Abiquo and NSX-T

Abiquo supports NSX-T with a single new plugin for advanced cloud networking. With NSX-T Abiquo offers similar functionality to the NSX-V plugin including: virtual datacenters, private networks, NAT, firewalls, load balancers, and bandwidth limits. VMware does not offer an upgrade path from NSX-V to NSX-T and this plugin is also for use with new resources. Abiquo uses the NSX-T Policy mode and it does not modify the Fabric. Abiquo supports N-VDS and introduces support for VDS in v5.4.1.

Before you add the NSX-T to Abiquo, you must create at least one Tier 0 configuration and register its details in Abiquo, for example, using Abiquo Configuration properties. In NSX-T, Tier 0 is a virtual gateway to the physical infrastructure. By default, Abiquo will use one Tier 0 configuration for the whole platform, but you can also create Tier 0 configurations for enterprises by supplying the configuration as enterprise properties or context properties (during VDC creation).

For full details of how to configure NSX-T, see Configure the Abiquo NSX-T integration.

To add NSX-T to Abiquo, create a device, which can be at the datacenter or enterprise level. 

When you create a VDC in Abiquo, Abiquo will create the Tier 1 entity and its default private network as a Segment in NSX-T. Usually, Abiquo creates the default private network when you first deploy a VM, but in NSX-T Abiquo creates it at the same time that it creates the VDC. Abiquo uses the Border Gateway Protocol in NSX-T to dynamically configure VDC networks.

Abiquo will create each VDC as a Tier 1 entity. Beneath each VDC, Abiquo will create a segment, which is the default Abiquo private network. Users can create additional Abiquo private networks that will also be segments. For each VDC, Abiquo will create a DHCP server and for each VDC, Abiquo will automatically create an east-west firewall policy with a VDC group to allow traffic between private networks within the VDC.

The Abiquo NSX-T integration does not support IPv6, and it does not use the DNS suffix field.

Abiquo users can obtain NAT IPs for their virtual datacenters and create NAT rules.

When users create Abiquo firewall policies, Abiquo creates north-south firewall policies in NSX-T.

Abiquo supports load balancers using the NSX-T load balancer service. You can configure the size with the previous Abiquo properties that set “Edges Pool Allocation Size” and Load Balancer Service “Size”. You can add 1 load balancer pool per load balancer service. The certificate for Load balancers does not allow you to include a private key and Abiquo will ignore it. Abiquo reserves 20 IP addresses for use in load balancers.

On the QoS tab, users can set a bandwidth limit for NAT IPs in their virtual datacenters. Note that the NSX-T SNAT bandwidth limit does not support a peak bandwidth limit.

Abiquo 5.4.1 adds support for public networks, which you can create and onboard to match existing Tier-0 segments. Users can work with these public networks in virtual datacenters (Tier-1) that belong to the Tier-0 entity. To create a network, first select the NSX-T device, then enter the Provider ID, which is the path of the segment. As in private networks, Abiquo reserves the first 20 IP addresses for load balancers and you cannot use a reserved address for a DHCP server.

When you capture a VM from NSX-T, you must add the VM to a VDC with the same network as the VM network. The platform will match the network by provider ID, not by tag as in the NSX-V integration.