--- title: Building Layer-3-Only EVPN Lab « ipSpace.net blog description: A hands-on guide to building a layer-3-only EVPN lab using netlab, Arista cEOS containers, and containerlab. The topology includes two switches, two VRFs (red... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/building-layer-3-only-evpn-lab-ipspace-net-blog-z1hkfe3p1 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Building Layer-3-Only EVPN Lab « ipSpace.net blog | daily.dev og:description: A hands-on guide to building a layer-3-only EVPN lab using netlab, Arista cEOS containers, and containerlab. The topology includes two switches, two VRFs (red... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/building-layer-3-only-evpn-lab-ipspace-net-blog-z1hkfe3p1 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Z1hkFe3p1.png og:image:alt: Building Layer-3-Only EVPN Lab « ipSpace.net blog og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Building Layer-3-Only EVPN Lab « ipSpace.net blog **[ipSpace.net Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A hands-on guide to building a layer-3-only EVPN lab using netlab, Arista cEOS containers, and containerlab. The topology includes two switches, two VRFs (red and blue), and four Linux hosts connected via point-to-point layer-3 links. OSPF provides loopback connectivity, IBGP carries EVPN routes, and VXLAN transit VNIs tie VRFs to EVPN. The post walks through the lab topology YAML, explains each configuration block, shows routing table output and successful ping results, and explains how to swap in other supported devices like FRRouting, Nokia SR Linux, or VyOS. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is a layer-3-only EVPN design and how does it differ from a standard EVPN setup? A layer-3-only EVPN design uses EVPN solely to transport VRF IP prefixes with no stretched VLANs between sites. In the VXLAN world, transit VLANs and router MAC addresses are still required internally. Each VRF is tied to EVPN via an EVPN transit VNI, and IBGP carries the VPN prefixes between switches while OSPF provides underlay loopback-to-loopback connectivity. _Network engineers exploring EVPN design trade-offs find the latest lab walkthroughs and architecture discussions on daily.dev._ ### How do I configure EVPN transit VNI for a VRF in a netlab topology file? In a netlab topology file, add `evpn.transit_vni: True` under each VRF definition. This ties the VRF to EVPN and instructs netlab to allocate a transit VNI for that VRF. The VXLAN module must also be enabled alongside the VLAN module, and the inter-switch link MTU should be set to at least 1600 to accommodate VXLAN-encapsulated frames. _Practitioners building EVPN labs with netlab track module updates and new topology examples on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [EVPN with SR-MPLS Core « ipSpace.net blog](https://daily.dev/posts/evpn-with-sr-mpls-core-ipspace-net-blog-taobtibzc) · ipSpace.net Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#bgp](https://daily.dev/tags/bgp) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/building-layer-3-only-evpn-lab-ipspace-net-blog-z1hkfe3p1) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Building Layer-3-Only EVPN Lab « ipSpace.net blog","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/building-layer-3-only-evpn-lab-ipspace-net-blog-z1hkfe3p1","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/building-layer-3-only-evpn-lab-ipspace-net-blog-z1hkfe3p1"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:51:57.682Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T08:54:10.482Z","description":"A hands-on guide to building a layer-3-only EVPN lab using netlab, Arista cEOS containers, and containerlab. 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