Routing with Vxlan

[Tritien]

We are going to be migrating our workloads from our server room to a colo and we are looking to use vxlan to have the existing vlans extended into the colo so migrations can happen over time. I managed to have vxlan working between sites and I can ping hosts within the vxlan but I am not able to get a host inside a vxlan to be reachable from a user subnet.

[Sietze Reitsma]

Hello,

VxLAN bridging and routing can be accomplished by HP MSR routers and 7900/12900 switches (FX cards). So depending on the performance you have several choices. If you need only VxLAN to VLAN bridges the 5930 series switches (fixed and modular) can help you out.

Personally I also like HP EVI solution which is also supported in the latest MSR routers with Comware 7 software and the 7900/12900. EVI extends vlans point to multipoint DCs with IS-IS as internal control protocol. VxLAN does not have such control protocol and relies on other mechanism, although HP has an option to use IS-IS for control and mac-learning.

If you want to share some more insight  on the environment we can recommend some options.

[MichaelM55]

Well, you can also user HP 5930 with "loopback cable" for routing (Broadcom Trident II has some limitations: http://d2zmdbbm9feqrf.cloudfront.net/2014/usa/pdf/BRKARC-2222.pdf => Page 81*) and I assume in 7900 and 12900 there´s an additional ASIC for getting those VXLANed packets back to the forwarding plane...

I really would like to see EVI support in HP 5930 switches, as HP 7900 and 12900 are way too big for me.

Also, I´m still waiting for HP  VSR1000 release E0301 => http://www.h3c.net.cn/download.do?id=1906657

as this one would be a kind of inexpensive EVI solution, although with yet unknown throughput results within virtualized environment.

And of course "out of band" signaling (e.g. ARP traffic) with IS-IS is simply nice, which remembers me of EVPN. Btw, what about EVPN and HP/H3C? Any news about this one?

*

[Sietze Reitsma]

One correction, 12900 and 7900 with FX cards do not have to use an extra ASIC to do VxLAN routing. A new modern Asic on those cards have this encap/decap/routing  build in so that you don't have to leave the ASIC for recirculation. Really cool! 

For future capabilities it's best to contact a HPE representative. EVI is already supported in the MSR2000, 3000, 4000 routers, which deliver great routing performance.

[MichaelM55]

Interesting, I always thought, 7900 and 12900 use Broadcom Trident II ASIC...

Btw, the 7900 series is a kind of baby of the 12900, i.e. it inherits all software features from the 12900?

[Sietze Reitsma]

The FX cards (7900/12900) use newer advanced ASICS and most important features are currently in line with 12900 EA/EB/EC cards. It takes some time to catch up, so you need to check with HP what is available. But VxLAN routing and EVI is currently available. 7900 uses only FX cards so more advanced ASICS ;-) So if you buy a new 12900 or 7900 I would recommend FX cards because of the advanced hardware capabilities.

[MichaelM55]

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@Sietze Reitsma wrote:

The FX cards (7900/12900) use newer advanced ASICS

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Well, if you do a "display diagnostic" on those FX cards. What "BCM" will be displayed? Are those cards already BCM56860 based?

[Sietze Reitsma]

More advanced, but I cannot not disclose this on this forum.

[MichaelM55]

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@Sietze Reitsma wrote:

More advanced, but I cannot not disclose this on this forum.

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Lol - sorry, but those FX cards already on market. There´s need for any disclosure...

Also, H3C uses Broadcom ASICs, e.g.: 5900 uses Trident I, 5930 uses Trident II.

Next one would be Trident II+...  Would it be possible to do a "display diagnostic"? In the past you could actually find the corresponding Broadcom product code, i.e. something that starts with "BCM".

[Mike_ES]

Hi All,

I had a chance to read your discussion about EVI, which I am also interested, too.

I have DC design for completion with following switches:

- 11900, 7506 MPUv7 (Comware 7) , 5930

I checked and 7506 MPU7 supporting EVI (except one LPU type), but not sure about 11900 and 5930 - do you know if this  is supported?

 What I would like to achieve is to design L2 DCI (Data Center Interconnection) without MSTP and having DWDM/Dark Fiber between DCs as WAN. For access LAN switches I thought about small IRFs and Smart-Link, again to avoid MSTP.

Do you think EVI, basedf on GRE enapculation is the right direction? I know that on the HP DC switches  more mature technology is VPLS, but I am afraid there is much more complicated for DCI implementation.

I have to care about VMware vmotion (DC L2 transporting) and HA between DC sites having redundant DWDM links. Also I don't want to stretch my IRFs across DWDM links. L3 routing between DC is fine for me, for example creating simple OSPF transport network for DCI.

Attached is one of HPE slide with topology reference for EVI. Any help appreciated!

Michal