Arista Warrior

Chapter 15. Routing

Dynamic routing in a data center switch is not something I normally see done outside the core switches in a data center, and even then I prefer to move it out to edge devices and let the switching architecture focus on fast movement of packets at layer-2. Still, customers sometimes demand dynamic routing on their switches, and who am I to deny them (after recommending alternatives in writing)?

I’ll warn you up front that there are few (if any) fantastic discoveries awaiting you in this chapter. IP routing is not really a core requirement of data center switching, and the protocols supported all function the way you’d expect them too. IP routing is a pretty mature technology, with most protocols having a maturity measuring in decades. If there’s one thing to understand from this chapter, it’s that the protocols work the same way they do on any other device that supports them according to the RFCs.

Arista switches support only open routing protocols. In other words, protocols that aren’t proprietary and that don’t require a certain vendor’s equipment, or licensing, or certifications. In short, Arista supports BGP (v2 and v3), OSPF (v2 and v3), PIM-SM, and RIPv2.

Note

EOS version 4.10 or later is required for OSPFv3 and BGPv4.

I won’t be explaining how these protocols work in this chapter. That job has already been done by other books in dizzying detail. Instead, I’m going to show you how to configure your Arista switch to connect to each protocol. I’ll be keeping it ...