Supported Platforms

netlab supports these virtual network devices or their physical equivalents (when using external virtualization provider):

Virtual network device netlab device type
Arista vEOS eos
Cisco IOSv iosv
Cisco CSR 1000v csr
Cisco Nexus 9300v nxos
Cumulus Linux 4.x/5.x cumulus
Cumulus Linux 5.0 (NVUE) cumulus_nvue
Dell OS10 dellos10
Fortinet FortiOS fortios
FRR 7.5.0 frr
Generic Linux host linux
Juniper vSRX 3.0 vsrx
Mikrotik RouterOS 6 (CHR) routeros
Mikrotik RouterOS 7 (CHR) routeros7
Nokia SR Linux srlinux
Nokia SR OS sros
VyOS 1.4 vyos

Notes:

To specify the device type of a node in your virtual lab:

  • Specify device property in node data

nodes:
- name: c_ios
  device: iosv
- name: c_csr
  device: csr
  • Use defaults.device setting in lab topology

defaults:
  device: cumulus

nodes: [ s1, s2, s3 ]

See lab topology overview for more details.

Supported Virtualization Providers

netlab create can generate configuration files for these virtualization providers:

You cannot use all supported network devices with all virtualization providers. These are the supported combinations (use netlab show images command to display the current system settings).

Virtual network device Vagrant
Libvirt
Vagrant
Virtualbox
Containerlab
Arista vEOS
Cisco IOSv
Cisco CSR 1000v
Cisco Nexus 9300v
Cumulus Linux
Cumulus Linux 5.0 (NVUE)
Dell OS10
Fortinet FortiOS
FRR 7.5.0
Generic Linux (Ubuntu/Alpine)
Juniper vSRX 3.0
Mikrotik RouterOS 6
Mikrotik RouterOS 7
Nokia SR Linux
Nokia SR OS
VyOS

Note:

  • external provider can be used with all devices supported by netlab.

Configuration files for Virtualbox and KVM/libvirt environments specify the number of virtual CPUs and memory allocated to individual network devices. These are the default values; you can change them with node parameters.

Virtual network device netlab device type CPUs memory libvirt NIC model
Arista vEOS eos 2 2048 virtio (libvirt default)
Cisco IOSv iosv 1 512 e1000
Cisco CSR 1000v csr 2 4096 virtio (libvirt default)
Cisco Nexus 9300v nxos 2 6144 e1000
Cumulus Linux cumulus 2 1024 virtio (libvirt default)
Cumulus Linux 5.0 (NVUE) cumulus_nvue 2 1024 virtio (libvirt default)
Dell OS10 dellos10 2 2048 e1000
Fortinet FortiOS fortios 1 1024 virtio (libvirt default)
Generic Linux host linux 1 1024 virtio (libvirt default)
Juniper vSRX 3.0 vsrx 2 4096 virtio (libvirt default)
Mikrotik RouterOS 6 routeros 1 256 virtio (libvirt default)
Mikrotik RouterOS 7 routeros7 2 256 e1000
VyOS vyos 2 1024 virtio (libvirt default)

Configuration Deployments

Ansible playbooks included with netlab can deploy and collect device configuration on these network operating systems:

Operating system Deploy configuration Collect configuration
Arista EOS
Cisco IOS / IOS XE
Cisco Nexus OS
Cumulus Linux
Dell OS10
Fortinet FortiOS
FRR container
Generic Linux
Juniper vSRX 3.0
Mikrotik RouterOS 6
Mikrotik RouterOS 7
Nokia SR Linux
Nokia SR OS
VyOS

Initial Device Configurations

The following system-wide features are configured on supported network operating systems as part of initial device configuration:

Operating system Hostname IPv4 hosts LLDP Loopback
IPv4 address
Loopback
IPv6 address
Arista EOS
Cisco IOS/IOS XE
Cisco Nexus OS
Cumulus Linux
Cumulus Linux 5.0 (NVUE)
Dell OS10
Fortinet FortiOS
FRR 7.5.0
Generic Linux
Juniper vSRX 3.0
Mikrotik RouterOS 6
Mikrotik RouterOS 7
Nokia SR Linux
Nokia SR OS
VyOS

The following interface parameters are configured on supported network operating systems as part of initial device configuration:

Operating system Interface
description
Interface
bandwidth
MTU
Arista EOS
Cisco IOS/IOS XE
Cisco Nexus OS
Cumulus Linux
Cumulus Linux 5.0 (NVUE)
Dell OS10
Fortinet FortiOS
FRR 7.5.0
Generic Linux
Juniper vSRX 3.0
Mikrotik RouterOS 6
Mikrotik RouterOS 7
Nokia SR Linux
Nokia SR OS
VyOS

The following interface addresses are supported on various platforms:

Operating system IPv4
addresses
IPv6
addresses
Unnumbered
interfaces
Arista EOS
Cisco IOS/IOS XE
Cisco Nexus OS
Cumulus Linux
Cumulus Linux 5.0 (NVUE)
Dell OS10
Fortinet FortiOS
FRR 7.5.0
Generic Linux
Juniper vSRX 3.0
Mikrotik RouterOS 6
Mikrotik RouterOS 7
Nokia SR Linux
Nokia SR OS
VyOS

Supported Configuration Modules

Routing protocol configuration modules are supported on these devices1

Operating system OSPF IS-IS EIGRP BGP BFD EVPN
Arista EOS
Cisco IOS
Cisco IOS XE
Cisco Nexus OS
Cumulus Linux
Cumulus Linux 5.0 (NVUE)
Dell OS10
Fortinet FortiOS
FRR 7.5.0
Juniper vSRX 3.0
Mikrotik RouterOS 6
Mikrotik RouterOS 7
Nokia SR Linux
Nokia SR OS
VyOS

The following data plane configuration modules are supported on these devices1:

Operating system VLAN VRF VXLAN MPLS SR-MPLS SRv6
Arista EOS
Cisco IOS
Cisco IOS XE
Cisco Nexus OS
Cumulus Linux
Cumulus Linux 5.0 (NVUE)
Dell OS10
Juniper vSRX 3.0
Mikrotik RouterOS 6
Mikrotik RouterOS 7
Nokia SR Linux
Nokia SR OS
VyOS

IPv6 Support

Core netlab functionality and all multi-protocol routing protocol configuration modules fully supports IPv6. OSPFv3 is implemented only on some platforms.

Operating system IPv6
addresses
OSPFv3 IS-IS MT EIGRP
IPv6 AF
BGP
IPv6 AF
SR-MPLS
Arista EOS
Cisco IOS
Cisco IOS XE
Cisco Nexus OS
Cumulus Linux
Cumulus Linux 5.0 (NVUE)
Dell OS10
Fortinet FortiOS
FRR 7.5.0
Generic Linux
Juniper vSRX 3.0
Mikrotik RouterOS 6
Mikrotik RouterOS 7
Nokia SR Linux
Nokia SR OS
VyOS

1(1,2)

Use netlab show module-support command to display the current system settings