This weekend has been all about getting PKS deployed in my lab, since I just attended the beta of the VMware PKS: Install, Configure, Manage workshop. That was 4 intense days in Atlanta! And it’s helped – I’m getting different errors deploying this time around, all about my NSX-T Edges. They’re just too small.
I had Medium Edge nodes deployed in the lab, see, because it was a lab, and I needed to bump from small to medium to tinker with the load balancer. But since PKS uses load balancing as more or less a core function (gotta have connectivity to all of those pods you’ve deployed), it needs to be able to deploy more load balancers. The medium LB in NSX-T 2.3 supports all of 4 virtual servers – not nearly enough. So PKS requires (and actually checks while you’re applying config changes to the PKS tile) that you have a large sized load balancer.
Fortunately, I’ve got hypervisors in my lab that support VMs with 8 vCPUs and 16 GB of RAM, but that’s starting to push some limits.
You don’t have to build a new Edge Cluster to get bigger Edges, you can simply replace what’s there.
First, go to Fabric > Nodes > Edges in the NSX-T admin UI. Then deploy your net new Edges, however many you need (I only have a 2-node Edge cluster). I went ahead and gave the new Edges unique FQDNs and management IP addresses. Select the Large size radio button, finish the wizard and let things happen. This will likely take a few minutes, so be patient.
Then go to the Transport Nodes tab, and promote your shiny new Edges to transport nodes, however you need to configure them in your environment. Configure your transport zones and N-VDSs to match your existing Edges.
Once they’re done, move one tab to the right to Edge Clusters. You probably want to place your Edges (one at a time as they’re being replaced) in Maintenance Mode, to keep things clean. You’ve got to get your API client out for this one, however. More info about that in the documentation. You know a node is in maintenance mode when the Configuration State colum in the Transport Nodes tab shows the yellow warning icon with the text “Maintenance Mode”.
Once an Edge is in Maintenance Mode, go to the Edge Clusters tab, then check the box next to the cluster that contains the Edges you want to replace, pull down the Actions menu, and select Replace Edge Cluster Member. Specify the old and new Edge transport nodes and click Save. This is pretty quick. Rinse and repeat for each other Edge. Note that Maintenance Mode will trigger a failover of any services runnin on the Edge, so this should be considered an outage-inducing event (even if the failover is only going to introduce the tiniest blip), and should likely be done during a maintenance window where such things are more acceptable.
After that, you should clean up your old Edge nodes, and you’re done. It’s that easy.
VirtualKrueger 