Data center IP traffic keeps growing due to various demands. According to market research, cloud DC IP traffic will hit 19,509 exabytes per year by 2023. For traditional data center traffic, it is expected to be 1,046 exabytes per year. Those increasing traffic comes from Cloud computing demand, Internet of Things expansion, digital content consumption, data regulations and compliance, and artificial intelligence and big data analytics. Many enterprises build their own data centers due to regulations and compliance requirements as well as to provide better service to their internal business needs. Data center providers also keep expanding their data center due to growth of their customers. It is required to provide network technologies to cater the increase of data center traffic and make data center more reliable and efficient. VXLAN (Virtual Extensible LAN) and EVPN (Ethernet VPN) are network technologies that provide enhanced network solutions in data centers. They address the challenges of scalability, flexibility, and multi-tenancy, offering improved efficiency and agility. Here's how VXLAN and EVPN contribute to better network solutions in data centers:

1. Scalability: VXLAN allows the creation of up to 16 million unique network identifiers, known as VXLAN Network Identifiers (VNIs). This significantly expands the address space, enabling the deployment of larger and more scalable multi-tenant environments in data centers.
2. Network Segmentation: VXLAN enables logical network segmentation, allowing different tenants or applications to be isolated within their own virtual networks. This segregation enhances security, improves network performance, and facilitates policy enforcement through the use of overlays.
3. Mobility and Flexibility: VXLAN decouples the physical and logical network topologies, providing mobility and flexibility for virtual machines (VMs) and workloads within the data center. VMs can be easily moved between physical hosts or across data centers without reconfiguring the network infrastructure.
4. Multi-tenancy and Segmentation: EVPN supports multi-tenancy by allowing each tenant to have its own virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) instance, which provides isolation between tenants. It enables the creation of Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPNs, facilitating the secure exchange of data across multiple data centers.
5. Seamless Integration with VXLAN: EVPN works hand-in-hand with VXLAN to provide control plane functionality. It utilizes BGP as the signaling protocol to distribute MAC (Media Access Control) and IP reachability information across the data center fabric. This enables efficient and scalable forwarding of traffic within and across data centers.
6. Layer 2 and Layer 3 Interoperability: EVPN offers seamless integration between Layer 2 and Layer 3 domains, enabling efficient inter-subnet routing and bridging. It allows for the dynamic discovery of MAC and IP addresses, making it easier to handle workload mobility and provide optimal routing paths.

1. Objective
   Upon completion of this workshop, participants should be able to:
   • Understand the concept of VXLAN and its terminology.
   • Understand the concept of EVPN and its terminology.
   • Understand the leaf - spine network topology.
   • Understand and familiarize with Arista EOS.
   • Deploy VXLAN fabric with EVPN controller using Arista switch and router.
      
2. Target Audience
   Technical team who are building data center network and/or operating data center network. Any other technical team with network experience are also welcome to join in order to enrich their technical knowledge of data center network technologies.
    
3. Pre-requisites
   This workshop is not an introduction. Before participating in this workshop, each participant must have knowledge of the following technologies:
   • Understand the TCP/IP stack and also its implementation.
   • Understand bridging process for layer 2 network and routing process in layer 3 network.
   • Border gateway protocol (BGP), both internal BGP and external BGP.
      
   We recommend the following Academy courses be completed before the start of the tutorial:
   • Routing Basics: https://academy.apnic.net/en/course/routing-fundamentalscourse/
   • Deploying BGP virtual lab: https://academy.apnic.net/en/virtual-labs?labId=69078
      
4. Course Outline
   Module 1: Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) and Introduction of Arista EOS
   • VXLAN Overview
   • VXLAN Deep Dive
   • Introduction to Arista EOS and How to Operate It.
      
   Module 2: Ethernet VPN (EVPN)
   • EVPN Overview.
   • Layer 2 VPN and Layer 3 VPN with EVPN.
   • Routing and Bridging in VXLAN network with EVPN
      
   Module 3: Lab - Deploy VXLAN EVPN Fabric
   • Configure Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation (MLAG)
   • Configure VXLAN
   • Configure BGP for underlay network.
   • Configure BGP for EVPN (overlay network)
   • Configure Layer 2 service and Layer 3 VPN service.
   • Service verification

Workshop Material download

Trainer :
Yahya 
(System Engineer at Arista Netwoks)