Various network related labs
I use those labs to test various stuff. Most of them are tailored to
my need. The most recent ones are more likely to work than the older
ones.
They are expected to run without being root on top of an up-to-date
Debian sid. Some of them are using User-Mode-Linux, some other are
using KVM.
lab-generic should always contain the latest iteration of the lab
and be used as a base for other labs.
Previously, labs were self-contained. This was done to avoid any
breakage when introducing "new features". However, this didn't work as
expected and labs become broken because of external changes (kernel
changes, systemd changes, etc.). Therefore, new labs are now sourcing
some common files (in common/). This means that older labs may broke
due to more recent changes. In this case, get the latest commit for a
lab (git log --oneline -1 lab-generic for example) and get a
checkout for it (git checkout 22f22864632a).
This lab doesn't work on Ubuntu because they are missing VDE support
in QEMU. The easiest way is to use schroot to work on a Debian
Buster:
#!/bin/sh
sudo debootstrap buster buster
cat <<EOF, sudo tee /etc/schroot/chroot.d/lab
[lab]
type=directory
description=Network lab
directory=$PWD/buster
users=$USER
shell=$SHELL
EOF
sudo schroot -c lab apt install \
qemu-system-x86 sudo tmux busybox ssh vde2 python3 binutils \
dosfstools mtools ansible
You may need to uncomment /dev/shm line in
/etc/schroot/default/fstab. Then, run schroot -c lab ./setup.
The ./setup script takes a Linux kernel as first argument. Have a
look at
eudyptula-boot's
minimal-configuration script to compile a kernel that should work
with the lab as well.
License
All the labs are distributed under the ISC license:
Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any
purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
Other tools
There exist many other tools to run network labs that may not be as
hacky as this one:
-
CORE. It uses
Linux network namespaces and provides a GUI tool. This is a very
good tool. Please, have a look at it. It doesn't use disk images
and the whole lab configuration fits into a single file that's easy
to share. Integration with Quagga or BIRD is very good. -
GNS3. It uses virtual machines and
emulators to build the network. It also comes with a GUI tool. You
can emulate Cisco, Juniper, Arista and other brands network
equipments. However, it relies heavily on disk images for anything
else than Cisco devices and it makes it harder to share your work
on GitHub.
You will find a more comprehensive list (with tests) on Brian Linkletter's blog.