rLab EOS Topologies

This repo will contain the data models and configs to build different toplogies to run EOS as a container.

Getting Started

To build a new topology, the following files/data structures need to be created.

• topologies/{name}.yaml - This file is leveraged by build/topo-builder.py to create the necessary commands to build the topology.
• configs/{topo}/{device} - This directory structure is were any files you want to be loaded into cEOS-lab's /mnt/flash should be loaded to. Scripts, startup-config etc.

The Following Python package libraries need to be loaded on the machine that will run topo-builder.py:

• ruamel.yaml

To run the network topology on a container host machine, you can leverage the following cEOS_host_build Ansible-Playbook to build the environment. This will install all necessary software to run cEOS-lab. It is located in the following repo:

https://github.com/networkRob/rLab-ansibleBuilds

NOTE:

To be able to run MLAG and dot1q, use the 4.23.1F release for cEOS-Lab.

Topology File Format

There are some required fields to be specified in the topology files. See the examples listed in the topologies/ directory. The required parameters are:

topology:
  name: {TOPO_NAME}
  vforward: 1
  cvpaddress: {CVP_IPADDRESS}
  cvp-key: {CVP_KEY}
infra:
  bridge: {MGMT_BRIDGE}
  gateway: {MGMT_NETWORK_GATEWAY}
images:
  ceos: {ceosimage_tag}
  host: {chostimage_tag}
nodes:
  spine1:
    mac: 00:1c:73:c0:c6:01
    ipaddress: 192.168.0.10
    neighbors:
      - neighborDevice: spine2
        neighborPort: Ethernet1
        port: Ethernet1
      - neighborDevice: leaf1
        neighborPort: Ethernet1
        port: Ethernet2
hosts:
  host10:
    ipaddress: 10.0.12.11
    mask: 255.255.255.0
    gateway: 10.0.12.1
    neighbors:
      - neighborDevice: leaf1
        neighborPort: Ethernet3
        port: Ethernet0
iperf:
  port: 5010
  brate: 1000000
  servers:
    - host11
  clients:
    - client: host21
      target: host11
commands:

• The CVP_IPADDRESS parameter is optional, this is if a bare startup-config is created and the device should start streaming to CVP.
• The CVP_KEY parameter is optional, this is if a bare startup-config is created and the device should start streaming to CVP.
• The MGMT_BRIDGE parameter is optional, this is if you wish to attach the cEOS containers Management0 Interface to this network.
• The MGMT_NETWORK_GATEWAY parameter is optional, this is if a bare startup-config is created, but should be specified if the MGMT_BRIDGE parameter is set.
• The mac section for each cEOS-lab node needs to be unique, this helps specify the correct system-id in cEOS so MLAG will function properly.
• The neighbors section for each cEOS-lab node is a mapping to the remote peer and which interfaces to connect.
• If you do not want to run iperf on the host nodes, you can leave that section empty and only set iperf:
• The commands: section can create additional bash scripts to load new configurations on the nodes. The topologies/ratd.yaml file has examples for this.

Creating a Topology

Clone this repo to your container host node and enter the main directory for this repo.

Here are the steps required to get it running for the first time.

1. Import a cEOS-lab container archive:

docker import  --change 'VOLUME /mnt/flash/' cEOS-lab.tar.xz ceosimage:{ceosimage_tag}

{ceosimage_tag} = tag for the image, ie 4.23.1F

2. Build and tag the host node:

docker build -t chost:{chostimage_tag} build/hosts/.

{chostimage_tag} = tag for the image, ie 0.5

3. Create the topology scripts: To create the necessary scripts and leverage either no startup-configs or leverage already provided ones:

build/topo-builder.py -t {topo}

To create the necessary scripts and create a bare startup-configuration:

build/topo-builder.py -t {topo} -s

{topo} is the filename for the topology file located in topologies/ without the .yaml extension. For the L2 topology, the command would look like:

build/topo-builder.py -t l2

4. The topo-builder.py script will create a minimum of 4 bash scripts. They are located in scripts/{TOPO_NAME}/. It is important to run the commands for the project directories top-level directory.
   The four main scripts created are as follows with their description:

• Create.sh - Creates all Open vSwitch bridges, containers, starts containers and links all containers together.
• Start.sh - Starts all stopped containers and links all containers together.
• Stop.sh - Disconnects all links between containers and stops running containers.
• Delete.sh - Disconnects all links between containeres, stops running containers, removes containers, and removes Open vSwitch bridges.

An example on creating and starting a new topology, use the following command:

bash scripts/L2/Create.sh

Using a Topology

cEOS-Lab nodes do require CPU to get started, but once running CPU utilization will drop down. Memory utilization for a cEOS-lab instance is anywhere from 300-500 MB. Make sure your host node is sized appropriately.

Use the following commands to view running containers, stats and connecting to a container.

# View running containers
docker ps

# View running and stopped containers
docker ps -a

# View stats of the containers one-time
docker stats --no-stream

# View a continuous update for container stats. Stop with Ctrl + C
docker stats

# Connect to a cEOS-Lab instance.
docker exec -it l2leaf1 Cli -p 15

# Connect to a host instance.
docker exec -it l2host11 bash