Networking Aspects of Running VMs in Containers
The vrnetlab project and its containerlab fork package virtual network devices as containers so they can be orchestrated like normal container workloads, but this raises a key challenge: how to make the underlying virtual networking plumbing actually work.
MAIN POINTS
- vrnetlab packages virtual machines, especially network devices, into containers.
- The containerlab fork extends this idea for network topology provisioning.
- This approach enables use of reliable orchestration tools for otherwise non-containerized devices.
- The main technical challenge is making virtual network plumbing function correctly.
TAKEAWAYS
- Containerizing VMs can simplify orchestration of complex network labs.
- Network devices that resist containerization can still be managed through this method.
- Image construction details may affect the approach’s reliability and drawbacks.
- Virtual networking integration remains the central engineering problem.