In the previous chapters, we learned about software-defined networking, the OpenDaylight controller, and the basic installation of OpenDaylight in both standalone and distributed modes. In this chapter, we will build a virtual SDN lab. You may think that having OpenDaylight in a virtual environment means actually having a lab, but we need other elements for our SDN lab, which are switches.
As you already know, switches are physical devices with multiple Ethernet ports, from 10 MBps to 100 GBps. Remember that a software-defined network is a combination of an SDN controller and underlay switches and routers managed by the controller. We need switches to build our OpenDaylight lab and test our YANG applications. Plus, we need to build them in our virtual environment to ensure they are easy to manage and integrate with OpenDaylight and the SDN environment.
If you...
