Does CEF have a separate process/database for each VRF?

[vv0bbLeS]

Hello all,

In looking at these 2 forum posts below from myself and @Peter Paluch :

Solved: Creating a VRF - does it create an actual new routing process? - Cisco Community

Solved: Significance of Next HOP address in CEF - Cisco Community

We can see that a VRF is a virtual L3 environment with its own routing table and ARP table.

This got me thinking how a VRF relates to CEF:

1. If the CEF FIB table is built from what's in the RIB
2. And the CEF Adjacency Table is built from what's in the ARP table

Does CEF have a separate process or database for each VRF? OR, is the VRF information stored in the same global CEF database, just separated by VRF in that same global database?

[Peter Paluch · Accepted solution]

Hello,

You can safely assume that every VRF runs its own independent copy of RIB and CEF structures.

Best regards,
Peter

[vv0bbLeS]

@Peter Paluch thank you! Does that include an independent CEF process per VRF also? or is there just one global CEF process running but it maintains separate trees (one CEF tree per VRF) ?