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NetForge Labs

Learn networking by building it. Hands-on, lab-driven courses where you stand up real network fabrics, break them on purpose, and understand why every line of config is there — not just what to paste.

The NetForge method

Every topic follows the same rhythm: mental model → why before how → the mechanism (deep) → build it in a lab → verify (and read the output) → break & observe → lessons & interview questions. You finish able to design it and troubleshoot it.

Course catalog

▶ Course 1 — VXLAN-EVPN on Juniper   ✅ available

Build a production data-center fabric on Juniper vJunos-switch, in containerlab, from bare nodes to a working overlay — session by session.

graph TB
    S1["spine1"]:::s --- L1["leaf1 · VTEP"]:::l
    S1 --- L2["leaf2 · VTEP"]:::l
    S2["spine2"]:::s --- L1
    S2 --- L2
    L1 --- H1["host1"]:::h
    L2 --- H2["host2"]:::h
    classDef s fill:#e3f2fd,stroke:#1565c0,color:#0d47a1;
    classDef l fill:#e8f5e9,stroke:#2e7d32,color:#1b5e20;
    classDef h fill:#fff3e0,stroke:#ef6c00,color:#e65100;

Topics: underlay (OSPF/IS-IS/eBGP) · overlay (iBGP-EVPN + route reflectors) · L2VNI · anycast gateway · multi-tenancy · ESI multihoming · external connectivity · multi-site.

🔜 Course 2 — VXLAN-EVPN on Cisco   (planned)

The same fabric concepts on Cisco Nexus (NX-OS) — so you can compare the two vendors side by side. Coming after Course 1's sessions are complete.

Further out: segment routing, EVPN multihoming deep-dives, automation. The platform is built to add courses without reshaping what's here.

How a course is structured

Layer What it is Where
Course The deep, guided path — session by session sessions/
Study Short concept primers + interview bank study/
Labs The runnable fabrics each session drives labs.md

New to the topic? Start with the Course. Just need a refresher on one idea? Hit the Study primers.

Get started

  1. Set up a lab host — GCP + containerlab + vJunos (one-time).
  2. Open Course 1, Session 1 and build the underlay.
  3. Work session by session; each ends with a checkpoint you must pass.

Source, configs, and scripts live in the GitHub repo. Never commit the vJunos image or credentials (see the repo's .gitignore).