Topologies A spine and leaf diagram from your racks

In this tutorial you'll build a simple spine and leaf topology from devices you've already placed in your racks.

Open Topology, the fourth workspace in the tool rail. Every topology starts from the devices already in your racks.

Open the topology menu, choose New topology, and type the topology name shown on screen. Then create it.

Rename the first layer Spine. The active layer receives every new item you add.

Search the inventory for the two spine switches and click Add. These are real devices from your racks, not placeholders.

Add a Leaf layer, then the two leaf switches. They land on the active layer, so nothing needs moving between layers.

Repeat for a Servers layer, and add one web server from each frontend row. Layers are just a way to group devices into tiers.

Fit the view, then drag each device into a tier: spines on top, leaves in the middle, servers below. The layout is yours to choose.

Make Leaf the active layer, since new cables go on it. Click the handle on the first spine, pick a port, then choose the first leaf and one of its free ports. That is a real cable, with a label and a length.

Do the same for the second spine and the second leaf. Ports that are already in use cannot be reused, so you can't double-book one.

Under Existing cables, choose Select matching, then Add selected cables, to draw the cabling your racks already hold.

Fit the view once more. The cables we drew are real, so they also appear in Cabling: the estate count goes from 84 to 86, and the cable table lists both. Filter for the new ports to find them.

Next, Design review shows how Railyard checks a design like this before you build it. Try it free at railyard.sh.