linux

As of the date of this post, additional steps are required to successfully boot the latest Juniper vJunos-switch version on a system with an AMD CPU for Containerlab . I use Arch as my Linux distribution, but most of the content applies to any distribution. Modify where needed (e.g., package management for tools). Prerequisite Install and configure a lab server with Arch Linux Steps Point your web browser to the Juniper vJunos-switch Downloads page. ...

A lab server is a cornerstone of learning and experimentation. Whether you’re spinning up a simple virtual networking lab or deploying a complex, multi-cluster Kubernetes topology via Vagrant, a dedicated server provides the power and flexibility that local environments often lack. You might wonder why we’re choosing Arch for this build. Arch Linux is prized for its minimal footprint, ensuring that your computing resources are dedicated to your workloads rather than the operating system. Furthermore, it offers the distinct advantage of streamlined access to the latest software, keeping your lab on the cutting edge without the bloat found in other distributions. ...

Arista recently released an ARM64-based cEOS container image. This guide walks through downloading and importing it into Containerlab on macOS. Prerequisite Containerlab with macOS on Apple Silicon macOS Point your web browser to the Arista Software Download page. Log in with your Arista credentials. Click the cEOSarm-lab-4.36.2F.tar.xz file link to download. Save the cEOSarm-lab-4.36.2F.tar.xz file to your Downloads folder. Open your favorite terminal emulator, and change to the Downloads directory. ...

The content in this post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. All software rights belong to their respective owners. Cisco includes the IOS on Linux (IOL) images available with the Cisco Modeling Labs (CML) Free Tier . Because IOL runs modern Cisco IOS-XE as a native Linux binary, it offers a lightweight, resource-friendly alternative for network emulation. This post will guide you through the process of creating Cisco IOL container images using Containerlab on macOS. ...

Containerlab is gaining traction on macOS, driven by the growing availability of ARM64-based NOS container images. The following Containerlab kinds work excellent with macOS on Apple Silicon: Nokia SR Linux Arista cEOS Cisco IOL with Rosetta Prerequisites Mac computer with Apple silicon macOS 14.0 or later Git uv Steps Download OrbStack and open it. Open your favorite terminal emulator. We will work from the command line for the following steps. ...

I extensively use Vagrant along with the vagrant-libvirt plugin on my Arch Linux hosts to quickly set up development and lab environments. The plugin is mature and generally feature-complete; however, the latest release was published on June 24, 2023. Since then, multiple commits have been made to the main branch of the project repository. I use the following process rather than the standard installation sourced from RubyGems . Prerequisites Verify these Arch packages are installed: ...

The content in this post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. All software rights belong to their respective owners. I’ve read quite a few tutorials on Netmiko with GNS3, but none of them show you how to directly utilize the console connection as the management interface for Cisco devices. In addition to the CiscoIosSSH driver, Kirk Byers also implemented the CiscoIosTelnet driver for establishing a connection to a Cisco device. This is perfect for GNS3 because the default console connection is essentially a Telnet connection without authentication. ...

Hosting a local GNS3 server inside an OrbStack Linux machine on Apple Silicon offers a flexible networking lab environment, though it introduces a few key constraints: No x86_64 KVM virtualization: Hardware acceleration is unavailable for nested x86_64 VMs. Emulation overhead: Running x86_64 Linux binaries relies on Rosetta emulation, introducing a slight performance penalty. Network limitation: OrbStack uses a custom-built virtual network stack that does not support bridged networking . The Cloud and NAT nodes will not function. Note: QEMU and libvirt are disabled due to these constraints. ...

Vagrant supports three types of networks: public, private, and port-forwarding. The private network type has the option to use a UDP tunnel for a point-to-point link when using the vagrant-libvirt plugin. This connection type is ideal for links between virtual network devices. Refer to the following resources if you need more information: Pseudo-wires With Vagrant and Libvirt vagrant-libvirt Networks Vagrant Private Networks The only drawback with this type of connection is concerning packet sniffing. Since the connection uses a tunnel for encapsulation, we need a method to view the relevant data within the tunnel somehow. ...

After opening the GNS3 client and starting nodes, we primarily access the remote virtual devices with a console connection. This console connection is either Telnet, VNC, or SPICE. A console connection covers our requirement for physical access to virtual devices, but today, most administrative tasks are carried out with a link to the network management interface . I define the GNS3 server as remote if the gns3server process is not running on the host operating system. I consider the GNS3 VM remote because the gns3server process runs on a guest operating system (Ubuntu). ...