Data Center Technologies: Multiple N-VDS' for Overlay on compute hosts

Multiple N-VDS' for Overlay on compute hosts

NSX-T allows the creation of overlay networks which are independent of networks in physical/underlay network.

Along with the creation of overlay networks using NSX-T, micro segmentation/zero trust model of NSX is widely used to implement micro segmentation over NSX defined overlay networks as well as over traditional VLAN backed networks.

Architecturally NSX-T solution has components which sit in the management/control plane and those that are in data plane:

1. Management plane which has NSX T Managers.

They are responsible for management plane as well as control plane.

2. Data Plane

In the data plane, we have:

a. Compute hosts which are prepared as host transport nodes and which also host the workloads which are connected to overlay networks typically.

b. Edges which provide north-south connectivity with physical network.

And these can also be leveraged for services like load balancing, edge firewall, NAT, DHCP. Edges are used to create Tier 0 Gateways which sit in between physical network and Tier 1 Gateways.

Tier 1 Gateways are those gateways to which overlay networks are connected typically.

A typical deployment of NSX-T will have one N-VDS on the compute host which is capable of handling both overlay traffic as well as VLAN traffic.

Here we explore how one can deploy multiple N-VDS' on host to provide uplink connectivity from host to two different environments.

For example Data Center Zone and DMZ Zone.

I have used below logical setup in this lab.

Logical Setup

IP Addressing and VLAN details

The edges in this setup have been used for Tier 0 Gateways.

There are two Tier 0 Gateways in this setup, one for Data Center Zone and the other for DMZ zone.

Edge clustering provides high availability at Tier 0 Gateway level as well as at Tier 1 Gateway level.

Availability mode at Tier 0 Gateway level can be Active-Active or Active-Standby if any service is to be consumed by Tier 0 Gateway.

Availability mode at Tier 1 Gateway level is Active-Standby in case any service is to be used at that specific Tier 1 Gateway.

If service (NAT,edge firewall, load balancing, VPN) is not required on the Tier 1 Gateway then you should not associate the Tier 1 Gateway with edge cluster. This avoids potential hair pinning of traffic through edge.

Fabric Preparation

N-VDS' on compute host

As shown in diagram above, there are two N-VDS' installed on the compute host once the host is prepared for NSX

Couple of things are required before the hosts can be prepared for NSX here:

a. NSX Manager should be installed.

b. Vcenter server should be added as compute manager to NSX-T Manager

c. Tunnel Endpoint TEP pools are to be defined which take care of TEP IP assignment on hosts and edges.

TEP interfaces on hosts/edges are responsible for encapsulation/de encapsulation of Geneve traffic. Geneve is the overlay protocol utilized in NSX T

d. Uplink profiles are to be created for edge and hosts respectively.

e. Compute Transport Node profile should be defined.

Compute TEP Pool

Edge TEP Pool

Uplink profiles for edges and hosts

Uplink profile contains the TEP VLAN ID, active uplink names, teaming policy and MTU setting.

Transport zones come in two types - overlay and VLAN

Overlay networks/segments are created using overlay transport zone.

VLAN backed networks/segments can be created using VLAN transport zone.

The above transport zones are used for this lab setup.

Trunk segments which are used for uplink connectivity of edge will utilize VLAN transport zone on host.

Next compute transport node profile will be created which will be mapped to the single cluster used in this setup.

Compute Transport Node Profile

1st N-VDS on compute host - For Data Center Workloads

2nd N-VDS on compute host - For DMZ workloads

Please note there that TEP pools used are the same on both the N-VDS'

The compute transport node profile is then mapped to the cluster so that the cluster is prepared for NSX.

Here NSX software is pushed to the hosts, N-VDS' defined are created on the hosts, TEP interfaces are created on the hosts.

Hosts are prepared for NSX using compute transport node profile

Data Center N-VDS and DMZ N-VDS on the compute host

We now move onto edges.

Edge placement in the lab is as below.

Edge Node Placement

Appropriate VLAN backed segments/networks are created in NSX-T Manager for uplink connectivity of edges.

Trunk Segments for up-link connectivity of edges

Note, appropriate transport zones are selected when VLAN backed trunk segments are created using host N-VDS

Next edges are deployed.

Edges up-linked to appropriate N-VDS'

The edge also has N-VDS which handles VLAN traffic and overlay traffic.

VLAN traffic towards the physical network and overlay traffic to/from the compute hosts.

The edge for Data Center Zone is connected to N-VDS allocated for Data Center Zone.

And the edge for DMZ Zone is connected to N-VDS allocated for DMZ Zone.

Edge Transport Node Config for Data Center Zone

Edge Transport Node Config for DMZ Zone

Edges are configured for NSX

Four edges are deployed, two for Data Center Zone and two for DMZ Zone.

Edge Clusters are created appropriately.

Edge Clusters for Data Center Zone and for DMZ Zone

Gateway Configuration and Routing

VLAN backed segments are created which are to be used while creating Layer 3 interfaces on Tier 0 Gateways.

Segments for creating L3 interfaces on Tier 0 Gateways

VLAN 5 and VLAN 51 are used on Tier 0 Gateway for Data Center Zone

VLAN 55 and VLAN 56 are used on Tier 0 Gateway for DMZ Zone.

IP Addressing for Tier 0 Gateways

Next Tier 0 Gateways will be defined and layer 3 interfaces will be created on the Tier 0 Gateways using IP addressing as shown in diagram above.

Tier 0 Gateway for Data Center Zone

When the Tier 0 Gateway for Data Center Zone is created, edge cluster for Data Center Zone is selected and the availability mode on Tier 0 Gateway is Active-Active.