Part#4 Configuring Edge cluster using vCenter VCF9.0.1

Configuring Edge cluster using vCenter (VCF9.0.1)

In this lab we will go through the deployment of NSX Edge cluster using vCenter.VCF 9 centralizes the NSX Edge cluster deployment workflow into the vCenter UI for Centralized External Connectivity, replacing earlier SDDC Manager driven steps and aligning with the new VPC + Transit Gateway model. How ever you can still do this from NSX Manager UI.

A brief overview of Connectivity Models:

Centralized Connectivity: The wizard deploys Edge VMs and a Tier-0 that the Transit Gateway uses for north-south traffic. 

Distributed Connectivity: The Transit gateway can connect to physical infrastructure via an external VLAN network and doesn't require any Edge VMs for forwarding traffic.

Pre-requisites:

1. vCenter should be deployed.

2. NSX Should be deployed.

3. BGP should be configured including BGP Peer ASN and Peer IP

4. DNS, Management IP, VLAN, CIDR, FQDN for Edge nodes.

Configuration details used in the lab:

Edge01
FQDN	edge01.uaks.local
vSphere Cluster	wld01-cluster
Resource Pool	Resources
Management IP	192.168.1.10/24
Default Gateway	192.168.1.102
Uplink01
VLAN	10
CIDR	192.168.1.3/24
BGP peer IP	192.168.1.4
BGP Peer ASN	65004
Password	VMware123!
Uplink02
VLAN	20
CIDR	192.168.2.3/24
BGP peer IP	192.168.2.4
BGP Peer ASN	65004
Password	VMware123!

Edge02
FQDN	edge02.uaks.local
vSphere Cluster	wld01-cluster
Resource Pool	Resources
Management IP	192.168.1.11/24
Default Gateway	192.168.1.102
Uplink01
VLAN	10
CIDR	192.168.1.5/24
BGP peer IP	192.168.1.6
BGP Peer ASN	65004
Password	VMware123!
Uplink02
VLAN	20
CIDR	192.168.2.5/24
BGP peer IP	192.168.2.6
BGP Peer ASN	65004
Password	VMware123!

Configure network connectivity:

Step#1. Sign in to vCenter and click on networks and Click Network Connectivity

Note: I choose Centralized networking as it supports all the networking services which is not in Distributed model.

Step#2. Click on Configure Network Connectivity

Select Gateway Type to Centralized Connectivity and click next

Note: Before proceeding ensure to complete the pre-requisites other wise deployment will fail.

Step#3. Select all Pre-requisites and click on Continue

Configure Edge Cluster and form factor

I have selected Medium due to space constraints in lab.

Step#4: Give Edge Cluster Name and Select Edge node form factor. Fill required details i-e FQDN, vSphere cluster where you want to deploy along with datastore, Management IP.

For management IP you can use DHCP and Static. In the lab Static is used for the sake of simplicity.

Configure Edge Node 01 as per details mentioned above in the Table

Here two uplinks are used to ensure redundancy.

Step 5: Select fp-eth0 active: vmnic0 and standby: vmnic1

for fp-eth1 active: vmnic1 and standby: vmnic0

For IP Address pools you can use DHCP, IP Pool and IP Pool list. For the sake of simplicity IP Pool is used with desired subnets.

After providing the required parameters Edge01 Configuration is complete as shown below.

For second Edge node you can either Add or you can clone from the existing one. Here i have cloned the edge node and did the required configuration changes. Clone Edge01 and following dialogue box will appear to create Edge02 and fill in the required details as done for Edge 01. 

Configure Edge Node 02 as per details mentioned above in the Table

You will see both Edges configured.

Configure Workload Domain Connectivity

Configure Uplinks for both Edges.

Configure Edge02 Uplinks:

Configure BGP:

Step#6:  Configure BGP and local AS number, Here it is 65007

VPC External IP Blocks 10.10.10.0/24

Private-Transit Gateway IP Blocks: 172.16.10.0/24

Validation of Settings:

 Review the settings and Click on Deploy. 

After some time EdgeCluster01 will be deployed with 2 Edges.

Lessons Learnt:

1. Always ensure to configure Proper BGP routing.

2. When you do cloning of Edge node ensure to verify that both Edges have different IPs, other wise it will not get deployed and will give the conflict of IPs.

3. For BGP, document ASNs, peer IPs and allowed prefixes, validate Established state on both sides.