[c-nsp] Maximum number of OSPF instances in a VRF-lite environment

[Phil Mayers]

McLean Pickett wrote:
> Hello -
> 
>  
> 
> I am working on a large campus design and I am on the fence between using a
> VRF-lite implementation (802.1q trunks carrying ospf instances between
> devices) and an MPLS VPN deployment.
> 
>  
> 
> If I only have a few VRF's then the VRF-lite implementation wouldn't be too
> overbearing and would require much less training for the support staff.
> However if the number of VRF's where to greatly increase then it seems like
> a full blown MPLS network is the better solution.

Sure. I would agree with Oli in that >10 and you want to be looking to MPLS.

We did the exact same thing - started off with vrf-lite and multi-ospf, 
then eventually migrated to L3VPN when the overhead of managing the VRFs 
got too big.

> 
>  
> 
> Are there any Cisco guidelines or does anyone have any hands-on experience
> with the maximum number of VRF's\OSPF instances in a VRF-lite deployment?
> 
>  
> 
> I am dealing with Sup720-3B's, RFC1918 address space and default routes.
> None of the routing tables will be carrying Internet routes.

You can certainly run ~15, we did on the exact same hardware.