Step 1 - Microsoft Visual Studio Code

To make things easier in the lab, we have created an environment leveraging the web version of Microsoft Visual Studio Code. This tool will allow us to create and edit the necessary files needed to get Service as Code working.

To access your POD which contains your Microsoft Visual Studio Code instance, please go to:

https://10.0.226.241:16005/?folder=vscode-remote://10.0.226.241:16005/home/pod05/ltrdcn-2654

• Password: ciscolivelabs

After succesfully logging to Microsoft Visual Studio Code, you will be presented with the following screen:

Step 2 - Open a Terminal

Please open terminal session inside Microsoft Visual Studio Code by following steps:

1. Click the Three Lines in the left navigation bar
2. Click Terminal
3. Click New Terminal

At the bottom of the screen the terminal will appear with the following prompt:

pod5 ~/ltrdcn-2654 $:

Please contact one of the lab instructor if the prompt is different.

Step 3 - Setup the Environment

Before we start taking advantage of Service as Code and the VXLAN Data Model, we need to setup our working environment. This requires setting up:

• A Python Environment
• Create a Virtual Environment
• Setup Ansible
• Install VXLAN Data Model Collection

NOTE: During the following steps you can leverage the copy function as well by hovering your mouse just below the Cisco logo and the copy icon will display. Allowing you to copy the command and then, being able to paste the command in the terminal. As in previous section we are trying to minimize errors.

pyenv install 3.10.13

pyenv versions

* system (set by /home/pod05/.pyenv/version)
  3.10.13

Step 4 - Configure global version of Python

pyenv global 3.10.13

Step 5 - Create virtual environment with PyENV

The command to create your virtual environment using pyenv is pyenv virtualenv {python_version} {virtualenv_name}. Create a virtual environment called nac-ltrdcn-2654 using the 3.10.13 Python version you previously installed. Do this by either typing or copying the command below into your VSCode Terminal window:

pyenv virtualenv 3.10.13 nac-ltrdcn-2654

Step 6 - Set VirtualEnv in Project Directory

Next, use the pyenv local {virtualenv_name} to set the virtualenv for the project. This will create a .python-version file within the current directory, thus the reason we went ahead and changed directory into the project directory. This file is powerful as it will handle activating and deactiving the virtualenv as you move in and out of the project directory automatically, otherwise, this is an action you would need to perform manually or by some other automated means. Do this by either typing or copying the command below into your VSCode Terminal window:

pyenv local nac-ltrdcn-2654

And with that you have created and activated the virtual environment you will use during this lab. Notice that it placed you inside the virtual environment after creating it. The important part is the way the SHELL looks like while you are inside the virtual environment. Notice the (nac-ltrdcn-2654) at the start of the line; that indicates the virtualenv is active.

What active virtualenv looks like:

(nac-ltrdcn-2654) pod05 ~/../nac-ltrdcn-2654 $:

Now, that we have setup our environment, let's move to the next session to setup Service as Code for our VXLAN environment.