Virtual Router Specific Config

[Shannon_Rowe1]

We are looking at creating a new VR to segregate the routing of traffic. I've setup a lab for this and have it working conceptually.

A couple of issues/questions:

1) it seems that it is very difficult to identify virtual router-specific config.

For example - if I go to the vr context ("vr newvr") and do a "show config ospf" it shows me the config of the root/default virtual router, not the newvr virtual router. This seems pretty odd given I am in the context of the VR.

To see the ospf config (and presumably other config done in the vr context), I need to run "show config detail" and trawl through hundreds and hundreds of lines of config to find the virtual router-specific config.

This is pretty terrible from a management and troubleshooting perspective.

Is there a simple way to see all config done within the context of a particular VR?

2) I've found the whole process of adding a new VR incredibly painful. By default each port, AND each VLAN is assigned to the default vr and you cannot simply change this within the config. You have to delete the port from the VR (requiring you to delete all VLANs and L2 protocols from the port and re-add them), and delete the entire VLAN, then re-add it to every single port...ridiculous when you have a lot of VLANs and ports.

It would be absolutely fine if you were creating a new switch, or adding new VLANs into a new VR, but environments and requirements change and, as is the case for us, trying to re-architect an existing switch with existing networks on EXOS is a daunting task. It seems to requiring an unnecessary level of planning, pre-prepared scripts and lots of room for human error and mistakes, potentially causing a much greater business impact.

To do the same on a more mature product such as Cisco or Juniper would be relatively simple.

Keen to hear peoples thoughts and experiences and if I am missing a trick here or not.

Thanks,
Shannon

[Kawawa]

Hi Shannon,

Regarding the VR specific OSPF configuration, I'd recommend logging a case with the GTAC so that they can verify this behaviour, as VR specific configurations do show when you run the show configuration command, but I quickly tried it and cannot see the configuration when I reference the OSPF module or when I pipe the output:
# show configuration
#
# Module ospf configuration.
#
enable ospf
configure ospf add vlan Clients area 0.0.0.0
configure ospf add vlan Servers area 0.0.0.0
#
# Module ospf configuration on virtual router vr-new.
#
virtual-router vr-new
enable ospf
configure ospf add vlan v100 area 0.0.0.0
virtual-router VR-Default
#Following on from what Paul has said above, by default all ports belong to the VR-Default context. If removed so that they don't belong to any VR context, they can belong to multiple tagged VLANs in different VRs. However, a port can only be untagged in 1 VR. This also holds true for when MAC-based-VLANs are used in Netlogin.
# configure vlan Default delete ports all
# configure vr vr-default delete ports I hope this answers your two questions

[Shannon_Rowe1]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your response. Your suggestion will definitely help and save a lot of time compared with what I was looking at doing.

Cheers,
Shannon

[Paul_Thornton]

I'll certainly second the fact that the defaults for VRs are not helpful. I'm now very conscious of removing all ports from the default VR when I initially configure a switch - just in case I need to implement a VR later on.

The 'quick' way to fix this involves downtime, last time I has this problem I did the following:
1) save config as script.
2) copy the config script off switch.
3) edit config script to include a 'config vr vr-default delete ports all' - or remove the line where it adds them back in.
4) copy script back to switch.
5) unconfig switch all.
6) load script to put config back on.

Downside to this apart from the downtime is that the SSH keys will change too.

You don't need a "show config detail" - a normal "show conf" will have it all in, you just need to find the relevant parts (the comments in the config help here too). It would be great if say "show config ospf" showed you the vr-default config and other VR's config - I personally think that's a bug but no doubt it would be considered a feature request by the product team 🙂

Paul.