“Virtualizing high-performance Oracle RAC database clusters onto hypervisors can degrade disk I/O performance. Connecting bare-metal servers directly into VXLAN overlays solves the bottleneck.”

While designing hybrid cloud architectures at IBM, enterprise clients required migrating their application tier into IBM Cloud (SoftLayer) while keeping physical bare-metal Oracle RAC database servers running on dedicated hardware.

Architecture: Arista HW-VTEP & IBM Direct Link 10Gbps

We engineered a Hardware-VTEP (VXLAN Tunnel Endpoint) bridge using Arista 7050SX Top-of-Rack physical switches and IBM Direct Link.

• Layer 2 Extension over 10Gbps Direct Link: Extended VXLAN VNI 5001 from the IBM Cloud NSX-V overlay directly to the physical Arista switch ports.
• Bare-Metal Database Connectivity: Physical Oracle RAC servers connected to Arista access ports (VLAN 100) communicated directly with cloud virtual machines on VNI 5001 with zero NAT or routing hops.

[!IMPORTANT] Configure jumbo frames (MTU 9000) across physical Direct Link circuits to accommodate VXLAN outer header overhead without packet fragmentation.

! # Arista ToR 7050SX OVSDB HW-VTEP Configuration for IBM Cloud
interface Vxlan1
   vxlan source-interface Loopback0
   vxlan udp-port 4789
   vxlan vlan 100 vni 5001
   vxlan flood vtep 192.168.250.10  # NSX Controller VTEP

The Verdict

Key Takeaway

Bridge Bare-Metal Databases into SDN Overlays using Hardware-VTEPs.

Deploying Arista Hardware-VTEP bridges with IBM Direct Link provides sub-millisecond connectivity between virtual cloud workloads and bare-metal database clusters.