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Routing Instances Overview

You can create multiple instances of BGP, IS-IS, LDP, Multicast Source Discovery Protocol (MSDP), OSPF version 2 (usually referred to simply as OSPF), OSPF version 3 (OSPFv3), Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM), RIP, RIP next generation (RIPng), and static routes by including statements at the following hierarchy levels:

  • [edit routing-instances routing-instance-name protocols]

  • [edit logical-systems logical-system-name routing-instances routing-instance-name protocols]

Only one instance of each protocol can be configured in a single routing instance.

Note:

You can also create multiple routing instances for separating routing tables, routing policies, and interfaces for individual DHCP wholesale subscribers (retailers) in a layer 3 wholesale network. For information about how to configure layer 3 wholesale network services, see the Junos OS Broadband Subscriber Management and Services Library.

A routing instance is a collection of routing tables, interfaces, and routing protocol parameters. The set of interfaces belongs to the routing tables, and the routing protocol parameters control the information in the routing tables. There can be multiple routing tables for a single routing instance—for example, unicast IPv4, unicast IPv6, and multicast IPv4 routing tables can exist in a single routing instance. Routing protocol parameters and options control the information in the routing tables.

Each routing instance has a unique name and a corresponding IP unicast table. For example, if you configure a routing instance with the name my-instance, the corresponding IP unicast table is my-instance.inet.0. All routes for my-instance are installed into my-instance.inet.0.

Note:

The default routing instance, master, refers to the main inet.0 routing table. The master routing instance is reserved and cannot be specified as a routing instance.

Each routing instance consists of sets of the following:

  • Routing tables

  • Interfaces that belong to these routing tables (optional, depending upon the routing instance type)

    Note:

    The commit operation fails, if the same logical interface is configured for both layer 2 circuit and ccc connection.

  • Routing option configurations

You can configure 13 types of routing instances:

  • Ethernet VPN (EVPN) (MX Series routers only)—Use this routing instance type to connect a group of dispersed customer sites using a Layer 2 virtual bridge.

  • Forwarding—Use this routing instance type for filter-based forwarding applications. For this instance type, there is no one-to-one mapping between an interface and a routing instance. All interfaces belong to the default instance inet.0.

  • Internet Multicast over MPLS—Use this routing instance type to provide support for ingress replication provider tunnels to carry IP multicast data between routers through an MPLS cloud, using MBGP or next-generation MVPN.

  • Layer 2 Backhaul VPN—(MX Series routers only) Use this routing instance type to provide support for Layer 2 wholesale VLAN packets with no existing corresponding logical interface. When using this instance, the router learns both the outer tag and inner tag of the incoming packets, when the instance-role statement is defined as access, or the outer VLAN tag only, when the instance-role statement is defined as nni.

  • Layer2-control—(MX Series routers only) Use this routing instance type for RSTP or MSTP in customer edge interfaces of a VPLS routing instance. This instance type cannot be used if the customer edge interface is multihomed to two provider edge interfaces. If the customer edge interface is multihomed to two provider edge interfaces, use the default BPDU tunneling.

  • Layer 2 VPN—Use this routing instance type for Layer 2 virtual private network (VPN) implementations.

  • MAC-VRF—(Various MX, QFX, ACX, PTX, and QFX platforms. For details on supported platforms and Junos version support, see Feature Explorer. Use this routing instance type to configure multiple customer-specific EVPN instances (EVIs) of type mac-vrf, each of which can support a different EVPN service type. This configuration results in customer-specific virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) tables with MAC addresses on each Juniper Networks device that serves as a virtual tunnel endpoint (VTEP) in the EVPN-VXLAN network. This type of routing instance is for EVPN unicast routes only.

  • MPLS forwarding—Use this routing instance type to provide support for protection against label spoofing or errant label injection across autonomous system border routers (ASBRs).

  • Nonforwarding—Use this routing instance type when a separation of routing table information is required. There is no corresponding forwarding table. All routes are installed into the default forwarding table. IS-IS instances are strictly nonforwarding instance types.

  • Virtual router—Similar to a VPN routing and forwarding instance type, but used for non-VPN-related applications. There are no virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) import, VRF export, VRF target, or route distinguisher requirements for this instance type.

  • Virtual switch—(MX Series routers only) Use the virtual switch instance type to isolate a LAN segment with its Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) instance and separates its VLAN identifier space. For more detail information about configuring a virtual switch, see the Junos OS Layer 2 Switching and Bridging Library for Routing Devices.

  • VPLS—Use the virtual private local-area network service (VPLS) routing instance type for point-to-multipoint LAN implementations between a set of sites in a VPN.

  • VRF—Use the VPN routing and forwarding routing (VRF) instance type for Layer 3 VPN implementations. This routing instance type has a VPN routing table as well as a corresponding VPN forwarding table. For this instance type, there is a one-to-one mapping between an interface and a routing instance. Each VRF instance corresponds with a forwarding table. Routes on an interface go into the corresponding forwarding table.

Configure global routing options and protocols for the master instance by including statements at the [edit protocols] and [edit routing-options] hierarchy levels. Routes are installed into the master routing instance inet.0 by default, unless a routing instance is specified.

Multiple instances of BGP, OSPF, and RIP are used for Layer 3 VPN implementation. The multiple instances of BGP, OSPF, and RIP keep routing information for different VPNs separate. The VRF instance advertises routes from the customer edge (CE) router to the provider edge (PE) router and advertises routes from the PE router to the CE router. Each VPN receives only routing information belonging to that VPN.

Forwarding instances are used to implement filter-based forwarding for Common Access Layer applications.

PIM instances are used to implement multicast over VPN applications.

Nonforwarding instances of IS-IS and OSPF can be used to separate a very large network into smaller administrative entities. Instead of configuring a large number of filters, nonforwarding instances can be used to filter routes, thereby instantiating policy. Nonforwarding instances can be used to reduce the amount of routing information advertised throughout all components of a network. Routing information associated with a particular instance can be announced where required, instead of being advertised to the whole network.

Layer 2 VPN instances are used for Layer 2 VPN implementation.

Virtual router instances are similar to a VPN routing and forwarding instance type, but used for non-VPN-related applications. There are no VRF import, VRF export, VRF target, or route distinguisher requirements for this instance type.

Use the VPLS routing instance type for point-to-multipoint LAN implementations between a set of sites in a VPN.

To configure a routing instance type, use the instance-type statement at the [edit routing-instances routing-instance-name] hierarchy level.

To configure a routing instance, specify the following parameters:

  • Name of the routing instance. Each routing instance has a unique name and a corresponding IP unicast table. For example, if you configure a routing instance with the name my-instance, its corresponding IP unicast table is my-instance.inet.0. All routes for my-instance are installed into my-instance.inet.0.

    Note:

    You cannot specify a routing-instance name of default or include special characters within the name of a routing instance.

  • Type of routing instance.

  • The interfaces that are bound to the routing instance. Interfaces not required for the forwarding routing instance type.

To configure a routing instance, use the routing-instances statement at the [edit] hierarchy level.

You can create an instance of BGP, IS-IS, OSPF, OSPFv3, RIP, or RIPng by including configuration statements at the [edit routing-instances routing-instance-name protocols] hierarchy level. You can also configure static routes for the routing instance.

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