A SmartFabric-enabled network for VxRail will support Layer 3 upstream connectivity from either the leaf layer, or from the spine layer in a multirack network deployment. The initial uplinks for Layer 3 routing can be applied to interfaces on the first set of switches in the fabric using the user interface from the control switch. This method will be necessary for initial build of the VxRail cluster in order to apply an IP address to the VxRail external management virtual network ID to enable routing.
Layer 3 routing can be enabled by selecting the interfaces on either the leaf or spine switches, and applying the policy for static routing or using Border Gateway Protocol. Assigning Layer 3 routing properties directly to a VLAN used for upstream network traffic is also supported.
Layer 3 integration between the upstream network and SmartFabric network will require point-to-point links to carry the routed networks. Because the point-to-point links are between two ports, a private IP addressing scheme of ‘192.168.x.x/31’ is recommended.
Figure 20. Point-to-point links between SmartFabric switches and external network
Dedicated physical cabling between the ports on the upstream and downstream switches must be in place to support the point-to-point links.
Static routing can be configured for a SmartFabric network. At a minimum, the VxRail external management network must have passage upstream to enable connectivity to data center services and for connectivity to end users.
The ‘Static Point-to-Point Links’ in Appendix A: VxRail with SmartFabric network configuration tables can be used to capture the values to enable static routing.
A SmartFabric network will support Layer 3 upstream connectivity from either the leaf layer, or the spine layer, in a multirack network deployment using BGP. Internal BGP (iBGP) is enabled within the SmartFabric network to share routing information within the ASN. External BGP is used for router sharing with the upstream network with a unique ASN representation.
The ‘BGP Point-to-Point Links’ and ‘BGP Autonomous System Numbers’ tables in Appendix A: VxRail with SmartFabric network configuration tables can be used to capture the settings for the BGP peering.
Figure 21. BGP Point-to-point from leaf layer or spine layer
To prepare the data center upstream network to support BGP integration, the following tasks must be performed: