OTV or VxLAN for L2 extension

[Ibrahim Jamil]

Hi Guys

What DCI L2 solution would be preferred  one over other to extend L2 over L3  , OTV or VxLAN

THANKS

[balaji.bandi]

OTV easy way - the most popular solution. done some deployments works as expected.

reference :

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/routers/asr-1000-series-aggregation-services-routers/guide-c07-735942.html

[Ibrahim Jamil]

Thanks

[Sergiu.Daniluk]

Hi @Ibrahim Jamil 

It depends.

OTV is an older technology (and not necessarily better then VXLAN). It has strict requirements when it comes to hardware (only Nexus 7000 or ASR 1K) and it is strictly used for DCI (data center interconnect).

VXLAN is a much sexy and modern technology. VXLAN is pretty much the standard now in all new data centers designs, either as standalone vxlan, or through a SDN technology (ACI, NSX, Contrail etc). It is not so peaky when it comes to hardware (works on Nexus 5600, 7000, 9000), and has A LOT more features compared with OTV.

VXLAN can also be used within a single DC, where you extend the L2 domain over an IP network. Or you can use VXLAN Multi-Site to, guess what, connect multiple DCs.

IMHO, VXLAN is the technology to adopt.

Stay safe,

Sergiu

[Pankaj_Agrawal]

Hi Sergiu,

Can you please help me with config document for both OTV and VXLAN ?

[Sergiu.Daniluk]

Since configuration can be quite extensive, I cannot write here an example. However, here are the config guides for both technologies:

OTV config guide: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/sw/nx-os/OTV/config_guide/b_Cisco_Nexus_7000_Series_NX-OS_OTV_Configuration_Guide-RI/adv-otv.html

VXLAN Config guide: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus9000/sw/93x/vxlan/configuration/guide/b-cisco-nexus-9000-series-nx-os-vxlan-configuration-guide-93x.html

If you want to learn more about any of these two, I would recommend ciscolive presentations. There are tons of on demand presentations from previous years.

Take care,

Sergiu