cJunosEvolved from juniper.net

[a-v-popov]

I just noticed Juniper/HPE made cJunosEvolved available through their vjunos-lab web page.
https://www.juniper.net/us/en/dm/vjunos-labs.html
I was wondering if anyone has tried it or might have any thoughts about it, in general and in netlab context specifically.
I took a peek inside the tarball and it seems it has two VMs wrapped inside of it.
System requirement seems to be the same as for VM version - 4 vCPU and 8G RAM.

[sdargoeuves]

Thanks, I can see there is information about it on the containerlab website
I’ll take a look and try it with netlab. I'm not familiar with this specific OS, it seems very similar to the non-Evolved one, but the devil is in the details!

[sdargoeuves]

I was able to start the container image with netlab. It takes quite some time for the container to be ready:

FAILED - RETRYING: [r1 -> localhost]: Execute local ssh command to check vptx readiness (9 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [r2 -> localhost]: Execute local ssh command to check vptx readiness (9 retries left).

but eventually it works, until the initialisation....

[...]
TASK [Wait for et-0/0/0 interface] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************
included: /home/sa/code/quick-netlab-lab/netlab/netsim/ansible/tasks/readiness-check/vptx.yml for r2

TASK [Wait for et-0/0/0 to appear] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [r2]: FAILED! => changed=false
  msg: Could not open socket to clab-ml_4-r2:830

PLAY RECAP ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
r2                         : ok=9    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

Error executing ansible-playbook /home/sa/code/quick-netlab-lab/netlab/netsim/ansible/initial-config.ansible -l r2:
  Command '['ansible-playbook', '/home/sa/code/quick-netlab-lab/netlab/netsim/ansible/initial-config.ansible', '-l', 'r2']' returned non-zero exit status 2.
[FATAL]   Executing Ansible playbook /home/sa/code/quick-netlab-lab/netlab/netsim/ansible/initial-config.ansible failed

A quick AI chat to understand how the ansible playbook interact with junos pointed me to netconf

╰─❯ netlab connect r2
Connecting to clab-ml_4-r2 using SSH port 22
--- JUNOS 25.2R1.8-EVO Linux (none) 5.15.164-10.22.33.18-yocto-standard-juniper-16986-g445edc512bb4 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue May 13 12:28:49 UTC 2025 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
admin@HOSTNAME> configure private
warning: uncommitted changes will be discarded on exit
Entering configuration mode

[edit]
admin@HOSTNAME# set system root-authentication plain-text-password
New password:
Retype new password:

[edit]
admin@HOSTNAME# set system services netconf ssh

[edit]
admin@HOSTNAME# commit
commit complete

[edit]
admin@HOSTNAME# exit
Exiting configuration mode

admin@HOSTNAME> exit

Connection to clab-ml_4-r2 closed.

And then it worked!

╰─❯ netlab initial -l r2
[WARNING]: Could not match supplied host pattern, ignoring: unprovisioned

PLAY [Deploy initial device configuration] *******************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Set variables that cannot be set with VARS] ************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [r2]

TASK [Find device readiness script] **************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [r2]

TASK [Wait for device to become ready] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************
included: /home/sa/code/quick-netlab-lab/netlab/netsim/ansible/tasks/readiness-check/vptx-clab.yml for r2

TASK [Wait for SSH server] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************
included: /home/sa/code/quick-netlab-lab/netlab/netsim/ansible/tasks/readiness-check/vm-clab-ssh-check.yml for r2

TASK [Check if 'sshpass' is installed] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [r2 -> localhost]

TASK [Check for 'timeout' command] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [r2 -> localhost]

TASK [Execute local ssh command to check vptx readiness] *****************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [r2 -> localhost]

TASK [Confirm r2 SSH server works] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [r2] =>
  msg: Node r2 is ready.

TASK [Wait for et-0/0/0 interface] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************
included: /home/sa/code/quick-netlab-lab/netlab/netsim/ansible/tasks/readiness-check/vptx.yml for r2

TASK [Wait for et-0/0/0 to appear] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [r2]

TASK [Normalize config on bridge-like devices] ***************************************************************************************************************************************
included: /home/sa/code/netsim-main-lab/venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/netsim/ansible/tasks/deploy-module.yml for r2

[...]

PLAY RECAP ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
r2                         : ok=31   changed=2    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=17   rescued=0    ignored=0

[a-v-popov]

# cat topology.yml 
---
provider: clab

nodes:
  r1:
    device: vptx
  c1:
    device: linux
  c2:
    device: linux

links: [r1-c1, r1-c2]

but to pass traffic I had to mangle the interfaces

# grep clab -A5 ~/.netlab.yml
devices.vptx.clab:
  image: cjunosevolved:25.2R1.8-EVO
  ifindex_offset: 3
  interface_name: et-0/0/{ifindex-3}
  node.config_templates:
    juniper.conf: /home/evo/configdisk/juniper.conf

GCP n4-standard-4 - 22 retries left :)
About 6 minutes to deploy the topology.

$ ./wait_for_ping.sh c1 172.16.1.3
[2025-08-28 14:54:12] Starting netlab up

...

FAILED - RETRYING: [r1 -> localhost]: Execute local ssh command to check vptx readiness (22 retries left).
ok: [r1 -> localhost]

TASK [Confirm r1 SSH server works] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Thursday 28 August 2025  14:58:38 +0000 (0:04:21.727)       0:04:22.360 ******* 
ok: [r1] => 
  msg: Node r1 is ready.

TASK [Wait for et-0/0/0 interface] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Thursday 28 August 2025  14:58:38 +0000 (0:00:00.061)       0:04:22.421 ******* 
included: /home/apopov/netlab/netsim/ansible/tasks/readiness-check/vptx.yml for r1

TASK [Wait for et-0/0/0 to appear] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Thursday 28 August 2025  14:58:38 +0000 (0:00:00.023)       0:04:22.445 ******* 
ok: [r1]

TASK [Normalize config on bridge-like devices] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Thursday 28 August 2025  14:59:42 +0000 (0:01:04.185)       0:05:26.630 ******* 
included: /home/apopov/netlab/netsim/ansible/tasks/deploy-module.yml for c1, c2, r1

...

[2025-08-28 14:59:56] 172.16.1.3 is reachable from c1!
Elapsed time: 5.73 minutes

[a-v-popov]

But the same setup with vJunosEvolved, i.e. libvirt VM, is starting under 4 minutes.

[ssasso]

The only "visible" difference between cJunosEVO and vJunosEVO (the one we call vPTX) is the fact that it's shipped as container image, so you don't have to build a vrnetlab image.
OTOH, you cannot use it with libvirt.

Since the functionality is the same between c- and v- imho it's not worth the effort, at least in my opinion.

However, if you feel it could be useful for you, you can submit a PR for using it :)

[DanPartelly]

The only "visible" difference between cJunosEVO and vJunosEVO (the one we call vPTX) is the fact that it's shipped as container image, so you don't have to build a vrnetlab image. OTOH, you cannot use it with libvirt.

When Junpier announced they'll release a containerized Junos Evolved, just about everybody -myself included- was expecting something like Arista cEOS. Then everybody deflated at the speed of light when, before release, they said it's a VM packaged in a container to save some of their customers the effort of going through Vrnetlab . Oh well. Beggars can't be choosers.

[ssasso]

When Junpier announced they'll release a containerized Junos Evolved, just about everybody -myself included- was expecting something like Arista cEOS.

me as well, until I tried it out ;)

[ssasso]

(see: #2503 )

[ssasso]

[duplicate of #2503]