"Cisco CML on AWS" and "Cisco CML online" are common searches for a reason: nobody wants a 32 GB nested-virtualization VM pinned to their laptop. The catch is that running CML in the cloud isn't a hosted service you log into — it's a do-it-yourself stack you stand up, license, and pay to keep running. Here's what it actually takes, and where a genuinely cloud-native lab differs.
Bottom line: CML in the cloud is bring-your-own EC2 instance, bring-your-own license, a reference-platform ISO staged in a bucket, and Terraform you run locally — there's no pay-as-you-go CML. As of 2026, NetPilot is the cloud-native, browser-based alternative: describe a multi-vendor lab in plain English and it deploys in about two minutes, no instance or license to manage.
How "CML in the cloud" actually works
Cisco publishes a path to run CML on AWS (and Azure), and the community maintains Terraform around it. The pipeline looks like this:
- Bring your own instance. CML needs nested virtualization, which on AWS means a bare-metal (
.metal) EC2 instance — not a cheap general-purpose VM. You size it for your node count and you pay for it the whole time it's running. - Bring your own license. There's no consumption / pay-as-you-go model. You still buy a CML license (Personal, Personal Plus, or Enterprise) and register the cloud instance against it.
- Stage the reference-platform ISO. The CML refplat ISO (the device images) has to be uploaded to an S3 bucket so the instance can pull it at boot.
- Run Terraform locally. The automation that builds the instance, networking, and bootstrap runs from your machine — you're managing cloud infrastructure, not just a lab.
None of this is unreasonable for a team that wants official Cisco images on infrastructure they control. But it's hours of plumbing before you configure a single router, and the meter is running the entire time.
The friction people actually hit
- It's not hosted. You own the instance lifecycle. Forget to tear it down and a bare-metal instance bills around the clock — the reason one widely shared write-up described cloud CML as "another mortgage payment."
- It's resource-heavy. CML can peg most of a CPU on a small lab; bigger topologies need bigger (pricier) metal instances.
- It's still Cisco-only. All that cloud effort gets you Cisco IOS/IOS-XE/IOS-XR/NX-OS — no Juniper, Arista, Nokia, or Palo Alto in the same topology.
- Setup is repeated tax. Spin up, license, load the ISO, Terraform, and tear down — every time, unless you leave it (and the bill) running.
Cloud-native, the other way
The reason CML is hard to put in the cloud is that it was built as a local VM. A platform built cloud-first doesn't have any of those steps. NetPilot runs labs on managed cloud infrastructure with an AI agent in front:
- No instance, no license, no Terraform, no ISO. Open a browser tab and describe the lab.
- Two-minute deploy. The agent designs the topology, writes the per-vendor configs, and brings it up — then you SSH into real CLIs.
- Multi-vendor by default. Nokia SR Linux, FRR, and Linux are built in; Cisco IOL, Juniper cRPD, Arista cEOS, Palo Alto, Fortinet, and SONiC run via bring-your-own-image (BYOI) — upload once and NetPilot auto-builds it.
- Nothing left running. Labs are ephemeral — spin one up, use it, tear it down, no metal instance billing in the background.
"Spin up a 3-site BGP lab with a Cisco core and a Juniper edge, run a failover test, then tear it down."
That prompt is the whole workflow — no EC2 to size, no license to register, no bucket to stage.
When you do need official Cisco images on your own cloud account (compliance, data residency, a Cisco-only mandate), running CML on AWS is the right tool. For everything else, a cloud-native emulator skips the entire stack. NetPilot's enterprise plan also offers a self-hosted / on-prem deployment if local hosting is a hard requirement — multi-vendor, AI-driven, without the per-instance plumbing.
FAQ
Can I run Cisco CML in the cloud?
Yes, on AWS or Azure — but it's self-managed: a bare-metal instance (for nested virtualization), your own CML license, the refplat ISO in a storage bucket, and Terraform you run locally. It's not a hosted, log-in-and-go service.
Is there a pay-as-you-go or hosted Cisco CML?
Not from Cisco — there's no consumption-based CML license, and the cloud instance is yours to run and pay for. For a hosted, browser-based experience with no license or instance to manage, NetPilot is the cloud-native option; for self-managed ContainerLab in the cloud see ContainerLab in the Cloud.
What are the requirements to run CML on AWS?
A nested-virtualization-capable (bare-metal) EC2 instance sized to your node count, a valid CML license registered to it, the CML reference-platform ISO in an S3 bucket, and the Terraform/automation to provision it. Expect server-grade resources and steady instance cost while it runs.
Copy-paste ready: Browse the example-prompts library — multi-vendor labs that deploy in ~2 minutes, no instance or license required.
Want cloud labs without the cloud plumbing? See the Cisco CML alternative, run an online network lab, or read Why Cloud Network Labs Are Replacing EVE-NG Servers. Try NetPilot — describe a lab and get real CLIs in minutes.