Now, up to this point, we've identified five segment profiles that we can use
to control
traffic and control behavior of what's allowed on our network segments.
And although the edge bridge profile isn't directly a profile that we had
applied to
a segment, it is a super handy tool and I wanted to give you an insight onto
what it
does.
So let's imagine that we are migrating over to a VMware NSX environment and let
's imagine
we have a dozen or so VMs on this network segment of 10, 10, zero.
At the same time, we have a VLAN.
Let's go ahead and take a VLAN 25 from the physical world and let's take a few WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Let's go ahead and take a VLAN 25 from the physical world and let's take a few
VMs here.
And let's imagine that we want the VMs here in VLAN 25 to be on the same
logical network,
the same layer two effective broadcast domain as these VMs over here on this
overlay segment.
So how do we do that?
And the answer is, we create an edge bridge profile.
We specify the edge transport nodes we want involved with that.
And then we simply say we want to link VLAN 25 with this segment and bada bing WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And then we simply say we want to link VLAN 25 with this segment and bada bing
bada boom.
We then have one large broadcast domain from an IPv4 perspective.
So these VMs over here believe they're on the same logical network as these VMs
over
here and behind the scenes, the traffic is going to be tunneled through an edge
node who
could do that bridging between this overlay segment and this VLAN.
So here's what I propose we do as a demo.
We already have this segment in place.
We already have a couple of VMs that are running here.
We'll make sure they still are.
We also have DHCP services right here.
So if we created an edge bridge profile that said we want to merge, if you will WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So if we created an edge bridge profile that said we want to merge, if you will
, this overlay
segment with this VLAN, we could then go ahead and take one of these devices
over here and
make it a DHCP client.
And as a result, when it goes through the discover offer request
acknowledgement process, that
discover would be sent also over here to this overlay segment.
At which point the DHCP services in NSX could hand out an IP address over here
to these
devices over here in VLAN 25 effectively making all of this VLAN 25 and this
overlay segment
one logical layer to broadcast to me. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
one logical layer to broadcast to me.
And to play the part of our little client out there in VLAN 25, I'm going to
use my
top of rack switch, which is currently supporting VLAN 25.
And once we set up the edge bridge profile, we'll simply create a logical
interface on
my multi layer switch and say, you know what, for VLAN 25, be a DHCP client and
we can then
verify we can get an IP address via DHCP on the multi layer switch.
So let's begin on the outside physical network.
And this is a 3750 top of rack switch that I have in my lab environment. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And this is a 3750 top of rack switch that I have in my lab environment.
And so currently these are our logical layer three interfaces.
And you'll notice we do not have a layer three interface for VLAN 25.
So I'm going to go ahead and create one by typing interface VLAN 25.
Let me also do a terminal monitor so I can actually see the console messages as
they
come up.
So now if we do a show IP interface brief, exclude unassigned interface, VLAN
25 still
doesn't show up because we don't have an IP address.
So let's go ahead and now that we're in interface VLAN 25, let's do an IP
address, DHCP press
enter.
And that effectively is making this logical layer three interface in VLAN 25. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And that effectively is making this logical layer three interface in VLAN 25.
It's making it a DHCP client.
So we did a show IP interface brief and press enter.
There's our interface VLAN 25.
It's currently unassigned.
It needs a DHCP server to basically hand out information.
And then on this multi layer switch, we could do a debug just to see the
details regarding
DHCP activity, just to verify in the background that it is doing the discover
looking for
a DHCP server, but nobody's there to answer that call.
And so fantastic unknown DHCP problem, no allocation possible. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And so fantastic unknown DHCP problem, no allocation possible.
All right.
So after a few seconds, I'm going to type in undibug all to turn off the
debugging.
So what's showing us is that this multi layer switch is setting a broadcast on
the VLAN 25
interface, effectively asking if there's any DHCP servers, in which case if
there was a
DHCP server or relay on that network segment, a DHCP server could respond back
and this
multi layer switch could get a IP address.
However, at the moment, we have no binding or no connectivity between VLAN 25
in the
physical world and our logical segment 10. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
physical world and our logical segment 10.
So we're going to solve that right now by going to NSX manager and creating an
edge
bridge profile.
So here in the NSX manager, we're going to click on the networking tab once
again.
And then on the left, we're going to click on segments under connectivity.
And then once we've clicked on segments, we're going to use the sub tab under
segments
over here in the main pane and click on profiles.
And here are the segment profiles that we've been playing with up to this point
.
But we also have as a sub tab here the edge bridge profile.
And that's what's going to bind an overlay segment with one or more of our VLAN WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And that's what's going to bind an overlay segment with one or more of our VLAN
s.
So with the edge bridge profile selected, we're going to click on add to add
one.
So for the name, let's call this our BP for our bridge profile.
We'll select the edge cluster we want to use.
And inside that edge cluster, there's edge one and edge two.
So for the primary node, we'll pick on edge one for the backup node.
We'll pick edge two and then we'll click on safe.
So now we have this bridge profile that when called upon is going to be using
our edge
one and edge two to bridge the overlay segment and the VLAN together. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
one and edge two to bridge the overlay segment and the VLAN together.
And to specify which segment and which VLAN we're going to go back to the NSX
sub tab
here for segments.
And let's go ahead and choose segment 10.
This is the segment 10 that we have a couple of VMs connected to.
So we'll click on the three dots, we'll click on edit to edit our segment.
We'll scroll down and check it out right here.
We have a section called additional settings.
We're going to expand that.
And then here under additional settings, we have an option for edge bridges.
We'll click on set and then we'll simply go ahead and click on add edge bridge. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
We'll specify the profile.
So here's our bridge profile right there.
We'll select that.
Then we're going to specify our transport zone.
And that transport zone is not limited to specific VLANs.
So we can include VLAN 25 as part of that.
And then over here in the VLAN section, we'll specify the actual VLAN that we
wanted it
to be a part of.
So effectively, this overlay segment and this VLAN 25 are going to be
effectively merged
together by the edge nodes.
So we'll click on add, we'll click on apply, and then we'll scroll down, we'll
click on
save.
And let me bring back my terminal over to our switch. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And let me bring back my terminal over to our switch.
So here's our switch.
And in just a moment, when this guy does a broadcast again to discover a DHCP
server,
this time there should be a response.
So I'm going to put back on the debug for DHCP detail.
And then we can see the play by play.
The moment this multi-layer switch tries again.
Another option would be to go to that logical VLAN 25 interface, shut it down,
bring it
back up, and that would trigger it as well.
All right, and there it goes.
Let me do an undibug all to turn off the debugging.
And let's look at the play by play.
So if we scroll up here.
So here we have the discover made by the multi-layer switch. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So here we have the discover made by the multi-layer switch.
And then we received an offer.
And in that offer, it said, hey, here's the details.
Here's the default gateway address, the DNS server, the mask.
And here's the IP address that I want to go ahead and hand out to you, the 101
52, at
which point if we scroll down, the multi-layer switch did a request, say, yep,
I'd love to
take it.
And then that got followed up with an acknowledgement, which is right here,
which is our NSX DHCP
services, feeding back a confirmation saying, yep, I know you got to enjoy it. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
services, feeding back a confirmation saying, yep, I know you got to enjoy it.
So now if we did a show IP interface brief, and then if we asked it to exclude
any output
that has the word unassigned in it, then it'll just show us the interfaces with
IP addresses.
So there's our VLAN 25 at 1010152.
And we do have ping over to 10.10.0.1.
That's our default gateway.
That works no problem.
And if we ping another VM on that same subnet, in fact, let's go grab a little
VM right here.
We'll do an IF config.
So it's at 1010151.
So if we try to ping to 10151, this is our top of rack multi-layer switch on V WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So if we try to ping to 10151, this is our top of rack multi-layer switch on V
LAN 23
pinging directly the client on segment 10 at 10151.
And on a Cisco device that initial ping, for example, right there and right
there, that's
being consumed during the ARP request.
So if we did it again, we should get five out of five.
And that's the magic of an edge bridge profile to bind together, to bridge
together into
one layer two broadcast domain, overlay segments, and external VLANs where
physical clients WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
may exist.