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Guscht
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VRF vs Routing-Tables

Mon Oct 03, 2022 11:43 pm

After watching:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hdLsXd9OgE

there are more questions then answers. Why is there something like a VRF?
I see no real difference to Routing Tables? Can someone point out what are the differences?

What are the benefits of VRF over Routing Tables? When not to use VRF? In both cases we have to fiddle with Mangel-Rules.
 
sindy
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Re: VRF vs Routing-Tables

Mon Oct 03, 2022 11:52 pm

I haven't seen that video, but I'd rather say that VRF is one of several ways how to choose a routing table for a packet than a substitution of routing tables. There are always routing tables, but when a packet comes in via an interface that belongs to a VRF, it automatically gets a routiing mark (routing table name) used for VRF, without need to use any routing rules or mangle rules. If VRFs are not used, you have to use routing rules or mangle rules to assign routing marks (choose tables). So which approach is better depends on the usage scenario. VRF is simpler to set up but quite rigid in use, whereas routing rules and mangle rules are more flexible but more complex to set up.

And the manual warns against combining the approaches. Moreover, in RouterOS 7 some interface types have only got VRF support recently, and some maybe even haven't got it yet.
 
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Re: VRF vs Routing-Tables

Tue Oct 04, 2022 12:15 am

VRFs come more into play when you have a big network, something like an ISP/WISP, etc that provides branch to branch connectivity for clients as example, many times there can be overlapping of these clients internal IPs, and to isolate them to route them accordingly, you use VRFs

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