Overview of VMware Edge Services Gateway (ESG) and Distributed Logical Router (DLR)

                          VMware ESG vs DLR

ESG

DLR

-        It’s always a VM. -        We use ESG for North-South. It means, going outside from datacenter towards the external network or internet. -        If you have logical switches in different transport zone, then you can use ESG. -        ESG is for different transport zone, but DLR is for same transport zone. -        It supports dynamic routing as well as static routing. -        It supports OSPF and BGP. -        It supports both the routing protocol at the same time. -        It is for centralized routing. -        Since it is a VM, so it can have maximum of 10 interfaces. -        On one interface, we can have maximum 200 sub-interfaces which will be connected as trunk interface. -        ESG has internal interface which connects with South. Means, it connects to DLR. (Transit Network). -        Physical router will be Uplink interface.

-        It’s a kernel module. -        It splits in to two components. DLR DLR Control VM -        Name of DLR kernel module is nsx-vdrb. It exists on each ESXi hosts. -        We use DLR for East-West routing. Means, routing within your datacenter. -        Benefits of using DLR: - -        If we remove DLR, so where we have router? We have router on each ESXi host. -        DLR only do routing if logical switches are in same transport zone. -        When we deploy DLR, it activates on those ESXi host which participate in that transport zone. -        It supports dynamic routing as well as static routing. -        It supports OSPF or BGP. -        It doesn’t support both routing protocol at the same time. -        It is distributed routing. -        It has two interfaces as Internal and Uplink. And third uplink is related to management. Total 1000 interfaces. -        Internal Interface -        It connects towards the south. With Logical switches. -        Maximum it can have 991 interfaces. -        Uplink Interface -        It connects with either physical router or ESG. -        Maximum it can have 8 uplinks -        Management Interface -        Number of interfaces is 1 -        Total 10000 interface can be on single host. -        When we talk about cloud then we give one DLR to each tenant. Where they can create logical switches and connect to DLR. -        Maximum 250 DLR can be on single ESXi host.