This weekend I got motivated to start building out my EVE-NG lab with SONiC since we are in the middle of testing out 400G in our hardware labs. The green links below need to be added to our real environment so I figured I would get the configurations vetted ahead of time. Also I’ll be using this lab to practice my network automation with Python, Nornir, Netmiko, NAPALM, etc.
There are a few links at the bottom that are helpful and should spell out all you need to do. The hardest part I had was finding a link to the virtual image so I included that direct link below for anyone else who may struggle to find that.
I may add some more details later but it’s already Sunday evening and I’ve been messing with this lab all day long and it’s time for bed.
![](https://technobabble.us.to/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/SONIC-ED-UPGRADE-1024x530.png)
Here you can see EVE-NG stats installed onto ESXi 7.0
![](https://technobabble.us.to/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/EVE-Status-1024x537.png)
TOP showing that Juniper uses 94% CPU and IOL is using 1%. I made some tweaks for KVM performance but it still is not where I’m expecting to see it. You can see the Arista using about 7-10% and SONiC using 13-16% CPU.
![](https://technobabble.us.to/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/EVE-TOP.png)
SONiC running in eve-ng, along with Arista, Juniper and Cisco.
![](https://technobabble.us.to/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/SONiC.png)
![](https://technobabble.us.to/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ESXi-SONiC-1024x325.png)
![](https://technobabble.us.to/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ESXi-SONIC-Performance.png)
![](https://technobabble.us.to/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/JUNOS-2.png)
![](https://technobabble.us.to/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Arista.png)
![](https://technobabble.us.to/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Cisco.png)
SONiC Baking in the oven as we perform 400G optic testing.
![](https://technobabble.us.to/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-01-at-10.22.01-PM-1024x424.jpg)
Download sonic-vs.img.gz: https://sonic-jenkins.westus2.cloudapp.azure.com/job/vs/job/buildimage-vs-image-202012/lastStableBuild/artifact/target/
How-To #2: http://www.networkhints.com/2021/01/microsoft-sonic-virtual-switch-on-eve-ng.html
EVE-NG Blog: https://jncie.eu/
Juniper Performance vs Lite Mode: https://www.juniper.net/documentation/us/en/software/vmx/vmx-getting-started/topics/task/vmx-chassis-flow-caching-enabling.html