# Networking Virtual Machines and Containers Must Work Reliably Out of the Box

DevFeed: [Networking Virtual Machines and Containers Must Work Reliably Out of the Box](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/famous-last-words-i-m-too-stupid-for-that-11011.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.ipspace.net/2024/05/too-stupid-to-make-it-work/>)

Published: 2024-05-06T06:25:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

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

Topics: [networking](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/networking.md>), [virtual machines](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/virtual-machines.md>), [DHCP](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/dhcp.md>), [Vagrant](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/vagrant.md>), [dell](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/dell.md>)

Tags: [cisco](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cisco.md>), [dell](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dell.md>), [dhcp](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dhcp.md>), [netlab](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/netlab.md>), [network](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/network.md>), [networking](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/networking.md>), [ssh](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ssh.md>), [vagrant](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/vagrant.md>), [virtual-machines](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/virtual-machines.md>), [virtualization](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/virtualization.md>)

## AI overview

The article argues that free network operating system images distributed as containers or virtual machines must work reliably out of the box. It describes Junos vPTX rejecting DHCP-assigned addresses and Dell OS10 images having intermittent SSH server failures that make automation and CI/CD use impractical.

## Source excerpt

Some networking vendors realized that one way to gain mindshare is to make their network operating systems available as free-to-download containers or virtual machines. That's the right way to go; I love their efforts and point out who went down that path whenever possible1 (as well as others like Cisco who try to make our lives miserable). However, those virtual machines better work out of the box, or you'll get frustrated engineers who will give up and never touch your warez again, or as someone said in a LinkedIn comment to my blog post describing how Junos vPTX consistently rejects its DHCP-assigned IP address: "If I had encountered an issue like this before seeing Ivan's post, I would have definitely concluded that I am doing it wrong."2 Read more ...