The big three features of the netlab release 1.4.0 are:

• EVPN asymmetric IRB on Arista EOS, Cumulus Linux, Dell OS10, Nokia SR Linux, Nokia SR OS and VyOS
• Anycast gateway on Arista EOS, Cumulus Linux, Nokia SR OS and Nokia SR Linux
• VRRP on Arista EOS, Cisco IOSv/CSR, Cisco Nexus OS, Cumulus Linux and Nokia SR OS

We also added tons of new functionality, including:

• EVPN MPLS transport (currently implemented on Arista EOS and Nokia SR Linux)
• MPLS/LDP support on Nokia SR OS
• New address allocation algorithm for links with small IPv4 prefixes
• VLAN interfaces are created for all VLANs listed in node vlans dictionary even when there’s no physical interface using a particular VLAN.
• Routing protocols could be disabled for the whole VRF

We added a few nerd knobs for users who want to connect virtual lab devices with external devices (see External Connectivity for more details):

• unmanaged devices participate in data transformation process but are not part of virtual lab topology.
• Devices in unprovisioned group are not configured during the netlab initial process.

It’s easier to have a tight control on which VLANs and VRFs use VXLAN transport or EVPN control plane:

• Control allocation of VNI identifiers with vxlan.vlans attribute
• Specify EVPN-enabled VLANs and VRFs with evpn.vlans and evpn.vrfs lists
• VLANs and VRFs mentioned in group vlans/vrfs dictionaries are copied into all group members, resulting in VLAN interfaces and VRFs on all group members.

Finally, a few long-overdue items:

• node_data is deprecated – you can specify node attributes directly in group data.
• Strict validation of topology, node, group, VLAN, VRF, and addressing attributes (see also Breaking changes)
• ‘Device quirks’ framework deals with implementation limitations of individual virtual network devices

Upgrading is as easy as ever: execute pip3 install --upgrade networklab.

New to netlab? Start with the Getting Started document and the installation guide.

Revision History

2024-08-10

MPLS data plane works in cEOS release 4.32.1F and is supported in netlab release 1.9.0. Removed a mention of MPLS on cEOS as a device quirk.