Stretched Cluster Deployments of the Avi Controllers for the Avi Vantage Platform

Creating VM Groups for Avi Controllers in Region A

Avi Vantage allows you to create two VM/host groups for deploying Avi Controllers to support VCF stretched cluster deployment. In the case of a DR event, vSphere HA will migrate failed Avi Controller VMs from the failed metro region to the alive metro region. Avi control plane could go down momentarily if two or more Avi Controller VMs goes down. When the failed metro region comes back online, DRS should rebalance Avi Controller VM placement across the two metro regions.

Prerequisites

  • vCenter should be setup in the Management domain.

  • Cluster where Avi Controller VMs will be deployed are configured and stretched.

  • Avi Controller VMs are deployed and configured.

Procedure to Create VM/Host Group

The following are the step to create VM/Host Group:

  1. Log in to the vCenter Server of the corresponding Workload Domain.

  2. Navigate to vCenter > DataCenter > Cluster > Configure in the vCenter Cluster configuration page where the Avi Controller VMs are deployed.

  3. Under the VM/Host Groups, click on + to add a new VM/Host group to host Avi Controller VMs. This VM group will host 3 Avi Controller VMs.

  4. Specify the following information in the Create VM/Host Group section:
    Setting Value
    Name sfo-m01-avic01
    Type VM Group

  5. Click + to add the 3 Avi Controller VMs (sfo-m01-avic01a, sfo-m01-avic01b and sfo-m01-avic01c).

  6. Click on OK button.

  7. Click on OK button to save the configuration.

Creating Host Groups for ESXi Hosts in Region A

One host group each is created that contains ESXi hosts of each of the two metro regions in a stretched cluster deployment. This group will be used for Avi Controller VM availability.

Prerequisites

The following are the prerequisites to create host groups for ESXA Hosts in Region A:

  • vCenter should be setup in the Management domain.

  • Cluster where Avi Controller VMs will be deployed are configured.

  • Cluster is stretched between two metro regions.

Procedure to create host groups for ESXi Hosts

The following are the steps to create host groups for ESXi Hosts:

  1. Log in to the vCenter Server of the corresponding Management Domain.

  2. Navigate to vCenter > DataCenter > Cluster > Configure in the vCenter Cluster configuration page where the Avi Controller VMs are deployed.

  3. Under the VM/Host Groups, click on + to add a new VM/Host group to host ESXi servers in metro region 1.

  4. Specify the following information in the Create VM/Host Group section:

    Setting Value
    Name sfo-m01-c01-metroregion01
    Type Host Group

  5. Click + to add the ESXi servers in metro region 1.

  6. Click on OK button.

  7. Click on OK button to save the configuration.

  8. Create another host group for metro region 2 with the following details in the Create VM Host Group section”

    Setting Value
    Name sfo-m01-c01-metroregion02
    Type Host Group

Creating VM/Host affinity rules for Avi Controllers in Region A

To ensure highest availability, the three Avi Controller VMs will be configured with affinity to ESXi servers in metro region 1. This can be changed in future to have affinity to ESXi servers in metro region 2 if desired.

Prerequisites

  • Three Avi Controllers are deployed.

  • Cluster where Avi Controller VMs will be deployed are stretched.

  • Two VM groups are created for the Avi Controller VMs.

  • Two host groups are created for the two metro regions.

Procedure to Create VM/host affinity rules for Avi Controllers

The following are the steps to create VM/host affinity rules for Avi Controllers:

  1. Log in to the vCenter Server of the corresponding Workload Domain.

  2. Navigate to vCenter > DataCenter > Cluster > Configure in the vCenter Cluster configuration page where the Avi Controller VMs are deployed.

  3. Under the VM/Host Rules, click on + to add a new VM/Host group to create an affinity rule for Avi Controller VMs of the first VM Group to ESXi servers of the first metro region.

  4. Specify the following information in the Create VM/Host Rule section: Should run on hosts in group
    Setting Value
    Name sfo-m01-avic01
    Type Virtual Machines to Hosts
    VM Group sfo-m01-avic01
    Host Group sfo-m01-c01-metroregion01
  5. Click on OK to save the configuration.
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