26 – Is VxLAN a DCI solution for LAN extension ?
One of the questions that many network managers are asking is “Can I use VxLAN stretched across different locations to interconnect two or more physical DCs and form a single logical DC fabric?”
The answer is that the current standard implementation of VxLAN has grown up for an intra-DC fabric infrastructure and would necessitate additional tools as well as a control plane learning process to fully address the DCI requirements. Consequently, as of today it is not considered as a DCI solution.
To understand this statement, we first need to review the main requirements to deploy a solid and efficient DC interconnect solution and dissect the workflow of VxLAN to see how it behaves against these needs. All of the following requirements for a valid DCI LAN extension have already been discussed throughout previous posts, so the following serves as a brief reminder.
DCI LAN Extension requirements
Strongly recommended:
- Failure domain must be contained within a single physical DC
- Leverage protocol control plane learning to suppress the unknown unicast flooding.
- Flooding of ARP requests must be reduced and controlled using rate limiting across the extended LAN.
- Generally speaking, rate limiters for the control plane and data plane must be Continue reading
