For IPv4 address exhaustion issues in new transport zones, you can use this workflow to create tunnel endpoints (TEP) that have IPv6 addresses for ESXi hosts and NSX Edge transport nodes.

With IPv6 TEPs, IPv6 communication is enabled between transport nodes. IPv6 communication between transport nodes supports bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD).

Prerequisites

  • For the physical infrastructure, the MTU should be increased by 20 bytes to support additional overhead for IPv6 header.
  • For ESXi hosts, the required software version is ESXi 8.0 Update 1 or later.

Procedure

  1. Create a new transport zone and configure it for IPv6:
    1. From System > Fabric > Transport Zones page, click Add Transport Zone.
    2. Set the traffic type as overlay.
    3. Set the forwarding mode to IPv6.

    See Create Transport Zones.

  2. Configure the ESXi host for IPv6 TEPs:
    1. From the System > Fabric > Hosts > Clusters page, expand the cluster and then click the menu icon (3 dots) for the ESXi host and choose Configure NSX.
    2. From the Configure NSX > Host details page, click Next.
    3. From the Configure NSX > Prepare Host page, click the menu icon (3 dots) for the host switch and choose Edit.
    4. Add the transport zone for IPv6 to the host switch and configure the host switch IPv6 assignment details.
    See Prepare ESXi Cluster Hosts as Transport Nodes by Using TNP.
  3. Create a new NSX Edge transport node and configure it for IPv6:
    1. Include the transport zone created from the previous step.
    2. Set the TEP IP address type to IPv6 and configure the IPv6 assignment details.

    See Create an NSX Edge Transport Node.

  4. Add the NSX Edge transport node to an edge cluster.
    See Create an NSX Edge Cluster.
  5. Create and configure a tier-0 gateway:
    1. Attach the NSX Edge cluster.
    2. Create segments for the tier-0 gateway.
    3. Create and connect the tier-0 uplink and downlink interfaces.
    See Add a Tier-0 Gateway in the NSX Administration Guide.