For a while now I wanted to try out EVPN on the MX. I decided to go for the easiest of scenarios that EVPN has to offer: a single-homed VLAN-based EVPN:

EVPN

There is a lot to tell about EVPN. For instance, EVPN uses MP-BGP in a way that is similar to MPLS VPN and MAC learning does not occur in the data plane but in the control plane. While there is a lot of interesting theory to go on about, the focus in this article is to keep it simple and short. First, I'll ready the MX for EVPN. After that, I’ll go through the configuration and verification.


Readying the MX for EVPN

The MX has to run in ’enhanced-ip mode’ and the forwarding table needs to be able to handle and configure chained composite next-hops. These things are configured using the following commands:

set chassis network-services enhanced-ip
set routing-options forwarding-table chained-composite-next-hop ingress evpn

Changing the network-services requires a reboot.


Configuring a single-homed VLAN-based EVPN

On the MX480, the configuration relevant for the EVPN is as follows (complete configuration found via link at the end):

EVPN

set interfaces ge-0/1/0 flexible-vlan-tagging
set interfaces ge-0/1/0 encapsulation flexible-ethernet-services
set interfaces ge-0/1/0 unit 50 description CPE_EVPN
set interfaces ge-0/1/0 unit 50 encapsulation vlan-bridge
set interfaces ge-0/1/0 unit 50 vlan-id 50
set interfaces ge-0/1/0 unit 50 family bridge

set protocols bgp group rr family evpn signaling

set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based instance-type evpn
set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based vlan-id 50
set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based interface ge-0/1/0.50
set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based route-distinguisher 3:3
set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based vrf-target target:3:3
set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based protocols evpn


Verifying a single-homed VLAN-based EVPN

After finishing the configuration on the different nodes, let’s start by having a look at the network diagram again;

EVPN

After generating some traffic between the CPE’s, we can observe the following on the MX480:

play@MX480-TEST-RE0> show bgp summary
Groups: 1 Peers: 1 Down peers: 0
Table          Tot Paths  Act Paths Suppressed    History Damp State    Pending
bgp.evpn.0
                       2          2          0          0          0          0
Peer                     AS      InPkt     OutPkt    OutQ   Flaps Last Up/Dwn State|#Active/Received/Accepted/Damped...
1.1.1.1                   1         11         10       0       0        2:32 Establ
  bgp.evpn.0: 2/2/2/0
  __default_evpn__.evpn.0: 0/0/0/0
  evpn_vlan-based.evpn.0: 2/2/2/0

The BGP session with the route-reflector is established and routes are exchanged. The EVPN routes are stored in the ‘bgp.evpn.0’ table . Here we can see the individual mac-addresses learned from the remote PE as well (only one in our case):

play@MX480-TEST-RE0> show route receive-protocol bgp 1.1.1.1 table bgp.evpn.0

bgp.evpn.0: 2 destinations, 2 routes (2 active, 0 holddown, 0 hidden)
  Prefix                  Nexthop              MED     Lclpref    AS path
  2:3:3::50::88:e0:f3:55:f8:a4/304
*                         1.1.1.20                     100        I
  3:3:3::50::1.1.1.20/304
*                         1.1.1.20                     100        I

To see what MAC addresses are learned in the EVPN (and where), you can issue the following commands:

play@MX480-TEST-RE0> show evpn mac-table

MAC flags       (S -static MAC, D -dynamic MAC, L -locally learned, C -Control MAC
    O -OVSDB MAC, SE -Statistics enabled, NM -Non configured MAC, R -Remote PE MAC)

Routing instance : evpn_vlan-based
 Bridging domain : __evpn_vlan-based__, VLAN : 50
   MAC                 MAC      Logical          NH     RTR
   address             flags    interface        Index  ID
   88:e0:f3:55:f8:00   D        ge-0/1/0.50
   88:e0:f3:55:f8:a4   DC                        1048589 1048589

play@MX480-TEST-RE0> show evpn database
Instance: evpn_vlan-based
VLAN  MAC address        Active source                  Timestamp        IP address
50    88:e0:f3:55:f8:00  ge-0/1/0.50                    Jul 25 18:24:15
50    88:e0:f3:55:f8:a4  1.1.1.20                       Jul 25 17:52:05

These self-explanatory commands offer a lot of options. For instance, it’s possible to narrow down to remotely learned MAC addresses in a specific instance. You will even be able to see what time the MAC address was learned:

play@MX480-TEST-RE0> show evpn database origin remote vlan-id 50 instance evpn_vlan-based
Instance: evpn_vlan-based
VLAN  MAC address        Active source                  Timestamp        IP address
50    88:e0:f3:55:f8:a4  1.1.1.20                       Jul 25 17:52:05

Not really necessary in a lab with 2 PE routers, 1 instance and 1 VLAN, but very nice nevertheless!

Before firing up your own EVPN lab, bear in mind that you cannot configure ‘instance-type evpn’ in a logical system. At least not on an MX480 running 14.2R3.8, which was what I was running. In this and newer versions of Junos, you can also skip the configuration of the forwarding-table under routing-options. It is already inherited from ‘junos-defaults’:

play@MX480-TEST-RE0> show configuration routing-options forwarding-table | display inheritance defaults
##
## 'chained-composite-next-hop' was inherited from group 'junos-defaults'
##
chained-composite-next-hop {
    ##
    ## 'ingress' was inherited from group 'junos-defaults'
    ##
    ingress {
        ##
        ## 'evpn' was inherited from group 'junos-defaults'
        ##
        evpn;
    }
}


There is a lot more to tell and learn about EVPN and I’ll try to post any new insights I gain. Until I have, I can recommend ‘Using Ethernet VPNs for Datacenter Interconnect’ by Victor Ganjian. A day one book you can download for free from the Juniper website. You can also check out the RFC itself. Lastly, the configuration used for the MX104 and MX480 is the following:

MX480:

set chassis network-services enhanced-ip

set interfaces ge-0/1/0 flexible-vlan-tagging
set interfaces ge-0/1/0 encapsulation flexible-ethernet-services
set interfaces ge-0/1/0 unit 50 description CPE_EVPN
set interfaces ge-0/1/0 unit 50 encapsulation vlan-bridge
set interfaces ge-0/1/0 unit 50 vlan-id 50
set interfaces ge-0/1/0 unit 50 family bridge

set routing-options autonomous-system 1

set protocols bgp local-address 1.1.1.21
set protocols bgp out-delay 2
set protocols bgp log-updown
set protocols bgp group rr type internal
set protocols bgp group rr family evpn signaling
set protocols bgp group rr authentication-key "$9$CVAyuOIyrKvWXVwGjHmQz"
set protocols bgp group rr peer-as 1
set protocols bgp group rr neighbor 1.1.1.1 description Aurelius_rr

set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based instance-type evpn
set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based vlan-id 50
set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based interface ge-0/1/0.50
set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based route-distinguisher 3:3
set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based vrf-target target:3:3
set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based protocols evpn

MX104:

set chassis network-services enhanced-ip

set interfaces xe-2/0/0 flexible-vlan-tagging
set interfaces xe-2/0/0 encapsulation flexible-ethernet-services
set interfaces xe-2/0/0 unit 50 description CPE_EVPN
set interfaces xe-2/0/0 unit 50 encapsulation vlan-bridge
set interfaces xe-2/0/0 unit 50 vlan-id 50
set interfaces xe-2/0/0 unit 50 family bridge

set routing-options autonomous-system 1
set routing-options forwarding-table chained-composite-next-hop ingress evpn

set protocols bgp local-address 1.1.1.20
set protocols bgp out-delay 2
set protocols bgp log-updown
set protocols bgp group rr type internal
set protocols bgp group rr family evpn signaling
set protocols bgp group rr authentication-key "$9$CVAyuOIyrKvWXVwGjHmQz"
set protocols bgp group rr peer-as 1
set protocols bgp group rr neighbor 1.1.1.1 description Aurelius_rr

set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based instance-type evpn
set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based vlan-id 50
set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based interface xe-2/0/0.50
set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based route-distinguisher 3:3
set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based vrf-target target:3:3
set routing-instances evpn_vlan-based protocols evpn