topic RE: Multicast routing between VRF's in ExtremeSwitching (EXOS/Switch Engine)

Multicast routing between VRF's

mael — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 16:30:00 GMT

Hi!

I wondering if it's possible to route incoming multicast from one VR to another VR in the same machine?

The reason is that I want to isolate a PIM domain for our IPTV customers from our core network. A simple solution would be to do a loop in the switch and push all traffic over that link, but that's cheating 😉

Would be thankful for some insight and maybe configuration samples.

With regards
Mattias

RE: Multicast routing between VRF's

StephenW — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 20:41:00 GMT

Currently we can only do Inter-VR Routing for IPv4 Unicast by using Static Routes.

RE: Multicast routing between VRF's

mael — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 20:41:00 GMT

So there's no way you can route multicast from one VR to another VR or Sub VR internally? (RD, BGP, OSPF)
Feels very 2001 using a loop or an extra link to get multicast into another VR 😛

RE: Multicast routing between VRF's

StephenW — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 20:41:00 GMT

What type of isolation are you trying to get? PIM passive VLANs would prevent user vlans from seeing PIM messages.

RE: Multicast routing between VRF's

mael — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 20:41:00 GMT

We run PIM-SM passive today and push everything to our providers. But now many off them doesn't want that, they want us to have a ordinary PIM-SM with MSDP (I've gotten everything working except multicast). So to isolate them from our core, I want a separate VRF.
A solution would be to add a new "droppoing" switch and it would only deliver to them, but it's just wrong 😉

RE: Multicast routing between VRF's

Henrique — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 20:53:00 GMT

Hi Mattias,

You can find more details about the information provided by Stephen in the article below:

Routing configuration between VRs

RE: Multicast routing between VRF's

Mike_D — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 20:53:00 GMT

Hey Mattias

I understand the business requirement but even unicast route leaking is a non-trivial task. Inter-vrf routing has always confused me. Take

My rule of thumb for multicast: the simplest solution that solves the problem is generally the right solution. PIM troubleshooting causes heartburn for many a network admin.

I am glad there's a workaround in this case - that always makes the conversation easier. And I'm always happy to see folks coming to the HUB community with these sorts of questions. It's a time saver and maybe saves you a call to support. And of course we welcome the discussion. Ultimately its customer requirements that decide direction - so we need to hear it.

I'm not saying its hip or elegant, but life is much easier with a five inch cat5 cable handling the tricky business.

Best regards,

Mike

RE: Multicast routing between VRF's

mael — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 20:53:00 GMT

Hi Mike!

That's so true...simpliest solution is always best. 🙂
But we also has to acknowledge our providers request.
So please develop inter-vrf multicast support 😉

With regards
Mattias

RE: Multicast routing between VRF's

mael — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 20:53:00 GMT

Thanks Henrique!
Though I already read it  and it's not unicast that's the problem....We are an IPTV distributor so multicast is kind of our thing 

RE: Multicast routing between VRF's

Michael_Suggs1 — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 02:22:00 GMT

Not trying to high jack this post, but have a similar issue. i have a 460 with pim sparse to a external RP off my network. i pull 324 multicast via this sparse vlan. the rest of my network is currently dense, working as it is , i want to convert my entire network from dense to all sparse. which will cause me to have a different RP on my own network. could i use this same inter-VR solution to pass multicast from my current sparse VR to a new separate VR sparse ring? i was kind of thinking of using MSDP. thanks in advance,

RE: Multicast routing between VRF's

Julian_Eble — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 21:49:00 GMT

Well I would like to have same thing with our network.
The main core runs with MPLS but the PIM are doing the same work in the same OSPF area..
I would like to create VR's and run the multicast separately.