Building Data Centers with VXLAN BGP EVPN

Description

Lukas Krattiger, CCIE No. 21921 (Routing/Switching and Data Center), is principal engineer, Technical Marketing, with more than 15 years of experience in data center, Internet, and application networks. Within Cisco, he specializes in data center switching, overlay architectures, and solutions across platforms. Lukas is a double-CCIE (R&S and Data Center) with several other industry certifications and has participated in various technology leadership and advisory groups. Prior to joining Cisco, Lukas was a senior network engineer with System Integrators and Service Providers, where he was responsible for data center and Internet networks. Since joining Cisco, he has covered various technologies within the data center as well as enterprise networks portfolio, and he has built foundational solutions for customers and partners.

Shyam Kapadia is a principal engineer in the Data Center Group at Cisco Systems. With more than a decade of experience in the networking industry, Shyam holds more than 30 patents and has coauthored the book Using TRILL, FabricPath, and VXLAN: Designing MSDC with Overlays. In his 10 years at Cisco, Shyam has worked on a number of products, including the Catalyst and Nexus families of switches, with special emphasis on end-to-end data center solutions, including automation and orchestration. He holds a Ph.D. and master’s degree from the University of Southern California in the field of computer science. Over the past 15 years, Shyam has been the Program Chair for the Southern California Linux Exposition (SCALE).

David Jansen, CCIE No. 5952 (Routing/Switching), is a distinguished systems engineer (DSE) for Cisco, specializing in data center, campus, branch/WAN, and cloud architectures. He has 20 years of experience in the industry and has earned certifications from Novell, VMware, Microsoft, TOGAF, and Cisco. His focus is working with global enterprise customers to address their challenges with comprehensive end-to-end data center, enterprise, WAN/Internet, and cloud architectures. David has been with Cisco for more than 19 years; for the last 4 years or so as a DSE, he has gained unique experiences in building next generation data center solutions.

    Introduction xv
Chapter 1 Introduction to Programmable Fabric 1
    Today’s Data Center Challenges and Requirements 2
    The Data Center Fabric Journey 3
    Cisco Open Programmable Fabric 10
        Fabric-Related Terminology 13
    Data Center Network Fabric Properties 14
        Server or Endpoint Connectivity Options 15
    Summary 17
    References 17
Chapter 2 VXLAN BGP EVPN Basics 21
    Overlays 23
    Introduction to VXLAN 27
        VXLAN Flood and Learn (F&L) 30
    Introduction to BGP EVPN with VXLAN 32
        MP-BGP Features and Common Practices 34
        IETF Standards and RFCs 37
        Host and Subnet Route Distribution 40
    Host Deletion and Move Events 46
    Summary 48
    References 49
Chapter 3 VXLAN/EVPN Forwarding Characteristics 53
    Multidestination Traffic 54
        Leveraging Multicast Replication in the Underlying Network 55
        Using Ingress Replication 58
    VXLAN BGP EVPN Enhancements 60
        ARP Suppression 60
        Distributed IP Anycast Gateway 65
        Integrated Route and Bridge (IRB) 69
        Endpoint Mobility 73
        Virtual PortChannel (vPC) in VXLAN BGP EVPN 76
        DHCP 81
    Summary 85
    References 85
Chapter 4 The Underlay 87
    Underlay Considerations 88
        MTU Considerations 91
        IP Addressing 93
    IP Unicast Routing 99
        OSPF as an Underlay 100
        IS-IS as an Underlay 102
        BGP as an Underlay 103
        IP Unicast Routing Summary 106
    Multidestination Traffic 107
        Unicast Mode 107
        Multicast Mode 109
        PIM Any Source Multicast (ASM) 112
        BiDirectional PIM (PIM BiDir) 114
    Summary 119
    References 119
Chapter 5 Multitenancy 121
    Bridge Domains 123
    VLANs in VXLAN 124
    Layer 2 Multitenancy: Mode of Operation 129
        VLAN-Oriented Mode 130
        BD-Oriented Mode 131
    VRF in VXLAN BGP EVPN 132
    Layer 3 Multitenancy: Mode of Operation 134
    Summary 137
    References 138
Chapter 6 Unicast Forwarding 139
    Intra-Subnet Unicast Forwarding (Bridging) 139
    Non-IP Forwarding (Bridging) 147
    Inter-Subnet Unicast Forwarding (Routing) 149
        Routed Traffic to Silent Endpoints 158
    Forwarding with Dual-Homed Endpoint 164
    IPv6 167
    Summary 169
Chapter 7 Multicast Forwarding 171
    Layer 2 Multicast Forwarding 171
        IGMP in VXLAN BGP EVPN Networks 174
    Layer 2 Multicast Forwarding in vPC 178
    Layer 3 Multicast Forwarding 182
    Summary 184
    References 184
Chapter 8 External Connectivity 185
    External Connectivity Placement 185
        External Layer 3 Connectivity 189
        U-Shaped and Full-Mesh Models 190
        VRF Lite/Inter-AS Option A 192
        LISP 195
        MPLS Layer 3 VPN (L3VPN) 200
        External Layer 2 Connectivity 203
    Classic Ethernet and vPC 204
    Extranet and Shared Services 206
        Local/Distributed VRF Route Leaking 207
        Downstream VNI Assignment 210
    Summary 212
    Reference 212
Chapter 9 Multi-Pod, Multifabric, and Data Center Interconnect (DCI) 213
    Contrasting OTV and VXLAN 213
    Multi-Pod 219
        Interconnection at the Spine Layer 227
        Interconnection at the Leaf Layer 227
Multifabric 228
        Inter-pod/Interfabric 231
        Interfabric Option 1: Multi-Pod 232
        Interfabric Option 2: Multifabric 233
        Interfabric Option 3 (Multisite for Layer 3) 235
        Interfabric Option 4 (Multisite for Layer 2) 236
    Summary 238
    References 238
Chapter 10 Layer 4—7 Services Integration 241
    Firewalls in a VXLAN BGP EVPN Network 242
        Routing Mode 242
        Bridging Mode 244
        Firewall Redundancy with Static Routing 245
        Static Route Tracking at a Service Leaf 248
        Static Routing at a Remote Leaf 248
        Physical Connectivity 249
    Inter-Tenant/Tenant-Edge Firewall 250
        Services-Edge Design 254
        Intra-Tenant Firewalls 254
        Mixing Intra-Tenant and Inter-Tenant Firewalls 260
    Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and Load Balancer in a VXLAN BGP
        EVPN Network 262
        One-Armed Source-NAT 262
        Direct VIP Subnet Approach 263
        Indirect VIP Subnet Approach 264
        Return Traffic 265
        Service Chaining: Firewall and Load Balancer 267
    Summary 271
    References 271
Chapter 11 Introduction to Fabric Management 273
    Day-0 Operations: Automatic Fabric Bring-Up 275
        In-Band Versus Out-of-Band POAP 276
        Other Day-0 Considerations 278
    Day-0.5 Operations: Incremental Changes 279
    Day-1 Operations: Overlay Services Management 280
    Virtual Topology System (VTS) 282
    Nexus Fabric Manager (NFM) 282
    Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) 283
        Compute Integration 283
        Day-2 Operations: Monitoring and Visibility 285
    VXLAN OAM (NGOAM) 294
    Summary 299
    References 299
Appendix A VXLAN BGP EVPN Implementation Options 303
9781587144677, TOC, 3/16/17
    This is the only comprehensive guide and deployment reference for building flexible data centre network fabrics with VXLAN and BGP EVPN technologies. Writing for experienced network professionals, three leading Cisco experts address everything from standards and protocols to functions, configurations, and operations.

The authors first explain why and how data centre fabrics are evolving, and introduce Cisco’s fabric journey. Next, they review key switch roles, essential data centre network fabric terminology, and core concepts such as network attributes, control plane details, and the associated data plane encapsulation.

Building on this foundation, they provide a deep dive into fabric semantics, efficient creation and addressing of the underlay, multi-tenancy, control and data plane interaction, forwarding flows, external interconnectivity, and service appliance deployments. You’ll find detailed tutorials, descriptions, and packet flows that can easily be adapted to accommodate customised deployments. This guide concludes with a full section on fabric management, introducing multiple opportunities to simplify, automate, and orchestrate data centre network fabrics.

• Learn how changing data centre requirements have driven the evolution to overlays, evolved control planes, and VXLAN BGP EVPN spine-leaf fabrics
• Discover why VXLAN BGP EVPN fabrics are so scalable, resilient, and elastic
• Implement enhanced unicast and multicast forwarding of tenant traffic over the VXLAN BGP EVPN fabric
• Build fabric underlays to efficiently transport uni- and multi-destination traffic
• Connect the fabric externally via Layer 3 (VRF-Lite, LISP, MPLS L3VPN) and Layer 2 (VPC)
• Choose your most appropriate Multi-POD, multifabric, and Data Center Interconnect (DCI) options
• Integrate Layer 4-7 services into the fabric, including load balancers and firewalls
• Manage fabrics with POAP-based day-0 provisioning, incremental day 0.5 configuration, overlay day-1 configuration, or day-2 operations

The complete guide to building and managing next-generation data center network fabrics with VXLAN and BGP EVPN

This is the only comprehensive guide and deployment reference for building flexible data center network fabrics with VXLAN and BGP EVPN technologies. Writing for experienced network professionals, three leading Cisco experts address everything from standards and protocols to functions, configurations, and operations.

The authors first explain why and how data center fabrics are evolving, and introduce Cisco’s fabric journey. Next, they review key switch roles, essential data center network fabric terminology, and core concepts such as network attributes, control plane details, and the associated data plane encapsulation.

Building on this foundation, they provide a deep dive into fabric semantics, efficient creation and addressing of the underlay, multi-tenancy, control and data plane interaction, forwarding flows, external interconnectivity, and service appliance deployments. You’ll find detailed tutorials, descriptions, and packet flows that can easily be adapted to accommodate customized deployments. This guide concludes with a full section on fabric management, introducing multiple opportunities to simplify, automate, and orchestrate data center network fabrics.

• Learn how changing data center requirements have driven the evolution to overlays, evolved control planes, and VXLAN BGP EVPN spine-leaf fabrics
• Discover why VXLAN BGP EVPN fabrics are so scalable, resilient, and elastic
• Implement enhanced unicast and multicast forwarding of tenant traffic over the VXLAN BGP EVPN fabric
• Build fabric underlays to efficiently transport uni- and multi-destination traffic
• Connect the fabric externally via Layer 3 (VRF-Lite, LISP, MPLS L3VPN) and Layer 2 (VPC)
• Choose your most appropriate Multi-POD, multifabric, and Data Center Interconnect (DCI) options
• Integrate Layer 4-7 services into the fabric, including load balancers and firewalls
• Manage fabrics with POAP-based day-0 provisioning, incremental day 0.5 configuration, overlay day-1 configuration, or day-2 operations

Learn how to build optimized, next-generation data centers using standards-based protocols (VXLAN and BGP-EVPN)

• The most comprehensive guide to using VXLAN/EVPN to deploy advanced data center network fabrics
• Contains detailed tutorials, descriptions, and packet flows network engineers can easily adapt to their specific challenges
• Introduces key orchestration, automation, and management issues and solutions for next-generation data centers

Additional information