Configuring dedicated interfaces for ASM communication on a new Avi Service Engine

Background

Dedicated sideband interfaces on Avi Service Engines use the following configuration parameters. For new SEs, these parameters can be provided in the day-zero YAML file.

YAML parameters

  1. avi.asm-ip.SE
    Description: This is the ip address of the dedicated sideband interface on the SE (this is NOT the self IP or virtual service IP of the ASM device ).
    Format: IP-address/subnet-mask.
    Example: avi.asm-ip.SE: 10.160.103.227/24

  2. avi.asm-static-routes.SE
    Description: These are comma-separated, static routes to reach the sideband ASM virtual service IP. Even /32 routes can be provided. The gateway will be the self IP of the ASM device.
    Note: If there is a single static route, provide the same and ensure the square brackets are matched.

    Also, if the ASM virtual service IPs are in the same subnet as the dedicated interfaces, provide the gateway as the default gateway for the subnet.
    Format: [ asm-vip-network1/mask1 via gateway1, asm-vip-network2/mask2 via gateway2 ] or [ asm-vip-network1/mask1 via gateway1 ]
    Example: avi.asm-static-routes.SE: [169.254.1.0/24 via 10.160.102.1, 169.254.2.0/24 via 10.160.102.2]

  3. avi.hsm-vnic-id.SE
    Description: This is the ID of the dedicated ASM vNIC and is typically 3 on CSP (vNIC0 is management interface, vNIC1 is data-in interface, and vNIC2 is data-out interface)
    Format: ‘numeric vNIC ID’.
    Example: avi.asm-vnic-id.SE: ‘3’

    YAML Parameter Description Format Example
    avi.asm-ip.SE IP address of the dedicated ASM vNIC on the SE (this is NOT the IP address of the ASM device) IP-address/subnet-mask avi.asm-ip.SE: 10.160.103.227/24
    avi.hsm-static-routes.SE Comma-separated, static routes to reach the ASM devices. Even /32 routes can be provided [ asm-vip-network1/mask1 via gateway1, asm-vip-network2/mask2 via gateway2 ] or [ asm-vip-network1/mask1 via gateway1 ] avi.asm-static-routes.SE: [169.254.1.0/24 via 10.160.102.1, 169.254.2.0/24 via 10.160.102.2]
    avi.asm-vnic-id.SE ID of the dedicated ASM vNIC and is typically 3 on CSP (vNIC0 is management interface, vNIC1 is data-in interface, and vNIC2 is data-out interface) numeric vNIC ID avi.asm-vnic-id.SE: '3'

Instructions

A sample SE YAML file for the Day Zero configuration on the CSP will look as follows:


bash# cat avi_meta_data_dedicated_asm_SE.yml

avi.mgmt-ip.SE: "10.128.2.18"
avi.mgmt-mask.SE: "255.255.255.0"
avi.default-gw.SE: "10.128.2.1"
AVICNTRL: "10.10.22.50"
AVICNTRL_AUTHTOKEN: “febab55d-995a-4523-8492-f798520d4515”
avi.asm-vnic-id.SE: ‘3'
avi.asm-static-routes.SE: [169.254.1.0/24 via 10.160.102.1, 169.254.2.0/24 via 10.160.102.2]
avi.asm-ip.SE: 10.160.102.227/24

Once the SE is created with this Day Zero configuration and appropriate virtual NIC interfaces are added to the SE service instance on CSP, verify that the dedicated vNIC configuration is applied successfully and the ASM virtual service IPs are reachable via this interface. In this case, the interface eth3 is dedicated sideband ASM interface and it is configured with IP 10.160.102.227/24.


bash# ssh admin@<SE-MGMT-IP>
bash# ifconfig eth3
eth3      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 02:6a:80:02:11:05  
          inet addr:10.160.102.227  Bcast:10.160.102.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:4454601 errors:0 dropped:1987 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4510346 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:672683711 (672.6 MB)  TX bytes:875329395 (875.3 MB)
bash# ip route
default via 10.128.2.1 dev eth0 
10.128.2.0/24 dev eth0  proto kernel  scope link  src 10.128.2.27 
10.160.102.0/24 dev eth4  proto kernel  scope link  src 10.160.102.227 
169.254.1.0/24 via 10.160.102.1 dev eth3 
169.254.2.0/24 via 10.160.102.2 dev eth3
bash# ping -I eth3 <ASM-VIP>
ping -I eth3 169.254.1.10
PING 169.254.1.10 (169.254.1.10) from 10.160.102.227 eth3: 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 169.254.1.10: icmp_seq=1 ttl=62 time=0.229 ms

 

Additional Information

For different types of supported configuration for HSM and ASM communication on Avi Vantage, refer to How to configure dedicated interfaces for HSM and ASM communication on Cisco CSP.