Traffic Engineering for specific colors

[maverick0]

I have a remote site called Site1, which has 3 colors (custom1, custom2, and custom3) availables, and a DC site, which has only 2 colors (custom1 and custom2) availables. The current communication between the Site1 and DC is working over the custom1 and customer2. However, I have created a new AAR policy (basically a clone of the current AAR policy) and applied it to specific for the Site1 to use the custom2 and custom3 as preferred colors. The DC is still using the old AAR policy.

When I perform a simulation of the flow, I'm seeing the traffic from Site1 taking the correct custom2 or custom3 to send the traffic to the DC, but the return of the traffic is not working as expected. The DC is using their colors to reply the traffic to the Site1.  

I'm not sure if AAR is not the best choice for this scenario, and maybe a Data Policy could be used to pinning the traffic for specific color. What should be the best way to implement this configuration?

[Kanan Huseynli · Accepted solution]

Hi,

this is expected behavior. Because AAR is one-way. You have policy in Site1. But even if you additional policy for DC, you can not enforce remote TLOC selection in AAR policy.

What you can do here, advertise Site1 routes with custom1 TLOC with worse parameters, so it will not be selected as best route. Only route with custom2 and custom3 TLOCs will be best. Taking into account that, AAR works only on best routes, then you will have both AAR functionality and your technical requirement (ingress for Site2 will be either custom2 or custom3) will be fulfilled.

To do it, easy way is create centralized control policy for DC out direction and manipulate OMP route. You can do it, by increasing OMP preference for routes if TLOC is custom2 or custom3. If you use default values, OMP preference is 0, and route with higher OMP preference is better than OMP route with lower preference.

Using data policy with enforcing remote TLOCs is also an option. But this is strict logic, not loose logic. If Site1 loses custom2 and custom3, DC can not reach Site1 via custom1.

[steveharington722662]

It seems like adjusting AAR policies may not fully address the traffic color requirements between Site1 and DC. Considering the complexity, using a Data Policy to pin the traffic to specific colors might be a better approach. This way, you can precisely control the traffic flow and ensure the expected Color usage for communication between the sites. Detailed configuration and testing would be key to getting the desired results.