Question 11 - JN0-480 discussion

In the EVPN-VXLAN data center fabric bridged overlay architecture shown in the exhibit, the servers are connected to Leaf1 and Leaf6 using the same virtual network identifier (VNI). This means that the servers belong to the same Layer 2 domain and can communicate with each other using VXLAN tunnels across the fabric. The underlay network provides the IP connectivity between the leaf and spine devices, and it uses EBGP as the routing protocol. Therefore, the following two statements are correct in this scenario:

Loopback IPv4 addresses must be advertised into the EBGP underlay from leaf and spine devices. This is because the loopback addresses are used as the source and destination IP addresses for the VXLAN tunnels, and they must be reachable by all the devices in the fabric. The loopback addresses are also used as the router IDs and the BGP peer addresses for the EBGP sessions.

The underlay EBGP peering's must be established between leaf and spine devices. This is because the EBGP sessions are used to exchange the underlay routing information and the EVPN routes for the overlay network. The EBGP sessions are established using the loopback addresses of the devices, and they follow a spine-and-leaf topology, where each leaf device peers with all the spine devices, and each spine device peers with all the leaf devices.

The following two statements are incorrect in this scenario:

The underlay must use IRB interfaces. This is not true, because the underlay network does not provide any Layer 3 gateway functionality for the overlay network. The IRB interfaces are used to provide inter-VXLAN routing within the fabric, which is not the case in the bridged overlay architecture. The IRB interfaces are used in the edge-routed bridging (ERB) or the centrally-routed bridging (CRB) architectures, which are different from the bridged overlay architecture.

The underlay must be provisioned with PIMv2. This is not true, because the underlay network does not use multicast for the VXLAN tunnels. The VXLAN tunnels are established using EVPN, which uses BGP to distribute the MAC and IP addresses of the end hosts and the VTEP information of the devices. EVPN eliminates the need for multicast in the underlay network, and it provides optimal forwarding and fast convergence for the overlay network.

Exploring EVPN-VXLAN Overlay Architectures -- Bridged Overlay

EVPN LAGs in EVPN-VXLAN Reference Architectures

EVPN-VXLAN Configuration Guide