NA011 - Netlab, ACLs and AI-Generated Configs with Ivan Pepelnjak

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 16:00:00 +0000

Network Auto Magic Podcast

Netlab, ACLs and AI-Generated Configs with Ivan Pepelnjak

Episode Overview

Ivan Pepelnjak joins Steinn and Urs for episode eleven — in decimal, before you ask. Ivan is a CCIE Emeritus, the author of more Cisco Press books than most of us have read, the voice behind ipSpace.net, and the creator of netlab, an open source tool that builds and configures virtual labs across roughly twenty platforms. He describes it himself as an “intent based digital twin lifecycle management system”, then immediately admits that’s a bullshit bingo winner if you have the right card. The conversation digs into why LLMs write decent Python and terrible router configs, the ChatGPT doom loop Ivan hit trying to configure EVPN on Nokia SR OS, and the endless device quirks hiding behind multi-vendor abstraction — Juniper loopbacks, Nokia prefix lengths, and one vendor with roughly 400 keywords you are simply not allowed to use as a VLAN name. Plus: why every layer 3 switch is really a bridge in disguise, why ACLs are containable and QoS never will be, what a real CCIE engagement looks like when you inherit twenty years of customer mistakes and get exactly one command to fix them, and a closing controversial opinion about conferences that will annoy at least one organiser.

Ipspace on Network Automagic

NA011 - Netlab, ACLs and AI-Generated Configs with Ivan Pepelnjak

Network Auto Magic Podcast

Episode Overview