Course 1: VXLAN-EVPN on Juniper¶
A structured, zero-to-hero path to VXLAN-EVPN on Juniper, session by session. (A Course 2 on Cisco is planned.) Each session follows the same teaching rhythm:
- Mental model — an analogy to anchor the idea.
- Why before how — the problem this session solves, before any config.
- The mechanism — the technical depth: what's actually happening on the wire and in the control plane.
- Build it — the hands-on lab, config explained line by line.
- Verify — the
showcommands, and how to read their output. - Break & observe — deliberately break it to see the failure mode.
- Lessons & interview — gotchas and the questions an interviewer asks.
Build order mirrors reality: underlay → overlay → services → scale. You never configure a layer until the one beneath it is verified.
Sessions¶
| # | Session | You'll master | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Lab platform | GCP + containerlab + vJunos | ✅ |
| 1 | The underlay (OSPF) | loopback reachability, ECMP, SPF | ✅ |
| 2 | The overlay (iBGP-EVPN + route reflectors) | BGP-EVPN, RD/RT, RR | ✅ |
| 3 | L2VNI — stretching a VLAN | bridging, Type-2/Type-3, flood lists | ✅ |
| 4 | Anycast gateway & L3VNI | inter-subnet routing, Type-5, symmetric IRB | ✅ (lab draft) |
| 5 | Multi-tenancy | VRFs, route leaking, RT policy | ✅ (lab draft) |
| 6 | ESI multihoming | dual-homed hosts, Type-1/Type-4, DF election | ✅ (lab draft) |
| 7 | eBGP designs | eBGP underlay, eBGP-EVPN overlay | ✅ teaching (lab TBD) |
| 8 | External connectivity (L3 out) | routing to the WAN, default origination | ✅ teaching (lab TBD) |
| 9 | Multi-site / DCI | stitching fabrics together | ✅ teaching (lab TBD) |
Production & advanced track¶
| # | Session | You'll master | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Production hardening | MTU, BFD, CoPP, auth, guard-rails, the prod checklist | ✅ |
| 11 | MAC mobility & duplicate detection | VM moves, sequence numbers, loop protection | 🏗️ next |
| 12 | CRB vs ERB gateway design | where the L3 gateway lives | 📋 |
| 13 | DHCP relay in EVPN-VXLAN | IP assignment across VNIs/tenants | 📋 |
| 14 | Troubleshooting methodology | a systematic walk-the-layers debug flow | 📋 |
How this relates to the other sections¶
- Study track — shorter concept primers. Read these if you want the 5-minute version of a topic before the full session.
- Labs — the runnable fabrics (
clab-*). Each session's "Build it" section drives one of these. - Sessions (here) — the deep, guided course. Start here if you're learning the whole thing properly.
Prerequisites¶
- A working lab host — Session 0 / Host Setup.
- Comfort with basic IP (addresses, subnets, routing) and the CLI. No prior EVPN knowledge assumed — that's what this course builds.