NetPilot

EVPN-VXLAN fabric lab in the cloud

Describe a leaf-spine Clos fabric in plain English and the AI builds it — Nokia SR Linux and FRR built in; Cisco NX-OS and Arista EOS via BYOI; SONiC and other custom NOS images built for you on the enterprise plan — on real CLIs in ~2 minutes.

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See It in Action

Watch NetPilot build a 5-node FRR mesh, deploy it to the cloud, inject random link loss, and run an end-to-end test — all from one plain-English prompt. The same pattern scales to 100-node Clos fabrics for SONiC integration and multi-vendor EVPN-VXLAN validation.

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Why NetPilot for EVPN-VXLAN fabric research

EVE-NG, Aviz ONE Center, NVIDIA Air, and Keysight testbeds each cover a slice of fabric testing. NetPilot combines AI-generated multi-vendor configs + a cloud Clos topology + one-shot deployment in a single self-serve product — no chassis, no partner gate, no manual build.

Cloud-native

Browser only. Nothing to install.

The alternative

EVE-NG / GNS3 + Nexus 9000v qcow2 image hunting, a 16-32 GB host, and hours of VM setup before the first fabric boots.

AI-designed

Describe any topology in plain English — AI designs, configures, and deploys it; SSH in to verify.

The alternative

Hand-write the OSPF underlay, BGP EVPN overlay, and per-leaf VNI/anycast-gateway config on every spine and leaf, per vendor.

Multi-turn iteration

“Add an Arista spine, move OSPF to area 0.0.0.1” → AI updates across all devices.

The alternative

Re-edit and re-push the underlay + EVPN config leaf by leaf every time the fabric design changes.

2 minutes vs days/weeks

~2 minutes from prompt to working multi-vendor lab.

The alternative

Days to source SONiC + commercial NOS images and rack a chassis, or wait weeks for a partner-gated testbed slot.

From prompt to multi-vendor fabric

Describe the fabric, let the AI build it, then SSH into every NOS — SONiC and commercial vendors side by side, all on real CLIs.

Describe or import the fabric

Type the topology in plain English — “leaf-spine Clos, 2 spines on Cisco NX-OS and Arista EOS, 4 leaves on SONiC-VS, eBGP underlay, BGP EVPN overlay, anycast gateway” — or bring your own commercial NOS images via BYOI; SONiC and other custom NOS images are built for you on the enterprise plan.

app.netpilot.io

AI designs, configs, and deploys

NetPilot generates the per-vendor underlay and EVPN-VXLAN overlay configs, builds the Clos topology, and deploys to cloud ContainerLab in ~2 minutes — including failure injection like packet loss and link flap between fabric nodes.

app.netpilot.io

SSH into every NOS — real CLIs

Click any device to SSH into the real vendor CLI. Verify Type-2/3/5 routes, route-target auto-derivation, BUM replication behavior, and anycast MAC handling across SONiC, Cisco, Arista, and Nokia — the cross-vendor integration bugs that never surface in single-vendor testing.

app.netpilot.io

What you can model in an EVPN-VXLAN fabric lab

Describe any of these in plain English — every scenario runs on real vendor CLIs across SONiC and commercial NOSes, the control-plane and integration coverage hyperscaler fabric research needs.

Leaf-spine EVPN-VXLAN fabric

Two-tier Clos with an eBGP or OSPF underlay and a BGP EVPN overlay — Type-2/3/5 routes, L2VNI/L3VNI, anycast gateway on the leaves.

Multi-vendor SONiC interop

Nokia SR Linux built in; Cisco NX-OS and Arista EOS via BYOI; SONiC and other custom NOS images are built for you on the enterprise plan — in one fabric, reproduce route-target, BUM-replication, and anycast-MAC divergence across vendors.

3-tier / 100-node Clos scale

Spine / super-spine / leaf at fabric scale — BGP convergence, EVPN-VXLAN scaling, and fault-domain behavior on 100+ containerized NOS instances.

VXLAN BGP EVPN underlay tuning

OSPF vs eBGP underlay, ECMP, BFD-accelerated convergence, and head-end vs ingress BUM replication — the design decisions behind a Nexus-style fabric.

AI cluster fabric (RoCEv2)

Protocol-layer PFC, DCQCN, and ECN tuning for lossless AI-training fabrics — iterate control-plane parameters in minutes (line-rate 400G/800G stays on hardware).

MC-LAG & multi-homing

EVPN multi-homing (ESI), MC-LAG, and LACP to dual-attached hosts — verify ES/ESI route handling and DF election across vendor implementations.

VXLAN EVPN multi-site

Border-gateway multi-site interconnect across two Clos fabrics — verify Type-5 stitching and cross-site BUM handling before it touches production.

Fabric failure injection

Inject packet loss, link flap, and malformed frames with Scapy + tc netem between fabric nodes — watch EVPN reconverge on real CLIs.

Hyperscaler fabric lab tools compared

Honest positioning. NetPilot is not a replacement for hardware-rate line-card certification (that's Keysight's lane) or OCP hardware qualification (Aviz). As of 2026, NetPilot is the productized self-serve cloud lab for AI-built multi-vendor EVPN-VXLAN fabric research in this category.

AI-built from plain-English prompt
NetPilot
Yes
EVE-NG / GNS3 (DIY)
No
Aviz ONE Center
No
NVIDIA Air
No
Keysight SONiC Testbed
No
Multi-vendor (Nokia SR Linux built in; Cisco / Arista via BYOI; SONiC enterprise/custom build)
NetPilot
Yes
EVE-NG / GNS3 (DIY)
Image-dependent
Aviz ONE Center
Partner-gated
NVIDIA Air
Cumulus/SONiC only
Keysight SONiC Testbed
Chassis
Cloud self-serve (no chassis)
NetPilot
Yes
EVE-NG / GNS3 (DIY)
Self-hosted
Aviz ONE Center
Hardware
NVIDIA Air
Yes
Keysight SONiC Testbed
Hardware
Real NOS CLIs
NetPilot
Yes
EVE-NG / GNS3 (DIY)
Yes
Aviz ONE Center
Yes
NVIDIA Air
Cumulus/SONiC
Keysight SONiC Testbed
Yes
Time to first fabric lab
NetPilot
~2 minutes
EVE-NG / GNS3 (DIY)
Hours–days
Aviz ONE Center
Weeks (partner)
NVIDIA Air
~1 hour
Keysight SONiC Testbed
Weeks (chassis)
Failure injection (loss, link flap, malformed packets)
NetPilot
Scapy + tc netem
EVE-NG / GNS3 (DIY)
DIY
Aviz ONE Center
Hardware
NVIDIA Air
Limited
Keysight SONiC Testbed
Hardware
Price tier
NetPilot
Enterprise (contact)
EVE-NG / GNS3 (DIY)
Free (+ your infra)
Aviz ONE Center
Partner program
NVIDIA Air
Free (NVIDIA ecosystem)
Keysight SONiC Testbed
$$$$$ (6-figure)
Anchor scenario

Multi-vendor SONiC fabric: the real integration bugs

Hyperscaler fabrics that span vendor boundaries surface a specific class of integration bugs that never appear in single-vendor testing. Three named examples that keep recurring:

  • Route-target auto-derivation mismatch. SONiC and commercial NOSes derive RTs from VNIs differently. Manual RT configuration avoids the gotcha; auto-derivation across vendors surfaces it.
  • BUM replication behavior divergence. Ingress replication vs head-end replication vs AR-replicator topology choices. Subtle cross-vendor differences produce traffic loss under specific multicast patterns.
  • Anycast MAC handling. Distributed anycast gateways across different vendor implementations behave similarly in theory and differently in practice under specific failure modes.

NetPilot compresses the reproduction. Describe the fabric in plain English: "Leaf-spine with 2 spines (Arista EOS, Cisco NX-OS) and 4 leaves (SONiC-VS, Cisco NX-OS, Arista EOS, SONiC-VS). EVPN-VXLAN data plane. Anycast gateway on the leaves. Inject 5% packet loss between leaf-1 and spine-1." NetPilot generates per-vendor configs, deploys in ~2 minutes with real CLIs, and wires the failure injection. SSH into each device and debug the real vendor output.

Full scenario walkthrough

Alternative to Aviz ONE Center and NVIDIA Air

Where they win

  • • Aviz ONE Center: OCP-aligned hardware certification for SONiC partners
  • • NVIDIA Air: Cumulus Linux and single-vendor SONiC learning
  • • Keysight SONiC Testbed: line-rate performance at 400G/800G
  • • EVE-NG / Microsoft SONiC-VS docs: self-hosted DIY and SONiC contributor workflows

Where NetPilot wins

  • • Self-serve, no partner program, no scheduled slot
  • • Multi-vendor: Nokia SR Linux + FRR built in; Cisco + Arista via BYOI; SONiC and other custom NOS images built for you on the enterprise plan — in one prompt
  • • Cloud-hosted — no chassis, no on-prem infrastructure, no manual build
  • • AI-built EVPN-VXLAN fabric from a plain-English description
  • • Integration-bug reproduction workflow on real CLIs

Use NetPilot whenyour fabric engineer needs to reproduce a SONiC-vs-Cisco integration gotcha at 11pm on a Tuesday — not when your procurement team needs an OCP-certified switch for the next RFP. The tools complement; they don't replace.

Forward-looking

Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC) research

UEC 1.0 adoption is accelerating through 2026-2027 for AI training fabrics. Protocol-layer behaviors — LLR-style link-layer retransmission semantics, CBFC flow control, packet spraying, EDS ordering — can be modeled in NetPilot labs today. Full 800GE UEC conformance still requires hardware testers, but the cloud-lab layer becomes increasingly valuable for protocol-behavior research and implementation prototyping as the spec stabilizes.

Protocols and NOSes supported

Every protocol below runs on real vendor CLIs. Nokia SR Linux, FRR, and Linux are built in; Cisco NX-OS, Arista EOS, and other commercial vendor images are supported via BYOI (bring-your-own-image); SONiC — community SONiC-VS baseline and commercial distributions — is built for you on the enterprise plan.

  • EVPN-VXLAN (Type-2/3/5 routes, symmetric and asymmetric IRB, anycast gateway, L2VNI/L3VNI)
  • VXLAN (RFC 7348) with head-end and ingress replication modes
  • BGP EVPN (MP-BGP, route reflectors, PIC Edge, BGP-LS, BGP-LU)
  • eBGP / OSPF / IS-IS fabric underlay (wide metrics, ECMP, multi-area)
  • EVPN multi-homing (ESI), MC-LAG, LACP (vendor-specific variants)
  • SONiC (enterprise/custom build — Linux Foundation community SONiC-VS baseline + commercial distributions)
  • Multi-vendor NOS: Nokia SR Linux and FRR built in; Cisco NX-OS / IOS, Arista EOS, Nokia SROS, and Junos via BYOI
  • RoCEv2 with PFC, DCQCN, and ECN — protocol-behavior layer
  • BFD (multi-hop, micro-BFD, link-local)
  • VXLAN EVPN multi-site / border-gateway interconnect

Name-collision note

Digital Catapult's "SONIC Labs" (UK) is an Open RAN / 5G test facility, unrelated to SONiC NOS. This page is about SONiC, the Linux Foundation open-source data-center network operating system.

Where NetPilot fits vs hyperscaler lab tools

Pick hardware testbeds (Aviz / Keysight / NVIDIA Air) when you need:

  • •OCP-aligned hardware qualification for SONiC partners (Aviz ONE Center)
  • •Line-rate data-plane certification at 400G / 800G (Keysight, VIAVI TestCenter)
  • •Cumulus Linux and single-vendor SONiC learning inside the NVIDIA ecosystem (NVIDIA Air)

Pick NetPilot when you need:

  • •Self-serve, no partner program, no scheduled chassis slot
  • •Multi-vendor in one prompt — Nokia SR Linux + FRR built in; Cisco NX-OS + Arista EOS via BYOI; SONiC and other custom NOS images built for you on the enterprise plan
  • •AI-built EVPN-VXLAN Clos fabric from plain English, deployed to the cloud in ~2 minutes
  • •Cross-vendor integration-bug reproduction on real CLIs (route-target, BUM, anycast MAC)

Verdict:Use Aviz for OCP hardware qualification and Keysight or VIAVI for line-rate cert — NetPilot is not a replacement for either, and it is a Day-0/Day-1 build-and-validate tool, not a Day-2 production AIOps platform (Forward, Selector, Itential, Kentik). For same-day, multi-vendor EVPN-VXLAN fabric research without a chassis queue or partner gate, NetPilot is the self-serve cloud lab built for the 80% case.

Hyperscaler fabric FAQ

Scenario-phrased questions from fabric engineers.

Describe the fabric in plain English — for example, 'leaf-spine Clos with 2 spines and 4 leaves, eBGP underlay, BGP EVPN overlay, L2VNI + L3VNI, anycast gateway on the leaves.' NetPilot generates the per-device underlay and EVPN-VXLAN configs and deploys the lab in ~2 minutes with real CLIs. SSH into each spine and leaf to verify Type-2/3/5 routes, VNI-to-VLAN mapping, and anycast MAC — no Nexus 9000v image hunting and no EVE-NG host to build.
Describe the fabric in plain English — for example, 'leaf-spine with 2 spines (Cisco NX-OS, Arista EOS) and 4 leaves (SONiC-VS, Cisco NX-OS), EVPN-VXLAN data plane, anycast gateway.' NetPilot generates vendor-specific configs and deploys the lab in ~2 minutes with real CLIs for every NOS. Nokia SR Linux and FRR are built in; Cisco NX-OS and Arista EOS images come in via BYOI (bring-your-own-image); SONiC and other custom NOS images are built for you on the enterprise plan. SSH into each device, verify route-target handling, BUM replication behavior, and anycast MAC across vendors. The cross-vendor integration scenarios NetPilot's multi-vendor SONiC blog documents are the motivating use cases.
Yes. Aviz ONE Center is partner-gated and hardware-based — great for OCP certification and physical-hardware validation, but scheduled and appointment-based. NetPilot is self-serve and cloud-hosted — describe the SONiC + commercial-vendor topology, get a lab in ~2 minutes, no partner program required. Use Aviz for hardware certification; use NetPilot for engineer-led integration research.
Yes, for the protocol-behavior layer. NetPilot builds RoCEv2 labs with PFC, DCQCN, and ECN for congestion-behavior research, endpoint behavior, and control-plane tuning — ideal for AI cluster fabric research at the protocol layer. For line-rate validation at 400G/800G+ you still need hardware testers (Keysight IxNetwork or VIAVI TestCenter). Different tiers, complementary tools.
NetPilot is a true multi-vendor platform — NVIDIA Air is a Cumulus/SONiC-only learning tool from NVIDIA. For cross-vendor SONiC-vs-Cisco-vs-Arista integration work (the exact wedge), NetPilot is the better fit. Cumulus Linux is supported under BYOI with your NVIDIA licensing. Use NVIDIA Air for Cumulus/SONiC learning; use NetPilot for multi-vendor fabric integration research.
Yes. NetPilot's scale-testing workflow handles 100-node CLOS fabrics using container-based vendor NOS images on managed cloud infrastructure. BGP convergence at fabric scale, EVPN-VXLAN scaling behavior, and fabric fault-domain research all run without physical gear. See the 100-node-fabric scale testing blog for the methodology.
VXLAN is the data-plane encapsulation — it tunnels Layer 2 frames over a Layer 3 underlay using a 24-bit VNI. EVPN is the control plane — an MP-BGP address family that distributes MAC/IP reachability (Type-2), multicast/BUM endpoints (Type-3), and IP prefixes (Type-5) so VTEPs learn remote hosts via BGP instead of flood-and-learn. A modern Clos fabric runs BGP EVPN as the control plane over a VXLAN data plane. NetPilot lets you build both layers in one prompt and SSH in to watch EVPN routes program the VXLAN forwarding table.
No — they're unrelated. Digital Catapult's SONIC Labs is an Open RAN / 5G test facility in the UK. SONiC is a Linux Foundation open-source network operating system for data-center switches. NetPilot supports SONiC NOS multi-vendor integration; it does not target Open RAN testing.
Some UEC-adjacent protocol behaviors — LLR-style link-layer retransmission semantics, CBFC, and packet-spraying patterns — can be modeled at the protocol layer in NetPilot labs. Full UEC 1.0 conformance at 800GE line rate requires hardware testers. As UEC adoption accelerates through 2027, the cloud-lab layer becomes increasingly valuable for protocol-behavior research and implementation prototyping.
NetPilot supports SONiC under the enterprise plan as a custom build — the Linux Foundation community SONiC-VS as the baseline, plus commercial SONiC distributions built for you on the enterprise plan. For multi-vendor SONiC-vs-Cisco-vs-Arista integration labs, the community SONiC-VS image is sufficient in most cases. Nokia SR Linux, FRR, and Linux are built in; Cisco NX-OS, Arista EOS, and Juniper come in via BYOI.
Yes. NetPilot's enterprise plan includes a self-hosted / on-prem deployment for hyperscalers running internal network R&D with strict data-residency or IP-protection requirements — deploy the platform inside your existing environment. Cloud-hosted is the default self-serve; on-prem is available via Contact Sales.
Microsoft's official SONiC-VS documentation targets SONiC community contributors running single-NOS development environments. NetPilot is a multi-vendor research lab — describe a fabric with SONiC + Cisco NX-OS + Arista EOS + Nokia SR Linux, and NetPilot deploys it. Nokia SR Linux and FRR are built in; Cisco NX-OS and Arista EOS images come in via BYOI; SONiC and other custom NOS images are built for you on the enterprise plan. Different scope: SONiC-VS is for building SONiC; NetPilot is for testing SONiC against other vendors.

Related reading

Best Network Research Lab Platforms in 2026

Tier-ranked comparison of 10 platforms with a 6-row segment routing guide.

Multi-Vendor SONiC Integration Lab

SONiC + Cisco NX-OS + Arista EOS in the same fabric — the hyperscaler integration pattern.

Open Networking & FRR

FRR and SONiC multi-vendor integration — the open-networking sibling segment.

Carriers & ISPs

Cross-vendor EVPN bug reproduction patterns that also apply to hyperscale fabrics.

Scale Testing 100-Node Fabrics

Cloud-based methodology for fabric-scale BGP convergence and EVPN-VXLAN research without hardware.

FRRouting Cloud Labs

Six FRR protocols in one prompt — BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, Babel, EVPN, SRv6 — for open-networking R&D.

AI Cluster Networking with RoCEv2

AI training fabric research — PFC, DCQCN, ECN — at the protocol-behavior layer.

Keysight vs VIAVI vs NetPilot: Research Lab Comparison

Honest comparison across platforms — hardware testers, DIY, cloud.

Network Research Lab

The parent hub — all six research segments.

Ready to build EVPN-VXLAN fabric labs in minutes?

Dedicated environment, custom vendor image support, SSO, audit, workflow integration — talk to us about a hyperscaler research plan. Or spin up a free lab and try the SONiC multi-vendor integration yourself.

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