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Routing Zones (Virtual)

Routing Zone Overview

A routing zone is an L3 domain, the unit of tenancy in multi-tenant networks. You create routing zones for tenants to isolate their IP traffic from one another, thus enabling tenants to re-use IP subnets. In addition to being in its own VRF, each routing zone can be assigned its own DHCP relay server and external system connections. You can create one or more virtual networks within a routing zone, which means a tenant can stretch its L2 applications across multiple racks within its routing zone. For virtual networks with Layer 3 SVI, the SVI is associated with a Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) instance for each routing zone isolating the virtual network SVI from other virtual network SVIs in other routing zones. If you're using multiple routing zones, external system connections must be from leaf switches in the fabric. Routing between routing zones must be accomplished with external systems. All SVIs configured for virtual networks in this zone are in the default VRF. This is the same VRF used for the underlay or fabric network routing between network devices. All blueprints include a default routing policy. The number of routing zones is limited only by the network devices being used.

Routing zones include the following details:

VRF Name

15 characters or fewer. Underscore, dash and alphanumeric characters only
Type

L3 Fabric or EVPN
VLAN ID

Used for VLAN tagged Layer 3 links on external connections. Leave this field blank to have it automatically assigned from a static pool in the range of 2-4094), or enter a specific value.
VNI

VxLAN VNI associated with the routing zone. Leave this field blank to have it automatically assigned from a resource pool, or enter a specific value.
Route Target

Only EVPN routing zones use route targets. The rendered EVPN L3-VNI route target represents the built-in, automatic route target that is associated with the EVPN routing zone VRF. When using EVPN remote gateway features for Datacenter Interconnect, this route target must be imported by the EVPN fabric external to this fabric. This route target is composed of "<VNI_ID>:1" where "1" is hard-coded. If route target is not assigned, then a VNI must be assigned.
DHCP Servers  
Routing Policies

Non-EVPN blueprints must use the default policy. EVPN blueprints can use non-default policies. For more information, see Routing Policies.
Route Target Policies
  • Import Route Targets
  • Export Route Targets
Resources  
Virtual Networks  
Interfaces  

From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Virtual > Routing Zones to go to the routing zones list view. You can create, edit, and delete routing zones and assign DHCP servers to them.

Create Routing Zone

If your blueprint is using MP-EBGP EVPN overlay control protocol, you can create routing zones. If it's using Static VXLAN, you must use the default routing zone. (Overlay control protocol is specified in templates.)

  1. From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Virtual > Routing Zones and click Create Routing Zone.
  2. Enter a VRF name (15 characters or fewer).
  3. You can leave the remaining fields as is to use default values and have resources assigned from pools, or you can configure them manually. See the routing zone overview for details.
  4. Click Create to create the routing zone and return to the list view.

Assign resources (leaf loopback IPs, leaf L3 peer links) to the new routing zone.

Assign Resources to Routing Zone

Each leaf network device in each routing zone requires a loopback IP. If IPv6 is enabled on the blueprint, you must also assign IPv6 addresses to the routing zone. After you've assigned connectivity templates to your external generic systems, you'll also need to assign IP addresses.

  1. From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Virtual > Routing Zones.
  2. Red status indicators in the Build panel (on the right) indicate that resources need to be assigned. Click a red indicator and click the Update assignments button.
  3. Select a pool from which to pull the resources, then click the Save button. (For information about IP address pools, see IP Pools.) When the red status indicator turns green, the required resources were successfully assigned.
  4. Repeat the steps to assign resources from pools until all required resources have been assigned.
    Note:

    You can also assign individual IP addresses to links by clicking the name of the routing zone in the list view, scrolling down to the Interfaces section, clicking the Edit IP addresses button, and entering them from there.

Assign DHCP to Routing Zone

  1. From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Virtual > Routing Zones and click the name of the routing zone that needs a DHCP server assigned to it.
  2. Click the Assign DHCP Servers button (upper-right).
  3. Enter the IPv4 address (or IPv6 address) for one or more DHCP servers.
  4. Click Update to stage the assignment and return to the routing zone.

Edit Routing Zone

  1. From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Virtual > Routing Zones and click the name of the routing zone to edit.
  2. Click the Edit button (upper-right) and make your changes.
  3. Click Confirm to stage the change and return to the routing zone.

Delete Routing Zone

  1. From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Virtual > Routing Zones and click the name of the routing zone to delete.
  2. Click the Delete button (upper-right). All virtual networks that were created under that routing zone will also be deleted.
  3. Click Confirm to stage the deletion and return to the list view.