The VRF ( Virtual Routing & Forwarding) concept also known as VPN ( Virtual Private Network) explained
1.What does VRF stands for ?
2.What it does and how it works
3.Is it possible for communication to exist between distinct VRFs ?
4.A funny but practical example of communication using a VRF
1. What does VRF stands for ?
VRF stands for Virtual Routing and Forwarding but it’s also known as VPN – Virtual Private network
2.What it does and how it works
VRFs purpose is to assign a distinct and secured communication space between members assigned to same VRF
Each VRF is using two parameters needed in order to separate traffic generated inside the VRF of the rest of the traffic generated by other VRFs
These parameters are unique for each VRF and are called Route Distinguisher and Route Target
To make these things a bit more simple think of a VRF like of an sound proof isolated meeting room where only people that are inside it can hear each other and can communicate with each other but no one else outside this room can hear or guess what they’re talking about
In order to connect to VPN the end users need to have a VPN client installed on their PC and the proper credentials required to connect to VPN
3.Is it possible for communication to exist between distinct VRFs ?
Sure thing , but in order to allow that some tweaking called VRF Leak is necessary , what does that mean is by using that tweak a bidirectional communication is established between two distinct VRFs by importing/exporting routes between them
4.A funny but practical example of communication using a VRF
What you’ve seen above looks pretty scary huh ? It does not have to be like that
Let’s have a funny and practical example
Let’s imagine that we’re in a train station and that train station it’ll be considered figurately speaking as our network infrastructure.
Now what we find in a train station ? Trains obviously 😊
Let’s pick a train and think of it as of a network segment , that train would have 15 wagons ,each wagon having multiple compartment with labeled seats.
Now let’s assume that in wagons 1 and 5 does exist a compartment with seats labeled from 1 to 10 and both of us have a ticket with seat #10 but each of us are located in different wagons
Now let’s thing of that label 10 as of a tag that would mark our traffic and enable us to communicate because both of us have same tag and we belong to same VRF but no one else can see or intercept our communication.
Are these things a bit less scary now ? 😊
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