Inter VRF communication

[Mukarram Jah Raheel]

read following in a cisco doc:

You can not configure two static routes to  advertise each prefix       between the VRFs, because this method is not supported—packets will  not be       routed by the router. To achieve route leaking between VRFs, you must  use the       import functionality of route-target and enable Border Gateway  Protocol (BGP)       on the router. No BGP neighbor is required.

Ref: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk436/tk832/technologies_configuration_example09186a0080231a3e.shtml

can't we use static routes between VRFs for inter VRF communication or route leaking......????

[Giuseppe Larosa]

Hello Mukarram,

using route-target import and export or using export maps or import maps is the way to do this

routes of VRFB are imported in VRFA if VRFA imports their route-target

address-family ipv4 vrf VRFA

and

address-family ipv4 vrf VRFB

have to be configured

the use of static routes is allowed only for leakage between a VRF and the global routing table

Hope to help

Giuseppe

[Mukarram Jah Raheel]

Hi guislar,

Just tested this in GNS , and Inter VRF communication is indeed possible with static routes....

but for that following must be enabled in global config mode (which is although by default enabled):

     # ip route static inter-vrf

scenario

CE1 - PE - CE2

CE1 has loopback 1.1.1.1

CE2 has loopback 2.2.2.2

PE has two VRFS:

     CE1 is connected in VRF A through serial 0/0

     CE2 is connected in VRF B through serial 0/1

Inter VRF static routes on PE:

ip route vrf A 2.2.2.2 255.255.255.255 ser 0/1

ip route vrf B 1.1.1.1 255.255.255.255 ser 0/0

while default static routes on CE1 and CE2

[Giuseppe Larosa]

Hello Mukarram,

thanks I didn't know of this option

ip route static ?
  adjust-time  Time period for adjusting static routes
  inter-vrf    Across VRF interfaces

I've checked on a C6500 with 12.2(33)SXH2a

Hope to help

Giuseppe