Quickstart#

This quickstart guide walks through steps of creating a simple lab, introduces some key concepts along the way.

  1. install KNL#

    Referes to the Install KNL

  2. creates a lab.yaml#

    This file defines a lab named quickstart contains two SRLinux nodes, using 25.10.1 release image.

    apiVersion: knl.kubenetlab.net/v1beta1
kind: Lab
metadata:
  name: quickstart
  namespace: knl-system
spec:
  nodes:
    srl-2:
      srl:
        image: ghcr.io/nokia/srlinux:25.10.1
        chassis: ixr-d2l
  links:
    link1:
      nodes:
      - node: srl-1
      - node: srl-2

    There are two parts of a lab defintion:

    • nodes: define the configuration for each node in the topology, it is a map: key is the node name while value is the type specific configuration. This YAML specifies a node with name srl-2 and its type is srl, along with image and chassis specification.

      • node name must have the prefix: <nodeType>-, like srl-1 means it is a SRLinux node; see list of supported node types in Node Types

      • the actual configruation depends on node type, see corresponding type guide under Node Types section.

      • certain per node configuration are optional like memory in SRLinux case, the default value are specified in KNLConfig CR.

      • Note
        node srl-1 is not defined in nodes section, which means it will use default configuration provided by KNLConfig CR.

    • links: defines how nodes are connected, it is a map: key is a link name while value is the specification of the link, nodes is a mandatory part of it, which is a list of node names connects to the same L2 network of the link.

  3. create the lab#

    Either use KNL cli tool knlcli:

    knlcli create lab.yaml

    Or use kubectl:

    kubectl apply -f lab.yaml

  4. check the created lab#

    user@svr-1:~$ knlcli show
quickstart:
  Node    Type   Chassis      Pods               Worker/PodIP
  srl-1   SRL    ixr-h5-32d   quickstart-srl-1   kind-worker/10.244.1.21
  srl-2   SRL    ixr-d2l      quickstart-srl-2   kind-worker/10.244.1.22
  Link    Nodes
  link1   srl-1
          srl-2

    or use kubectl

    user@svr-1:~$  kubectl -n knl-system get lab quickstart -o yaml
apiVersion: v1
items:
- apiVersion: knl.kubenetlab.net/v1beta1
  kind: Lab
  metadata:
    annotations:
      kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration: |
        {"apiVersion":"knl.kubenetlab.net/v1beta1","kind":"Lab","metadata":{"annotations":{},"name":"quickstart","namespace":"knl-system"},"spec":{"links":{"link1":{"nodes":[{"node":"srl-1"},{"node":"srl-2"}]}},"nodes":{"srl-2":{"srl":{"chassis":"ixr-d2l","image":"ghcr.io/nokia/srlinux:25.10.1"}}}}}
    creationTimestamp: "2025-12-31T17:57:59Z"
    finalizers:
    - lab.kubenetlab.net/finalizer
    generation: 1
    name: quickstart
    namespace: knl-system
    resourceVersion: "112671"
    uid: cc4d09dc-bc96-48db-a738-af6cfdeaa5c3
  spec:
    links:
      link1:
        nodes:
        - mac: "12:20:22:00:00:01"
          node: srl-1
        - mac: "12:20:22:00:00:02"
          node: srl-2
    nodes:
      srl-1:
        srl:
          chassis: ixr-h5-32d
          image: ghcr.io/nokia/srlinux:25.10
          memory: 4Gi
      srl-2:
        srl:
          chassis: ixr-d2l
          image: ghcr.io/nokia/srlinux:25.10.1
          memory: 4Gi
kind: List
metadata:
  resourceVersion: ""

    Note
    the created lab has more configuration than the YAML file (like memory, mac), most of the addtional parts are the default values provided by KNLConfig CR, others like mac are dynamic default values.

  5. login into node#

    Use knlcli shell command to ssh into node srl-1 using default username admin, password is the default SRLinux password NokiaSrl1!.

    
user@svr-1:~$ knlcli shell quickstart srl-1
connecting to srl-1 at 10.244.1.21 username admin
Warning: Permanently added '10.244.1.21' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.
(admin@10.244.1.21) Password:
Loading environment configuration file(s): ['/etc/opt/srlinux/srlinux.rc']
Welcome to the Nokia SR Linux CLI.

--{ [FACTORY] + running }--[  ]--
A:admin@quickstart-srl-1#

    or use ssh command with corresponding pod IP directly:

    ssh admin@10.244.1.21

  6. remove the lab#

    use knlcli

    knlcli remove quickstart

    or use kubectl

    kubectl -n knl-system delete lab quickstart

    Note
    removing a lab won’t remove the persistent part of the lab, like its data volume or PVC

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