Holistic Validation of a Network Via Native Communications Across a Mirrored Emulation of the Network

A method comprising:

• identifying a plurality of connections between a plurality of hardware network devices in a data network, wherein each connection of the plurality of connections terminates at an address of one of the plurality of hardware network devices;
• allocating a different set of hardware resources from one or more physical machines for each hardware network device of the plurality of hardware network devices, wherein connectivity between the one or more physical machines is different than the plurality of connections between the plurality of hardware network devices, and wherein addressing of the one or more physical machines is different than the addresses of the plurality of hardware network devices;
• instantiating a plurality of virtual machines by creating a different virtual machine on each set of the different sets of hardware resources;
• running a network device image on each virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines, said network device image emulating functionality and operation of a hardware network device from the plurality of hardware network devices;
• providing each network device image running on the plurality of virtual machines network access through at least one virtual network interface having an address matching the addressing of a different hardware network device of the plurality of hardware network devices;
• and
• creating a plurality of logical connections between the plurality of virtual machines with addresses at which each logical connection terminates mirroring the addresses at which each connection of the plurality of connections between the plurality of hardware network devices terminates.