Course Overview
An experienced, CCNP-level network engineer — comfortable with BGP, VLANs, L2/L3 switching, EVPN/VXLAN, Dell OS10, Cisco-style NOSes, and vCenter — who needs to understand how those familiar concepts are implemented differently in SONiC.
Course philosophy
A traditional network operating system usually appears as one tightly integrated system. SONiC behaves more like a collection of specialized services coordinating through shared databases. That single shift changes how you configure, observe, and — above all — troubleshoot it.
The Factory analogy
We use one running analogy through the early course. It is a teaching aid, not a substitute for the real architecture — the “where it stops working” notes on each lesson keep it honest.
| In SONiC | In the factory |
|---|---|
| CLI & configuration tools | The front desk accepting work orders |
| CONFIG_DB | The work-order database |
| Redis databases | The shared operational record every department reads |
| Containers | Specialized departments and workers |
| FRR | The routing & receiving department |
| SWSS | The production coordinator |
| SAI | A universal machine-control language |
| Vendor SDK | The machine-specific driver |
| ASIC | The high-speed production machinery |
| Packets | Items moving through the production line |
Do not stop at asking what is configured. Determine how far the intended state traveled through the system.
A healthy control plane does not guarantee correct forwarding.
Structure
Five modules of roughly eight hours each — about 15–17 h of lecture and guided explanation, 20–22 h of labs and exercises, and 2–4 h of review, assessment, and capstone. The ratio deliberately varies: architecture and forwarding lean on explanation; EVPN/VXLAN is heavily lab-driven.
30 lessons · 27 labs · 46 knowledge-check questions · 34 glossary terms · 54 reference commands.
- 1SONiC Architecture & Operating ModelStop seeing a monolith. Start seeing a distributed system in one switch.~8 h · 3.5 h lecture · 4 h labs
- 2Control Plane, FRR & Route LifecycleHow familiar routing protocols integrate into SONiC's service and database model.~8 h · 3 h lecture · 4.5 h labs
- 3ASICs, Switching Pipelines, SAI & ForwardingHow a logical route, MAC, ACL, or tunnel becomes real behavior in silicon.~8 h · 4.5 h lecture · 3 h labs
- 4EVPN/VXLAN in SONiCYour EVPN/VXLAN knowledge, meet SONiC's implementation model.~8 h · 2.5 h lecture · 5 h labs
- 5Open-Source SONiC vs Enterprise SONiCHow upstream SONiC differs from supported vendor distributions — and how to choose.~8 h · 3 h lecture · 3.5 h labs
How to use this site
- Move sequentially with the Previous/Next controls, or jump around from the sidebar.
- Mark lessons and labs complete; your overall progress and last-visited page are saved locally.
- Expand Go deeper sections when you want more depth; the main path stays readable.
- Use the reference tools — Architecture Explorer, Troubleshooting Center, Command Reference, Glossary — during and after the course.
- Record observations in each lab’s notes field, and export your progress as JSON from the dashboard.