VPP Containerlab Docker image

This docker container creates a VPP instance based on the latest release. It starts up as per normal, using /etc/vpp/startup.conf (which Containerlab will replace), and once started, it'll execute /etc/vpp/bootstrap.vpp within the dataplane. There are three relevant files:

1. manual-pre.vpp -- can be supplied by the user, to run any configuration statements before containerlab takes control.

2. clab.vpp -- generated by containerlab. Its purpose is to bind the vethpair interfaces into theo dataplane (see below).

3. manual-post.vpp -- can be supplied by the user, to run any configuration statements after containerlab is finished with its per-lab statements.

Building

docker build -f Dockerfile.bookworm . -t pimvanpelt/vpp-containerlab

Starting the container

docker network create --driver=bridge network2 --subnet=172.19.1.0/24
docker rm clab-pim 
docker run --cap-add=NET_ADMIN --cap-add=SYS_NICE --cap-add=SYS_PTRACE \
           --device=/dev/net/tun:/dev/net/tun \
           --device=/dev/vhost-net:/dev/vhost-net \
           --privileged=True --name clab-pim \
           docker.io/pimvanpelt/vpp-containerlab
docker network connect network2 clab-pim

A note on DPDK

DPDK will be disabled by default as it requires hugepages and VFIO and/or UIO to use physical network cards. If DPDK at some future point is desired, mapping VFIO can be done by adding this:

           --device=/dev/vfio/vfio:/dev/vfio/vfio

or in Containerlab, using the devices feature:

my-node:
  image: vpp-containerlab:latest
  kind: vpp
  devices:
    - /dev/vfio/vfio
    - /dev/net/tun
    - /dev/vhost-net

If using DPDK in a container, one of the userspace IO kernel drivers must be loaded in the host kernel. Options are igb_uio, vfio_pci, or uio_pci_generic:

$ sudo modprobe igb_uio
$ sudo modprobe vfio_pci
$ sudo modprobe uio_pci_generic

Particularly the VFIO driver needs to be present before one can attempt to bindmount /dev/vfio/vfio into the container!

Configuring VPP

When Containerlab starts the docker containers, it'll offer one or more vethpair point to point network links, which will show up as eth1 and further. eth0 is the default NIC that belongs to the management plane in Containerlab (the one which you'll see with containerlab inspect). Before VPP can use these vethpair interfaces, it needs to bind them, like so:

docker exec -it clab-pim vppctl

and then within the VPP control shell:

vpp-clab# create host-interface v2 name eth1
vpp-clab# set interface name host-eth1 eth1
vpp-clab# set interface mtu 1500 eth1
vpp-clab# set interface ip address eth1 172.19.1.2/24
vpp-clab# set interface ip address eth1 fec0::2/64
vpp-clab# set interface state eth1 up

Containerlab will generate a config file called /etc/vpp/clab.vpp which contains all of these comands. You can add more commands that'll execute on startup by copying in /etc/vpp/manual-pre.vpp (to be executed before the containerlab stuff) or /etc/vpp/manual-post.vpp (to be executed after the containerlab stuff).