Explore ContainerLab: Simulate Complex Network Topologies with Docker Containers
I stumbled across this tool, while am always a fan of VRNET-LAB https://github.com/vrnetlab/vrnetlab and it operates on docker containers, i could not get it properly bridge it with Local network meaning reachability to internet is something that I never worked on.
A container lab is a virtualized environment that utilises containers to create and manage network testing labs. It offers a flexible and efficient way to simulate complex network topologies, test new features, and perform various network experiments.
One striking feature that i really liked about containerlab is that representation is in a straight yaml which most of the network engineers now a days are Familiar with and its easy to edit the representation.
Other advantages
- host mappings are done automatically
- Traffic capture is done with ease

Host mappings after spinning up the lab

Slide explaining the capture process – Courtesy Petr Ankudinov (https://arista-netdevops-community.github.io/building-containerlab-with-ceos/#1)
https://containerlab.dev/quickstart/ – Will give you how to do a quick start and install containerlab.
https://github.com/topics/clab-topo – Topologies contributed by community
https://github.com/arista-netdevops-community/building-containerlab-with-ceos/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file – Amazing Repo
https://arista-netdevops-community.github.io/building-containerlab-with-ceos/ -> This presentation has some a eVPN topology and also explain how to spin up a quick eVPN with ceos Continue reading