VRF Lite Capability and Functionality

VRF Lite supports virtualization of the following IPv4 and IPv6 protocols and features.

The switch uses VRF Lite to perform the following actions:

Note

Note

If you enable multicast route redistribution between two VRFs, the switch does not support IP addresses that overlap within the two VRFs. The device does not generate an error if addresses overlap. You must avoid this situation.

VRF Lite interoperates with RFC 4364, Layer 3 VPNs. Split MultiLink Trunking (SMLT) and Routed SMLT (RSMLT) are also supported for VRF instances.

Although customer data separation into Layer 3 virtual routing domains is usually a requirement, sometimes customers must access a common network infrastructure. For example, they want to access the Internet, data storage, Voice over IP (VoIP)-public switched telephone network (PSTN), or call signaling services. To interconnect VRF instances, you can use an external firewall that supports virtualization, or use inter-VRF forwarding for specific services. With the inter-VRF solution, you can use routing policies and static routes to inject IP subnets from one VRF instance to another, and you can use filters to restrict access to certain protocols. The following figure depicts inter-VRF forwarding by the switch.

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Inter-VRF forwarding

For more information about the latest VRF Lite scalability, see Fabric Engine Release Notes.

For configuration information about multicast virtualization, see IP Multicast.