NSX ALB

F5 to Avi Load Balancer Migration – Part 5: Offline Mode Migration

manish_jha86

Welcome to part 5 of the F5 to Avi migration series. The previous posts in this series discussed the online mode migration of the load balancer from F5 to Avi. In this post, I will demonstrate the offline mode migration.

If you are not following along, I encourage you to read the earlier parts of this series from the links below:

1: Introduction to F5 to Avi Load Balancer Migration

2: F5 to Avi – Migration Strategy Framework

3: Avi Assessment Framework

4: F5 to Avi Online Mode Migration

Offline migration is typically needed when you want to migrate F5 BIG-IP configurations to AVI without direct connectivity between systems or in air-gapped environments. To convert the F5 objects, you manually upload the F5 configuration file (bigip.conf), certificates, and keys to the conversion tool.

To perform offline migration, login to the conversion tool and navigate to the Migrate tab, and click Start.… Read More

F5 to Avi Load Balancer Migration – Part 4: Online Mode Migration

manish_jha86

Welcome to part 4 of the F5 to Avi migration series. The previous posts in this series aimed to provide a comprehensive framework for the F5 to Avi migration strategy and planning migration waves. In this post, I will demonstrate how to migrate load balancer objects between the 2 platforms.

If you are not following along, I encourage you to read the earlier parts of this series from the links below:

1: Introduction to F5 to Avi Load Balancer Migration

2: F5 to Avi – Migration Strategy Framework

3: Avi Assessment Framework

Avi Load Balancer Conversion Tool

To migrate load balancer objects from F5 to Avi, VMware provides a migration tool called “Avi Load Balancer Conversion Tool (ALBCT),” a UI-based conversion tool that automates and simplifies migration of existing F5 load balancer configurations to the Avi Load Balancer platform.The conversion tool helps you:

  1. Import configuration files from existing load balancers (F5).
… Read More

F5 to Avi Load Balancer Migration – Part 3: Identifying Migration Candidates

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Welcome to part 3 of the F5 to Avi migration series. Part 1 of this series discussed use cases of Avi migration, and part 2 dived into the migration framework that you should follow for a successful error-free migration.

If you are not following along, I encourage you to read the earlier parts of this series from the links below:

1: Introduction to F5 to Avi Load Balancer Migration

2: F5 to Avi – Migration Strategy Framework

Overview

Not all F5 virtual services and configurations are equally suited for immediate migration to Avi. A strategic assessment helps prioritize migrations, manage risks, and allocate resources effectively. In this post I will try to provide a comprehensive framework for evaluating F5 objects and determining migration candidacy.

Step 1: Understand the Goal of Migration

Before identifying good candidates, clarify the purpose:

  • Are you moving to reduce licensing costs (F5 → NSX ALB built into NSX or vSphere+ licensing)?
… Read More

F5 to Avi Load Balancer Migration – Part 2: Migration Strategy Framework

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In the first post of this series, I discussed the top reasons why an organization wants to move from F5 to Avi load balancer. In this post, I will discuss the migration strategy for a successful migration.

To migrate from F5 to Avi Load Balancer, VMware provides a free Avi Load Balancer Conversion Tool (ALBCT) that automates the translation of F5 BIG-IP configurations. The migration process involves using this tool to convert the F5 load balancer configuration and then cutting over traffic to the Avi-based environment.

Migration Strategy: An Eight-Stage Approach

The key to successful migration is meticulous planning, comprehensive testing, and leveraging Avi’s conversion tool to automate complex configuration transformations. With proper execution, organizations emerge with a modern, scalable, and easier-to-manage load balancing platform that supports their digital transformation initiatives.

The image below lists the various stages involved in the strategic planning for a successful migration.

Stage 1: Planning and Assessment

Before any technical work begins, thorough planning is essential.… Read More

F5 to Avi Load Balancer Migration – Part 1: Introduction

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Introduction

In today’s digital-first world, enterprises are under constant pressure to modernize infrastructure, adopt hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, and deliver applications faster.As enterprises accelerate their digital transformation journey, legacy load-balancing infrastructure is becoming a bottleneck. The rise of cloud-native applications, containerization, and the need for operational simplicity have prompted many organizations to evaluate modern alternatives.

F5 BIG-IP, while robust, lacks the agility, automation capabilities, and cloud-native architecture that modern applications demand. On the other hand, Avi Load Balancer, a software-defined, cloud-native alternative, offers organizations the flexibility to evolve their infrastructure with minimal disruption.

In this blog, I will cover the key use cases driving migration from F5 to Avi Load Balancer.

Use Cases for F5 to Avi Migration

Migrating from F5 to Avi helps organizations modernize their application delivery infrastructure, reduce operational complexity, and achieve cloud agility. Below are some common use cases for F5 to Avi migration.

1. Cloud and Multi-Cloud Strategy Enablement

Organizations are adopting multi-cloud architectures to avoid vendor lock-in and leverage best-of-breed services across providers.… Read More

How to Upgrade NSX ALB in a GSLB Setup

manish_jha86

The Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) function of NSX ALB (Avi) enables load balancing for globally distributed applications/workloads (usually, different data centers and public clouds). GSLB offers efficient traffic distribution across widely scattered application servers. This enables an organization to run several sites in either Active-Active (load balancing and disaster recovery) or Active-Standby (DR) mode.

In a GSLB setup, the corporate DNS server delegates one or more subdomains to Avi GSLB, which then owns these domains and provides responses to DNS queries from clients. DNS based load balancing is implemented by creating a DNS Virtual Service in Avi. In a GSLB setup, one site is designated as the GSLB leader, and the rest of the sites are GSLB followers.

If you are new to GSLB, I encourage you to read about the same from the links below:

1: Avi GSLB in VMware Cloud on AWS

2: Avi GSLB for Containerized Workloads

Upgrading Avi controllers is pretty straightforward and is well documented in the product documentation.… Read More

How to Force Delete a Stale Virtual Service in NSX ALB

manish_jha86

Recently, I ran into an interesting problem in my lab where I couldn’t get rid of an unused Virtual Service in NSX ALB. The attempt to delete was failing with an error: “VS cannot be deleted! ‘It is being referred to by SystemConfiguration object”

I tried deleting the VS via API and it returned the same error

To figure out where this VS is being referenced, I looked through the pool members and other settings in NSX ALB, but I couldn’t discover anything particular. Internet searches were also not very helpful.

I then checked this issue in internal tools and got a hint that I needed to remove the VS reference from the system configuration through API first.… Read More

Quick Tip: How to Reset NSX ALB Controller for a Fresh Configuration

manish_jha86

Sometimes NSX ALB controllers are frequently redeployed in the lab environment to test and retest setup. Redeploying an NSX ALB controller only takes a few minutes, but in a slow environment, it can take up to 20-25 minutes. Using this handy tip, you can save some quality time.

To reset a controller node to the default settings, login to the node over SSH and run the following command.

… Read More

TKG Multi-Site Global Load Balancing using Avi Multi-Cluster Kubernetes Operator (AMKO)

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Overview

Load balancing in Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (when installed with NSX ALB) is accomplished by leveraging Avi Kubernetes operator (AKO), which delivers L4+L7 load balancing to the Kubernetes API endpoint and the applications deployed in Tanzu Kubernetes clusters. AKO runs as a pod in Tanzu Kubernetes clusters and serves as an Ingress controller and load balancer.

The Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) function of NSX ALB enables load-balancing for globally distributed applications/workloads (usually, different data centers and public clouds). GSLB offers efficient traffic distribution across widely scattered application servers. This enables an organization to run several sites in either Active-Active (load balancing and disaster recovery) or Active-Standby (DR) mode.

With the growing footprint of containerized workloads in datacenters, organizations are deploying containerized workloads across multi-cluster/multi-site environments, necessitating the requirement for a technique to load-balance the application globally.

To meet this requirement, NSX ALB provides a feature called AMKO (Avi Multi-Cluster Kubernetes Operator)which is an operator for Kubernetes that facilitates application delivery across multiple clusters.… Read More

Container Service Extension 4.0 on VCD 10.x – Part 2: NSX Advanced Load Balancer Configuration

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In part 1 of this blog series, I discussed Container Service Extension 4.0 platform architecture and a high-level overview of a production-grade deployment. This blog post is focused on configuring NSX Advanced Load Balancer and integrating it with VCD.

I will not go through each and every step of the deployment & configuration as I have already written an article on the same topic in the past. I will discuss the configuration steps that I took to deploy the topology that is shown below.

Let me quickly go over the NSX-T networking setup before getting into the NSX ALB configuration.

I have deployed a new edge cluster on a dedicated vSphere cluster for traffic separation. This edge cluster resides in my compute/workload domain. The NSX-T manager managing the edges is deployed in my management domain.

On the left side of the architecture, you can see I have one Tier-0 gateway, and VRFs carved out for NSX ALB and CSE networking.… Read More