platforms.md

(supported-platforms)=

Supported Platforms

.. contents:: Table of Contents
   :depth: 1
   :local:

(platform-devices)=

Supported Virtual Network Devices

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

Virtual network device	netlab device type	support level
Arista vEOS/cEOS ❗	eos	full
Aruba AOS-CX ❗	arubacx	full
Cisco ASAv ❗	asav	minimal
Cisco Catalyst 8000v ❗	cat8000v	full
Cisco CSR 1000v ❗	csr	full
Cisco IOS-on-Linux (IOL) ❗	iol	full
Cisco IOS-on-Linux L2 image (IOL L2)❗	ioll2	full
Cisco IOSv ❗	iosv	full
Cisco IOSvL2 ❗	iosvl2	full
Cisco IOS XRv ❗	iosxr	minimal
Cisco Nexus 9300v ❗	nxos	best effort
Cumulus Linux 4.x/5.x ❗	cumulus	end of life
Cumulus Linux 5.x (NVUE) ❗	cumulus_nvue	best effort
Dell OS10 ❗	dellos10	full
Fortinet FortiOS ❗	fortios	minimal
FRRouting (FRR) ❗	frr	full
Generic Linux host	linux	full
Juniper vMX ❗	vmx	best effort
Juniper vPTX (vJunos EVO) ❗	vptx	full
Juniper vSRX 3.0 ❗	vsrx	best effort
vJunos-switch ❗	vjunos-switch	full
vJunos-router ❗	vjunos-router	full
Mikrotik RouterOS 6 (CHR) ❗	routeros	end of life
Mikrotik RouterOS 7 (CHR) ❗	routeros7	minimal
Nokia SR Linux ❗	srlinux	full
Nokia SR OS ❗	sros	full
OpenBSD ❗	openbsd	best effort
Sonic ❗	sonic	minimal
VyOS 1.4 ❗	vyos	full

(platform-daemons)= netlab also supports the following daemons (control-plane software running in containers):

Daemon	netlab device type	support level
BIRD Internet Routing Daemon ❗	bird	full
dnsmasq DHCP server ❗	dnsmasq	full

The support level of a platform is defined as:

• full -- a core contributor is regularly implementing new features. We run a full suite of integration tests for every release that could impact the device behavior (for example, due to changes in configuration templates).
• best effort -- while a core contributor might still work on the platform, we don't run integration tests (usually due to limited availability of the VM/container image). YMMV.
• minimal -- don't expect too much¹. What you see is pretty much what you'll get (and in many cases, it did not go through integration tests).
• end-of-life -- these platforms are still part of netlab package because the storage prices keep falling.

(platform-host)= Most devices behave as routers (or layer-3 switches); the following devices can take multiple roles or behave as IP hosts:

Device	router	host	bridge
Arista EOS	✅	✅	✅
Bird	✅	✅	❌
Cisco IOS/IOS XE2	✅	✅	✅
dnsmasq	❌	✅	❌
FRRouting	✅	✅	❌
Generic Linux	❌	✅	✅
Open BSD	✅	✅	❌

Notes:

• Use the netlab show devices command to display the list of supported devices and daemons.
• You can specify the device type in the device property of the node data or the topology-wide defaults.device setting. See lab topology overview for more details.
• If you want to use an unsupported device in a netlab-managed lab, use an unknown device or contribute a new device implementation.
• The daemons run on top of Ubuntu Linux and use the same scripts as Linux for initial device configuration. See linux device for initial configuration capabilities.

Supported Virtualization Providers

netlab create can generate configuration files for these virtualization providers:

• vagrant-libvirt, including support for veryisolated private networks and UDP point-to-point tunnels.
• Vagrant VirtualBox provider
• Containerlab
• External -- meta virtualization provider that allows you to configure external physical or virtual devices with netlab

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).

(platform-provider-support)=

Virtual network device	Vagrant Libvirt	Vagrant Virtualbox	Containerlab
Arista vEOS	✅	✅	✅
Aruba AOS-CX	✅	❌	✅❗
Cisco ASAv	✅	❌	❌
Cisco Catalyst 8000v	✅	❌	✅❗
Cisco CSR 1000v	✅	✅	✅❗
Cisco IOL	❌	❌	✅❗
Cisco IOL L2	❌	❌	✅❗
Cisco IOSv	✅	✅	✅❗
Cisco IOSvL2	✅	❌	✅❗
Cisco IOS XRv	✅	❌	✅
Cisco Nexus 9300v	✅	✅	✅❗
Cumulus Linux	✅	✅	✅❗
Cumulus Linux 5.x (NVUE)	✅	✅	✅❗
Dell OS10	✅	❌	✅
Fortinet FortiOS	✅	❌	✅
FRR	✅❗	✅❗	✅
Generic Linux (Ubuntu/Alpine) ❗	✅	✅	✅
Juniper vMX	❌	❌	✅❗
Juniper vPTX	✅	❌	✅❗
Juniper vSRX 3.0	✅	✅	✅❗
vJunos-switch	❌	❌	✅❗
vJunos-router	❌	❌	✅❗
Mikrotik RouterOS 7	✅	❌	❌
Nokia SR Linux	❌	❌	✅
Nokia SR OS	❌	❌	✅
OpenBSD	✅	❌	✅
Sonic	✅	❌	❌
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
Aruba AOS-CX	arubacx	2	4096	virtio
Cisco ASAv	asav	1	2048	virtio
Cisco Catalyst 8000v	cat8000v	2	4096	virtio
Cisco CSR 1000v	csr	2	4096	virtio
Cisco IOSv	iosv	1	512	e1000
Cisco IOSvL2	iosvl2	1	1024	e1000
Cisco IOS XRv	iosxr	2	8192	e1000
Cisco Nexus 9300v	nxos	2	6144 ❗	e1000
Cumulus Linux	cumulus	2	1024	virtio
Cumulus Linux 5.x (NVUE)	cumulus_nvue	2	1024	virtio
Dell OS10	dellos10	2	2048	e1000
Fortinet FortiOS	fortios	1	2048	virtio
FRR	frr	1	1024	virtio
Generic Linux host	linux	1	1024	virtio
Juniper vSRX 3.0	vsrx	2	4096	virtio
Juniper vPTX	vptx	4	8192	virtio
Mikrotik RouterOS 6	routeros	1	256	virtio
Mikrotik RouterOS 7	routeros7	2	256	e1000
OpenBSD	openbsd	1	1024	virtio
Sonic	sonic	2	4096	virtio
VyOS	vyos	2	1024	virtio

**‌virtio** is the default KVM/libvirt NIC model.

Configuration Deployments

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

(platform-config-support)=

Operating system	Deploy configuration	Collect configuration	Configurable save to startup
Arista EOS	✅	✅
Aruba AOS-CX	✅	✅
Cisco ASAv	✅	✅
Cisco IOS/IOS XE2	✅	✅
Cisco IOS XRv	✅	✅
Cisco Nexus OS	✅	✅
Cumulus Linux	✅	✅
Dell OS10	✅	✅	✅
Fortinet FortiOS	✅	❌
FRR	✅❗	✅❗
Generic Linux	✅	❌
Junos3	✅	✅
Mikrotik RouterOS 6	✅	✅
Mikrotik RouterOS 7	✅	✅
Nokia SR Linux	✅	✅
Nokia SR OS	✅	✅
OpenBSD	✅	❌
Sonic	✅	✅
VyOS	✅	✅

Initial Device Configurations

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

(platform-initial-config)=

Operating system	Hostname	IPv4/IPv6 hosts	LLDP	IPv4 Loopback	IPv6 Loopback
Arista EOS	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Aruba AOS-CX	✅	❌	✅	✅	✅
Cisco ASAv	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
Cisco IOS/IOS XE2	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Cisco IOS XRv	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Cisco Nexus OS	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Cumulus Linux	✅	✅4	✅	✅	✅
Cumulus Linux 5.x (NVUE)	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Dell OS10	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Fortinet FortiOS	✅	❌	✅	✅	✅
FRR	✅	✅4	❌	✅	✅
Generic Linux	✅	✅4	✅❗	✅	✅
Junos3	✅	❌	✅	✅	✅
Mikrotik RouterOS 6	✅	✅	✅❗	✅	✅
Mikrotik RouterOS 7	✅	✅	✅❗	✅	✅
Nokia SR Linux	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Nokia SR OS	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
OpenBSD	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
Sonic	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
VyOS	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅

(platform-initial-interfaces)= The following interface parameters are configured on supported network operating systems as part of the initial device configuration:

Operating system	Interface description	Interface bandwidth	MTU	Additional loopbacks
Arista EOS	✅	✅	✅	✅
Aruba AOS-CX	✅	❌	✅	✅
Cisco ASAv	✅	❌	✅	❌
Cisco IOS/IOS XE2	✅	✅	✅❗	✅
Cisco IOS XRv	✅	✅ ❗	✅	✅
Cisco Nexus OS	✅	✅	✅	✅
Cumulus Linux	✅	✅	✅	✅
Cumulus Linux 5.x (NVUE)	✅	❌	✅	✅
Dell OS10	✅	❌	✅	✅
Fortinet FortiOS	✅	✅	✅❗	❌
FRR	✅	✅	✅	✅
Generic Linux	❌	❌	✅	❌
Junos3	✅	✅	✅	❌
Mikrotik RouterOS 6	✅	❌	✅	❌
Mikrotik RouterOS 7	✅	❌	✅	✅
Nokia SR Linux	✅	❌	✅	✅
Nokia SR OS	✅	❌	✅	✅
OpenBSD	❌	❌	✅	❌
Sonic	✅	✅	✅	✅
VyOS	✅	❌	✅	✅

(platform-initial-addresses)= The following interface addresses are supported on various platforms:

Operating system	IPv4 addresses	IPv6 addresses	Unnumbered IPv4 interfaces
Arista EOS	✅	✅	✅
Aruba AOS-CX	✅	✅	✅
Cisco ASAv	✅	✅	❌
Cisco IOSv/IOSvL2	✅	✅	❌
Cisco IOS XE2	✅	✅	✅
Cisco IOS XRv	✅	✅	✅
Cisco Nexus OS	✅	✅	✅
Cumulus Linux	✅	✅	✅
Cumulus Linux 5.x (NVUE)	✅	✅	✅
Dell OS10	✅	✅	❌
Fortinet FortiOS	✅	✅	❌
FRR	✅	✅	✅
Generic Linux	✅	✅	❌
Junos3	✅	✅	✅
Mikrotik RouterOS 6	✅	✅	❌
Mikrotik RouterOS 7	✅	✅	❌
Nokia SR Linux	✅	✅	❌
Nokia SR OS	✅	✅	✅
OpenBSD	✅	✅	❌
Sonic	✅	✅	✅
VyOS	✅	✅	✅

* Use **‌netlab show modules -m initial** to display optional initial configuration features supported by individual devices
* See [Initial Configuration Integration Tests Results](https://release.netlab.tools/_html/coverage.initial) for up-to-date details.

Supported Configuration Modules

(platform-routing-support)= Routing protocol configuration modules are supported on these devices⁵

Operating system	OSPF	IS-IS	EIGRP	BGP	RIPv2/ng
Arista EOS	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
Aruba AOS-CX	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌
Cisco ASAv	❌	✅	❌	✅	❌
Cisco IOSv/IOSvL2	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Cisco IOS XE2	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Cisco IOS XRv	✅	✅	❌	✅	❌
Cisco Nexus OS	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
Cumulus Linux	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅
Cumulus Linux 5.x (NVUE)	✅	❌	❌	✅ ❗	❌
Dell OS10	✅ ❗	❌	❌	✅	❌
Fortinet FortiOS	✅ ❗	❌	❌	❌	❌
FRR	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
Junos3	✅	✅	❌	✅	❌
Mikrotik RouterOS 6	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌
Mikrotik RouterOS 7	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌
Nokia SR Linux	✅	✅	❌	✅	❌
Nokia SR OS	✅	✅	❌	✅	❌
Sonic	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
VyOS	✅	✅	❌	✅	❌

Routing protocol configuration modules are also supported on these daemons:

Operating system	OSPF	IS-IS	BGP	RIPv2/ng
BIRD Internet Routing Daemon	✅ ❗	❌	✅ ❗	❌

These devices support additional control-plane protocols or BGP address families:

Operating system	BFD	EVPN	MPLS/VPN	FHRP
Arista EOS	✅	✅	✅	✅
Aruba AOS-CX	✅	✅	✅	✅
Cisco CSR 1000v	✅	❌	✅	✅
Cisco Catalyst 8000v	✅	❌	❌	✅
Cisco IOSv/IOSvL2	✅	❌	✅	✅
Cisco Nexus OS	✅	✅	❌	✅
Cumulus Linux	✅	✅	❌	✅
Dell OS10	✅	✅	❌	❌
FRR	✅	✅	✅	❌
Juniper vMX	✅	❌	✅	✅
Juniper vPTX	✅	❌	✅	✅
Juniper vSRX 3.0	✅	❌	❌	✅
vJunos-switch	✅	✅	❌	✅
vJunos-router	✅	❌	❌	✅
Mikrotik RouterOS 6	✅	❌	✅	❌
Mikrotik RouterOS 7	✅	❌	✅	❌
Nokia SR Linux	✅	✅	❌	✅
Nokia SR OS	✅	✅	✅	✅
VyOS	✅	✅	✅	❌

Notes:

• FRHP = First-Hop Redundancy Protocol (anycast gateway or VRRP)

(platform-layer-2-support)= The layer-2 control plane configuration modules are supported on these devices⁵:

Operating system	Spanning Tree Protocol	Link Aggregation Groups
Arista EOS	✅	✅
Aruba CX	✅	✅
bird	❌	✅
Cumulus Linux	✅	✅
Cumulus Linux 5.x (NVUE)	✅	✅
Dell OS10	✅	✅
dnsmasq	❌	✅
FRR	✅	✅
Linux	❌	✅

(platform-dataplane-support)= The data plane configuration modules are supported on these devices⁵:

Operating system	VLAN	VRF	VXLAN	MPLS	SR-MPLS	SRv6
Arista EOS	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
Aruba AOS-CX	✅	✅	✅❗	❗	❌	❌
Cisco Catalyst 8000v	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Cisco CSR 1000v	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
Cisco IOSv/IOSvL2	✅	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
Cisco Nexus OS	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
Cumulus Linux	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
Cumulus Linux 5.x (NVUE)	✅	❗	❌	❌	❌	❌
Dell OS10	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
FRR	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
Juniper vMX	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌
Juniper vPTX	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌
Juniper vSRX 3.0	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
vJunos-switch	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
vJunos-router	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Mikrotik RouterOS 6	✅	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
Mikrotik RouterOS 7	✅	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
Nokia SR Linux	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
Nokia SR OS	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅
VyOS	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌

(platform-services-support)= Network services configuration modules are supported on these devices⁵

Operating system	DHCP	DHCPv6
Arista EOS	✅	✅
Cisco CSR 1000v	✅	✅
Cisco IOSv/IOSvL2	✅	✅
Cumulus Linux	✅	✅

Network services configuration modules are also supported on these daemons:

Operating system	DHCP	DHCPv6
dnsmasq	✅	✅

See [integration test results](https://release.netlab.tools/) for more details.

IPv6 Support

Core netlab functionality and all multi-protocol routing protocol configuration modules fully support 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	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
Aruba AOS-CX	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌
Cisco ASAv	✅	❌	✅	❌	✅	❌
Cisco IOSv/IOSvL2	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
Cisco IOS XE2	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
Cisco Nexus OS	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
Cumulus Linux 4.x	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌
Cumulus Linux NVUE	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
Dell OS10	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌
Fortinet FortiOS	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
FRR	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅	❌
Generic Linux	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Junos3	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅	❌
Mikrotik RouterOS 6	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
Mikrotik RouterOS 7	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌
Nokia SR Linux	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
Nokia SR OS	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅
OpenBSD	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Sonic	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
VyOS	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅	❌

(platform-unknown)=

Unknown Devices

You can use device type unknown to add unsupported devices to a netlab-managed virtual lab. netlab assumes an unknown device supports all configuration modules and will prepare the data structures and Ansible inventory you need to configure the device.

Unknown devices are placed in the unprovisioned group and are not configured by the netlab up or netlab initial commands.

To add an unknown device to a lab:

• Set device node attribute to unknown.
• Specify Vagrant box name or container name with image node attribute.
• Specify clab.kind node attribute according to containerlab documentation when using containerlab virtualization provider.

Footnotes

1. Particularly on platforms that take way too long to boot, like Cisco IOS XR. We're all forced to deal with a limited lifespan. ↩

2. Includes Cisco CSR 1000v, Cisco Catalyst 8000v, Cisco IOS-on-Linux (IOL) and IOL Layer-2 image ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. Includes vMX, vSRX, vPTX, vJunos-switch, and vJunos-router ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Some Linux-based devices can also use interface names in host names. See /etc/hosts file on Linux for more details. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Use netlab show module-support command to display the current system settings ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴