Topology

Connecting to the lab server

Connect to the lab server:

local$ ssh-keygen -R netlab.nanocat.net
local$ ssh lab@netlab.nanocat.net
Password: (see discord)

Connect to your router:

lab@netlab$ list-devices
lab@netlab$ connect DEVICE

Goal

• understand network namespaces
• understand tcpdump
• understand wireshark

About Linux network namespaces

• network namespaces (netns)
• Linux feature since 2002 (linux kernel version 2.4)
• groups and segregates network interfaces
• used in container contexts, like containerlab!
• ip netns list lists the existing network namespaces
  • use ip netns list | grep pod5 to filter for your pod
• ip netns exec NAMESPACE [some_command] executes a command in that namespace
• ip netns exec NAMESPACE ip -c link lists interfaces in a namespace
• ip netns exec NAMESPACE ip -c address lists interfaces and their addresses in a namespace

About tcpdump

• venerable tool, around since 1988
• uses libpcap, same as wireshark
• not usually installed by default
• add it to your linux with apt install tcpdump (or your local equiv)
• installed by default in our cEOS and PC containers
• we will use ip netns to capture from OUTSIDE our containers
• cheat sheet here https://cdn.comparitech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/tcpdump-cheat-sheet-1.pdf

About wireshark

• GUI packet analysis tool
• very powerful filter system

Initial configuration

• by default, r1 acts as a switch (all ports untagged in VLAN 1)
  • so no configuration is required for r1
• configure pc1 with 192.168.0.1/24
• configure pc2 with 192.168.0.2/24

Configure the PCs

Configure with:

ip address add 192.168.0.1/24 dev eth1
ip route delete default

Check the config with:

ip address
ip route

Delete a mistake if you need to

ip address delete 192.168.0.1/24 dev eth1

Open at least two terminals

You’ll need two terminals for the next bit.

Generate some packets

In one terminal, ping 192.168.0.2 from pc1.

In the other terminal, don’t connect to a device, but stay “outside” in your shell.

Using tcpdump and netns

In your other terminal window, execute tcpdump from inside the pc1 network namespace.

Example:

ip netns exec clab-pod1-pc1 ip -c link

ip netns exec clab-pod1-pc1 tcpdump -i eth1

Produce some different packet types

Stop your ping on pc1 with ctrl-c and execute:

ping 192.168.0.111

What kind of packets do you see in your tcpdump?

Capture some packets to disk

Capture 20 packets:

ip netns exec clab-podX-pc1 tcpdump -i eth1 -c 20 -w CLEVER_FILENAME.pcap

Copy them to your local computer. Locally,

scp lab@netlab.nanocat.net:CLEVER_FILENAME.pcap .

Open this file locally in Wireshark.