My OTV Take
Posted: April 1, 2013 Filed under: Cisco Nexus, Networking | Tags: cisco otv, data center interconnect, datacenter interconnect, dci, l2 dci, layer 2 dci, otv 3 CommentsAfter my recent DFW VMUG presentation where I spoke on the topic, a friend emailed me and asked what I thought about OTV.
“You mentioned that you were against OTV. Curious on your take on this, as we are using it across two datacenters using N7K, UCS, NetApp and VMware.”
I’d like to share my response to him here.
Please don’t get me wrong. If one is forced to implement a Layer 2 Data Center Interconnect (DCI), OTV is probably the best solution. Sometimes, L2 connectivity between data centers is a functional requirement – perhaps even a constraint. In these cases, one should look at the benefits and risks of implementing an L2 DCI and then make an informed decision on whether they should continue with such a deployment. Should they choose to deploy OTV, someone needs to accept the risks associated with OTV in its current implementation.