Virtual Networks
Virtual Networks Overview
You can create an overlay network in an Apstra blueprint by creating virtual networks (VN)s to group physically separate endpoints into logical groups. These collections of Layer 2 forwarding domains can be either VLANs or VXLANs.
VLANs have the following characteristics:
- Single rack (rack-local)
- Single leafs or leaf pairs
- Can be deployed in Layer 2-only mode (for example, isolated cluster networks for database replication)
- Can be deployed with Layer 3 gateway (SVI) IP address on rack leaf, hosted with or without first-hop redundancy
VXLANs have the following characteristics:
- Fabric-wide for ubiquitous Layer 2 (inter-rack)
- Combination of single rack leafs or leaf pairs (MLAG)
- Can be deployed in Layer 2-only mode
- Can be deployed with Layer 3 gateway functionality
- The control plane selected (Static VXLAN Routing or MP-EBGP EVPN) when configuring the template for your blueprint determines what is configured in the VN. (MP-EBGP EVPN provides a control plane for VXLAN routing.)
- VXLAN-EVPN capabilities for VXLAN VNs are dependent on network device makes and
models. For more information see the
evpn_support_addendum:Apstra EVPN Support Addendum
.
For complete VN feature compatibility for supported Network Operating Systems (NOS),
see the Apstra Feature Matrix for the applicable release (in the Reference
<reference>
section). For detailed capability information for a
device, contact your network device vendor or Juniper Support.
VNs contain the following details:
Name | Description |
---|---|
Type |
|
Name | 32 characters or fewer. Underscore, dash, and alphanumeric characters only. |
Routing Zone |
|
Default VLAN ID (VLAN only) |
|
VNI(s) (VXLAN only) | Layer 2 VXLAN ID on the switch that the VN is assigned to. If left blank, it's auto-assigned from resource pools. Create up to 40 VNs at once by entering ranges or individual VNI IDs separated by commas (for example: 5555-5560, 7777). Commit the first 40 VNs before creating additional ones. |
Set same VLAN ID on all leafs (VXLAN only) | Option to use same VLAN ID on all leafs |
DHCP server | Enabled/Disabled - DHCP relay forwarder configuration on SVI. Implies L3 routing on SVI |
IPv4 Connectivity | Enabled/Disabled - for SVI routing |
IPv4 subnet (if connectivity is enabled) |
|
Virtual Gateway IPv4 | The IPv4 address, if enabled |
IPv6 Connectivity | Enabled/Disabled - IPv6 connectivity for SVI routing. IPv6 must be enabled in blueprint. If template used IPv4 spine-to-leaf link types, IPv6 can't be used in default routing zone and for VLAN type VNs. |
IPv6 subnet (if connectivity is enabled) |
|
Virtual Gateway IPv6 | The IPv6 address, if enabled |
Create connectivity templates for |
|
Assigned to | The racks that the VN is assigned to. For more information, see table below. |
Assigned To Details | Description |
---|---|
Pod Name (5-stage) | 5-stage Clos networks include pods, and leaf devices within each pod can be selected to extend VN to those devices. |
Bound to | The racks assigned. For MLAG racks, the leaf pair is shown. For VLANs, if more than one rack is selected, multiple rack-local VLAN-based VNs are created. |
Link Labels | Label assigned to rack (for example, ext-link-1, single-link, single-link, ext-link-0) |
VLAN ID | Can be used for batch creating VNs |
IPv4 mode / IPv6 Mode (aka SVI IP address allocation mode) |
|
IPv4 Address / IPv6 Address | Can be specified to set the first-hop-redundancy IP address for the SVI (VRRP, VARP and so on). If left blank, the SVI IP address is assigned from the selected pool. When you bind an EVPN connectivity template to a Layer 2 application point, the SVI IP address is used as the source / destination for the BGP session, static routes and so on. |
From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Virtual > Virtual Networks to go to the VN list view. You can create, edit and delete VNs.
Create Virtual Network
Edit Virtual Network
- From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Virtual > Virtual Networks and click the name of the VN to edit.
- Click the Edit button (on the right) and make your changes.
- Click Update to stage the changes and return to the list view.
Delete Virtual Network
- From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Virtual > Virtual Networks and click the Delete button (trash can) for the VN to delete.
- Click Delete to stage the deletion and return to the list view.