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Aruba CX lab 9 of 16

Dual-homed BGP with route policy and a guest VRF

Connect Northwind's AOS-CX core to two ISPs with eBGP: advertise only the corporate prefix, prefer ISP-A for outbound traffic with local preference, steer inbound traffic with AS-path prepending, and keep guest traffic in its own VRF with its own exit.

Run this lab

It needs Standard: its 5 nodes are set to 8 vCPU and 10,240 MB in total.

In your workspace: Shared, then HPE Aruba Networking CX switching guided labs, then 09 - Dual-homed BGP with route policy and a guest VRF

Run it on Standard from £5 a day

The free demo can’t run it: it has 6 vCPU and 8 GB, and this lab’s nodes need 8 vCPU and 10,240 MB together. Every lab plan includes every guided lab.

Level
Advanced
Time
About 80 minutes
Nodes need
8 vCPU, 10,240 MB
Smallest plan
Standard

The scenario

Northwind's head office now has two internet providers. ISP-A (AS 65100) is the expensive, fast primary; ISP-B (AS 65200) is the backup. The ISPs are already configured and send you a default route plus their own prefixes; both can reach the "internet" test address 192.0.2.1. Your requirements:

  1. advertise only the corporate prefix 10.1.10.0/24, never the link subnets;
  2. send outbound traffic via ISP-A whenever possible;
  3. make the rest of the internet prefer ISP-A to reach you;
  4. keep guests (VLAN 20) in their own routing table, leaving through a separate link to ISP-B.
DeviceInterfaceAddress
core1 (AS 65001, router ID 10.255.0.1)1/1/1 to ISP-A10.100.0.1/30
core11/1/2 to ISP-B10.200.0.1/30
core11/1/5 to ISP-B, VRF GUEST10.250.0.1/30
core1vlan 10 (CORP) / vlan 20 (GUEST, VRF GUEST)10.1.10.1/24 · 10.2.20.1/24
ISP-A / ISP-B1/1/110.100.0.2 · 10.200.0.2 (ISP-B guest link 10.250.0.2)
h1 / h2eth010.1.10.11/24 · 10.2.20.12/24

What you’ll practise

  • Configure eBGP neighbours and the IPv4 unicast address family on AOS-CX
  • Advertise a prefix with network and filter advertisements with a prefix-list and route-map
  • Influence outbound path selection with local preference
  • Influence inbound path selection with AS-path prepending
  • Isolate guest routing in a VRF with its own default route

The tasks

  1. Bring up the eBGP sessions
  2. Advertise only the corporate prefix
  3. Prefer ISP-A outbound: local preference
  4. Prefer ISP-A inbound: AS-path prepending
  5. A guest VRF with its own exit

The Lab Tasks pane has the scenario, these tasks, the checks to run, hints and the full solution.

Topology and devices

The network as it opens in EVE-NG, drawn from the lab’s own canvas, and the image each node runs.

Topology of Dual-homed BGP with route policy and a guest VRF5 nodes, 5 links. Every link is listed as text below the diagram.core1ispaispbh1h21/1/3eth01/1/4eth01/1/11/1/11/1/21/1/11/1/51/1/2
5 nodes, with the interface names each link uses. On a narrow screen, scroll the diagram sideways.
Every link, as text
  • core1 1/1/1 to ispa 1/1/1
  • core1 1/1/2 to ispb 1/1/1
  • core1 1/1/5 to ispb 1/1/2
  • core1 1/1/3 to h1 eth0
  • core1 1/1/4 to h2 eth0
Nodes in Dual-homed BGP with route policy and a guest VRF, with the image each runs and the vCPU and RAM it’s set to
NodeDeviceImage in Add NodeSet to
core1Aruba AOS-CX virtual switcharubacx-10.142 vCPU, 3,072 MB
ispaAruba AOS-CX virtual switcharubacx-10.142 vCPU, 3,072 MB
ispbAruba AOS-CX virtual switcharubacx-10.142 vCPU, 3,072 MB
h1Alpine Linuxclbalpinebase-alpine-base-3-20-31 vCPU, 512 MB
h2Alpine Linuxclbalpinebase-alpine-base-3-20-31 vCPU, 512 MB

How to open this lab

  1. Sign in to your workspace at lab.cloudlabbox.com.

  2. In File Manager, open Shared, then the folder HPE Aruba Networking CX switching guided labs.

  3. Open 09 - Dual-homed BGP with route policy and a guest VRF and start its nodes, then open Lab Tasks for the scenario and the steps.

The lab is read-only. You can start the nodes and configure the devices, but changes to the topology can’t be saved. To change it, rebuild it in your own folder.

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CloudLabBox is independent of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The lab follows exam topics and isn’t vendor training material; vendor names identify the exams and the images in the workspace.