Cluster Configuration with DNS Hostnames

Configuring Controller Cluster

The Controller cluster can be configured with DNS hostnames instead of IP addresses.

With the caveats detailed below, it is supported to use a fully-qualified domain name rather than an IP address in the IP Address field of a Cluster node under Administration > Controller > Nodes. This will trigger a new Cluster configuration process and update all nodes to use DNS hostnames.

The Controllers resolve DNS hostnames of other Controllers when the cluster is initially configured or any node in the cluster is rebooted. Service Engines resolve DNS hostname of the Controller when establishing secure connection to the Controller, which is usually when Service Engine is first created and when either a Service Engine or a Controller reboots.

Requirements for Service Engine Deployment

When using FQDNs for the Controller nodes, Service Engines must be able to resolve these FQDNs. This is supported in the following scenarios:

  • Service Engines using DHCP for management IP address assignment where the DHCP server provides the required DNS server setting to allow the Service Engine to resolve the Controller FQDNs.

  • Public Cloud deployments provided that the DNS configuration assigned by the cloud infrastructure is able to resolve the Controller FQDNs.

  • Linux Server Cloud deployments where the DNS configuration inherited from the underlying host OS is able to resolve the Controller FQDNs.

  • No Access deployments in vSphere environments where the DNS configuration is specified by the user through the OVF settings. The required OVF parameter avi.DNS.SE must follow the following format: SERVERS:<comma-separated list of DNS servers>;DOMAIN:<DNS search domain>, for instance, SERVERS:8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4;DOMAIN:avinetworks.com

Using FQDNs for Controller nodes is specifically not supported in vCenter or NSX-T Cloud using static IP assignment rather than DHCP for management networking.