Start a Virtual Lab

netlab up is a high-level command that:

• Uses netlab create to create virtualization provider configuration file, transformed topology snapshot, and network automation configuration files (Ansible inventory).

Tip

You can skip this step and reuse existing configuration files with the --snapshot flag (more details);

• Checks the virtualization provider installation;

• Creates the lab management network (more details)

• Starts the virtual lab using the selected virtualization provider;

• Performs provider-specific initialization (more details)

• Deploys device configurations with netlab initial command unless it was started with the --no-config flag, or reloads saved configurations if it was started with the --reload-config flag.

After configuring the lab with netlab initial, netlab up displays the help message defined in the lab topology.

Usage

You can use netlab up to create configuration files and start the lab, or use netlab up --snapshot to start a previously created lab or restart a lab after a server reboot (more details) using the transformed lab topology stored in netlab.snapshot.yml snapshot file.

usage: netlab up [-h] [--log] [-v] [-q] [--defaults [DEFAULTS ...]] [-d DEVICE]
                 [-p PROVIDER] [--plugin PLUGIN] [-s SETTINGS] [--no-config] [-r RELOAD]
                 [--no-tools] [--dry-run] [--fast-config] [--snapshot [SNAPSHOT]]
                 [topology]

Create configuration files, start a virtual lab, and configure it

positional arguments:
  topology              Topology file (default: topology.yml)

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --log                 Enable basic logging
  -v, --verbose         Verbose logging (add multiple flags for increased verbosity)
  -q, --quiet           Report only major errors
  --defaults [DEFAULTS ...]
                        Local topology defaults file
  -d DEVICE, --device DEVICE
                        Default device type
  -p PROVIDER, --provider PROVIDER
                        Override virtualization provider
  --plugin PLUGIN       Additional plugin(s)
  -s SETTINGS, --set SETTINGS
                        Additional parameters added to topology file
  --no-config           Do not configure lab devices
  -r RELOAD, --reload-config RELOAD
                        Reload saved configurations from specified directory
  --no-tools            Do not start the external tools
  --dry-run             Print the commands that would be executed, but do not execute
                        them
  --fast-config         Use fast device configuration (Ansible strategy = free)
  --snapshot [SNAPSHOT]
                        Use netlab snapshot file created by a previous lab run

Warning

Do not use the --fast-config option with custom configuration templates that must be executed in a specific order. See ‌netlab initial documentation for more details.

Conflict Resolution

netlab up command checks the netlab status file (default: ~/.netlab/status.yml) to verify that the current lab instance (default: default) is not running in another directory. You cannot start two copies of the same lab instance (even if they use different directories) due to potential management MAC/IP address overlap. If you want to run multiple lab instances on the same server, use the ‌multilab plugin.

netlab up command also uses the netlab.lock file in the current directory before invoking the netlab create process to ensure you cannot accidentally overwrite provider configuration files. If you want to resume a failed lab startup process (usually caused by VM timeouts), use the netlab up –snapshot command, which skips the netlab create process.

Tip

netlab up –dry-run command recreates the configuration files and cannot be used in a directory with a running lab. Use netlab up –snapshot –dry-run to display the commands used to start the lab.

Reloading Saved Configurations

When started with the --reload-config flag, netlab up tries to load device configurations saved with a previous netlab collect command to the newly-started lab devices.

The process should work (relatively) flawlessly on traditional network devices that use a single configuration file. However, do keep in mind these caveats:

• Saved device configurations don’t replace startup device configurations; they are merged with them.

• IP addresses (including management IP addresses) are hardcoded in the saved device configurations. Any change to the topology file, user defaults, system defaults, or netlab up CLI parameters can change device configurations. Restoring saved configurations after such a change will probably break the lab.

There are also numerous device-specific caveats:

• Only the FRRouting configuration is restored on Cumulus Linux and FRR. netlab executes initial device configuration on these devices to set up interfaces and enable FRRouting daemons.

• The initial state of Cisco IOS interfaces is shutdown, but the saved configuration does not include the no shutdown command. netlab executes the initial configuration on Cisco IOS/IOS-XE devices to enable the interfaces.

Restarting a Lab after a Server Reboot

You can use the netlab up --snapshot command to restart a lab after a server crash, power failure, or reboot.

The command will power up the existing Vagrant virtual machines, recreate networking components, and restart the containers (including the VM-in-container vrnetlab containers).

The restarted virtual machines will start with the saved startup configuration (assuming you saved the configuration before the crash), allowing you to skip the initial configuration process with the netlab up --snapshot --no-config command.

netlab cannot recreate the container configurations. While starting the lab, you can reload the configuration with the netlab up --snapshot --reload command if you previously collected it with the netlab collect command.

Provider-Specific Initialization

netlab up can execute provider-specific tasks before invoking the orchestration tool (Vagrant or containerlab) or after the virtual lab has been created

Tasks executed before the lab is started

• When used with clab provider, netlab up creates Open vSwitch bridges or standard Linux bridges needed to implement multi-access networks.

• When used with libvirt provider, netlab up creates the vagrant-libvirt management network

Tasks executed after the lab creation is completed

• When used with libvirt provider, netlab up sets the group_fwd_mask for all Vagrant-created Linux bridges to enable LLDP passthrough.