Help us improve your experience.

Let us know what you think.

Do you have time for a two-minute survey?

 
ON THIS PAGE
 

Rack Types Introduction

Rack types define the type and number of leaf devices, access switches and/or generic systems that are used in rack builds. Since rack types don't define specific vendors or their devices, you can design your network before choosing hardware. If you need to create a template, you'll use rack types to build the structure of your network. Rack types include the details in the following sections:

Predefined Rack Types

Table 1: Predefined L3 Clos Rack Types without Access Switches
Rack Type Name Number and Type of Leafs Leaf Details Number of Generic Systems Generic System Details
L2 Compute 1 single leaf One panel with forty-eight 10 Gbps ports

  • Roles: Access / Peer / Generic

One panel with six 40 Gbps ports

  • Roles: Spine / Generic

 40 One 10 Gbps link single-homed at leaf
LAG Mode: No LAG
Roles: Leaf / Access
L2 ESI 2x Links 1 ESI group ESI group 1  
L2 HPC 1 single leaf single leaf 16  
L2 MLAG 2x Links 1 MLAG pair MLAG pair 1  
L2 MLAG Pair 1 MLAG pair MLAG pair 48  
L2 One Leaf 1 single leaf single leaf 48  
L2 Virtual 1 single leaf Seven 10 Gbps ports:

  • 2 spine/leaf

  • 2 peer

  • 2 access/generic

  • 1 generic

 2 One 10 Gbps leaf/access port /// 10 Gbps link single-homed at leaf
L2 Virtual 2xDual 2 single leafs single leafs 1  
L2 Virtual 2xMLAG 2 MLAG pairs MLAG pairs 1  
L2 Virtual Dual 2 single leafs single leafs 2  
L2 Virtual MLAG 1 MLAG pair MLAG pair 2  
MLAG Compute 1 MLAG pair MLAG pair 40  
Table 2: Predefined L3 Clos Rack Types with Access Switches
Rack Type Name Number and Type of Leafs Leaf Details Number of Access Switches Access Switch Details Number of Generic Systems Generic System Details
L2 Access 4x 1 single leaf   4 single switches   4  
L2 ESI Acs Dual 1 ESI group   1 ESI group   3  
L2 ESI Acs Single 1 ESI group   1 ESI group   2  
L2 MLAG 1x access 1 MLAG pair   1 single switch   2  
L2 MLAG 2acs+1lef 1 MLAG pair, 1 single leaf   3 single switches   4  
L2 MLAG 2x access 1 MLAG pair   2 single switches   2  
L2 One Access 1 single leaf   1 single switch   4  
Table 3: Predefined Collapsed Fabric Rack Types
Rack Type Name Number and Type of Leafs Leaf Details Number of Access Switches Access Switch Details Number of Generic Systems Generic System Details
Collapsed 1xleaf 1 single leaf Two 10 Gbps mesh links
Roles:

  • 2 ports: spine / leaf

  • 2 ports: peer

  • 2 ports: access / generic

  • 1 port: generic

 1 single switch One 10 Gbps leaf link single-homed at leaf
LAG Mode: LACP (Active)
Roles:

  • 8 ports: leaf / access / peer / generic

 2 One 10 Gbps link single-homed at access
LAG Mode: No LAG
Roles:

  • 1 port: Leaf / Access
Collapsed 2xleafs 1 ESI group Two 10 Gbps mesh links
Roles:

  • 2 ports: spine / leaf

  • 2 ports: peer

  • 2 ports: access / generic

  • 1 port: generic

 None N/A 2 One 10 Gbps link dual-homed at ESI leaf
LAG Mode: LACP (Active)
Roles:

  • 2 ports: Leaf / Access

Summary

Summary Description
Name (and optional description) A unique name to identify the rack type, 17 characters or fewer
Fabric connectivity design
  • L3 Clos - used in 3-stage and 5-stage fabric templates with spine devices. The spine level connects leaf devices to each other.
  • L3 Collapsed - (Junos only) - used in collapsed (spineless) templates. Leaf devices are connected directly to each other via full mesh.

Leaf Devices

Leaf Devices Description
Name 64 characters or fewer
Leaf Logical Device Used as ToR leaf switch network device(s)
Links per spine, and Link speed (L3 Clos Only) Number of leaf-spine links and their speed.
Redundancy Protocol
CAUTION:

Make sure that the intended platform supports the chosen redundancy protocol. For example, L3 MLAG peers are not supported on SONiC, and ESI is supported on Junos only.
  • None - For single-homed connections
  • MLAG - For dual-homed connections. Both switches use the same logical device.
    • MLAG Keepalive VLAN ID - If left blank during rack type creation, 2999 is assigned to the peer link during the build phase. If 2999 conflicts with vendors' reserved ranges, enter a different ID.
      Note:

      Network device vendors have varying requirements for "reserved" VLAN ID ranges. For example, Cisco NX-OS reserves the VLAN ID range from 3968 to 4094. Arista, by default, uses a VLAN ID range from 1006 to 4094 for internal VLANs for routed ports.

    • Peer Links, and Link speed - Number of links between the MLAG devices, and their speed
    • Peer Link Port Channel ID
    • L3 peer links, and Link speed -Used mainly for BGP peering between border MLAG leaf devices in non-default routing zones. Mainly used for routed L3 traffic to solve EVPN blackhole issues or if upstream routers go down. L3 peer-links act as backup paths for the north-south traffic. Other than border leaf it can be used on any other ToR leaf devices as well as for avoiding blackholing traffic for a VRF.
    • L3 Peer Link Port Channel ID
  • ESI (Junos only) - Ethernet Segment ID assigned to the bundled links. Specifying device platforms other then Juniper Junos (such as Cisco, Arista) results in blueprint build errors. For information about Juniper ESI, see Juniper EVPN Support, and Update ESI MAC msb.
Tags User-specified. Select tags from drop-down list generated from global catalog or create tags on-the-fly (which then become part of the global catalog). Tags used in rack types are embedded, so any subsequent changes to tags in the global catalog do not affect the rack type.

Access Switches

ESI support at the access layer is supported. You can dual-home generic systems (servers) to access switches. We're leveraging EVPN at the access layer to enable ESI-LAG towards the generic system while keeping the L2 only nature of the access switch role.

Supported/Unsupported Topologies for ESI Access:

  • Each member of an access switch pair dual-attached to the leaf pair is supported.
  • Each member of an access switch pair single-attached to the leaf pair is supported.
  • One member of an access switch pair dual-attached to the leaf pair and the other member of an access switch pair single-attached to the leaf pair is not supported.

This is supported on 3-Stage, 5-Stage, and collapsed fabric blueprints. Day 2 topology changes are available through Add/Edit/Remove Racks.

Requirements for the switch model acting as Access Switch are:

  • EVPN-VxLAN with VTEP support is required on the Access Switches.
  • L2 VxLAN only is required, L3 VxLAN (RIOT) is not required, and will continue to be available only at the leaf layer.

When creating and managing access switches, follow the general workflow for building a network while taking into account the following options and design considerations.

  1. When creating logical devices, on leaf switches facing an access switch, select the port role access, and configure ports in the access switch logical device.

  2. Create an interface map per standard procedure.

  3. Create a rack type with configured access switches.

  4. Create a template that uses rack types with access switches.

  5. Create a blueprint and build it following the general workflow. You can perform the same tasks as for other blueprints.

Access Switches Description
Name 64 characters or fewer
Access Switch count Number of access switches. These switches share the same logical link group.
Logical Device Logical device is applied to this access switch.
Redundancy Protocol
  • None - For single-homed connections
  • ESI (Junos only) - Ethernet Segment ID assigned to the bundled links. Specifying device platforms other than Juniper Junos (such as Cisco, Arista) results in blueprint build errors. For information about Juniper ESI support, see Juniper EVPN Support and for information about ESI, see Update ESI MAC msb.
    • L3 Peer Links - Number of L3 peer links between both access switches.
    • Link Speed - Link speed on the peer link interfaces.
Tags User-specified. Select tags from drop-down list generated from global catalog or create tags on-the-fly (which then become part of the global catalog). Tags used in rack types are embedded, so any subsequent changes to tags in the global catalog do not affect the rack type.
Logical Link
  • Name - 64 characters or fewer
  • Leaf - Leaf configured in Leafs section
  • Physical link count per individual switch
  • Link speed
  • Tags - User-specified. Select tags from drop-down list generated from global catalog or create tags on-the-fly (which then become part of the global catalog). Tags used in rack types are embedded, so any subsequent changes to tags in the global catalog do not affect the rack type.

Generic Systems

Generic Systems Description
Name 64 characters or fewer
Generic system count Number of systems in the set
Port Channel ID Min, and Max Port channel IDs are used when rendering leaf device port-channel configuration towards generic systems. default: 1-4096. You can customize this field. (Prior to Apstra version 4.2.0, all non-default port channel numbers had to be unique per blueprint. Port channel ranges could not overlap. This requirement has been relaxed, and now they need only be unique per system.)
Logical Device The generic system network device
Tags User-specified. Select tags from drop-down list generated from global catalog or create tags on-the-fly (which then become part of the global catalog). Useful for specifying generic systems as servers or external routers on nodes and links. Tags used in rack types are embedded, so any subsequent changes to tags in the global catalog do not affect the rack type.
Logical Link
  • Name - 64 characters or fewer
  • Switch - Leaf configured in Leafs section
  • LAG Mode
    • LACP (Active) - Link Aggregation Control Group (LACP) in active mode - This mode actively advertises LACP BPDU even when the neighbor does not.
    • LACP (Passive) - Link Aggregation Control Group (LACP) in passive mode - This mode doesn't generate LACP BPDU until it sees one from a neighbor.
    • Static LAG (no LACP) - Static LAGs don't participate in LACP and will unconditionally operate in forwarding mode.
    • No LAG - This link is not part of a LAG.
  • Physical link count per individual leaf, and Link speed) - Number of links from each generic system to each leaf and their speed. If using dual leaf switches, this number should be half of the total links attached to the generic system.
  • Tags - User-specified. Select tags from drop-down list generated from global catalog or create tags on-the-fly (which then become part of the global catalog). Useful for specifying generic systems as servers or external routers on nodes and links. Tags used in rack types are embedded, so any subsequent changes to tags in the global catalog do not affect the rack type.
Note:

You can also add generic systems to blueprints as a Day 2 operation. For more information, see Add Generic System.

Rack Types in Apstra GUI

From the left navigation menu, navigate to Design > Rack Types to go to rack types in the design (global) catalog. Click a rack type name to see its details. You can create, clone, edit, and delete rack types. You can create rack types using the builder, or starting in Apstra version 4.2.0, you can use the designer, a graphical interface for creating rack types.

Related Documentation