Aruba EdgeConnect: Aruba EdgeConnect Appliance on VMware
Aruba SD-WAN – Aruba EdgeConnect on VMware
In this article, we going to demonstrate
how to instantiate Aruba EdgeConnect Virtual Appliance on VMware ESXi version
7.0.
Overview
Aruba acquired Silverpeak in
2020 to complete its SD-WAN portfolio. After the acquisition, it is rebranded
as Aruba EdgeConnect. Aruba EdgeConnect is an Enterprise SD-WAN solution with
advanced routing, security, and application-focused capabilities. Aruba
EdgeConnect appliance (SD-WAN appliance) supports various use cases with different
form factors –
- Aruba EdgeConnect Hardware Appliance – a hardware appliance installed in remote or central locations. Allows to directly terminate the physical WAN and LAN links.
- Aruba EdgeConnect Virtual Appliance – a virtual image that can be installed on a bare metal server using hypervisors like ESXi, Hyper-V, Xen, and KVM.
- Aruba EdgeConnect Cloud Appliance – a virtual image that can be installed in public could. It supports all major cloud providers – Azure, AWS, GCP, Oracle, and Alibaba. Once the SD-WAN is extended to the public cloud, it gets all the features available in the solution.
So you got an idea, we are
going to instantiate Aruba EdgeConnect Virtual Appliance on VMware ESXi.
Prerequisite
You need to have the following information in hand to successfully complete the activities –
- You must be a registered partner with Partner Portal Access
- EdgeConnect OVA
image
Step 1: Login into VMware host
and create a new VM
Step 2: Select “Deploy a virtual machine from on OVA file” from the creation type options. Click next button
Step 3: Give a name to Virtual Machine and select the OVA
file from your hard disk. Once done, click on the Next Button.
Step 4: Select a Port Group (in general VLAN) for the
management interface. Select “Thin” provisioning for Lab setup but in
production go for “Thick” deployment.
Step 5: Review the configuration and click on Finish Button.
It’s going to take a minute or two. Once the Virtual Machine
is deployed, you need to more Virtual Network Interface (vNIC) to this
EdgeConnect Appliance. In our lab setup there are total of four interfaces –
- Management Interface
- LAN Interface
- WAN 1 – MPLS Interface
- WAN 2 – Internet Interface
Step 6: from VM Page, click on Edit Button to add more Virtual
Interfaces.
Click on the “Add Network Adapter” button to add more
Interfaces. We need a total of 4 interfaces out of them 1 is already added
during the VM creation. Once the Interface is created, assign them to the correct
port group (VLANs).
Once Interfaces are created and assigned to the correct port
group. Save the configuration.
Step 7: Power ON the virtual machine and you are done. In our
lab, Management Interface is automatically configured using DHCP. You can SSH or
take the GUI of the EdgeConnect Appliance using any browser.
If you can access the appliance using the browser, you have successfully
executed all the steps. Hope you find this informative!
