When you have VMs that are connected to the NSX-T Data Center overlay, you can configure a bridge-backed logical switch to provide layer 2 connectivity with other devices or VMs that are outside of your NSX-T Data Center deployment.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that you have an Edge bridge profile.
  • Configure one of the following options: promiscuous mode, MAC learning, or a sink port. See Configure Edge-Based Bridging.
  • At least one ESXi or KVM host to serve as a regular transport node. This node has hosted VMs that require connectivity with devices outside of a NSX-T Data Center deployment.
  • A VM or another end device outside of the NSX-T Data Center deployment. This end device must be attached to a VLAN port matching the VLAN ID of the bridge-backed logical switch.
  • One logical switch in an overlay transport zone to serve as the bridge-backed logical switch.

  • Verify that Manager mode is selected in the NSX Manager user interface. See NSX Manager. If you do not see the Policy and Manager mode buttons, see Configure User Interface Settings.

Procedure

  1. From a browser, log in to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-mgr>.
  2. Select Networking > Logical Switches.
  3. Click the name of an overlay switch (traffic type: overlay).
  4. Click Related > Edge Bridge Profiles.
  5. Click Attach.
  6. To attach to an Edge bridge profile,
    1. Select an Edge bridge profile.
    2. Select a transport zone.
    3. Enter a VLAN ID.
    4. Click Save.
  7. Connect VMs to the logical switch if they are not already connected.
    The VMs must be on transport nodes in the same transport zone as the Edge bridge profile.

Results

You can test the functionality of the bridge by sending a ping from the NSX-T Data Center-internal VM to a node that is external to NSX-T Data Center.

You can monitor traffic on the bridge switch by clicking the Monitor tab.

You can also view the bridge traffic with the GET https://192.168.110.31/api/v1/bridge-endpoints/<endpoint-id>/statistics API call: 
{
  "tx_packets": {
    "total": 134416,
    "dropped": 0,
    "multicast_broadcast": 0
  },
  "rx_bytes": {
    "total": 22164,
    "multicast_broadcast": 0
  },
  "tx_bytes": {
    "total": 8610134,
    "multicast_broadcast": 0
  },
  "rx_packets": {
    "total": 230,
    "dropped": 0,
    "multicast_broadcast": 0
  },
  "last_update_timestamp": 1454979822860,
  "endpoint_id": "ba5ba59d-22f1-4a02-b6a0-18ef0e37ef31"
}