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# Testing bgpipe with netlab « ipSpace.net blog

**[ipSpace.net Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A walkthrough of integrating bgpipe (a Go-based BGP processing tool) into a netlab lab topology. The key trick is declaring `bgp` as a generic node attribute in netlab, allowing a Linux container running bgpipe to be treated as a BGP peer without requiring a full BGP configuration module. The post covers building a custom Docker container image with bgpipe installed, defining the lab topology with FRRouting as the router peer, and establishing a live BGP session. Source code and a GitHub Codespaces setup are provided.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://blog.ipspace.net/2024/08/netlab-bgpipe>

## Questions this post answers

### How do I add a Linux container as a BGP peer in netlab without using the BGP configuration module?

Set `defaults.attributes.node.bgp:` at the top of the topology file to declare bgp as a generic node attribute. This disables netlab's validation that requires a node to use the BGP module before accepting bgp attributes, so you can assign a bgp.as to a Linux container and netlab will configure the BGP neighbor on the adjacent router automatically.

_Network engineers building custom BGP lab topologies track netlab tricks like this on daily.dev._

### How do I build a Docker container image with bgpipe installed for use in a container lab?

Start from ubuntu:22.04, install utilities (bash, iputils-ping, net-tools, iproute2, wget, jq), then wget the bgpipe binary from its GitHub releases page (e.g., bgpipe-linux-amd64 v0.8.8) into /usr/local/bin and chmod it executable. The resulting image can be tagged as netlab/bgpipe:latest and referenced directly in the netlab topology.

_Developers building network lab containers find tooling patterns like this on daily.dev._

## Similar posts on daily.dev

- [BGP-Free Core with SR-MPLS « ipSpace.net blog](https://daily.dev/posts/bgp-free-core-with-sr-mpls-ipspace-net-blog-h7kronzy3) · ipSpace.net Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

---

Tags: [#bgp](https://daily.dev/tags/bgp), [#golang](https://daily.dev/tags/golang), [#networking](https://daily.dev/tags/networking)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/testing-bgpipe-with-netlab-ipspace-net-blog-cmxknicu7)

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