vRA 8 + NSX-T Blog Series Part 8: Create a vRA 8 (Cloud) Blueprint with On-demand NSX-T One-Arm Load Balancer

You can create a vRA Cloud blueprint to deploy machines and place them behind an on-demand NSX-T one-arm load balancer. This method creates a tier-1 router then configures load balancing services, adding virtual server, server pool, and application profile (monitor too if you want). This method should work in vRA 8.1, but I used vRA Cloud to create the demo.

Below is a simplified diagram of a NSX-T one-arm load balancer.

Note that vRA Cloud / vRA 8.1 does not fully support NSX-T policy API yet. Full support for NSX-T policy API is scheduled to be added in vRA 8.2 (but who knows, I’m not a product manager).

Demo Product Versions

• VCF 3.9.1.0-15345960 (vSphere 6.7, NSX-V 6.4.6)
• NSX-T 2.5.0
• vRA Cloud

Prerequisites

vRA Cloud:

• NSX-T account connected
• Basic infrastructure configured in Cloud Assembly (Projects, Cloud Zones, Flavor Mappings, Image Mappings)

NSX-T:

• tier-0 logical router configured (can be a policy API router)
• edge cluster configured (edge nodes must be at least medium size)

Process Overview

1. Create a network profile to use an on-demand load-balancer.
2. Create a blueprint with Cloud Agnostic Machine, Cloud Network, and Cloud Load Balancer.

optional step:

• Create inputs in the blueprint to customize the machine name.

Demo / Example

Create Network Profile

1. In vRA Cloud (or vRA 8) Cloud Assmebly, go to “Infrastructure” > “Network Profiles” (under Configure) and click “+ NEW NETWORK PROFILE”. (or you can choose to edit an existing network profile).
2. Choose an account/region and give the profile a name.
3. Go to “Networks” tab and configure existing networks or on-demand networks. In this demo, I’ll be using an existing NSX-T network. Refer to previous vRA 8 + NSX-T blog series for more details on how to configure existing or on-demand networks.
4. Go to “Network Policies” tab and select tier-0 logical router and edge cluster. These are required to deploy an on-demand load balancer because the blueprint creates a tier-1 router in the process.
   
5. Go to “Load Balancers” tab, and make sure there aren’t any existing load balancers on the list. If there are load balancers here, the blueprint will not create an on-demand load balancer. It will just add load balancing services to an existing load balancer.

Create and Configure Blueprint

6. Go to “Blueprints” and Click “+ NEW” to create a new blueprint.
7. Give a name to the blueprint and choose a project.
8. Drag on a Cloud Agnostic Machine, Cloud Agnostic Network, and Cloud Agnostic Load Balancer onto the canvas. You can use environment-specific resources as well if you’d like.
9. Connect the Machine and the Load Balancer to the Network on the canvas. Also connect the Machine to the Load Balancer.
   
10. On the right side in the YAML file, choose an image and size for the machine. Add count property to indicate how many machines you want to deploy.
11. Under - network: , add the line assignment: static to give a static IP address to the machine.
12. Since I’ll be placing the machines on an existing NSX-T network, I want to make sure it says networkType: existing under properties. Below networkType, I also add the line constraints: then another line - tag: to choose the existing network I want to use.
13. Configure the load balancer. protocol and port under routes property are required. healthCheckConfiguration is optional - if you provide details, custom monitor will be created. Otherwise, only the virtual server, server pool, and application profile will be created.
    
14. Click “TEST”.
15. Click “DEPLOY” to create a new deployment.
16. Give it a deployment name, choose “Current Draft”, the click “DEPLOY”.

Verify Deployment

17. Go to “Deployments” tab in Cloud Assembly and check that the deployment is completed successfully.
    
18. Now log into NSX-T UI and go to “Advanced Networking & Security” > “Networking” > “Routers” and you’ll see that a tier-1 router has been created.
    
19. Go to “Advanced Networking & Security” > “Networking” > “Load Balancers” and you’ll see that a load balancer has been created.
    
20. If you click on the virtual server, you can see the port and protocol as you’ve defined in the blueprint.
    
21. If you click the server pool and look at the pool members, you will see the machines that have been created by the blueprint.
    
22. If you click the profiles, you can see application profile that has been created.
    

Demo / Example Blueprint YAML File

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formatVersion: 1
inputs: {}
resources:
  Cloud_LoadBalancer_1:
    type: Cloud.LoadBalancer
    properties:
      routes:
        - protocol: HTTP
          port: 80
          instancePort: 80
          instanceProtocol: HTTP
      network: '${resource.Cloud_Network_1.id}'
      instances: '${resource.Cloud_Machine_1[*].id}'
      internetFacing: false
  Cloud_Machine_1:
    type: Cloud.Machine
    properties:
      image: im-CentOS7
      flavor: fl-small
      count: 2
      networks:
        - network: '${resource.Cloud_Network_1.id}'
          assignment: static
  Cloud_Network_1:
    type: Cloud.Network
    properties:
      networkType: existing
      constraints:
        - tag: 'subnet-cidr:192.168.92.0/24'