Clarity on DR/SR and T0/T1 and Nodes ?

[TryllZ]

Hi,

I have been doing a lot of reading on DR/SR, T0/T1, and Transport Nodes.

What is not becoming clear is where do DR/SR and T1/T0 exist. Do all of these exist on all the transport Nodes, Edge and Host ?

Any link I can go through that clarifies this in a simple fashion ?

Thank You

[mkeshsundrani]

Short Answer, 

DR Components sits in ESXi hosts

SR Components sits in Edgenodes.

Ex:-> When you create T1 DR Only it get instantiated on esxi hosts. and when you create T1-SR it get instantiated on Edgenodes.

[TryllZ]

Thanks @mkeshsundrani

Is there a DR in the Edge Nodes ?!

[sdebarros]

Just to add to it..  DR's sit on all transport nodes, ESXi and Edges.  SR's sit only on Edges..  See my Video at https://youtu.be/TRiZw7gnZBY

[Steffen Richter]

Disclaimer: longtime VCI here -> I can only highly recommend attending a NSX ICM class to get through all the basics, aint always easy to get the fundamentals of NSX right from the get go: VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage [V4.0] (NSXICM4), delivered from your favourite VEDP (VMware Education Delivery Partner) or if you are a VCF customer directly from Broadcom Learning

To your question, simple reminder:

DR = Distributed Router, the name says it -> its DISTRIBUTED, hence on EVERY Transport Node belonging to the Transport Zone (=ESXi as well as Edges, IF they are added to the corresponding Transportzone though)

SR = Services Router, handling Services (like routing to external networks (BGP, OSPF, static), VPN, NAT, Gateway-Firewall, Gateway-IDPS, etc.) = can ONLY be instantiated on Edge Nodes, with more limits and caveats in detail, but SRs cannot be instantiated on ESXi hosts

May these blog series by Hari and Gary do help too:
https://spillthensx.com/nsx-t-east-west-traffic-flow/
https://vxplanet.com/2019/10/26/nsx-t-tier1-sr-placement-and-the-effect-on-northbound-ecmp-part-1/

BR
Steffen

[TryllZ]

Thanks @Steffen Richter

On the page NSX-T Tier1 SR Placement and the effect on Northbound ECMP – Part 1 – VxPlanet the picture https://vxplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/1.jpg gave me the clarity I was looking for, still not in a position to spend on NSX ICM.

[TryllZ]

Found this helpful as well..

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/professional-services/vmware-demystifying-multi-tier-gateways-in-nsx.pdf

[Sriram ChunchankatteMelukote]

Yes the DR exists on all transport nodes, both hosts and edges.  But SR's are created only on edge nodes when you use services like dhcp, vpn etc through the edge nodes.

[Paresh N]

Distributed router (DR) will sit on Edge  nodes and also on the ESXi hosts which are prepared for the NSX .

Service Router (SR) will only be present on the EDGE nodes which we choose when configure the routers . 

T0 SR will always be present i.e. if you are configuring T0 there will T0 SR and T0 DR that will get configured .

T1 SR will get configured on the EDGE only when we configure centralized services like VPN,DHCP, NAT or Service Interface  

[TryllZ]

Thanks @sdebarros for sharing the link, I'm excited to learn more..

Thanks @Sriram ChunchankatteMelukote thanks for clarifying that..