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VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure 1.0 | 13 OCT 2020

Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

Overview of Telco Cloud Infrastructure Cloud Director Edition

VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure™ — Cloud Director Edition is the evolution of VMware vCloud® NFV™, a modular NFV platform. The world’s leading CSPs rely on this platform to develop modern cloud computing stacks to support new revenue streams while lowering costs. The ETSI-compliant NFVI platform supports a broad set of VNF applications, creating a large ecosystem for Communication Service Providers (CSPs) to deliver innovation at a rapid pace and scale. The consistent horizontal architecture of the NFVI platform enables CSPs to deploy various network functions and services for 4G and 5G networks, from core to edge. Furthermore, the same infrastructure components are used in VMware Telco Cloud Platform, sharing the tried-and-true infrastructure DNA. This empowers CSPs to evolve their telco cloud deployments seamlessly from IaaS to CaaS, without common upgrade dependencies.

What's New

Virtual Infrastructure Manager – VMware Cloud Director

VMware Cloud Director™ is a flagship cloud services platform for Cloud Providers. It is a pervasive cloud infrastructure control plane for cloud providers’ service-delivery needs and the management entity for a global VMware cloud estate. VMware Cloud Director allows seamless provisioning and consumption of cloud computing resources and services to geographically distributed lines of business and IT teams in an API-driven approach.

  • Usability Enhancement:A new Chrome Browser Extension is available to automate proxy configuration for VMware Cloud Director access to standalone vCenter Server instances. 

NSX Improvements

  • IPSec VPN: If IPSec is enabled on a specific Edge, IPSec Services are created automatically. Cloud Director does this by aggregating all the necessary data tunnel, local endpoint, any associated compliance suite, and associated profiles in a single screen.

  • Dedicated External Network: The Provider can now dedicate a one-to-one external network to an Edge Gateway. The external network is part of the network routing domain allowing additional services. These services include the ability to specify which subnets to advertise, and the ability to configure BGP for Dedicated Routing Domains. BGP configuration can now be applied on the uplink of Tier-0 gateway backing the dedicated external network. You can now configure IP prefix lists and BGP neighbors in the UI and API.

  • Edge Cluster Management: During the Edge Gateway creation and update, the Provider can now change the placement of the backing T1 gateway. By default, the T1 gateway is placed on the same Edge Cluster of its parent T0 gateway. The placement of the backing T1 gateways can be tuned to scalability needs.

  • Security Groups: Security enhancements to security groups enable grouping of subnets for easy configuration.

NSX-V to NSX-T Migration Tool

VMware Cloud Director Cloud Providers must transition from NSX-V to NSX-T within the supported life of NSX-V. Cloud Providers require a migration solution that migrates tenant by tenant with minimal downtime. The manual approach includes creating a new cluster or Provider Virtual Data Center (VDC) backed by NSX-T, creating a replicate target org VDC, and migrating the source workloads. The migration process is now fully automated in a script that:

  • Automates migration of VMware Cloud Director metadata and workloads from NSX-V to NSX-T

  • Performs per Org VDC migration to reduce maintenance window to a single tenant 

  • Minimizes network downtime with bridged networks during migration

  • Live-migrates with vMotion to ensure non-disruption to user workloads

  • Keeps the source VDC configuration and NSX-V environment as-is to allow rollback.

VM Encryption

The VM encryption that has been available in vSphere since version 6.5 can now be executed from within VMware Cloud Director as a native service for tenants.

Carrier-Grade Networking

In Telco Cloud Infrastructure, VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.0 provides the following new Telco Carrier Grade networking features:

  • Multicast: NSX-T 3.0 introduces support for multicast using Protocol Independent Multicast - Sparse Mode (PIM-SM) and IGMPv2. 

  • Enhanced Data Path

    • Performance optimizations: Data plane forwarding has been further improved.

    • Additional Controller Support: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller E810 family 

  • L3 Networking

    • VRF Lite: Provides multi-tenant data plane isolation through Virtual Routing Forwarding (VRF) in Tier-0 gateway. VRF has its own isolated routing table, uplinks, NAT, and gateway firewall services. Check the maximums for the number of VRFs and sizing in the VMware Configuration Maximums Tool.

    • L3 Ethernet VPN (EVPN): Provides the northbound connectivity option to advertise all VRFs on an NSX Tier-0 gateway through MP-BGP EVPN AFI (Route Type 5) to a Provider Edge and maintain the isolation on the data plane using VXLAN encapsulation by using one VNI per VRF.

  • IPv6

    • NAT64: Offers a transition mechanism from IPv4 to IPv6. It provides the stateful network address translation from IPv6 to IPv4 following the standard RFC 6146.

    • Stateful DHCPv6: NSX now supports the stateful delivery of IPv6 addresses and associated parameters through the NSX native DHCP server hosted on Edge nodes.

Components

Mandatory Add-On Components

Note: Additional license is required.

Optional Add-On Components

Note: Additional license is required.

Validated Patches

Resolved Issues

  • VM not reflecting its CPU or memory reservation when deployed from a vApp template (imported into catalog) with CPU or memory reservation

    This issue is fixed in VMware Cloud Director 10.1.2.

  • Unable to access Cloud Director due to insufficient disk space in PostgreSQL Database

    This issue is fixed in VMware Cloud Director 10.1.2.

  • Deletion of Custom Entities in the Cloud Director UI fails

    This issue is fixed in VMware Cloud Director 10.1.2.

Known Issues

  • Unable to Power ON the Cloud Director VMs connected with SR-IOV network

    When you power ON the Cloud Director VMs connected with the SR-IOV network and the Virtual Functions (VFs) on the host from that cluster is already utilized, the following error occurs:

    Module ‘DevicePowerOn’power on failed

    Workaround: None

  • VM Performance Issue with vSAN 6.7 U3

    The VM suspend and snapshot operations take a longer time than usual when vSAN is under heavy I/O load.

    Workaround: None

  • ESXi Hosts in vCenter Server Not Responding While Deploying VMs on vSAN with Heavy I/O Load

    When you deploy VMs on vSAN with heavy I/O load, the ESXi (patch 6.7 P03) hosts in vCenter Server are not responding.

    Workaround: None

  • Patching VCHA-enabled vSphere 6.7 Update 1 to Update 3 Failed

    Sometimes, the patching of vCenter Server HA (VCHA) enabled vSphere 6.7 Update 1 to Update 3 fails.

    Workaround: Remove VCHA before patching and reconfigure VCHA after the patching is completed.

  • TraceFlow Not Working in Guest Inter-VLAN Routing in NSX-T Data Center

    Traceflow from one VM to another VM does not work in guest inter-VLAN routing in NSX-T Data Center.

    Workaround: None

  • N-VDS (E) and SR-IOV Backed Switches Cannot Co-Exist in the Same ESXi Host

    N-VDS (E) and SR-IOV backed switches cannot co-exist in the same ESXi host.

    Workaround: Use a separate ESXi host for each switch.

  • Objects of Cloud Director Provider UI Not Visible After Configuring Multisite Cloud Director Association

    If invalid certificates are used for configuring multisite Cloud Director association, the Provider UI objects might not be visible after the configuration.

    Solution: Revert the multisite association configuration and reconfigure the site association. Before you reconfigure the site association, ensure that valid certificates are used.

  • Network Creation Failed During the NSX-T Node Failover

    The creation of a new network fails in the VMware Cloud Director UI when the NSX-T node failover is in progress.

    Workaround: Wait until the NSX-T node failover completes and then create the network from the Cloud Director UI.

  • Cloud Director UI Gets Stuck When Creating vApp Using Extra Configuration Parameter in OVA/OVF Template

    When you create a vApp by using an extra configuration parameter in the OVA/OVF template, the Cloud Director UI gets stuck. So, vApp cannot be created.

    Workaround: Upload the OVA/OVF template that is already configured with an extra configuration parameter from libraries.

  • IPv4 North-South Communication Breaks When Adding IPv6 NIC Followed by IPv4

    If you add IPv6 NIC first and IPv4 NIC later to a virtual machine using the VMware Cloud Director UI, the IPv4 north-south communication breaks.

    Workaround: Always add IPv4 NIC first followed by IPv6 NIC to the VM.

  • Cannot Merge Provider VDCs Backed by NSX-T Data Center

    When you merge two Provider Virtual Data Centers (VDCs) that are backed by NSX-T Data Center, the following error occurs: Cannot merge Provider VDCs. Found NSX-T backed Provider VDC

    Workaround: None

Release Notes Change Log

Date

Change

04 OCT 2021

Added VMware vCenter Server 6.7 Update 3o to the Validated Patches section

21 OCT 2020

Added VMware ESXi 6.7 EP15 to the Validated Patches section

Support Resources

For additional support resources, see the VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure documentation page.

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