Nodes (Network Devices)

Network devices (nodes) used in a virtual lab are specified in the nodes element in the topology file.

Specifying Nodes in Lab Topology

Nodes (lab devices) can be specified as:

• A list of strings (node names)

• A dictionary of node names and node attributes

Nodes Specified as a List of Strings

The easiest way to specify nodes in a virtual lab topology is to list node names as a list of strings:

---
defaults:
  device: iosv
  
nodes: [ r1, r2, r3 ]

You cannot specify the device types or any other node attributes when using this format. The default device type specified in defaults.device is used for all nodes specified in this manner.

The topology transformation process converts the nodes element specified as a list of strings into a dictionary of dictionaries before further processing.

Tip

Node names can have up to 16 characters. To increase the maximum node name length, set the defaults.const.MAX_NODE_ID_LENGTH attribute (see also: changing defaults).

Dictionary of Nodes

When you have to specify additional node attributes, or when you’re building a lab topology containing multiple device types, specify nodes as a dictionary of node objects (dictionaries).

You can specify the device type (if non-default) in the device attribute and add any additional attributes you need (for example, BGP AS number). Per-node attributes specified in a node dictionary are copied into the Ansible inventory.

In the following example, E1 and PE1 run OSPF and BGP in AS 65000, and PE1 uses a non-default device type (csr). There are no additional attributes specified for E2.

nodes:
  e1:
    module: [ ospf, bgp ]
    bgp:
      as: 65000
  e2:
  pe1:
    device: csr
    module: [ ospf, bgp ]
    bgp:
      as: 65000

Node Attributes

netlab uses the following node attributes (in alphabetical order):

• config – extra configuration templates applied to this device.

• cpu – virtual CPU cores allocated to the VM lab device. It does not apply to container-based devices.

• device – device type (see supported platforms). Default device type is specified in defaults.device.

• group – list of groups this node belongs to.

• id – static node identifier[1] (see below)

• image or box – specifies the Vagrant box or Docker container used by the lab device. Default images for individual device types are specified in system defaults and can be changed with defaults.devices… settings (more details).

• loopback – non-standard loopback addresses.

• memory – memory allocated to the VM lab device. It does not apply to container-based devices.

• module – the list of configuration modules used by this node.

• mgmt – management IPv4/IPv6 addresses. Used primarily with the external provider

• mtu – sets device-wide (system) MTU. This MTU is applied to all interfaces that don’t have an explicit MTU.

• provider – virtualization provider used by this node (see Combining Virtualization Providers for more details).

• role – when set to host, the device does not get a loopback IP address and uses static routing toward the default gateway. The only supported host device is linux, for which the host role is set in system device defaults.

• unmanaged – when set to True, the node is not managed or configured by netlab. Use this parameter when integrating netlab topologies with additional external devices, which should not be configured by netlab.

Tip

The Supported Virtualization Providers section of Supported Platforms lists the default memory and cpu values for all devices that can be run as virtual machines.

You can use the loopback node attribute to change the default allocation of loopback addresses. It’s a dictionary that can contain static loopback prefixes (ipv4 and/or ipv6 attributes) or an alternate addressing pool (pool attribute[2]).

In node data, you can also override Ansible group variables starting with ansible_ or netlab_. For example, to use SSH instead of Docker to connect to a Linux container, set ansible_connection to ssh in node data:

nodes:
  ssh_host:
    device: linux
    provider: clab
    ansible_connection: ssh

Provider-Specific Node Attributes

Some node attributes are used only with a specific netlab virtualization provider. These attributes can be specified at the node level as <provider>.<attribute> or as a default with defaults.devices.<device>.<provider>.node.<attribute>.

Libvirt Attributes

• libvirt.nic_model – libvirt virtual NIC model used by the VM lab device. See libvirt and KVM documentation for supported values; the most common settings are virtio (libvirt default) and e1000. Other supported values include rtl8139, pcnet, ne2k_pci, i82559er, i82557b, i82551 and ne2k_isa.

Example:

---
defaults.devices.vyos.libvirt.node.nic_model: e1000

nodes:
  vyos1:
    device: vyos
  vyos2:
    device: vyos
    libvirt.nic_model: virtio

Tip

The Supported Virtualization Providers section of Supported Platforms lists the default nic_model for all devices that can be run as virtual machines.

Containerlab Attributes

When using network devices with containerlab, you might have to set these node attributes:

• clab.type – device type when supported by containerlab (example: SR Linux)

• clab.license – license file needed for a network device running under containerlab. Used by Nokia SR OS.

You will probably have to set other containerlab attributes to run networking-related tools or daemons as Docker containers within your lab. Please read the containerlab provider documentation for more details.

Example: set node type and license file for Nokia SR OS

---
defaults.devices.sros.clab:
  image: vrnetlab/vr-sros:23.3.R3
  mtu: 1500
  node:
    type: ixr-ec
    license: ../../sros/license-sros23.3.R3.txt

nodes:
  e1:
    mtu: 1400
    clab:
      type: sr-1

Augmenting Node Data

After the initial cleanup, the netlab topology transformation code augments node data as follows (bold text indicates attribute names):

• Unless the node data contain an id attribute, the node id is set based on node’s position in the nodes dictionary[3] – starting with 1 and skipping static id used by other nodes.

• Unless the node is a host[4], or has a loopback attribute, it’s loopback addresses are fetched from loopback address pool. IPv4 loopback addresses commonly use node id as the last octet. IPv6 loopback addresses commonly use node id as the last byte in the IPv6 prefix.

• device type is copied from defaults.device if not already set.

• Vagrant box (or Docker container name) is set from device data if not specified in the box or image node attributes

• Device settings role and mtu are copied into the node data unless you set the corresponding node attribute in the topology file.

• Management interface parameters are saved in the mgmt element. Management interface name (ifname) is computed from device data. mac address and ipv4 and ipv6 addresses are computed from corresponding parameters in mgmt pool. You can overwrite any of these parameters (at your own risk) by specifying them in the mgmt dictionary within node data.

• Device interfaces created as needed during the link transformation phase and collected in the interfaces list.

• Optional Configuration Modules document describes further processing done on configuration module parameters.

Examples

The following list of nodes…

defaults:
  device: iosv

nodes:
- e1
- e2
- e3

… results in the following node data:

nodes:
- device: iosv
  id: 1
  loopback:
    ipv4: 10.0.0.1/32
  mgmt:
    ifname: GigabitEthernet0/0
    ipv4: 192.168.121.101
    mac: 08-4F-A9-00-00-01
  name: e1
- device: iosv
  id: 2
  loopback:
    ipv4: 10.0.0.2/32
  mgmt:
    ifname: GigabitEthernet0/0
    ipv4: 192.168.121.102
    mac: 08-4F-A9-00-00-02
  name: e2
- device: iosv
  id: 3
  loopback:
    ipv4: 10.0.0.3/32
  mgmt:
    ifname: GigabitEthernet0/0
    ipv4: 192.168.121.103
    mac: 08-4F-A9-00-00-03
  name: e3

The following dictionary of nodes…

defaults:
  device: iosv

nodes:
  e1:
    igp: [ ospf ]
    edge: true
  e2:
  pe1:
    device: csr
    igp: [ ospf ]

… results in the following node data:

nodes:
- device: iosv
  edge: true
  id: 1
  igp:
  - ospf
  loopback:
    ipv4: 10.0.0.1/32
  mgmt:
    ifname: GigabitEthernet0/0
    ipv4: 192.168.121.101
    mac: 08-4F-A9-00-00-01
  name: e1
- device: iosv
  id: 2
  loopback:
    ipv4: 10.0.0.2/32
  mgmt:
    ifname: GigabitEthernet0/0
    ipv4: 192.168.121.102
    mac: 08-4F-A9-00-00-02
  name: e2
- device: csr
  id: 3
  igp:
  - ospf
  loopback:
    ipv4: 10.0.0.3/32
  mgmt:
    ifname: GigabitEthernet1
    ipv4: 192.168.121.103
    mac: 08-4F-A9-00-00-03
  name: pe1

The following topology data with one of the nodes having a static id…

defaults:
  device: cumulus

nodes:
  r1:
  r2:
  r3:
    id: 1

… results in the following node data:

nodes:
- box: CumulusCommunity/cumulus-vx
  device: cumulus
  id: 2
  loopback:
    ipv4: 10.0.0.2/32
  mgmt:
    ifname: eth0
    ipv4: 192.168.121.102
    mac: 08-4F-A9-00-00-02
  name: r1
- box: CumulusCommunity/cumulus-vx
  device: cumulus
  id: 3
  loopback:
    ipv4: 10.0.0.3/32
  mgmt:
    ifname: eth0
    ipv4: 192.168.121.103
    mac: 08-4F-A9-00-00-03
  name: r2
- box: CumulusCommunity/cumulus-vx
  device: cumulus
  id: 1
  loopback:
    ipv4: 10.0.0.1/32
  mgmt:
    ifname: eth0
    ipv4: 192.168.121.101
    mac: 08-4F-A9-00-00-01
  name: r3

---

[1]

Node id must be an integer between 1 and 250. When using the standard management interface IP addressing (where management IPv4 addresses start with .100), the node id should not exceed 150.

[2]

The alternate pool you use for IPv4 loopback addresses should have loopback in its name (to tell netlab to set the allocated prefix length to /32) or a prefix attribute, preferably set to 32. The IPv6 prefix length is automatically set to /64 unless you specify it with the prefix6 attribute.

[3]

Python 3.7 and later retains the order of elements within a dictionary. Node IDs are thus assigned to devices in the order you used in the YAML topology file. Node IDs might change sporadically if you use older Python versions; in that case, use one of the list formats of the nodes element.

[4]

Identified by role: host attribute