This topic has 9 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated December 19, 2017 by Justin H.

Zerto Cloud Connector static routes

Justin H
December 1, 2017 12:41:34 AM

Hi All,

I’ve deployed zerto cloud connector for one of our customers.

Our CSP deployment has ZVM, ZCM on one network (managemnet) and Z-VRAs on another network (storage). Both networks are routable.

ZCC had been deployed with two interfaces: customer facing netwokr and our management one. Unfortunately the static route that we should be able to add from GUI doesn’t work, thus we are always requesting zerto support to login to zcc as root, so we can add the static route ourselves.

It is very sad that developers are releasing software with such bugs.

Does anyone have suggestion how to make static route permanent on zerto cloud connector? Looks like reconfiguration that zerto developers done on Debian that they use for zcc is removing static routes at zcc reboot.

Thanks

Slawomir

Ryan S
December 5, 2017 05:05:19 PM

Hi Slowamir,

I just brought this to the attention of one of our cloud architects.

Please stay tuned for some more information!

Thank you

Derek A
December 6, 2017 12:16:44 AM

Hi Slawomir,

This here is a pretty loaded question that needs a little unpacking. I am able to add the static route from the GUI in my environment, so I cannot speak specifically to that point…however…

If you are asking how to add a static route to a Linux VM:
static route:
- open vi with path : /etc/network/interfaces: command: vi /etc/network/interfaces
- press i to edit
- type in: up route add -net [address] netmask [subnet] gw [gateway] dev eth0
- type in: :wq In order to save configurations.
reboot update and verify still present afterwards: command: vi /etc/network/interfaces and check the route you have added is still there.
If you are asking if support will continue to enable you to create static routes on an as needed basis included with the cost of your license… the answer is unequivocally yes.

If you are phishing for the root passwords to VRAs… the answer is unequivocally no (at this moment in time, see time stamp, subject to change).

Finally, the way to completely avoid the need for static routes is to ensure the ZCC’s Org IP is on the same subnet as the customer’s ZVM and VRA.

I hope that is helpful!

With Kind Regards,

Derek Adair

Zerto Cloud Architect

Tagged: static routes vra zcc

Justin H
December 6, 2017 12:47:11 AM

Hi Derek,

No, not really, your post isn’t helpful at all. It just tackles your considerations, but not the bug that zerto code has.

Our environment had been build that ZVM and Z-VRAs are on different subnets – no change will be possible, so adding static routes to zerto cloud connector has to be fixed.

ZVM UI – “site settings”, “Cloud Settings”, “Networking”, “Configure” gives an option to manage/add static routes – this is what we had done.

ZCM UI – on given zorg page, “Customer Sites”, “Add zerto cloud connector”, “Cloud Network”, “Static Route Group”, select from defined on zvm static routes and deploy ZCC.

All sound good, only it doesn’t work! Static route is not applied on ZCC!!! I can setup remote session if you want to check it.

At the moment the only option is to call zerto support and ask them to login to ZCC with root account as given via “User Tool” user account has not enough permissions to make that sort of change. Once logged in to ZCC one need to modify rc.local and add static route before “exit 0” line. Modifying /etc/network/interfaces will not work after reboot (yes, we’ve tested that with zerto support) – I would expect that you as Zerto Cloud Architect would know that or at least test before making comments as above.

Once again, we found a bug in your software that is limiting usability and we are telling you about it.

It is up to you if you will ignore this or focus on that and investigate properly.

Anyway, thanks for your input.

Slawomir

Michael W
December 6, 2017 03:08:08 AM

Slawomir, have you seen our tech architect Justin Paul’s blog on static routes, and if so are you matching his configuration?

Zerto Cloud Service Provider How To – Part 3 Networking

If not, can you get a network diagram up here so we can all get on the same page?

Justin H
December 6, 2017 06:10:01 AM

Thanks Sean,

Justin describes exactly what we have here:

“So a ZCSP should have all of their Zerto components as well as all of their VMware vSphere components in one or more management networks that are isolated. Personally, I keep my VMware and Zerto management components all in the same management VLAN.”

Of course in his lab he didn’t used multiple management networks that we have here.

Please check what we have in high level view –

This is how ZCC is defined –

This is how Justin diagram would be adopted to our case –

Hope that helps

Slawomir

Dennis L
December 7, 2017 06:23:42 PM

Two things I should point out here.

1.) putting the VRA’s on the storage network (based on your diagram) is against best practice. There is no advantage in doing this. IMO they should be on the normal management network with the rest of the Zerto components.

2.) If you want to create a static route for the management side then you only need one route. 10.10.16.0/21 that will encapsulate all addresses from 10.10.16.0-10.10.23.254 (IE both 10.10.16.0/22 and 10.10.20.0/22)

If it were me I would just move the VRA’s to the 10.10.16.0/22 management network, keep in mind that the VRA’s will NEVER talk to any iSCSI targets … therefore putting them on a storage network is completely unneeded.

*edited

Justin H
December 8, 2017 12:25:07 AM

Hi All,

Great, so the only option to get “add static routes” to zcc fixed is to redesign the environment.

I should mention that the engineer who build zerto VRAs is no longer working with us, thus it is hard to tell why he did it that way.

If that is the only option we will spent time on redesigning the platform. Problem with that is we have live DR for the customers and that cannot be broken by re-configuring on which network VRAs will operate.

I still would like to know if you plan to give an option to “add static route” to zcc even if static route is on CSP side?

Thanks

Slawomir

Dennis L
December 8, 2017 04:19:15 AM

If you call support they should be able to login and add the static routes for you. But if you upgrade or redeploy the zcc a support call will be needed to reads the static route again.

Justin H
December 19, 2017 04:42:54 AM

Hi Justin,

Yes, this is what we are forced to do.

Yet, is there even recognition by zerto team that the feature that has been built isn’t working and should be fixed?

Thanks

Slawomir

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