A while ago I wrote about my VyOS config for Init7’s Fiber7-X product. Since then there has been a number of breaking changes, and a few additions that I would like to cover.
I will copy/paste a lot of the narrative from that post, and avoid a bit of the abstract conversation that went with it, so that this stands on its own.
If you have questions or comments, hit me up.
Updated Aug 2022: After moving house I have been able to split my install between the basement and the house, so I bought myself an Dell Optiplex 7050 to be the VyOS router (the OTO is in the house), and then run a 10G fibre to the basement for the rest of the stuff. I think I will leave the post as is because the VM method is more interesting, but I will add a block on that below.
Over the last two years or so, I have been on adventure with Data Centre Infrastructure renewal. As past posts may allude to, ACI was a big part of what we did, but before anyone gets all dogmatic about it, know that we didn’t go “All in” with that one product, since I personally don’t subscribe to the “DC Fabrics cure all ills” mantra.
CLOS fabrics and the various approaches to overlays within them are great at providing stable platforms with predictable properties for speed, latency and scale. Unsurprisingly, they go on to do a great job in server farms that can make the best use of that flexibility. During recent conversations on DC refresh, our Arista friends have been extremely keen to try and get us to run our Internet BGP border on the fabric as well. The 7280SR2K can handle 2M routes in FIB they say, just lob stuff into a VRF, bit of policy and voila. Yeah.
ACI brings with it many different constructs for operating networks, some of which have analogous equivalence with classical networking, some of which are literally bat-poop crazy.
As per usual, you can find lots of resources on how to structure ACI fabrics elsewhere, i’m not going to waste time on what you can do and focus on what I am going to do (roughly).
The below Image was unceremoniously stolen from Cisco themselves, in the critical read ACI Fundamentals
Before I get too wound up I should probably say that all of this was directed to my friends there first, and whilst I won’t say much about their thoughts, I don’t think this is particularly new to them, or out of place.
I have a fondness for ACI. I think its innovative, and once you break through the naming conventions and the terminology, it’s exactly what I think Enterprise should be doing in terms of Next Generation Networking. That said, INSBU are not helping themselves penetrate the market, and as such, are putting themselves at risk of falling behind to Openstack.