NSX Edge – Routing between NSX Edge and physical network with Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

Summary

This use case demonstrates logical routing between a NSX edge and physical network segment. It demonstrates to the administrator the benefits of dynamic routing. This use case will use Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

Pre Conditions

• vCenter and NSX manager configured.
• NSX host and cluster preparation complete.
• IP connectivity between hosts.
• Uplink port group preconfigured.
• End point peer (Router, Switch, NSX Edge) prepared for BGP routing.

Post Conditions

Success End Condition

• Communication of logical network into physical segments with routing protocols established and sharing routes.

Failure End Condition

• NSX Edge virtual appliance fails to deploy.
• Misconfiguration of routing protocol results in lack of OSPF peering.

Minimal Guarantee

• NSX Edge deploys and a neighbour relationship between physical and NSX edge occurs but routes are not dynamically learnt.

Trigger(s)

• Virtual Machines initiate communication with addresses outside of its logical network resulting in packets being routed into the data centre.

Use Case Expected Flow

1. Log into Networking and Security plugin of vCenter
2. Deploy new NSX Edge from NSX Edges pane.
3. Populate desired information for network interfaces.
4. Configure BGP to enable dynamic routing with the peer.

Use Case Variations

• NSX Edge virtual appliance can be configured to peer with another NSX Edge virtual appliance.

Integration Points

Physical Network

This test highlights connectivity of BGP between virtual and physical infrastructure with the NSX edge gateway. The physical network requires BGP to be enabled.

Suggested Test Metrics

• End to End connectivity with trace route or ping functionality.
• Confirm BGP neighbour adjacency on both physical and virtual devices.
• Confirm routing table for BGP routes from virtual network.
• Confirm routing table for BGP routes from physical infrastructure or peer.