Populate Arista cEOS Serial Number with Containerlab

Automation

How to populate the serial number on Arista cEOS containers with Containerlab.

cEOS Container Has No Serial

If the show version output on your Arista cEOS container is missing the serial number like so:

Arista cEOSLab
Hardware version: 
Serial number: 
Hardware MAC address: 001c.7381.fbc9
System MAC address: 001c.7381.fbc9

Here’s how you can implement a fix with Containerlab.

  1. Create a file named ceos-config and populate it with your desired serial number:

    SERIALNUMBER=123654789

  2. Instruct your relevant kind to mount the config file to the container:

    topology:
  kinds:
    ceos:
      image: ceos:4.30.5M
      extras:
        ceos-copy-to-flash:
          - path/to/ceos-config
  nodes:
    # etc

  3. Redeploy your topology:

    containerlab deploy -t your_topology_file --reconfigure

  4. Verify the changes via show version:

    Arista cEOSLab
Hardware version:
Serial number: 123654789
Hardware MAC address: 001c.7381.fbc9
System MAC address: 001c.7381.fbc9

Parting Thoughts

This can come in handy if you’re developing textfsm templates, experimenting with NAPALM, testing with the next generation of Nautobot Device Onboarding App, or any other scenario where you need a device to have a serial number.

Cheers to the Containerlab team for having stellar documentation and functionality! And a big shoutout to Arista for making great networking products.