You can configure an external or internal Border Gateway Protocol (eBGP or iBGP) connection between a VMware Cloud Director edge gateway backed by NSX that has a dedicated provider gateway and a router in your physical infrastructure.

BGP makes core routing decisions by using a table of IP networks, or prefixes, which designate multiple routes between autonomous systems (AS).

The term BGP speaker refers to a networking device that is running BGP. Two BGP speakers establish a connection before any routing information is exchanged.

The term BGP neighbor refers to a BGP speaker that has established such a connection. After establishing the connection, the devices exchange routes and synchronize their tables. Each device sends keep-alive messages to keep this relationship alive.

Note: In an edge gateway that is connected to an external network backed by a VRF gateway, graceful restart settings are read-only. Your system administrator can edit these settings on the parent tier-0 in NSX.

If you are using NSX 4.1, you can edit the the local AS number on an edge gateway that is backed by a VRF gateway. In earlier versions, the local AS number setting is read-only and can be configured by a system administrator on the parent tier-0 in NSX.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that your system administrator dedicated a provider gateway to an NSX edge gateway in your organization.
  • Verify that you are an organization administrator or you are assigned a role that includes an equivalent set of rights.

Procedure

  1. In the top navigation bar, click Networking and click the Edge Gateways tab.
  2. Click the edge gateway.
  3. Under Routing, click BGP and, under Configuration, click Edit.
  4. Toggle on the Status option to enable BGP.
  5. Enter an autonomous system (AS) ID number to use for the local AS feature of the protocol.
    VMware Cloud Director assigns the local AS number to the edge gateway. The edge gateway advertises this ID when it connects with its BGP neighbors in other autonomous systems.
  6. From the drop-down menu, select a Graceful Restart Mode option.
    Option Description
    Helper and graceful restart It is not a best practice to enable the graceful restart capability on the edge gateway because the BGP peerings from all gateways are always active.

    In case of a failover, the graceful restart capability increases the time a remote neighbor takes to select an alternate tier-0 gateway. This delays BFD-based convergence.

    Note: The edge gateway configuration applies to all BGP neighbors unless the neighbor-specific configuration overrides it.
    Helper only Useful for reducing or eliminating the disruption of traffic associated with routes learned from a neighbor that is capable of graceful restart. The neighbor must be able to preserve its forwarding table while it undergoes a restart.
    Disable Deactivate graceful restart mode on the edge gateway.
  7. (Optional) Change the default value for the graceful restart timer.
  8. (Optional) Change the default value for the stale route timer.
  9. Toggle on the ECMP option to enable ECMP.
  10. Click Save.

What to do next