VxLAN on the CSR1Kv
By now, VxLAN is becoming the standard way of tunneling in the Datacenter.
Using VxLAN, i will show how to use the CSR1Kv to extend your Datacenter L2 reach between sites as well.
First off, what is VxLAN?
It stands for Virtual Extensible LAN. Basically you have a way of decoupling your vlan’s into a new scheme.
You basically map your VLAN into a VNI (Virtual Network Identifier), which in essence makes your VLAN numbering scheme locally significant.
Also, since the numbering for VNI’s is a 24 bit identifier, you have alot more flexibility than just the regular 4096 definable VLAN’s. (12 Bits .1q tags)
Each endpoint that does the encapsulation/decapsulation is called a VTEP (VxLAN Tunnel EndPoint). In our example this would be CSR3 and CSR5.
After the VxLAN header, the packet is further encapsulated into a UDP packet and forwarded across the network. This is a great solution as it doesnt impose any technical restrictions on the core of the network. Only the VTEPs needs to understand VxLAN (and probably have hardware acceleration for it as well).
Since we wont be using BGP EVPN, we will rely solely on multicasting in the network to establish who is the Continue reading