Avi Load Balancer Service Engine data interfaces can be assigned to multiple Virtual Routing and Forwarding Context (VRFs).

Virtual Routing Framework (VRF) is a method of isolating traffic within a system. This is also referred to as a “route domain” within the load balancer community.

Clouds Types Supported

Avi Load Balancer supports the assignment of Service Engine data interfaces to multiple VRFs only in the following cloud types:

  • No Access Cloud

  • Linux Server Cloud

  • VRF Support for vCenter Deployments

Note:

Multiple VRFs are only supported in Linux Server Clouds for SEs with DPDK enabled.

Types of Interfaces Supported

The VRF property for the following types of data interfaces can be modified by the user, using the REST API, UI, or CLI.

  • Physical interfaces

  • Port-channel interfaces

  • VLAN interfaces

The following types of data interfaces do not support modification of the VRF property. Any attempt to modify them will result in an error.

  • Port-channel member interfaces

  • Management interface

Dependency on In-band Management

Service Engines can be configured to use in-band management. When enabled, control plane and data plane traffic will share the same interface.

  • If in-band management is enabled on an SE, that SE will not support multiple VRFs.

  • To enable multiple VRFs on an SE, it must be deployed with in-band management deactivated. The caveat with disabling in-band management is that the management interface will not be used for data plane traffic, and hence no VS will be placed on this interface and this interface will not be used to communicating with back-end servers.

For information on how to deactivate or enable in-band management, see Configuring In-band Management for an NSX Advanced Load Balancer Service Engine section in Installing Avi Load Balancer in Linux Server Cloud topic in VMware Avi Load BalancerInstallation Guide.