VRF/MPLS on Linux

Tue Aug 23 15:35:49 UTC 2011

On 23/08/11 13:45 +0000, nanog at rhemasound.org wrote:
>While I have found some information on a project called linux-mpls I am
>having a hard time finding any solid VRF framework for Linux.  I have a
>monitoring system that needs check devices that sit in overlapping private
>ip space, and I was wondering if there is anyway I could use some kind or
>VRF type solution that would allow me to label the "site" the traffic is
>intended for.  The upstream router supports VRF/MPLS, but I need to know
>how I can get the server to label the traffic.  I would appreciate any
>input.

Although I can't vouch for it, quagga seems to have the command set to
function as an MPLS PE router (possibly in conjunction with linux-mpls) to
pass vpnv4 routes and tags. That doesn't address how you're going to mux
socket connections to the overloaded IP addresses in different VRFs, which
would seem to require MPLS knowledge within your monitoring application to
support (unless you're running multiple instances).

You might consider a more straight forward approach, such as running a
separate instance of your monitoring application within a VM, bridged to a
separate VLAN towards your MPLS PE, or just running two hosts.

-- 
Dan White