vSphere IaaS control plane uses the Default-Group Service Engine Group. Optionally, you can configure the Default-Group Service Engines within a group which defines the placement and number of Service Engine VMs within vCenter. You can also configure high availability if the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller is in Enterprise mode. vSphere IaaS control plane only supports the Default-Group Service Engine. You cannot create other Service Engine Groups.

For information on how you can provision excess capacity in the event of a failover, see the Avi documentation.

Procedure

  1. In the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller dashboard, select Infrastructure > Cloud Resources > Service Engine Group.
  2. In the Service Engine Group page, click the edit icon in the Default-Group.
    The General Settings tab appears.
    vSphere IaaS control plane only supports Default-Cloud.
  3. In the Placement section, select the High Availability Mode.
    The default option is N + M (buffer). You can keep the default value or select one of the following options:
    • Active/Standy
    • Active/Active
  4. In the Service Engine section, you can configure excess capacity for the Service Engine group.
    The Number of Service Engines option defines the maximum number of Service Engines that may be created within a Service Engine group. Default is 10.
    To configure excess capacity, specify a value in the Buffer Service Engines. The value you specify is the number of VMs that are deployed to ensure excess capacity in the event of a failover.

    Default is 1.

  5. In the Virtual Service section, configure the following options.
    Option Description
    Virtual Services per Service Engine The maximum number of virtual services the Controller cluster can place on any one of the Service Engines in the group.

    Enter a value of 1000.
    Virtual Services Placement Across Service Engines Select Distributed. Selecting this option maximizes the performance by placing virtual services on newly spun-up Service Engines up to the maximum number of Service Engines specified. Default is Compact.
  6. You can keep the default values for the other settings.
  7. Click Save.

Configure Static Routes

A default gateway enables the Service Engine to route traffic to the pool servers on the Workload Network. You must configure the Data Network gateway IP as the default gateway. The Service Engines do not get the default gateway IP from DHCP on the Data Networks. You must configure static routes so that the Service Engines can route traffic to the Workload Networks and Client IP correctly.

Procedure

  1. In the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller dashboard, select Infrastructure > Cloud Resources > VRF Context.
  2. Click Create.
  3. In the General settings, enter a name for the routing context.
  4. In the Static Route section, click ADD.
  5. In Gateway Subnet, enter 172.16.10.0/24.
  6. In Next Hop, enter the gateway IP address for the Data network.
    For example, 192.168.1.1.

  7. (Optional) Select BGP Peering to configure BGP local and peer details.
    For more information, see the Avi documentation.
  8. Click Save.

Configure a Virtual IP Network

Configure a virtual IP (VIP) subnet for the Data Network. You can configure the VIP range to use when a virtual service is placed on the specific VIP network. You can configure DHCP for the Service Engines. Optionally, if DHCP is unavailable, you can configure a pool of IP addresses which will get assigned to the Service Engine interface on that network. vSphere IaaS control plane supports only a single VIP network.

Procedure

  1. In the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller dashboard, Infrastructure > Cloud Resources > Networks.
  2. Select the cloud from the list.
    For example, select Default-Cloud.
  3. Enter a name for the network.
    For example, Data Nework.
  4. Keep DHCP Enabled selected if DHCP is available on the Data Network.
    Deselect this option if DHCP is not available.
  5. Select Enable IPv6 Auto Configuration.
    The NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller discovers the network CIDR automatically if a VM is running on the network and it appears with type Discovered.
  6. If the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller discovers the IP subnet automatically, configure the IP range for the subnet.
    1. Edit settings.
    2. Enter a Subnet Prefix.
    3. If DHCP is available for the Service Engine IP address, deselect Use Static IP Address for VIPs and SE.
    4. Enter one or more IP addresses or IP address ranges.
      For example, 10.202.35.1-10.202.35.254.
      Note: You can enter an IP address that ends with 0. For example, 192.168.0.0 and ignore any warning that appears.
    5. Click Save.
  7. If the Controller does not discover an IP subnet and its type, perform the following steps:
    1. Click Add.
    2. Enter a Subnet Prefix.
    3. Click ADD.
    4. If DHCP is available for the Service Engine IP address, deselect Use Static IP Address for VIPs and SE.
    5. In IP Address, enter the CIDR of the network that provides the virtual IP addresses.
      For example, 10.202.35.0/22
    6. Enter one or more IP addresses or IP address ranges.
      The range must be a subset of the network CIDR in IP Subnet. For example, 10.202.35.1-10.202.35.254.
      Note: You can enter an IP address that ends with 0. For example, 192.168.0.0 and ignore any warning that appears.
    7. Click Save to save the subnet configuration.
    The Network page lists the IP Subnet with type Configured and an IP address pool.
  8. Click Save to save the network settings.

Results

The Network page lists the configured networks.

Example

The Primary Workload Network network displays the discovered network as 10.202.32.0/22 and configured subnets as 10.202.32.0/22 [254/254]. This indicates that 254 virtual IP addresses come from 10.202.32.0/22. Note that the summary view does not list the IP range 10.202.35.1-10.202.35.254.

Test the NSX Advanced Load Balancer

After you have deployed and configured the NSX Advanced Load Balancer control plane, verify its functionality.

Procedure

  1. In the Avi Controller dashboard, go to Infrastructure > Clouds.
  2. Verify that the status of the Controller for Default-Cloud is green.
    To troubleshoot problems that you might encounter, see Collect Support Bundles for Troubleshooting NSX Advanced Load Balancer.