# netlab 1.8.0: Control-Plane Daemons, BIRD, dnsmasq

DevFeed: [netlab 1.8.0: Control-Plane Daemons, BIRD, dnsmasq](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/netlab-1-8-0-control-plane-daemons-bird-dnsmasq-10963.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.ipspace.net/2024/03/netlab-1-8-0-daemons-bird/>)

Published: 2024-03-04T07:25:00Z

Content type: release

Language: en

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

Topics: [networking](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/networking.md>), [BGP](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/bgp.md>), [DHCP](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/dhcp.md>), [Docker](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/docker.md>), [Containers](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/containers.md>), [Ubuntu](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ubuntu.md>), [Cisco](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cisco.md>)

Tags: [bgp](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bgp.md>), [cisco](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cisco.md>), [container](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/container.md>), [container-image](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/container-image.md>), [dhcp](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dhcp.md>), [docker](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/docker.md>), [dockerfiles](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dockerfiles.md>), [netlab](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/netlab.md>), [networking](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/networking.md>), [ospf](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ospf.md>), [ubuntu](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ubuntu.md>)

## AI overview

This release article describes netlab 1.8.0, which adds control-plane daemon support through BIRD for OSPF and BGP and dnsmasq for DHCP. It also explains building required BIRD container images with Dockerfiles and the netlab clab build command, and lists additional networking, validation, configuration, and startup features.

## Source excerpt

I wanted to include open-source networking-related software into netlab topologies since (at least) the days I was writing the DHCP relaying saga. It turned out to be a bit more complex than I anticipated (more about that in another blog post), but I hope you'll find it useful. netlab release 1.8.0 includes dnsmasq running as a DHCP server and BIRD running OSPF and BGP. ExaBGP and GoBGP are already on the wish list; if you have any other ideas, please start a GitHub discussion. I had a hard time finding reasonable container images for BIRD; the BIRD team does not publish them, and everything else I found looked either abandoned or a hobby project. The solution turned out to be exceedingly simple: you cannot run the containers without Docker anyway, which means the docker build command is just a few keystrokes away. I added Dockerfiles needed to build those containers to the netlab source code and implemented the netlab clab build command as a thin wrapper around docker build. It takes just a few seconds (plus the time it takes to download the Ubuntu container image) to build the containers you need. Read more ...