Start a lab
Labs are where the guided courses are actually learned. Everything below runs on a laptop or a single VM — nothing here needs a datacentre, and the labs that do need real hardware always name a simulator fallback.
Environments
| Environment | Setup |
|---|---|
| A Linux VM with 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, and nested virtualization if the lab needs it |
| Docker and kind; 16 GB RAM for two clusters |
| rdma_rxe kernel module on any Ethernet interface |
| Hugepages, net_tap or net_null PMD; no NIC needed |
| bmv2 simple_switch with Mininet or the P4 tutorial VM |
| Icarus Verilog or Verilator, plus GTKWave for waveforms |
| A real RDMA NIC, SmartNIC/DPU, GPU, or FPGA board, listed in each lab |
hardware labs are the first to get skipped. Offer each one with its simulator fallback in the lab card, and show a badge for "ran on hardware" separately.
Before your first lab
- Pick the environment the lab names. Each lab card states one:
vm,container,simorhardware. - Read the pass check first. It tells you what "done" means before you start, so you are not guessing at the end.
- Write the rollback step before you change anything. Every lab sequence expects a change made on a branch of the configuration with a way back.
- Keep the evidence. Command logs, counter dumps, histograms. The pass check is on the evidence, not on the fact that something ran.
Find a lab
137 labs and 13 scenario-based sequences, each with its environment and pass check.