Phase 4: Foundation Topologies

Phase 4: Foundation Topologies

Topology 1: Multi-Vendor Peering + API Lab (Workstation, ~20GB)

                    ┌──────────┐
                    │ Ansible  │ (Linux VM — management station)
                    │ pyATS    │
                    │ gnmic    │
                    └────┬─────┘
                         │ Cloud0 (management network)
    ┌────────┬───────────┼───────────┬────────┐
    │        │           │           │        │
┌───┴──┐ ┌──┴───┐ ┌─────┴───┐ ┌────┴──┐ ┌──┴──────┐
│IOS-XE │ │vEOS  │ │vJunos   │ │PA-VM  │ │FortiGate│
│Router │ │Arista│ │Juniper  │ │Palo   │ │Fortinet │
└───┬───┘ └──┬───┘ └────┬────┘ └───┬───┘ └────┬────┘
    └────────┴──────┬────┴──────────┴──────────┘
                    │ eBGP mesh (point-to-point /30s)

API Enablement (Every Node from First Config)

Platform APIs Enabled

IOS-XE (CSR1000v)

RESTCONF, NETCONF, ip http secure-server, YANG models

Arista vEOS

eAPI (HTTPS JSON-RPC), NETCONF, gNMI

Juniper vJunos

NETCONF (native), REST API

Palo Alto VM-50

XML/REST API

FortiGate-VM

REST API (FortiOS)

Management VM Tools

Pre-loaded Linux VM with:

  • Ansible + collections: cisco.ios, arista.eos, junipernetworks.junos, paloaltonetworks.panos, fortinet.fortios

  • pyATS + Genie (testbed YAML)

  • gnmic for gNMI streaming telemetry

  • ncclient for NETCONF

  • Python requests for REST APIs

  • Postman collections per vendor

Topology 2: Routing Deep-Dive (Workstation, ~8GB)

  • 4x IOSv routers + 2x IOSv-L2 switches

  • OSPF multi-area, EIGRP named mode, BGP iBGP/eBGP with route reflectors

  • All RESTCONF/NETCONF-enabled — practice config changes via API alongside CLI

  • Redistribution between protocols

Topology 3: Switching Foundation (Workstation, ~6GB)

  • 4x IOSv-L2 + 2x IOSv (inter-VLAN routing)

  • STP (RPVST+, MST), EtherChannel (LACP/PAgP)

  • DHCP snooping, DAI, IP Source Guard

  • Inter-VLAN routing via SVI and router-on-a-stick