NSX Edge Cluster Design Pattern One: Dedicated Edge Scale and Performance

This design pattern lists the design choices and resulting requirements and recommendations to deploy an NSX Edge cluster on a dedicated vSphere cluster with a specific configuration to achieve maximum performance with consistent bandwidth allocated to edge traffic. This design can also be combined with multi-rack edge availability to provide rack resiliency and a high level of availability for the edge cluster with edge VMs in both racks in the VMware Cloud Foundation instance.

Figure 1. Dedicated Edge Scale and Performance

Design Choices for Edge Cluster Design Pattern One

This design requires the following VMware Cloud Foundation deployment choices:

Table 1. Design Choices for NSX Edge Cluster Design Pattern One
Design Aspect	Choice Made
Architecture model	Standard
Workload domain type	VI workload domain
Topology	Multiple Instances - Single Availability Zone per Instance Single Instance - Single Availability Zone (Only supported topology if combining with Multi-Rack Edge Availability)
Workload Domain Cluster to Rack Mapping	Workload domain cluster per Rack
Physical network configuration	Leaf-spine
Workload domain principal storage	vSAN

Design Elements for NSX Edge Cluster Design Pattern One

Table 2. External Services Design Elements
Design Area	Applicable Design Elements
External services	External Services Design Requirements

Table 3. Physical Network Design Elements
Design Area	Applicable Design Elements
Physical network	Leaf-Spine Physical Network Design Requirements
	Leaf-Spine Physical Network Design Recommendations
	Leaf-Spine Physical Network Design Recommendations for Dedicated Edge Scale and Performance

Table 4. Dedicated Edge Scale and Performance Design Elements
Design Area	Applicable Design Elements
vSAN	vSAN Design Requirements
vSAN	vSAN Design Recommendations
ESXi	ESXi Server Design Requirements
ESXi	ESXi Server Design Recommendations
vSphere cluster	vSphere Cluster Design Requirements
vSphere cluster	vSphere Cluster Design Recommendations
vSphere networking	vSphere Networking Design Requirements for Dedicated Edge Scale and Performance
vSphere networking	vSphere Networking Design Recommendations
NSX Edge Node	NSX Edge Design Requirements
NSX Edge Node	NSX Edge Design Recommendations
Routing	BGP Routing Design Requirements
Routing	BGP Routing Design Recommendations
Overlay	Overlay Design Requirements
Overlay	Overlay Design Recommendations

Table 5. Life Cycle Management Design Elements
Design Area	Applicable Design Elements
Life cycle management	Life Cycle Management Design Requirements

Table 6. Account and Password Management Design Elements
Design Area	Applicable Design Elements
Account and password management	Account and Password Management Design Recommendations

Table 7. Certificate Management Design Elements
Design Area	Applicable Design Elements
Certificate management	Certificate Management Design Recommendations