Site redundancy - how to configure VRF

[warren rautenbach]

     Hey guys,

to put my prroblem in an easy to read format, ill dot point it.

* have one data centre, running VRF's to seperate clients

* i am now building a second data centre which will be used as a fail over for the primary site

* in the primary i have multiple VRF's and SVI's

* sites are connected via fibre

QUESTION:

1. how do i configure the VRF's on the redundant site...?? i want the site to be able to fail over and to work exactly the same.

2. how can i configure the SVI's in the same manner??

first time i have done this so pretty amped to get it working

thanks for the help guys

Warren

[james-worley]

Hi Warren

Im principle it is very straight forwards to run LDP and swap MPLS lables, thus extanding you VRF but YMMV depending on your needs and limitiations.

Can you give us a little more info... Will you be wanting to use the same subnets on the SVIs in the redundant DC? What hardware are you using? Will you be wanting to do vMotion?

[warren rautenbach]

Hey James,

Thanks for the reply mate.

yea same subnets across both DC's - so stretched VLAN's. i want the primary site to be able to fail over and have the other site pick up comms.

what i have figured out already and im going to lab up:

- same vlans (SVI's and data base) across both sites, with different IP addresses on SVI's - but in same subnet

- HSRP on SVI's with virtual IP being the gateway

- trunk port between sites to have all VLAN's tagged on it

- VRF's configured exactly the same on both ends

No vMotion as of yet.

Im going to LAB up the enviroment to see how it all comes together

I have a 3750 stack (two E and one X switches) on either site, and 2900 routers. Sites are joined via CWDM fibre link

[Marwan ALshawi]

if you have a diagram shows how sites currently communicates with the DC

and how you want it to be after adding the DR DC will help us provide you with more accurate answeers

Thanks,

[warren rautenbach]

all good - got most of it sorted, from doing my LAB.

* VRF's configured the same on both switch stacks - trunk VLAN's across the fibre link

* SVI's created with HSRP

All works so far, hopefully when i deploy it, it will be all good!

[james-worley]

Hi Warren

Good to hear you have it working. Watch out for stretching your vlans accross WAN links. I am still a big supporter of routed core. VPLS is a good way to run L2 over L3.