For IPv4 address exhaustion issues on existing transport zones, you can use this workflow to can change existing tunnel endpoints (TEP) that have IPv4 addresses to use IPv6 addresses instead 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. Turn the admin state off for the segments of the transport zones to be used for IPv6:
    1. Navigate to Networking > Segments.
    2. Click the menu icon (3 dots) for the segment and choose Edit.
    3. Set the Admin State toggle to off.
  2. Configure the existing NSX Edge transport nodes for IPv6 TEPs:
    1. Edit the NSX Edge transport node and change the TEP IP address type to IPv6 and configure the IPv6 assignment details.
      See Edit NSX Edge Transport Node Configuration.
  3. 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. Configure the host switch IPv6 assignment details.
    See Prepare ESXi Cluster Hosts as Transport Nodes by Using TNP for details.
  4. Edit the transport zones and configure it for IPv6:
    Note: Before changing the transport zone to IPv6, ensure that all transport nodes using the transport zone are configured to IPv6.
    1. From System > Fabric > Transport Zones page, click the menu icon (3 dots) for a transport zone and choose Edit.
    2. Set the traffic type as overlay.
    3. Set the forwarding mode to IPv6.
    See Create an NSX Edge Transport Node.
  5. (Optional) Verify that transport nodes have IPv6 address:
    1. Navigate to System > Fabric > Nodes > Edge Transport Nodes.
    2. Click the NSX Edge cluster and then click the Tunnel tab.
    3. Verify that the tunnels have IPv6 addresses.