Patent ID: 8671176

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a server device, a request to create a plurality of virtual nodes associated with a virtual network, the plurality of virtual nodes corresponding to a plurality of network nodes associated with a network, where the request includes configuration information associated with the plurality of virtual nodes; receiving, by the server device and based on the request, selection of a virtual node, of the plurality of virtual nodes, on which to perform an install operation, where the selected virtual node corresponds to a network node of the plurality of network nodes; installing, in a memory associated with the server device, the configuration information associated with the selected virtual node in order to create the virtual node, where installing the configuration information permits creation of one or more logical interfaces, associated with the created virtual node, that enable network traffic to be sent to, or received from, other virtual nodes of the plurality of virtual nodes; retrieving, from the memory, a copy of a network node operating system that is executed by the network node that corresponds to the created virtual node; starting, by the server device and using the network node operating system, the created virtual node to create an operational virtual node; causing the operational virtual node to execute the copy of the network node operating system based on configuration information associated with the network node, where the configuration information associated with the network node includes information associated with hardware or software components included in the network node; causing the operational virtual node to communicate with the other virtual nodes to obtain network topology information associated with a virtual network that includes the plurality of virtual nodes; and instructing the operational virtual node to generate routing tables based on the network topology information, where the routing tables enable the operational virtual node to process traffic associated with the virtual network.