Crazy about VMware SD-WAN

  OSPF v2 ( IPv4) is supported for LAN and WAN interfaces. I recently defined a redundant OSPF LAN connection between an VMware 6X0 edge and a Sophos UTM 9 Firewall  The Edge forwards Overlay Routes to LAN as OSPF E1 routes, thus playing an ASBR (Autonomous System Boundary Router) within the OSPF area and domain. On the UTM Firewall static routes and connected routes are advertised via OSPF E2, again playing the role of an ASBR. During testing various features for Internet Backhaul we also played with advertising a default route into the Velocoud Overlay.  In order to prevent the default route from being advertised via OSPF to the UTM FW we entered a filter on "Outbound Route Advertisement" on both SFP interfaces. But on one of the connecting interfaces we forgot to check the "Exact Match" field which resulted in a Outbound filter of DENY ANY instead of the planned DENY DEFAULT ROUTE. The result was not what we expected: When testing we found out that routes adveri

 Since version 4.0 VMware is working on the new (Angular)UI and still in version 5.0.0.x only parts have been converted up to now. I think now it is time to look and compare, but also see where there  are still weaknesses in the new UI. One meaningful enhancement is the possibility to also see under PATHS the existing Overlay Tunnels from that device  Unfortunately it takes some time until new paths are visible here and for some time you do not see any usage It is very complicated to get actual information out of that graphics as it seems that they are updates only every 5 minutes  The above picture was taken  at ... and it seems, that this tunnel close at 10:03, which is not the case, it is still running. I completely understand, that for bigger SD-WAN networks it is impossible to have up-to-date information ready immediately, but I would expect to have a similar live view for an overlay path or for all overlay paths, like you get on the underlay, or at least an actual path state info

 In my previous blog I stated, that in VMware SD-WAN we can have Branch to Branch connectivity via overlay, as long as we have the branch routes announced with a maximum of 2 overlay hops away. Now let´s proof this assumption in my lab and modify it in order to establish a 4-tier hierarchy: I applied a new profile to the Regional Hubs, which now have only overlay tunnels to the 2 DC-Hubs, thus removing the permanant tunnel between all Regional Hubs. There is no change in paths between Branch Edges and DC-network  VPC-A1> ping 10.1.201.2   (VPC-DC) 84 bytes from 10.1.201.2 icmp_seq=1 ttl=60 time=58.340 ms 84 bytes from 10.1.201.2 icmp_seq=2 ttl=60 time=19.604 ms 84 bytes from 10.1.201.2 icmp_seq=3 ttl=60 time=48.628 ms 84 bytes from 10.1.201.2 icmp_seq=4 ttl=60 time=180.321 ms 84 bytes from 10.1.201.2 icmp_seq=5 ttl=60 time=23.469 ms VPC-A1> trace 10.1.201.2   (VPC-DC) trace to 10.1.201.2, 8 hops max, press Ctrl+C to stop  1   10.2.201.1   3.737 ms  2.933 ms  0.999 ms            

  Recently my teaching collegues from VMware sent me this range of questions: "Can I create a full, global mesh even using different hubs? Gateways are not an option in this scenario. In other words, I have: AMER DC with Hub Cluster EMEA DC with Hub Cluster APAC DC with Hub Cluster  And I have profiles that use dynamic E2E VPN set to use the regional hub.  Can we, in this topology, get, essentially, a full overlay mesh between Edges directly? Like, can I actually build a tunnel from, say, a Tokyo Edge to a Chicago Edge even with different hubs?   Will secondary hubs in the VPN config provide the meet-in-the-middle connectivity in order to create the E2E VPN?  My understanding of the hub cluster order in the Cloud VPN config is that we simply use the first cluster, but if that is unavailable, we use the next cluster in the list." My first assumption was:  In my opinion (static or dynamic) E2E works only when there is a single or 2 hop continuous set of permanent over