For EVPN Route Server mode, you need to onboard a virtual network function (VNF). A VNF is typically a virtual machine used for some networking function such as a virtual router, firewall, or a Telco 5G core application. In the context of EVPN Route Server mode, the VNF is hosted by an ESXi hypervisor and should support 802.1Q-tagged interfaces and regular BGP protocol with IPv4 and IPv6 unicast address families.
Procedure
- With admin privileges, log in to NSX Manager.
- Create a parent overlay segment to connect the VNF virtual machine.
- Select .
- Click Add Segment.
- Enter a name for the segment.
- For Connected Gateway, select None.
- Select an overlay transport zone.
- For the EVPN configuration section, select the EVPN tenant.
- Click Save.
- Create a service interface to establish a BGP IPv4 session between the tier-0 VRF gateway and the VNF.
- Expand the Interfaces section.
- Click .
- Enter a name for the interface.
- For Type, select External.
- Enter an IP address.
- Select a segment to connect to.
The segment should be one of the EVPN automatically created segments with the appropriate VLAN to communicate with the VNF.
- Select an edge node.
- Click Save and then Close.
- In vCenter Server, connect the VNF virtual machine uplink interface to the NSX parent segment created from the previous step.
- Link the VNF segment port to the corresponding EVPN VLAN.
- In NSX-T Data Center, select .
- Click the menu icon (three dots) for the parent segment and select Edit.
- For Ports / Interfaces, click Set.
For each VNF interface attached to the parent segment, you should see the corresponding segment port.
- Click the menu icon (three dots) of the segment port and select Edit.
- For EVPN VLAN, add the corresponding VLAN.
The VLAN should match the VLAN/VNI mapping for the VRF.
- Click Save and then Close.
- Configure the BGP IPv4 session between the tier-0 VRF gateway and the VNF.
- Select .
- Click the menu icon (three dots) of the tier-0 VRF gateway and select Edit.
- Expand the BGP section.
- For BGP, click the toggle to enable BGP.
- You can configure advanced BGP settings, such as ECMP.
- For BGP Neighbors, click .
- Enter the neighbor IP address.
- For BFD, click the toggle to enable or disable the BFD session with the VNF.
- Enter the remote AS number of the neighbor.
- For Source IP Address, it is not required. The system automatically uses the service port interface IP address previously created.
- For Route Filter, click to enable IP address families and the desired maximum routes.
- For IP Address Family, select IPv4 or IPv6.
- Click Add and then Apply.
- Expand the Timers & Password section.
- Configure the BFD timers and BGP password.
- Click Save and then Close.