Install Ubuntu on WSL2

1. Install WSL

Open a PowerShell prompt as an Administrator and run:

wsl --install

Note

Additional Windows features are required for wsl to work -open the Control panel -go to "turn windows features on or off" -select "Windows subsystem for linux", "Virtual machine platform" and "windows Hypervisor platform" -reboot

2. Install Ubuntu

Go to the Microsoft Store, search for and install "Ubuntu 24.04 LTS" (or the latest LTS).

Open Ubuntu and run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get full-upgrade -y  # This might take a while

3. Install Docker & Containerlab

Run the following command:

curl -sL https://containerlab.dev/setup | sudo -E bash -s "all"

The lab

Note

WSL creates its own file hierarchy seperate from your windows files, to access the downloaded lab1 folder you should link the windows Downloads folder to a WSL dowloads folder using the command:

ln -s /mnt/c/Users/<windows_username>/Downloads ~/downloads
#Then
cd ~/downloads/lab1

4. Import the ceos image to docker

In your lab1 directory run the following command:

docker import cEOS-lab-4.32.0F.tar.xz ceos:4.32.0F

5. Deploy the nodes

Run the following command:

sudo containerlab deploy

6. Connect to the nodes

Run the command:

docker exec -it clab-srlceos01-ceos bash

7. Add DNS server

Open dnsmasq config file

sudo nano /etc/dnsmasq.conf

add this line:

server=1.1.1.1

restart dnsmasq

sudo systemctl restart dnmasq

8. Test your connection

While running wireshark, run these commands on the nodes:

ping 8.8.8.8 #Google server
nslookup mit.edu
traceroute yahoo.com

🔥 Thats It, You're Done!! 👏

8. Shutdown

To power off the nodes run:

sudo containerlab destroy