Docker Compose or Containerlab? Choosing the Right Tool for a VPP Network Lab

Building a three-node VPP lab the declarative way with Containerlab: two Alpine endpoints and a VPP router that binds the veths via af_packet, forwards between two subnets, and drops a destination with a blackhole route. Run without installing Containerlab and without sudo; real ping/traceroute/iperf3 traffic, about 16 Gbit/s through the software dataplane. Continue reading