get

A lab assistant that actually builds the network
💬

Build labs in plain English

Describe what you want — "a 3-router OSPF lab", "two Arista switches with a trunk" — and the assistant builds and configures it for you.

🌐

Real multi-vendor topologies

Genuine network operating systems running on containerlab — Cisco, Arista, Juniper, Nokia, firewalls and more — not just diagrams.

🔍

NetBrain discovery-ready

Each lab is automatically prepared for NetBrain (discovery user, SNMP, LLDP) and gives you the management-IP table to register it.

🗺️

Live, interactive topology

See your network as an interactive diagram with click-to-SSH on each device — drop straight into a device CLI.

Verified & saved

The assistant runs connectivity checks (pings, route tables) and can save the running config so your lab survives restarts.

📄

Configs & artifacts

Get configuration snippets, scripts, and notes side-by-side with the chat — ready to copy, edit, and reuse.

How a Session Flows

Just talk to it — it does the rest

A typical session is a back-and-forth conversation. You ask; the assistant reads the right vendor playbook, builds the lab on your machine, configures the devices, verifies them, and shows you the result. Here are prompts that work well:

You ▸ Build me a 3-router OSPF lab using Cisco IOL, all in area 0.
You ▸ Add a 4th router and redistribute a static route into OSPF.
You ▸ Show me the topology.
You ▸ Verify R1 can reach R3's loopback, then save the configs.
You ▸ Prepare this lab for NetBrain discovery and show me the management-IP table.

Tips for great results

Name the vendor (e.g. "Arista cEOS") State the protocol (OSPF, BGP, VLANs…) Be specific about counts ("3 routers") Ask it to verify before you trust it Say "save the config" when you're done
You're in control. You can hit Stop at any time, and pick the conversation back up later — the assistant remembers the full history of what it built.

Lifecycle & Limits

Sleep, wake, and automatic cleanup

Your lab sleeps when you're away 💤

To keep things efficient, your lab automatically powers down after 6 hours of inactivity. You don't need to do anything — the next message you send wakes it back up automatically (usually within a minute or two), and your deployed labs are restored for you. Your topologies and saved configs are always preserved. You'll briefly see a "Resuming…" banner while it comes back.

Unused labs are cleaned up after 30 days

If a lab goes unused for 30 days, its underlying VM is fully removed to free up resources. Your chat history is preserved, but the lab itself (its topologies and saved configs) is not — the next time you sign in, a fresh lab is created automatically, just like your first login.

Firewalls take a little longer to boot

VM-based firewalls need extra time to come up after the lab VM itself is ready — FortiGate ~3 minutes and Palo Alto PAN-OS ~10 minutes. Give firewall labs (and post-wake restores that include them) a few extra minutes before they're fully reachable.

Supported Platforms

Network platforms you can build with today

You can build labs with any of these. Mix and match them in a single topology.

PlatformUse it for
Cisco IOL (router & L2 switch)IOS routing & switching
Arista cEOSEOS routing / switching
Juniper cRPDJunos routing
Nokia SR LinuxCloud-native NOS
Palo Alto PAN-OSNext-gen firewall
Fortinet FortiGateNext-gen firewall
VyOSOpen-source routing
FRRouting (FRR)Open-source routing stack
Linux endpointHosts / test clients for ping & traffic

Need a platform that isn't listed? See Need More? below.

Lab Tier

Resize your lab yourself when you need more

If your topology is large, you can switch your lab to a bigger machine from the Lab Tier picker in the sidebar — no need to rebuild anything. A resize takes about 2 minutes, and your topologies and saved configs are preserved (your deployed labs are automatically restored afterward).

TierSizeGood for
Default4 vCPU · 16 GBMost labs
High-Mem4 vCPU · 32 GBMemory-heavy device images
Balanced8 vCPU · 32 GBLarger multi-node topologies

Need something bigger than Balanced? See Need More? below.

Need More?

We've got you — just ask the lab team

For any of the following, email lab_team@netbraintech.com:

🧩

A platform we don't support yet

Need a device or image that isn't in the supported list above? Tell us what you need and we'll look at adding it.

🚀

A bigger lab VM

Need more than the self-serve tiers? We can provision the Large tier (8 vCPU · 64 GB) or larger on request.

A longer idle window (or no auto-shutdown)

Running something long-lived? We can extend the 6-hour idle timeout for your lab, or turn off auto-shutdown entirely.

Help

Quick answers
The setup banner seems stuck.
Give it a moment — first-time setup takes about 2–3 minutes, and resuming takes about a minute. If it shows a Retry button, click it. If it still won't finish, email lab_team@netbraintech.com.
I lost my phone / can't get a 2FA code.
Use one of the recovery codes you saved during setup. If you don't have them, email lab_team@netbraintech.com to reset your 2FA.
My account is locked.
Too many failed sign-ins lock an account for about 30 minutes. Wait for it to clear and try again, or email lab_team@netbraintech.com to unlock it sooner.
Did my lab get deleted when it went to sleep?
No. Sleeping only powers the machine down to save resources — your topologies and saved configs come right back when it wakes.
Will it remember my previous labs?
Yes. Your chats and the labs you built persist between sessions. Save the running config when you finish so a lab survives a full rebuild.
Need a hand? Reach out to the lab team at lab_team@netbraintech.com for access, account resets, or platform requests.