Kinds

Containerlab launches, wires up and manages container-based labs. The steps required to launch a vanilla debian or centos container image aren't at all different. On the other hand, Nokia SR Linux launching procedure is nothing like the one for Arista cEOS.

Things like required syscalls, mounted directories, entrypoint and commands to execute are all different for the containerized NOS'es. To let containerlab understand which launching sequence to use, the notion of a kind was introduced. Essentially kinds abstract away the need to understand certain setup peculiarities of different NOS'es.

Given the following topology definition file, containerlab is able to know how to launch node1 as an SR Linux container and node2 as a cEOS one because they are associated with the kinds:

name: srlceos01

topology:
  nodes:
    node1:
      kind: nokia_srlinux              # node1 is of srl kind
      type: ixrd2
      image: ghcr.io/nokia/srlinux
    node2:
      kind: ceos             # node2 is of ceos kind
      image: ceos:4.25F

  links:
    - endpoints: ["node1:e1-1", "node2:eth1"]

Containerlab supports a fixed number of platforms. Most platforms are identified with both a short and a long kind name; these names can be used interchangeably.

Within each predefined kind, we store the necessary information that is used to successfully launch the container. The following kinds are supported by containerlab:

Name	Short/Long kind name	Status	Packaging
Nokia SR Linux	srl/nokia_srlinux	supported	container
Nokia SR OS	vr-sros/nokia_sros	supported	VM
Arista cEOS	ceos/arista_ceos	supported	container
Arista vEOS	vr-veos/vr-arista_veos	supported	VM
Juniper cRPD	crpd/juniper_crpd	supported	container
Juniper vMX	vr-vmx/vr-juniper_vmx	supported	VM
Juniper vQFX	vr-vqfx/vr-juniper_vqfx	supported	VM
Juniper vSRX	vr-vsrx/vr-juniper_vsrx	supported	VM
Juniper vJunos-switch	vr-vjunosswitch/juniper_vjunosswitch	supported	VM
Juniper vJunosEvolved	vr-vjunosevolved/juniper_vjunosevolved	supported	VM
Cisco XRd	`xrd/cisco_xrd'	supported	container
Cisco XRv9k	vr-xrv9k/vr-cisco_xrv9k	supported	VM
Cisco XRv	vr-xrv/vr-cisco_xrv	supported	VM
Cisco CSR1000v	vr-csr/vr-cisco_csr1000v	supported	VM
Cisco Nexus 9000v	vr-n9kv/vr-cisco_n9kv	supported	VM
Cisco 8000	c8000/cisco_c8000	supported	VM+
Cisco FTDv	cisco_ftdv	supported	VM
Cumulus VX	cvx/cumulus_cvx	supported	container
Aruba ArubaOS-CX	vr-aoscx/vr-aruba_aoscx	supported	VM
SONiC	sonic	supported	container
Dell FTOS10v	vr-ftosv/vr-dell_ftos	supported	VM
Mikrotik RouterOS	vr-ros/vr-mikrotik_ros	supported	VM
IPInfusion OcNOS	ipinfusion_ocnos	supported	VM
OpenBSD	openbsd	supported	VM
Keysight ixia-c-one	keysight_ixia-c-one	supported	container
Check Point Cloudguard	checkpoint_cloudguard	supported	VM
Fortinet Fortigate	fortinet_fortigate	supported	VM
Palo Alto PAN	vr-panos/vr-paloalto_panos	supported	VM
Linux bridge	bridge	supported	N/A
Linux container	linux	supported	container
RARE/freeRtr	rare	supported	container
Openvswitch bridge	ovs-bridge	supported	N/A
External container	ext-container	supported	container
Host	host	supported	N/A

Refer to a specific kind documentation article for kind-specific details.