--- title: netlab: Building Leaf-and-Spine Fabrics with the Fabric... description: netlab release 1.7.0 introduced the fabric plugin, which dramatically simplifies building leaf-and-spine lab topologies. With just a few lines of YAML —... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/netlab-building-leaf-and-spine-fabrics-with-the-fabric-plugin-ipspace-net-blog-ybkdnvpcr twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: netlab: Building Leaf-and-Spine Fabrics with the Fabric Plugin « ipSpace.net blog | daily.dev og:description: netlab release 1.7.0 introduced the fabric plugin, which dramatically simplifies building leaf-and-spine lab topologies. With just a few lines of YAML —... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/netlab-building-leaf-and-spine-fabrics-with-the-fabric-plugin-ipspace-net-blog-ybkdnvpcr og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/YbKDnvpCr.png og:image:alt: netlab: Building Leaf-and-Spine Fabrics with the Fabric Plugin « 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. # netlab: Building Leaf-and-Spine Fabrics with the Fabric Plugin « ipSpace.net blog **[ipSpace.net Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary netlab release 1.7.0 introduced the fabric plugin, which dramatically simplifies building leaf-and-spine lab topologies. With just a few lines of YAML — specifying device type, enabling the plugin, and setting spine/leaf counts — netlab auto-generates all nodes, groups, and inter-node links. The post walks through customizing node names, adding routing protocols (OSPF and IBGP for an EVPN fabric), and attaching Linux hosts to the fabric. A ready-to-run example using Arista cEOS containers via containerlab is provided. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I quickly build a leaf-and-spine fabric topology in netlab? Enable the fabric plugin in your netlab topology file, set `fabric.spines` and `fabric.leafs` to the desired counts, and specify a default device type. netlab 1.7.0 automatically creates all leaf and spine nodes, assigns them to `leafs` and `spines` groups, and wires up all inter-node links. Node names default to L{count} and S{count} but can be overridden with `fabric.leaf.name` and `fabric.spine.name`. _Network engineers building lab topologies track netlab releases and plugin updates on daily.dev._ ### How do I run IBGP only on leaf nodes in a netlab leaf-and-spine fabric? Use the auto-generated `leafs` and `spines` groups in your topology's `groups` section. Assign `module: [ospf, bgp]` and a BGP AS to the `leafs` group, and only `module: [ospf]` to the `spines` group. This results in a full-mesh IBGP session between leaf nodes while spine nodes run only OSPF, suitable for an EVPN fabric design. _Engineers designing EVPN fabrics in lab environments find relevant netlab patterns on daily.dev._ --- Tags: [#networking](https://daily.dev/tags/networking), [#bgp](https://daily.dev/tags/bgp) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/netlab-building-leaf-and-spine-fabrics-with-the-fabric-plugin-ipspace-net-blog-ybkdnvpcr) ```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":"netlab: Building Leaf-and-Spine Fabrics with the Fabric Plugin « ipSpace.net blog","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/netlab-building-leaf-and-spine-fabrics-with-the-fabric-plugin-ipspace-net-blog-ybkdnvpcr","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/netlab-building-leaf-and-spine-fabrics-with-the-fabric-plugin-ipspace-net-blog-ybkdnvpcr"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:55:21.979Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T09:31:15.351Z","description":"netlab release 1.7.0 introduced the fabric plugin, which dramatically simplifies building leaf-and-spine lab topologies. 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