Load Balancer as a Service – Part 1

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From GUI to REST API calls

In these following parts, we worked in collaboration with my colleague @ekrejci.
We want to automate the creation of NSX Load Balancer using the REST API calls of NSX-T via vRealize Automation and vRealize Orchestrator.

Note: We did not choose the native Blueprint from vRA because of is limited possibilities, scalability and flexibility.

In this first part, we are going to see how to create a basic Load Balancer via REST API calls. We will verify that we got the right results in the NSX-T GUI. These calls are going to be used later by vRO.

Note: In our infrastructure we are running NSX-T 2.5.1.
We have a cluster of actif-actif T0 connected to a cluster of T1 called “T1-ITSERVICES-PROD-01”.
We will focus on the “mysql” business group in the “ITSERVICES” tenant in the “production” environment.

Below, the steps we will pass-trough in order to create a basic Load Balancer:
The steps in italic are done only once and don’t need to be automated.

  • Create 1 Load Balancer service on each T1
  • Create 1 server pool members
    • Create a group (name “POOL-LB-ITS_MYSQL-Prod-01-Members”)
    • Add the VMs matching criteria (create TAG per Server Pool -> st.lb.its_mysql.prod.01)
    • Scope LB Tags (st.prod, st.its_mysql)
  • Create 1 Server Pool per deployment (name “Pool-LB-its_mysql-Prod-01”)
    • Choose algorithm (RR)
    • Description (LB ITSERVICES PROD – its_mysql)
    • Active Monitor (ICMP)
    • SNAT Translation -> disable
    • Min Active Member -> 1
    • Scope LB Tags (st.prod, st.its_mysql)
  • Prepare an IP Address POOL for the Virtual IP (VIP)
    • Create 1 or more IP Address Blocks (10.110.1.0/24)
    • Create 1 IP Address POOL and link it to the IP Address Blocks
  • Add the virtual server (name “VS-LB-its_mysql-Prod-01”)
    • Type of the Load Balancer (L7 HTTP)
    • Allocate one IP dynamically for the VIP from the previously created IP Address POOL
    • Port (80)
    • Choice of the Load Balancer service (will depend of the Tenant and the Environment)
    • Server Pool
    • Description (Virtual Server ITServices – Prod – its_mysql)
    • Application profile (default)
    • Persistence (disable)
    • Load-Balancer Rules (default)
    • Additional Properties
      • Default
      • Admin state -> off
      • Scope LB Tags (st.prod, st.its_mysql)
  • Tag VMs (st.lb.its_mysql.prod.01 scope lb)
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