netlab: Combining VLANs with VRFs

Last two weeks we focused on access VLANs and VLAN trunk netlab implementation. Can we combine them with VRFs? Of course.

The trick is very simple: attributes within a VLAN definition become attributes of VLAN interfaces. Add vrf attribute to a VLAN and you get all VLAN interfaces created for that VLAN in the corresponding VRF. Can’t get any easier, can it?

How about extending our VLAN trunk lab topology with VRFs? We’ll put red VLAN in red VRF and blue VLAN in blue VRF.

Combining VLANs with VRFs

Combining VLANs with VRFs

We’ll take the existing VLAN trunk lab topology and modify it a bit. First, we have to enable VRF support on the switches – we’ll add vrf module to the list of modules used by S1 and S2.

Add VRF module to the switches group
groups:
  switches:
    members: [ s1, s2 ]
    module: [ vlan,vrf ]
    device: eos

Next, we have to define the VRFs.

VRF definitions in lab topology
vrfs:
  red:
  blue:
netlab automatically allocates route distinguishers and route targets to VRFs. Obviously you could override those values if you like particular RD/RT values or if you’re building complex topologies.

Finally, a bit of magic dust: add vrf attribute to VLAN definitions:

VLAN definitions in lab topology
vlans:
  red:
    vrf: red
  blue:
    vrf: blue

That’s it. Execute netlab up1 (after downloading the final topology file) and you’ll have a multi-VRF lab using a VLAN trunk.

Here are the relevant parts of Arista cEOS configuration in case you’re wondering what we achieved with the few extra lines in lab topology file:

VRF+VLAN configuration on Arista cEOS
spanning-tree mode mstp
!
vlan 1000
   name red
!
vlan 1001
   name blue
!
vrf instance blue
   rd 65000:2
!
vrf instance red
   rd 65000:1
!
interface Ethernet1
   mac-address 52:dc:ca:fe:05:01
   switchport access vlan 1000
!
interface Ethernet2
   mac-address 52:dc:ca:fe:05:02
   switchport access vlan 1001
!
interface Ethernet3
   description s1 -> s2
   mac-address 52:dc:ca:fe:05:03
   switchport trunk allowed vlan 1000-1001
   switchport mode trunk
!
interface Vlan1000
   description VLAN red (1000) -> [h1,s2,h2]
   vrf red
   ip address 172.16.0.5/24
!
interface Vlan1001
   description VLAN blue (1001) -> [h3,s2,h4]
   vrf blue
   ip address 172.16.1.5/24
!
ip routing
ip routing vrf blue
ip routing vrf red

Want to run this lab on your own, or try it out with different devices? No problem:

  1. Assuming you completed your homework and created a Ubuntu VM, installed the software, and downloaded Arista cEOS container. ↩︎

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