NSX - L2VPN to vMotion VMs to cloud provider

[priscillagr]

Hello!

So, for the past three weeks i've been thinking about how i would use L2VPN to extend layer 2 from my on-premise site to my cloud hosts. I found how to configure the L2VPN function in documentation but i still cannot get my head around how i can vMotion my virtual machines after.

Do i need to extend all my VLANS including vMotion and Management? Do i need two vcenter for this?

Can someone help me understand how would be the process of configuring L2VPN to vMotion one VM from my on-premise to my cloud?

Help

[Techstarts]

Do i need to extend all my VLANS including vMotion and Management? Do i need two vcenter for this?

You just need a standalone NSX Edge on the cloud you are hosting.

vMotion works on routable VLAN. Ensure routing is enabled on the cloud for the VLAN you are dedicating for vMotion

Hope this helps.

[priscillagr]

Yes, but on that NSX Edge Standalone i have to tell it which VLANs i'm going to extend right? If my vMotion VLAN is 10, do i need to extend it?

My situation is actually this:

On my on-premise i have one esxi, no vCenter there. Just the Edge Standalone.

All my appliances vCenter, NSX Manager and NSX Edge ( acting as the L2VPN server) are on my cloud esxi.

I feel like i have to extend all my vlans so that i could connect my on-premise esxi to my cloud vCenter. And then i would be able to see that host there and them vMotion virtual machines to it.

I also feel like i'm confusing a lot of concepts

[Techstarts]

Yes, but on that NSX Edge Standalone i have to tell it which VLANs i'm going to extend right? If my vMotion VLAN is 10, do i need to extend it?

No VLAN extension. All be overlay networks i.e. Encapsulation using VXLAN. Please search on google you will get very guides on it.

All my appliances vCenter, NSX Manager and NSX Edge ( acting as the L2VPN server) are on my cloud esxi.

I feel like i have to extend all my vlans so that i could connect my on-premise esxi to my cloud vCenter. And then i would be able to see that host there and them vMotion virtual machines to it.

It doesn't matter. Please note you should be able to reach ESXi host that is it. VLAN extension not required anywhere.

[bayupw · Accepted solution]

You don't need to extend every single VLAN, here is the high level step

1. Deploy NSX Edge
2. Create Uplink
3. Create Trunk (connect to a standard or distributed portgroup, you would need to create a new portgroup for this)
4. Create a sub-interface on the Trunk interface, connect the sub-interface to your existing network (can be VLAN-backed portgroup, NSX logical switch or VLAN ID) that you want to extend. You can extend more than one network by adding more sub-interfaces. When assigning Tunnel ID to the sub-interface, make sure the ID matches with the ID on the other site.
5. Configure SSL Certificate
6. Configure L2VPN

The official documentation on how to configure L2VPN can be found here: L2 VPN Overview

There are good blog posts that covered L2VPN configuration too, here are some of them:

https://vzealand.com/2016/10/22/vcap6-nv-3v0-643-study-guide-part-9c-nsx-l2-vpn/

NSX for Newbies – Part 9: L2-VPN and stretched Logical Networks (on 6.1+) | blog.bertello.org

There is also a document from VMware that covers the Long Distance vMotion with L2VPN, check this one: Customer Onboarding with VMware NSX® L2VPN Service for VMware vCloud Air™ Network

[priscillagr]

Hello Bayu, thank you for your reply.

I'm familiar with those links. After studying a little bit i found out i was lacking network knowledge. After I extend the layer 2 the hosts are on the same site (doesn't matter if they are local or remote, that's the hole point of hybrid cloud) so the configuration of vMotion and all other type of traffics should follow the usual way of configuration.

Sorry for the confusing post, i had a lot of coffee :smileygrin:

Thank you for clarifying it for me!