Hello @waschminator
When inserting a remote leaf into an existing Cisco ACI Multi-Pod environment, it is generally best practice to reuse the existing IPN (Inter-Pod Network) VRF that is already providing pod-to-pod communication. This avoids unnecessary complexity and ensures consistent routing and communication between the spines and the remote leaf.
Here’s why reusing the existing VRF is the best approach:
1. Simplified Design
- The existing IPN VRF is already configured to handle communication between pods in your Multi-Pod environment. Adding the remote leaf to this same VRF ensures that the remote leaf is treated as an extension of the existing fabric, maintaining a unified design.
- Introducing a new VRF for the remote leaf would unnecessarily complicate the design and routing, as you would need to manage additional routing policies and configurations.
2. Efficient Use of Resources
- Reusing the existing VRF avoids the need to configure additional interfaces or routing instances on the spines or IPN devices. This reduces the overhead on the infrastructure and simplifies management.
3. ACI Multi-Pod and Remote Leaf Integration
- In a Multi-Pod environment, the IPN is responsible for providing connectivity between spines in different pods. When you add a remote leaf, it essentially becomes part of the ACI fabric, and the spines in the local pod will communicate with the remote leaf over the IPN.
- The remote leaf uses the same VXLAN encapsulation and routing mechanisms as the rest of the Multi-Pod environment, so it makes sense to leverage the existing IPN VRF for this communication.
4. Cisco Best Practices
- Cisco recommends using the same IPN infrastructure (including the VRF) for both Multi-Pod and remote leaf deployments. The IPN is designed to handle all inter-pod and remote leaf communication, so there is no need to create a separate VRF or interface for the remote leaf.
Key Considerations:
- Ensure that the IPN VRF has sufficient capacity and routing capabilities to handle the additional traffic from the remote leaf.
- Verify that the IPN devices (e.g., routers or switches) are configured to allow communication between the spines and the remote leaf.
- Confirm that the IPN supports the required MTU size (typically 9150 bytes) for VXLAN traffic, as this is critical for ACI communication.
Conclusion:
You should reuse the existing IPN VRF to provide communication between the spines and the remote leaf. There is no need to insert another interface at the destination spine, as this would add unnecessary complexity and is not aligned with Cisco's best practices for ACI Multi-Pod and remote leaf deployments.
Hope This Helps!!!
AshSe
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