# Arista EOS Hates a Routing Instance with No Interfaces

DevFeed: [Arista EOS Hates a Routing Instance with No Interfaces](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/arista-eos-hates-a-routing-instance-with-no-interfaces-11236.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.ipspace.net/2025/09/eos-no-interfaces/>)

Published: 2025-09-18T05:20:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [ipSpace.net blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/ipspace-net-blog.md>)

Topics: [BGP](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/bgp.md>), [bug](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/bug.md>), [debug](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/debug.md>), [Ansible](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ansible.md>), [IP routing](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ip-routing.md>), [Containers](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/containers.md>), [virtual machines](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/virtual-machines.md>)

Tags: [ansible](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ansible.md>), [bgp](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bgp.md>), [bug](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bug.md>), [containers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/containers.md>), [debug](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/debug.md>), [ip-routing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ip-routing.md>), [netlab](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/netlab.md>), [virtual-machines](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/virtual-machines.md>)

## AI overview

A debugging investigation finds that Arista EOS fails to configure BGP and enable IP routing when the default VRF has no interfaces. The issue occurs in container and virtual-machine deployments across multiple EOS releases, while the error message is misleading.

## Source excerpt

I always ask engineers reporting a netlab bug to provide a minimal lab topology that would reproduce the error, sometimes resulting in "interesting" side effects. For example, I was trying to debug a BGP-related Arista EOS issue using a netlab topology similar to this one: defaults.device: eos module: [ bgp ] nodes: a: { bgp.as: 65000 } b: { bgp.as: 65001 } Imagine my astonishment when the two switches failed to configure BGP. Here's the error message I got when running the netlab's deploy device configurations Ansible playbook: Read more ...