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In a few clicks, build a global Transit Gateway network for Mission Critical workloads running on IBM Power Virtual Servers (PowerVS)

By DEXTER CHARLES posted Tue August 29, 2023 10:14 AM

  

Session Title: Crafting and Launching AIX IBM PowerVS in IBM Cloud [Lab#2699]

Session Description: IBM Power Virtual Server (PowerVS), a multi-tenant service co-located on IBM Cloud, offers the flexibility and cost-effectiveness necessary for businesses to migrate workloads, build hybrid cloud ecosystems, and modernize applications and data. In this interactive lab, you will familiarize yourself with the IBM Cloud user interface as you navigate and provision an AIX PowerVS environment. Learn the ropes of virtual server instances, subnets, storage, SSH keys, shared processor pools, and images. You will gain hands-on experience constructing and deploying an AIX, IBM i, or Linux PowerVS VSI. In addition, we will focus on IBM Cloud's global routing feature, as we guide you in configuring a PowerVS Cloud Connection with Transit Gateway across two geographical regions.

Session ID: 2699

Session Date/Time: Tuesday, Sep 12 2:45 PM - 4:15 PM PDT and Thursday, Sep 14 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM PDT

Top 3 things that will be Discussed or Learned:

  • Configuring and deploying PowerVS instance
  • Creating Cloud Connection
  • Configuring Global Transit Gateway

The IBM Power Virtual Server (PowerVS) offering allows users to deploy Power Servers running AIX, IBMi, or Linux in the cloud.  Cloud Connections (based on, and sometimes called, Direct Link Connect) facilitates connectivity between PowerVS and other IBM Cloud environments (Classic, VPC, etc).  Cloud Connections can connect directly to specific VPCs, the classic environment, or to an IBM Cloud Transit Gateway. The IBM Cloud Transit Gateway is a network service that interconnects IBM PowerVS, IBM Cloud VPCs and classic infrastructure, allowing users to build a global network. Transit Gateway is deployed in a hub and spoke model, where the Transit Gateway is the hub and IBM Cloud VPC, PowerVS, and Classic Infrastructure are the spokes. Transit Gateways can be scoped locally (Local Transit Gateway) or across regions (Global Transit Gateways).  Using Transit Gateway, environments can be configured across geographies for High Availability/Disaster Recovery.  

Here is a sneak peek from the Crafting and Launching AIX IBM PowerVS in IBM Cloud [Lab#2699] hands-on lab, that shows the simple steps for configuring a Transit Gateway connecting PowerVS at Prod and DR. The PowerVS Prod and DR environments are in two separate regions. Before the steps below, Cloud Connections were created using the following names TechXchange-Workshop-Prod-TGW & TechXchange-Workshop-DR-TGW. The screen shots below show, that in just a few steps, you can create a Transit Gateway connection for IBM PowerVS instance in IBM Cloud.

Create a Global Transit Gateway at only one of the regions (e.g. Sydney)

  1. To access the Transit Gateway screen, go to the IBM Cloud UI in your browser and click the hamburger menu at the top left of the cloud portal. Then click Interconnectivity and then Transit Gateways

  2. In the Transit Gateway screen, click Create transit gateway +

  3. In the Transit Gateway create tab, supply the various parameters.
    • Name
    • GlobalTGW-PVS
    • Resource Group
    • Default
    • Global Routing on/checked
    • Location Sydney (in this example, replace with your location of the “PROD” environment)
    Do not create any connections at this point.

    Review the summary view to the right and click Create.

  4. Review and confirm the new transit gateway have been created and that the status is Available. The screen may have to be refreshed several times. Click on the new transit gateway for details.

  5. Within the newly createdtransit gateway screen, on the Connections tab, click on Add connection +

  6. In the Add Connection screen, various network connection elements can be attached to the transit gateway. These elements could be IBM Cloud Classic, VPC or Direct Link connections. PowerVS Cloud Connections are a type of direct link. Make the necessary selections as below to add the PowerVS cloud connections/sites (e.g. Sydney)

    • Network Connections: Direct Link
    • Existing Direct links:TechXchange-Workshop-Prod-TGW
    • Connection name: TechXchange-Workshop-Prod-TGW

    Click Add

  7. Review and confirm the Cloud connection has been added to the gateway. Refresh the screen a few times to show the status is Attached.

  8. Add the DR Cloud Connection Site. To add the connection for the DR site, click on Add connection +

      • Network Connections: Direct Link
      • Existing Direct links: TechXchange-Workshop-DR-TGW
      • Connection name: TechXchange-Workshop-DR-TGW

    Click Add.

     

  9. Review and confirm the new Cloud connection has been added to the gateway. Refresh the screen a few times to show the status is Attached.

  10. Now that the connections have been attached, a Route Report must be generated for the new routes and connections. Click Routes tab and Generate report. A successful report shows all new routes and network reachable/visible from the transit gateway “hub”.

    Click on the Routes tab and then Generate report +

  11. Click on the BGP tab to show the advertise routes over the various Direct Links (Cloud connections) that have been attached to the Transit Gateway. 

    You may click on Generate report + to refresh the configuration.

Conclusion

At this point both Prod & DR PowerVS sites have been attached to the transit gateway. Proceed to testing the PowerVS to PowerVS. This provides key connectivity, across geographies, for High Availability/Disaster Recovery environment for mission critical workloads. To learn more, make sure you register for the TechXchange Conference from Sept 11-Sept 14th in Las Vegas.

#TechXchangePresenter#TechXchangeConferenceLab#ibmpower

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