EVE-NG Deployment
EVE-NG (Emulated Virtual Environment — Next Generation) runs as a nested VM on Proxmox, bridging virtual Cisco IOS nodes with physical switch ports on the Catalyst 3560-CX. This hybrid approach is essential for realistic lab testing.
While I utilize physical Cisco Catalyst switches to practice Layer 1/Layer 2 configurations and physical cabling, I deliberately chose to virtualize my routing topology using EVE-NG. Physical enterprise routers (like Cisco ISRs) generate excessive acoustic noise and consume unnecessary power for a residential setup. EVE-NG allows me to scale to complex multi-router OSPF topologies while maintaining a quiet, energy-efficient homelab environment.
Host Environment
Section titled “Host Environment”| Component | Details |
|---|---|
| Hardware | HP t740 Thin Client — AMD Ryzen Embedded V1756B, 16 GB DDR4 |
| Hypervisor | Proxmox VE — nested virtualization enabled, KVM |
VM Sizing
Section titled “VM Sizing”| Resource | Allocation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| vCPU | 4 | host-passthrough mode for hardware acceleration |
| RAM | 8 GB | Handles Cisco IOL and QEMU node overhead |
| Disk | 50 GB | VirtIO-SCSI, thin-provisioned |
CPU Virtualization Flags
Section titled “CPU Virtualization Flags”- Nested virtualization enabled on the Proxmox host.
- CPU type:
host-passthrough— allows EVE-NG to access physical CPU features required by QEMU nodes.
Network Integration
Section titled “Network Integration”The EVE-NG instance is fully integrated into the physical network:
- Management Interface: Static IP within the management VLAN.
- External Cloud: Bridged to Catalyst 3560-CX physical ports — virtual routers communicate with physical hardware.
NIC integration uses VirtIO interfaces bridged to physical ports on the 3560-CX. Dedicated PCIe NIC passthrough (bypassing the Linux bridge overhead) was considered but not pursued — the bridge approach added no measurable overhead for lab workloads.