OSPF Support in VCF 4.3
Article ID: 336409
Updated On:
Products
Issue/Introduction
Providing information on how VCF 4.3 supports OSPF.
Symptoms:
This is a new feature in NSX-T 3.1.1.
Environment
Cause
Request for information on OSPF Support in VCF 4.3.
Resolution
NSX has recently added Edge cluster support for OSPF, but this is not explicitly supported by VCF automation.
BGP remains the recommended means of distributing routes. For those customers who cannot use BGP, this KB describes how to manually configure a VCF-deployed Edge cluster to distribute routes using OSPF.
The overall process consists of three phases:
- Use VCF to deploy an Edge cluster with static routing
- Configure the hosting rack's TORs to support OSPF peering
- Use the NSX UI to manually enable OSPF peering for the deployed Edge cluster
The preceding steps may also be used when expanding an Edge cluster which is already enabled for OSPF. As in creation, VCF expansion will accept only static-routed (non-BGP) Tier-0 uplink interface descriptions. Then in NSX, OSPF peering will only need to be enabled for any new Tier-0 interfaces added as part of the expansion.
Use of the Edge cluster shrinkage VCF workflow is unchanged with OSPF-enabled Edge clusters.
Use of the Edge cluster cleanup utility (KB-78635) is likewise unchanged: it will also clean up any OSPF NSX configuration associated with the Edge cluster's Tier-0 gateway.
Limitations
- VCF does not support use of OSPF with stretched clusters
- VCF does not support use of OSPF with federated NSX
- VCF does not support combined use of BGP and OSPF in a single Tier-0
Use VCF to Deploy an Edge Cluster
First, deploy an Edge cluster via VCF's Edge cluster creation automation. The Edge cluster must be specified to VCF as using static routing. High-availability may be set to ACTIVE_ACTIVE or ACTIVE_STANDBY as preferred.
So the Edge creation spec (or equivalent fields if using the UI) will include either
"tier0RoutingType":"STATIC", "tier0ServicesHighAvailability":"ACTIVE_ACTIVE"
or
"tier0RoutingType":"STATIC", "tier0ServicesHighAvailability":"ACTIVE_STANDBY"
TOR Configuration
Please ensure that the top-of-rack switches supporting the deployed Edge cluster are configured to enable OSPF peering for all hosts in the VC cluster(s) where the Edge node VMs are located.
Enable OSPF in NSX
Once your Edge cluster is available and the TORs have been prepared, it is time to manually enable OSPF for the Edge cluster. This may be done using the NSX UI. Please follow the instructions provided in the NSX Data Center Administration Guide
in the section Tier-0 Gateways > Configure OSPF
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