Organizing with Groups

Subgraphs allow you to group devices by logical units such as sites, layers, or racks.

Basic Subgraph

subgraphs:
  - id: datacenter
    label: "Data Center"

nodes:
  - id: server-1
    label: "Server 1"
    type: server
    parent: datacenter    # Belongs to this subgraph

Use parent to specify which subgraph a node belongs to.

Layer Configuration Example

A typical 3-tier network configuration:

name: "3-Tier Network"

subgraphs:
  - id: core
    label: "Core Layer"
  - id: distribution
    label: "Distribution Layer"
  - id: access
    label: "Access Layer"

nodes:
  - id: core-rt
    label: "Core Router"
    type: router
    parent: core

  - id: dist-sw-1
    label: "Dist SW 1"
    type: l3-switch
    parent: distribution

  - id: dist-sw-2
    label: "Dist SW 2"
    type: l3-switch
    parent: distribution

  - id: access-sw-1
    label: "Access SW 1"
    type: switch
    parent: access

  - id: access-sw-2
    label: "Access SW 2"
    type: switch
    parent: access

links:
  - from: core-rt
    to: dist-sw-1
    standard: 10GBASE-SR
  - from: core-rt
    to: dist-sw-2
    standard: 10GBASE-SR
  - from: dist-sw-1
    to: access-sw-1
    standard: 1000BASE-T
  - from: dist-sw-2
    to: access-sw-2
    standard: 1000BASE-T

Nested Subgraphs

Subgraphs can be nested:

subgraphs:
  - id: datacenter
    label: "Data Center"

  - id: rack-a
    label: "Rack A"
    parent: datacenter    # Inside datacenter

  - id: rack-b
    label: "Rack B"
    parent: datacenter

nodes:
  - id: server-1
    parent: rack-a
  - id: server-2
    parent: rack-b

Subgraph Styling

Customize background color and border:

subgraphs:
  - id: dmz
    label: "DMZ"
    style:
      fill: "#fff5f5"           # Background color
      stroke: "#d4a017"         # Border color
      strokeWidth: 2            # Border width
      strokeDasharray: "5 5"    # Dashed line

  - id: internal
    label: "Internal"
    style:
      fill: "#f0fff0"
      stroke: "#228b22"

Label Position

subgraphs:
  - id: site-a
    label: "Site A"
    style:
      labelPosition: top    # top, bottom, left, right

Layout Within Subgraphs

Change layout direction per subgraph:

subgraphs:
  - id: servers
    label: "Server Farm"
    direction: LR    # Left to right (default is TB)

Cloud Icon Subgraphs

Express AWS VPC and similar as subgraphs:

subgraphs:
  - id: vpc
    label: "Production VPC"
    vendor: aws
    service: vpc
    style:
      fill: "#f5f5f5"

Control Horizontal Placement with rank

Nodes with the same rank value are aligned horizontally:

nodes:
  - id: sw-1
    label: "Switch 1"
    parent: access
    rank: 1

  - id: sw-2
    label: "Switch 2"
    parent: access
    rank: 1           # Same row as sw-1

  - id: sw-3
    label: "Switch 3"
    parent: access
    rank: 1           # Same row

Multi-Site Configuration

For networks with multiple sites:

name: "Multi-Site Network"

subgraphs:
  - id: tokyo
    label: "Tokyo DC"
    style:
      fill: "#e3f2fd"
      stroke: "#1565c0"

  - id: osaka
    label: "Osaka DC"
    style:
      fill: "#e8f5e9"
      stroke: "#2e7d32"

nodes:
  - id: tokyo-rt
    label: "Tokyo Router"
    type: router
    parent: tokyo

  - id: osaka-rt
    label: "Osaka Router"
    type: router
    parent: osaka

links:
  # Site-to-site link
  - from: tokyo-rt
    to: osaka-rt
    type: dashed
    label: "WAN Link"

For larger multi-site configurations, Multi-file Configuration is convenient.

Next Steps

Styles and Themes

Customize colors and themes

Multi-file Configuration

Manage large networks across multiple files

Organizing with Groups

Styles and Themes

Multi-file Configuration

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