Understanding Virtual Routing Instances on EX Series Switches
Virtual routing instances allow administrators to divide a Juniper Networks EX Series Ethernet Switch into multiple independent virtual routers, each with its own routing table. Splitting a device into many virtual routing instances isolates traffic traveling across the network without requiring multiple devices to segment the network.
You can use virtual routing instances to isolate customer traffic on your network and to bind customer-specific instances to customer-owned interfaces.
Virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) is often used in conjunction with Layer 3 subinterfaces, allowing traffic on a single physical interface to be differentiated and associated with multiple virtual routers. Each logical Layer 3 subinterface can belong to only one routing instance.
EX Series switches support IPv4 and IPv6 unicast and multicast VRF traffic. Table 1 provides the number of IPv4 and IPv6 VRFs supported by each EX Series switch.
Table 1: Number of IPv4 and IPv6 VRFs Supported By EX Series Switches
Juniper Networks Ethernet Switches | Number of Supported IPv4 VRFs | Number of Supported IPv6 VRFs |
|---|---|---|
EX3200 switches | 254 | 252 |
EX4200 switches | 254 | 252 |
EX4500 switches | 254 | 35 |
EX4550 switches | 254 | 35 |
EX6200 switches | 254 | 35 |
EX8200 switches with non-extra-scale Ethernet line cards installed | 254 | 252 |
EX8200 switches with extra-scale Ethernet line cards installed | 1000 | 1000 |
