Build Your Own Networking Lab

• Learn the tools to build network engineering labs using open-source and freely available tools, such as ContainerLab.
• Get introduced to a variety of networking stacks; become familiar with how and where to build multi-vendor lab environments.
• Understand automation and telemetry within a lab environment.

Building labs is a crucial part of the network engineer's tool set. Labs help engineers understand how protocols work, how networks converge, how things look when they are broken, how to properly monitor a network, what different configurations actually do, etc. In the past, engineers needed to buy hardware, rack it, power it up, and physically cable it to create labs. Virtual lab building tools have existed for many years, but only recently have open-source tools and resources that are efficient enough to create labs on widely available hardware and software become available. Virtual labs enhance understanding of network infrastructure by providing hands-on experience, enabling experimentation with different configurations and scenarios, simulating real world situations for troubleshooting, offering cost effective and resource efficient solutions, providing time flexibility for self-paced learning, allowing remote access, and supporting a wide range of networking technologies.

This course will guide learners through the tools and techniques to build virtual labs either locally or on common cloud services, so you can become more proficient at understanding, designing, monitoring, and troubleshooting networks. The course begins with obtaining and starting the basic tools required to build and test network labs using open-source and freely available tools. The course focuses on ContainerLab using a variety of hosts and routing devices, such as Linux, FR Routing, Juniper virtual routers, Cisco virtual routers, etc. The instructors will build a variety of network topologies, including data center and campus, to help learners understand how to test in different environments.

Each lab will have a specific goal, such as examining routing protocol convergence, collecting telemetry, automating lab creation, etc. At the end of this class, learners will know where to find tools, how to build a lab, and how to perform basic labbing tasks. Learners will receive copies of all the materials used in the course as a “basis” for building their own labs.