Q2/2026 - Arista Academy Levels Up the Lab Experience AGAIN

Labs are great for learning a specific scenario — but what if you want to go further? With the new Custom Node Builder, students can dynamically expand their active lab topology on demand, adding new Arista EOS virtual devices right into their existing environment. Using a simple, wizard-driven interface, students can:

• Add new vEOS nodes to their running topology
• Create additional links between devices
• Build out clusters of vEOS nodes to model larger, more complex networks

This gives learners the freedom to extend a lab beyond its original scope and shape it into something closer to their own real-world production network — turning a guided exercise into a genuine sandbox for experimentation. And with more node types planned for future releases, the Custom Node Builder will only get more powerful as it matures.

Getting into the lab should be the easy part. Our completely overhauled backend deployment system delivers significantly faster environment spin-up times, thanks to two key improvements:

• Parallelized image delivery, which speeds up how quickly virtual devices are provisioned and made available
• Optimized background provisioning workflows, reducing the behind-the-scenes overhead that used to slow down lab launches

Result: less time watching a loading screen, more time actually working hands-on with Arista EOS.