After the host machine rebooted, the links between nodes disappeared.

[binw666]

Topology definition file as follow:

name: test
topology:
  nodes:
    node1:
      kind: linux
      image: ubuntu
    node2:
      kind: linux
      image: ubuntu
    node3:
      kind: linux
      image: ubuntu
  links:
    - endpoints: ["node1:ens1", "node2:ens1"]
    - endpoints: ["node1:ens2", "node3:ens1"]

After the host machine rebooted, the links between nodes disappeared.

root@node1:/# cat proc/net/dev 
Inter-|   Receive                                                |  Transmit
 face |bytes    packets errs drop fifo frame compressed multicast|bytes    packets errs drop fifo colls carrier compressed
    lo:       0       0    0    0    0     0          0         0        0       0    0    0    0     0       0          0
  eth0:    3600      36    0    0    0     0          0         0      946      11    0    0    0     0       0          0

Is there any way to recover the links without damaging the containers? Or any way to keep the links even after the host machine has been rebooted？

[steiler]

Interfaces will disapear when the container stops. You will need to do another containerlab deploy to re-orchestrate the links.
To me it anyways seems liek you want to run simple linux containers.
What you can do in this case is to even use docker-compose or whatever mechanism you like to deploy and start the containers.
Then for the wiring, instead of using kind linux, you use "ext-container", which is just a reference to an already existing container to containerlab. Then we will just inject the links defined in the links section.
Take a look at the doc, here: https://containerlab.dev/manual/kinds/ext-container/

[steiler]

I'm realizing that the doc sounds like ext-containers can be used to connect external containers to containerlab nodes.
But you can also have only ext-containers and multiple of them and make containerlab inject links inbetween them.

[binw666]

Thank you for your reply. I want to develop in containers and the development environment needs multiple containers connected to form a certain topology. I think containerlab can simplify the configuration process. With your tips, I used "ext-container" to achieve my goal.

[hellt]

@binw666 in a case you use linux containers you have an option to re-add links using https://containerlab.dev/cmd/tools/veth/create/

[binw666]

Thanks for your reply. This method can indeed recover the links. I actually wanted a more automated way, and with "ext-container" I finally got there.