Create and Configure a Data Center Group Backed by NSX Data Center for vSphere with a Common Egress Configuration in the VMware Cloud Director Tenant Portal

You can create and configure a virtual data center group backed by NSX Data Center for vSphere with a common egress configuration, where you set a pair of edge gateways that act as an active and stand-by egress points for all participating virtual data centers.

Prerequisites

• Verify that you are logged in as a System Administrator or a role with the VDC Group: Configure VDC Group right published to the organization.

• Your system administrator must enable the target virtual data centers for cross-virtual data center networking.

Create a Data Center Group Backed by NSX Data Center for vSphere with a Common Egress Configuration in the VMware Cloud Director Tenant Portal

You can group between one and 16 virtual data centers in a data center group with a common egress configuration.

Procedure

1. From the primary left navigation panel, select Networking, and from the page top navigation bar, select the Data Center Groups tab.
   The list of data center groups appears.
2. Click New.
3. On the Starting VDC page, select a VDC to start the VDC group.
4. Enter a name and, optionally, a description for the new data center group.
5. Select Common Egress Points and click Next.
6. On the Participating VDCs page, select additional data centers for the new data center group, and click Next.
   The Data Centers page contains a list of the VDCs that the system administrator has enabled for cross-virtual data center networking.
7. Review the data center group details and click Finish.

Results

The newly created virtual data center group is listed in the Data Center Groups view.

Add an Active Egress Point to a Data Center Group with NSX Data Center for vSphere Network Provider Type in the VMware Cloud Director Tenant Portal

To connect your data center group to the Internet, you must add an active egress point to its network topology.

Prerequisites

The system administrator created at least one edge gateway on any of the virtual data centers that are participating in the data center group.

Procedure

1. From the primary left navigation panel, select Networking, and from the page top navigation bar, select the Data Center Groups tab.
   The list of data center groups appears.
2. Click the target data center group.
   The Network Topology view for this data center group opens. The diagram of the current network topology displays the participating VDCs with their network fault domains, the egress points, if configured, and the traffic routes.
3. Click Add egress point.
   The Add Active Egress Point page that opens provides a list of the edge gateways which belong to the participating virtual data centers.
4. Select the edge gateway that you want to act as an active egress point for this data center group, and click Add.

Results

BGP routes are configured on the edge gateway representing the egress point and the universal router of the virtual data center group. Existing routes on the edge gateway are not affected.

The diagram of the network topology is updated with the newly added egress point. The traffic from the participating virtual data centers to the Internet is represented with a solid blue line.

Add a Standby Egress Point to a Data Center Group with NSX Data Center for vSphere Network Provider Type in the VMware Cloud Director Tenant Portal

In virtual data center groups with common egress configurations, you can add a secondary egress point, which acts as a standby egress point for fault tolerance scenarios.

Prerequisites

Apart from the edge gateway that acts as an active egress point, you must have at least one more edge gateway in any of the virtual data centers that are participating in the group.

Procedure

1. From the primary left navigation panel, select Networking, and from the page top navigation bar, select the Data Center Groups tab.
   The list of data center groups appears.
2. Click the target data center group.
   The Network Topology view for this data center group opens. The diagram of the current network topology displays the participating VDCs with their network fault domains, the egress points, if configured, and the traffic routes.
3. Click Add stand-by egress point.
   The Add Stand-by Egress Point page opens providing a list of the unused edge gateways that belong to the participating virtual data centers. The edge gateway that is in use by the active egress point in this virtual data center group is not displayed.
4. Select the edge gateway that you want to act as a stand-by egress point for this data center group, and click Add.

Results

BGP routes are configured on the edge gateway representing the egress point and the universal router of the network fault domain. The configuration does not affect the existing routes on the edge gateway.

The diagram of the network topology is updated with the newly added egress point. The traffic from the participating virtual data centers to the Internet in fault tolerance scenarios is represented with a dashed blue line.