Techniques for routing and forwarding between multiple virtual routers implemented by a single device

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the device to perform operations comprising:

• configuring a second virtual router implemented by the device to learn routes from a first virtual router implemented by the device, wherein the first virtual router stores routing information for a first virtual private network in a first routing table and the second virtual router stores routing information for a second virtual private network in a second routing table;
• inserting a first route into the first routing table, wherein the first route includes a next hop corresponding to a physical network interface of the device leading to an external destination;
• distributing, responsive to said configuring of the second virtual router to learn routes from the first virtual router, the first route to the second virtual router to be installed in the second routing table as a second route;
• and
• responsive to receiving a packet, forwarding the packet according to a forwarding table entry corresponding to the second route of the second routing table to send the packet using the physical network interface to the external destination.

A device, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media having instructions which, when executed by one or more of the one or more processors, cause the device to perform operations comprising:
• configuring a second virtual router implemented by the device to learn routes from a first virtual router implemented by the device, wherein the first virtual router stores routing information for a first virtual private network in a first routing table and the second virtual router stores routing information for a second virtual private network in a second routing table;
• inserting a first route into the first routing table, wherein the first route includes a next hop corresponding to a physical network interface of the device leading to an external destination;
• distributing, responsive to said configuring of the second virtual router to learn routes from the first virtual router, the first route to the second virtual router to be installed in the second routing table as a second route;
• and
• responsive to receiving a packet, forwarding the packet according to a forwarding table entry corresponding to the second route of the second routing table to send the packet using the physical network interface to the external destination.