NSX Edge – Routing failover of primary route to a backup route with NSX Edge Services Gateway (ESG)

Summary

This use case demonstrates these of a backup route via Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) by the NSX Edge Services Gateway (ESG) resulting in seamless transition to an alternate Layer 3 route.

Pre Conditions

• vCenter and NSX manager configured.
• NSX host and cluster preparation complete.
• IP connectivity between hosts.
• Existing NSX Edges deployed onto a transport network or VLAN.

Post Conditions

Success End Condition

• Full routed connectivity on the alternate NSX ESG providing connectivity to remote segment.

Failure End Condition

• Failure of route installation by OSPF through no backup route existing or misconfiguration.

Minimal Guarantee

• Subnet or prefix misconfiguration result in a incorrect route installation and advertisement.

Trigger(s)

• Administrator initiates a manual failover where OSPF is disabled on a NSX ESG, OR,
• Administrator shuts down active NSX ESG virtual appliance, OR,
• NSX ESG virtual appliance fails.

Use Case Expected Flow

1. Log into Networking and Security plugin of vCenter
2. Select NSX Edges and select the activeNSXESG.
   1. The command ‘sh ip route’  run on the CLI will show active OSPF route.
3. Select the follow option:
   1. Disable the OSPF routing protocol, OR
   2. Shutdown the active NSX ESG.
4. Confirm connectivity is maintained and the secondary route is installed into the routing table.
   1. An administrator should see only an increase in latency (200ms) or a loss of a single ICMP packet.

Use Case Variations

• Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) can be used as an alternative to provide routed connectivity across the top of static routing or existing Interior Gateway Protocols.

Integration Points

Nil

Suggested Test Metrics

• Test application availability during the instigation of route failover.
• Confirm with ‘show ip ospf neighbor’ , ‘show ip route’ to ‘show ip ospf statistics’ on NSX ESG command lines.