Special ID is used for PTEP list in NSXv controller internally

Products

• VMware NSX for vSphere

Issue/Introduction

This special VNI is for replicating PTEP list among PTEP hosts.

Symptoms:

• Special VNI (‭0x7FFFFFFF‬ = 2147483647) might appear in the log file of java vnet-controller.
• CLI might gives out an output for this special VNI even if MP never configure this. For example:
  
  nsx-controller # show control-cluster logical-switches vni 2147483647
  VNI Controller BUM-Replication ARP-Proxy Connections
  2147483647 10.10.47.11 Enabled Enabled 0
  
  nsx-controller # show control-cluster logical-switches connection-table 2147483647
  Host-IP Port ID
  10.10.47.10 53055 50
  10.10.41.11 60062 49
  127.0.0.1 46279 47

Environment

VMware NSX for vSphere 6.3.x
VMware NSX for vSphere 6.4.x

Cause

The Vxlan app, on startup, creates a special VNI with id 2147483647 for PTEPs. This VNI is not created by the Management Plane and is only joined by ptep hosts.

Resolution

Controller will create a special VNI (0x7FFFFFFF‬ = 2147483647) automatically and internally and this VNI is defined out of the VNI range that user could configure on MP side. PTEP hosts will join and report its VTEP of this special ID, so that controller could replicate VTEP among joined hosts.