NSX Global Manager failover process and data plane impact during disaster recovery

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

In a VMware NSX Federation environment, clarification is required regarding whether automatic failover is supported if the Active Global Manager fails, and if there is any data plane impact during a Global Manager outage.

 

Environment

VMware NSX 

Cause

Automatic failover between Active and Standby Global Managers is not supported by design to prevent split-brain conditions across locations.

Resolution

Automatic Failover: NSX does not support automatic failover between Active and Standby Global Managers. This is a manual process.

• In the event of an Active Global Manager failure, execute the following manual procedure to promote the Standby Global Manager:

1. 1. Login to the NSX Manager UI of the Standby Global Manager cluster.
   2. Navigate to System > Location Manager.
   3. Locate the Standby Global Manager card, click ACTION, and select Make Active.

• Data Plane Impact: The data plane will continue to function normally even if both Global Managers become unavailable.

1. 1. The Local Managers at each site and the Transport Nodes will continue to forward traffic based on the last received and programmed configuration.
   2. Management Plane Limitation: You will not be able to create or modify Global Objects until a Global Manager is brought back online and promoted to an active state.

Additional Information

Disaster Recovery for Global Manager