Chapter 9: Virtual Routers; Virtual Routers Overview; Types Of Virtual Routers - Extreme Networks ExtremeWare XOS Guide Manual

9 Virtual Routers
This chapter describes the following topics:
Virtual Routers Overview on page 169
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Using Virtual Routers—BlackDiamond 10K Switch Only on page 171
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Virtual Router Configuration Example on page 174
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Virtual Routers Overview

ExtremeWare XOS supports virtual routers. This capability allows a single physical switch to be split
into multiple virtual routers. This feature separates the traffic forwarded by a virtual router from the
traffic on a different virtual router.
Each virtual router maintains a separate logical forwarding table, which allows the virtual routers to
have overlapping address spaces. Because each virtual router maintains its own separate routing
information, and switch ports can belong to one and only one virtual router, packets arriving at a port
on one virtual router can never be switched to the ports on another.
With multiple virtual routers contained on a single physical switch, some commands in ExtremeWare
XOS now require you to specify to which virtual router the command applies. For example, when you
use the ping command, you must specify from which virtual router the ping packets are generated.
Many commands that deal with switch management use the management virtual router by default. See
the ExtremeWare XOS Command Reference Guide for information on the defaults for individual
commands.
NOTE
The term virtual router is also used with the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP). VRRP uses the term to
refer to a single virtual router that spans more than one physical router, which allows multiple switches to provide
redundant routing services to users. For more information about VRRP, see Chapter 11.

Types of Virtual Routers

There are two types of virtual routers in an ExtremeWare XOS system:
System virtual routers
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These are the special virtual routers created by ExtremeWare XOS during system boot up, and they
cannot be deleted or renamed. There are a total of three of these special virtual routers in the
ExtremeWare XOS system.
User virtual routers
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These are the virtual routers created and named by users.
ExtremeWare XOS 11.1 Concepts Guide
169