🧪 Lab 05 · Containerlab CI/CD Pipelines in GitHub Actions

✅ Validated on GitHub Actions & Containerlab in CI.

Time: ~50 minutes · Tools: GitHub Actions, Containerlab, PyATS

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🧠 Technology Deep Dive: Network CI/CD Pipelines

In modern NetDevOps engineering, network configuration changes are treated exactly like software source code: 1. Pull Request (PR): An engineer creates a git branch and submits a PR modifying data/hosts.yaml. 2. Automated CI Pipeline: GitHub Actions automatically triggers a runner that: - Renders configs via Jinja2 (generate_configs.py). - Runs Batfish pre-flight analysis (test_batfish.py). - Boots a containerlab topology inside the GitHub runner. - Executes PyATS automated verification tests (test_fabric.py). 3. Merge Approval: If all tests pass with 0 errors, the PR is approved for production deployment.

+-------------------+      +-------------------+      +-------------------+
|  PULL REQUEST     |      |  GITHUB ACTIONS   |      |  CONTAINERLAB CI  |
|  Git Branch PR    | +===>|  Render & Static  | +===>|  Boot Topology &  |
|  "Add Leaf3"      |      |  Batfish Analysis |      |  Run PyATS Tests  |
+-------------------+      +-------------------+      +-------------------+

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💻 GitHub Actions Workflow Definition (.github/workflows/containerlab-ci.yml)

name: Network Fabric CI Pipeline

on:
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  validate-fabric:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.11'

      - name: Install Dependencies
        run: |
          pip install pyyaml jinja2 pyats pybatfish

      - name: Render Configurations
        run: |
          python3 labs/netdevops-lab/scripts/generate_configs.py

      - name: Run Batfish Static Analysis
        run: |
          python3 labs/netdevops-lab/scripts/test_batfish.py

      - name: Install Containerlab
        run: |
          bash -c "$(curl -sL https://get.containerlab.dev)"

      - name: Deploy Fabric Topology
        run: |
          sudo containerlab deploy -t labs/netdevops-lab/topology.clab.yml

      - name: Execute PyATS Integration Tests
        run: |
          python3 labs/netdevops-lab/scripts/test_fabric.py

✅ DONE when GitHub Actions executes containerlab deployment and passes all PyATS test gates on pull requests.