Dell EMC SD-WAN Edge - Frequently Asked Questions

The Dell EMC SD-WAN Edge by VMware is an appliance that includes a cloud-managed, transport-independent secure overlay (a virtualized network layer that sits on top of the physical network). This overlay will use available transports, including broadband internet, with or without traditional MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching). It provides secure access to a cloud network that may include cloud applications and other remote office or datacenter resources. It also provides a business-driven orchestration layer for automation and virtual services.
 

It’s both, actually. The Dell EMC SD-WAN Edge solution provides an appliance that installs at your location. These appliances come in different sizes, based on your requirements. Additionally, there is a virtual software version of the SD-WAN Edge solution for service providers and data centers that can be installed on CPE-or server-based hardware.
 

Dell EMC SD-WAN by VMware provides the following advantages:

• The choice of what connectivity types you want to use and how to use them
• Access the largest set of SD-WAN Gateways available
• Provides the ability to break-out cloud traffic using the large number of available VeloCloud Gateways (VCGs)
• Achieve best-in-class, real-time app performance with dynamic multi-path optimization (DMPO) traffic steering and on-demand remediation.

A universal customer premises equipment device (uCPE) is an open standards-based compute platform that can run various standard operating systems along with a wide variety of virtual network functions (VNFs) providing the edge services for customer sites. A single uCPE has the potential to replace numerous dedicated appliances that were previously necessary for business connectivity.
The SD-WAN Edge by VMware brings industry-leading, pre-packaged software with networking-optimized Dell EMC Edge appliances to deliver a pre-validated and bundled solution.
 

Yes, this is a great solution for replacing edge routers. The Dell EMC SD-WAN Edge appliances are significantly less expensive than traditional routers. The VeloCloud Orchestrator (VCO), cloud management application provides a much easier configuration of the device or many devices at once. The SD-WAN Edge appliances provide DHCP server capability, and OSPF-BGP routing. The appliances provide high availability and provide sub-second traffic steering capabilities that most routers can not compete with.

Dell EMC SD-WAN Edge appliances are available in two major form factors the Edge 600 series and the Edge 3000 series. The SD-WAN Edge 600 series is built with the Intel Atom C3000 x86-based Denverton processors. Additional manuals and documentation for the SD-WAN Edge 600 series can be found at SD-WAN Edge 600 series docs

The SD-WAN Edge 3000 series is designed with the latest generation Intel Xeon D2100 processor. Additional support documentation and manuals for the SD-WAN Edge 3000 series can be found at SD-WAN Edge 3000 series docs.




 

Platform
Dell EMC Networking SD-WAN EDGE610, 2 core, 4GB Memory
Dell EMC Networking SD-WAN EDGE3400, 8 core, 32GB Memory, 256GB SSD
Dell EMC Networking SD-WAN EDGE3800, 16 core, 32G Memory, 256GB SSD

Dell EMC SD-WAN Edge 600 Series

Dell EMC SD-WAN Edge 3000 Series

The SD-WAN Edge 3000 series can be configured with a single or dual set of hot-swappable power supplies based on configuration. In order to achieve full redundancy and hot-swap capability two power supplies must be installed and running.
 

VMware's VeloCloud software uses a combination of automatic application recognition and established traffic class to enforce business-established policies. Dynamic Multi-Path Optimization (DMPO) is included to determine which applications or transactions get the best available link to and percentage of the available bandwidth.
 

Depending on the model and available links a maximum of eight WAN links can be aggregated.
 

All types and speeds are supported, as long as the appropriate interface is provided to the Edge appliance/VM server (SFP+ or Base-T connectivity).
 

Active-Standby High Availability (HA) can be configured. Edge appliances automatically select either Standard or Enhanced HA on startup. Edge appliances will select Standard HA if both appliances are connected to the same WAN links. The appliances will select Enhanced HA if they detect that they are connected to different WAN links.

Dell EMC SD-WAN Edge appliances come in 3 different subscription editions: Standard, Enterprise, and Premium. The tables below cover the details for the three editions:

 

Feature	Standard Subscription	Enterprise Subscription	Premium Subscription
Edge Appliance	✔	✔	✔
VMware SD-WAN Orchestrator	✔	✔	✔
Dynamic Multi-Path Optimization (DMPO)	✔	✔	✔
Max Number of Data Segments	1	16	16
Max Number of Edges Supported	50	Unlimited	Unlimited
Partner Gateway Support (SP Only; SaaS access only in Premium)	✔	✔	✔
Advance Features: multicast and dynamic routing (OSPF/BGP), dynamic B2B VPN/Mesh topology, Resource aware hub clustering, Customizable business policy	✘	✔	✔
Virtual service orchestration included for Next Generation Firewall	✘	✔	✔
Separate lower-bandwidth tier of 10,30,50 and 100 Mbps	✘	✔	✔
SD-WAN gateway services -- SaaS and IaaS application optimization -- Hubless VPN: Using Gateway as VPN concentrator	✘	✘	✔
PCI certified service	✘	Add-on	Add-on
Software upgrade	✔	✔	✔
Upgradeable to a higher edition	✔	✔
Mixed editions	✘	✔	✔

If you have 50 or fewer sites, consider yourself a small to medium business, want to keep costs low and only need the basic hybrid WAN capability, then a Standard subscription may be a good a good choice. This subscription model is pointed at those sites which only use a broadband WAN link. Various bandwidths choices are available for Standard subscription ranging from 100 Mbps to 10 Gbps. This subscription is prepaid for terms of 1, 3 or 5 years, with optional renewal or purchase of a new term when it expires.
 

The Enterprise subscription is a full-featured version, featuring various available bandwidths ranging from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps. The Enterprise subscription is prepaid for terms of 1, 3, or 5 years, with the option to renew or purchase a new term when it expires. However, if you require the cloud-based gateway or want to use a hubless VPN, you should consider the Premium subscription.
 

The Premium subscription is the full-featured version, like the Enterprise subscription, but should be considered where cloud gateway access to AWS/Azure or any other public cloud is required. Examples include Office 365 resources or connection to a legacy data center where there is no VeloCloud physical edge. Both of these scenarios would require the Premium subscription software. There are various bandwidths available for the Premium subscription, ranging from 10 Mbps to 5 Gbps. The Premium subscription is prepaid for terms of 1, 3, or 5 years, with the option to renew or purchase a new term when it expires.
 

The Standard license cannot be mixed with any other type of license. You can deploy a mix of Enterprise and Premium license
 

Yes, the bandwidth and subscription terms would be the same options when purchasing only the software.
2x Intel vCPUs with AES-NI instruction set, 4Gb of memory, 8Gb disk space, 3 to 8 vNICs (default is 2x L2 interfaces and 6 x L3 interfaces).

Currently, AWS and Azure host VeloCloud Gateways (VCGs).
 

Yes, there are over 400 cloud gateways available worldwide.
 

DMPO, or Dynamic Multi-Path Optimization, is the part of the SD-WAN application that monitors links automatically. It provides autodetection and autoconfiguration of link characteristics, routing, and potentially Quality of Service (QoS) settings, based on configuration and policies. DMPO will actively try to remediate poor connectivity by using forward error correction, jitter buffering, and synthetic packet production. It also provides per-packet steering, picking the best path among available transports or links. DMPO also provides bandwidth aggregation for single flows of traffic.
 

Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) is the simple method for that completes the initial setup of the SD-WAN Edge solution. The initial startup configuration of the Edge appliance is provisioned on the VeloCloud Orchestrator (VCO) by the Dell EMC SD-WAN Operations Team working in conjunction with you and your account team. This process generates a unique activation key and emails the installer who simply attaches a WAN cable then clicks the link provide in the email for activation.
 

VeloCloud software uses classification by application type and service class for QoS. This can be customized to fit business requirements as needed.
 

VeloCloud provides advanced capabilities with DMPO, which uses Forward Error Correction (FEC), link selection, and jitter buffer for real-time applications. It uses Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Negative Acknowledgment (NACK) for non-real time applications.
The DMPO tunnel header contains additional performance metrics, including sequence number and timestamp. This enables the DMPO endpoints to identify jitter, determine latency in each direction, and identify lost and out-of-order packets.
Once the DMPO tunnel is established between the VCE (endpoint) and one or more VCGs (gateways), bandwidth tests are run with the closest VCG to determine the best capability.
 

Yes, the guest WiFi is placed on a separate VRF. The VCE appliance also supports multi-tenancy through the use of segmentation, through which each segment is isolated to a separate VRF.
 

BGP and OSPF (LAN-only) are supported.
 

The Dell EMC SD-WAN Edge can be configured to provide connectivity directly to other sites or branches for sensitive traffic. Additionally, they can connect to the VeloCloud Gateway (VCG) for SD-WAN secure connectivity.
 

The VMware SD-WAN Orchestrator supports the following authentication methods for both hosted and on-premises deployments.

• Two-factor authentication — available for operator, partner, and enterprise users. When twofactor authentication is enabled, user login attempts are verified with a PIN sent via a text message to a user’s mobile phone. The user provides the PIN back to the VMware SD-WAN Orchestrator, where it is validated to match a stored value for successful authentication.
• RADIUS-based authentication — available for operators within an on-premises deployment. In the case of RADIUS, the user role mapping is defined via the RADIUS server and passed back as attributes during VMware SD-WAN Orchestrator authentication.
• Single sign-on (SSO) — available for operator, partner, and enterprise users. The VMware SDWAN Orchestrator supports standards-based OpenID Connect (OIC) relying party (RP) mode. When a user logs in at the enterprise level, an option to log in to the ID provider of choice (for example, OneLogin, Okta) is provided. When the user signs in to the ID provider of choice, the VMware SD-WAN Orchestrator portal automatically redirects the user to the SSO provider login portal. When the user successfully authenticates with the ID provider, an OIC ID-Token will be granted, which provides access to the VMware SD-WAN Enterprise portal, along with the correct customer ID and URL for automatic redirect and instant login.

For more information on configuring ID providers see Configure an IDP for Single Sign On.

Cloud Gateways can participate in Dynamic Multi-Path Optimization (DMPO) along with the VeloCloud Edges at the branch level. VeloCloud DMPO utilizes dual-ended performance metrics, per-packet application aware steering, and on-demand remediation including error correction, replication, local acknowledgement, and jitter buffering to provide a unique private-line-like performance for cloud applications over the public Internet.
The IT administrator controls which QoS, steering, and services are applied to the application traffic through the business policy. The business policies framework is provided from the Orchestrator (VCO) and the business policy configuration is pushed to SD-WAN Edge appliances. The Edge appliances enforce these business policies for any traffic that comes to the Edge device.
Smart Defaults provides an out-of-the-box Business Policy that supports over 3,000 applications. DMPO makes a steering decision based on the application type, the real-time link condition (congestion, latency, jitter, and packet loss), and the Business Policy.
Each application is assigned a category. Each category has a default action, which is a combination of Traffic Class (Priority and Service Class), Network Service, and Link Steering. In addition to the default application list, customer applications can be defined manually.
 

VeloCloud software currently recognizes more than 3000 applications and subapplications for classification. Velocloud also intelligently learns applications as it sees them on the network and adds them to the VMware SD-WAN cloud-based application database.
 

The VeloCloud Dynamic Multi-Path Optimization (DMPO) will dynamically choose the best available path based on available links, and it will change links in the event of a connection loss. When the link is restored, and if it proves to be the optimal path for traffic, DMPO will then start utilizing it again.
In more detail, DMPO uses on-demand, per-packet steering that is performed automatically based on measured performance, application learning, business policy prioritization, and link cost. This enables subsecond timeout protection to improve application availability. It also attempts to remediate link degradation through forward error correction, synthetic packet production, and jitter buffering.
 

Policy changes pushed by the VCO do not require reboots and are synced every 30 seconds.
 

Currently bonding/teaming is not supported on the Edge appliances for either WAN or LAN interfaces.
 

VeloCloud supports auto rollback functionality, whereby if a configuration change causes an Edge appliance or VM to lose contact with the VCO, it will revert the configuration to the last known good state.
 

This is situational. Application profiles can be modified on-demand. Modifying WAN/LAN settings have typical disruptions, depending on the nature of the change.
 

Yes, via HTTPS (see: VMware for further explanation and examples.
 

Security advisories are communicated proactively via email and available at VMware Security Advisories.
Patches/software updates are communicated via email upon availability, banners posted in the Orchestrator UI, and release notes posted to my.vmware.com.
 

The API is open, and we do not provide plugins for traditional datacenter automation tools. Remember that SD-WAN is a branch connectivity solution, and new branches are not provisioned and destroyed frequently in the same way as VMs.

The following features are available for enterprise monitoring and ticketing:

 

• Email - alerts and ticketing
• Syslog - Ticketing and proactive monitoring. If we have on-prem VCO we can just use syslog forwarder.

If hosted VCO we can provide sample script to poll events and generate syslog. The syslog messages can go to anything that takes syslog data including Splunk

• SNMP - health monitoring of VCE
• Netflow - additional traffic statistics
• API - an SDK is provided for Python and Java, and the integration can be as in-depth as needed

Many Service Providers typically use their own tools (in-house development) to pull the statistics using RESTful API.

The VeloCloud software recognizes applications automatically and steers them to the optimal link(s), based on business priority (business policy control established), built-in knowledge of application network requirements, and real-time link performance and capacity metrics. Sessions can be moved using dynamic per-packet steering. As an example, a mid-stream voice call is moved to avoid link degradation without any call drop or voice quality glitch. Additionally, single high-bandwidth flows can take advantage of aggregated bandwidth for lower latency and faster response times. Applicationspecific quality of experience (QoE) is delivered by the SD-WAN overlay with Dynamic Multi-Path Optimization (DMPO). Resource allocations, link/path steering, Quality of Service (QoS), and error correction are automatically applied based on business policies and application priorities.
 

Bandwidth, jitter, latency, and data usage are collected for each VCE. Application data is categorized by group, type, VCE and location.