DEPLOYMENT GUIDE AVI NETWORKS CLOUD APPLICATION DELIVERY PLATFORM FOR VMWARE VCLOUD AIR Introduction VMware vcloud Air is a public cloud platform built on the proven foundation of vsphere and managed by VMware. It allows enterprise customers to move workloads from on-premises data centers into the vcloud Air public cloud in consistent vsphere context, effectively enabling hybrid cloud service. Avi Networks Cloud Application Delivery Platform (CADP) is a software-based application delivery solution with distributed architecture called Hyperscale Distributed Resources Architecture (HYDRA ), which separates the data plane from the control plane for hybrid cloud environments. The HYDRA components include Inline Analytics and Microservices modules that enable a closed-loop application delivery solution. With the Avi Networks CADP running in vcloud Air, you can scale and manage your application traffic with comprehensive application delivery capabilities, such as L4 L7 load balancing, SSL offload, DDoS mitigation, and application acceleration, along with real-time analytics. Using real-time analytics data, Avi Networks CADP can balance traffic across the fewest number of servers in the cloud, thereby cutting costs while ensuring user experience. This joint solution of vcloud Air and Avi Networks CADP offers these benefits: Rapid triage to maximize application uptime, even in unexpected circumstances, through real-time monitoring and analytics Optimal use of cloud resources that can reduce operational expenses Simplified operation with centralized management and elastic, unlimited capacity In this deployment guide, we focus on one use case in which a virtual service and a pool are created with a load-balancing algorithm to use the fewest number of servers while ensuring end-user application experience. For the rest of this guide, we explain how to install and deploy Avi Networks CADP to implement this use case. Deployment Overview In this deployment, we use four virtual machines (VMs) in vcloud Air. The four VMs should be connected to the same network and IP subnet. Avi Controller VM: The Avi Controller acts as a single point of control and management. This component requires one IP address for Avi UI access. Avi Service Engine VM: Avi Service Engine (SE) performs load balancing of user traffic and collects various performance metrics in real time. Avi SE is managed by the Avi Controller and has one management and nine data vnics. In this deployment, we use one data vnic that takes virtual service traffic. Both the management vnic and data vnic will use the same IP subnet. Two Web Server VMs: We are going to load balance two web servers. Prepare two web servers of your choice with identical contents for test. In addition, you will need clients to generate traffic. Note: To focus on the key elements of the use case, we deploy the Avi Controller and SEs without high availability. 1
Avi Networks CADP Central Control and Management Service Engine (with Distributed Microservices) User Traffic Web 1 Web 2 Pool to Load Balance Virtual Service vcloud Air Resources Deploying Avi Networks CADP in vcloud Air This section describes how to deploy the Avi Networks CADP in the vcloud Air public cloud. For deployment, download two OVA files from Avi Networks, one for the Avi Controller and the other for Avi Service Engines. You can try the Avi Networks solutions for free. Contact sales@avinetworks.com for the software download and trial. The deployment consists of five steps: vcloud Air Public Cloud 1. Deploy the Avi Controller OVA and the Avi SE OVA files in vcloud Air. 2. Create firewall and network address translation (NAT) rules in the Edge Gateway in vcloud Air to allow the Avi Controller management access. 3. Connect to the Avi UI and go through the initial settings. 4. Create a virtual service and pool for load balancing. 5. Create firewall and NAT rules in vcloud Air to allow the virtual service access. The Avi Networks CADP VM requirements for vcloud Air deployment are as follows: Avi Controller: Four vcpus, 8GB RAM and 64GB HDD Avi Service Engine: Two vcpus, 2GB RAM and 10GB HDD Uploading the Avi Controller and SE OVA Templates Log in to vcloud Air and upload the Avi Controller OVA file and SE OVA file as vapp templates to the vcloud Hybrid Service My Catalog. The Avi OVA files include custom properties for additional setup information for deployment. Deploying the Avi Controller OVA Template Deploy the Avi Controller vapp template to create an Avi Controller instance. During the deployment, choose DHCP for IP allocation on Network Mapping. With this option, the Avi Controller configures its management IP address via DHCP. Deploying the SE OVA Template You must finish deploying the Avi Controller and have the instance up and running before attempting to deploy the Avi SE vapp template. Verify the Avi Controller IP address and deploy an Avi SE as you did the Avi Controller. During the deployment, choose DHCP for IP allocation and enter the IP address of the Avi Controller. Note: Write down the MAC address of the second vnic on the Avi SE VM. This information will be used to identify an interface in the Data Networks table of the Avi SE because the vnic numbering scheme of the virtual machine is different from that of the Avi SE. 2
Creating Firewall and NAT rules for Management Access Add firewall and NAT rules in vcloud Air to permit the Avi Controller management access over SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS. Initial Setup for the Avi Controller and SE The Avi Controller can take 3 5 minutes to boot up before being ready for initial setup access. Once the system is available, connect to the Avi Controller UI via web browser. Then, follow the instructions of the setup wizard. 1. Create an administrator account. 2. Enter DNS server and NTP server information. 3. Skip the infrastructure choice menu. After the initial setup is done, enable DHCP on a data vnic on the SE for IP assignment. 1. Navigate to Infrastructure > Service Engines, select the SE and click the Edit icon. 2. Identify an interface in the Data Networks table, connected to the network. Verify that its MAC address matches the one you wrote down while deploying the Avi SE vapp template. 3. Enable DHCP on the identified network adapter. This will assign an IP address to the interface via DHCP. Alternatively, you can assign a static IP address. 3
Licensing The Avi Networks CADP software is equipped with a default, permanent license to allow for convenient access and testing. This license permits up to two servers to be balanced. If you need more servers for trial, send a request to sales@avinetworks.com. Once you get a trial or permanent license, install it by following these steps: Choose Administration on the top left pull-down menu. Navigate to Settings > Licensing. Click Upload License File. Creating a Virtual Service and Pool A virtual service is a combination of an IP address and TCP/UDP port number that represents a service. The virtual service is associated with a pool that includes members (actual servers) to load balance. A virtual service can be created with the Basic mode for quick provisioning or with the Advanced mode to select various options. You can modify options after creating a virtual service. These steps use the Basic mode creation. Choose Application on the top left pull-down menu. Select Virtual Services on the top menu bar. Click New and select Basic Setup. Enter a virtual service name. Enter an IP address for virtual service. Enter an IP address for the server and click Add Server. Repeat this step until you add all servers for load balancing. Click Save. 4
Change the load-balancing algorithm to use the minimum number of servers. Select Virtual Services on the top menu bar. Click the Web-VS edit icon. This is the VS you created. Click the Pool edit icon. Modify Algorithm from Least Connections to Fewest Servers and click Save. Creating Firewall and NAT rules for Virtual Service Add firewall and NAT rules in vcloud Air to allow for the virtual service traffic. After this step, the virtual service should be fully functional and ready to take traffic. 5
Monitoring a Virtual Service Navigate to the Virtual Service analytics screen to monitor traffic in real time. Using an HTTP trafficgeneration tool, such as ApacheBench or curl, send a small amount of traffic to the VS that can be adequately handled by one web server. Verify traffic coming to the VS by looking at the throughput chart on the Analytics screen. Navigate to the Pools > Servers screen to display the traffic an individual server receives. With the Fewest Server algorithm, the Avi SE should send traffic to only one server because one server s capacity is enough to handle all of the traffic. About Avi Networks Avi Networks, is the Cloud Application Delivery Company. The Avi Networks Cloud Application Delivery Platform (CADP) brings the benefits of hyperscale application delivery to enterprises at any scale. With a unique analytics-driven and distributed application delivery architecture HYDRA, the Avi Networks solution guarantees end-user application experience for on-premise and cloud-based applications. The company s founding team has previously delivered products that today run in over 80% of the world s data centers. Avi Networks is backed by Greylock Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Menlo Ventures. Please visit us at www.avinetworks.com or follow us on twitter @avinetworks Avi Networks 945 Stewart Drive Suite 150 Sunnyvale, California 94085 408.628.1300 www.avinetworks.com Copyright 2015 Avi Networks. All rights reserved. Avi Networks, the Avi Networks logo and Avi Cloud ADC are trademarks of Avi Networks in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks, service marks, registered marks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners. Avi Networks assumes no responsibility for any inaccuracies in this document. Avi Networks reserves the right to change, modify, transfer, or otherwise revise this publication without notice. 6