1. An automated method of provisioning a virtual private network, the method comprising: receiving a high level description of a topology of a network; applying a set of rules to the topology of the network to produce a plurality of route targets associated with virtual private networks to be assigned to the network; grouping a set of route targets from the plurality of route targets with respect to each customer equipment node within the network to form a group of route target sets; removing duplicate sets of route targets from the group of route target sets to form a reduced size set of route targets; assigning each set of route targets in the reduced size set of route targets to a virtual routing and forwarding VRF element and all the CEs with the same RT set on one PE share one VRF; and generating an output file including output data that identifies each of the VRFs and the associated route targets assigned to each of the VRFs.