HCX - Error while creating extended L2E segment on NSX-T during Network Extension

Products

• VMware HCX

Issue/Introduction

HCX Network Extension workflow may fail to create L2E stretched segment on cloud/target NSX-T and below error will be observed:

2023-01-09 19:22:25.272 UTC [NetworkStretchService_SvcThread-4863, j: 3440c689, s: 316f1fdc, , TxId: TxId: ########-####-####-####-############] WARN  c.v.v.h.n.i.AbstractJobInt- NSX-T transport zone was not configured for HCX-NET-EXT appliance. Will use one of the overlay TZ present. Switch:

2023-01-09 19:22:37.679 UTC [NetworkStretchService_SvcThread-4863, j: 3440c689, s: 316f1fdc, , TxId: TxId: ########-####-####-####-############] ERROR c.v.v.h.n.i.PrepareVCNetworkJobInt- Error creating nsxt Network: {
    "status": "failure",
    "statusCode": 400,
    "details": "",
    "result": {
        "httpStatus": "BAD_REQUEST",
        "error_code": 503108,
        "module_name": "Policy",
        "error_message": "Tier0, Tier1 and connected overlay segments should belong to same overlay transport zone."

Location of App Engine log:

• HCX Manager : /common/log/admin/app.log

Cause

When a network extension operation is triggered by user using a given NE appliance, HCX look for the below fields as per the extension workflow:

1. Transport Zone (TZ) associated to the selected NE appliance.
2. NSX-T key to be present for an OVERLAY switch associated to N-VDS OR C-VDS.

In the event where NSX-T key is not found for the selected NE appliance, HCX performs a generic query to fetch first TZ in the list received from NSX-T.
Note: This can be considered as a corner case and may be applicable for the environments where HCX cloud manager has been registered earlier with NSX-V and then got re-registered with NSX-T at a later point in time, which somehow failed to update the NSX-T key flag in the HCX backend.

If the TZ is different and not matching with the selected NE appliance then network extension operation will fail.

Resolution

As a workaround, the recommendation is to:

1. Create a new Service Mesh (SM) from HCX Connector at source.
2. Deploy additional Network Extension (NE) appliances as per the requirement up to 10 per SM.
3. Use the newly deployed SM/NE appliances for Network Extension workflow.

NOTE: If the above steps doesn't help unblocking the extension workflow, please open service request with VMware support team for further assistance.

Additional Information

• This will ONLY impact HCX Network Extension workflow when a new segment needs to be extended from src/OnPrem to dst/Cloud environment.
• Existing Network Extensions will continue to remain operational.
• There wiil be NO impact to Migration or Configuration workflows.