Migrating the existing network configurations to Power Edge Router

IBM Power Virtual Server in IBM data center

Power Edge Router (PER) is enabled for all Power Virtual Server data centers except CHE01. Two migration paths are available depending on how your workspace network was originally configured: self-service automation or by opening a support ticket.

Before you begin

You must have access to Direct Link to complete your PER migration. For more information about required access roles, see Access role requirements for Power Virtual Server.

If you configured your workspace network without using a support ticket, use the ibmcloud pi workspace action CLI command to automate the migration. For more information, see Migrating to PER.
If you manually configured your subnets and Direct Link through a support ticket, migrate your workspace to PER by opening a support ticket. See Migrating to PER through a support ticket.

Determining your Direct Link configuration method

If you are unsure whether you manually configured subnets and Direct Link for your workspace, complete the following steps to verify your configuration method.

Identifying automatically configured Cloud connections

To confirm that you have an automatically configured Cloud connection, check the following two conditions:

The connection appears on the Cloud connections page in the Power Virtual Server workspace. To verify, complete the following steps:
1. Log in to the IBM Cloud catalog.
2. In the search box, type Power Virtual Server, and click the Power Virtual Server tile.
3. Click Workspaces in the navigation panel. The Workspaces page with a list of existing workspaces is displayed.
4. From the Workspaces page, select your workspace.
5. Click Cloud connections in the left navigation panel. The Cloud connections page is displayed.
  
  If the Cloud connections option does not appear, your workspace is already PER-enabled, and this procedure does not apply to you. If your connections are listed here, continue to the next condition.
The Direct Link details page displays the message "This Direct Link is read-only". To verify, complete the following steps:
1. Log in to the IBM Cloud console.
2. From the navigation menu, select Infrastructure > Network > Direct link. The Direct Link page is displayed.
3. Click the Direct Link connection that has the same name as your Cloud connection.
4. In the Details section, check for the read-only message.

If both conditions are met, your Direct Link connection was automatically configured through Cloud connections. Use the self-service automation to migrate to PER.

Identifying manually configured Direct Link 2.0

To confirm that you have a manually configured Direct Link 2.0, check the following conditions:

The connection does not appear on the Cloud connections page in the Power Virtual Server workspace. To verify, complete the following steps:
1. Log in to the IBM Cloud catalog.
2. In the search box, type Power Virtual Server, and click the Power Virtual Server tile.
3. Click Workspaces in the navigation panel. The Workspaces page with a list of existing workspaces is displayed.
4. From the Workspaces page, select your workspace.
5. Click Cloud connections in the left navigation panel. The Cloud connections page is displayed.
  
  If the Cloud connections option does not appear, your workspace is already PER-enabled. If no connections are listed or your Direct Link is not shown here, your Direct Link might be manually configured.
The Direct Link details page does not display the message "This Direct Link is read-only". To verify, complete the following steps:
1. Log in to the IBM Cloud console.
2. From the navigation menu, select Infrastructure > Network > Direct link.
3. Click the Direct Link connection.
4. In the Details section, verify that the read-only message is not displayed.

If both conditions are met, your Direct Link connection was manually configured through a support ticket. In this case, you must also migrate to PER by opening a support ticket.

Migrating to PER through a support ticket

To migrate your workspace to PER through a support ticket, complete the following steps:

Create a support case in the IBM Cloud Support Center.
Select Power Virtual Server under Topic, and select Power VS Network Related under Subtopic.
In the Subject field, provide a brief description of your migration requirements.
In the Description box under additional information, provide the following information:
- The CRN (cloud resource name) of the workspace that you want to migrate
- The subnet configuration details for the workspace
- The Direct Link connection details associated with the workspace subnets
The Power Virtual Server operations team processes the support ticket by configuring PER and other network devices in parallel with the Direct Link configuration. When the PER configuration is complete, the team notifies you through a ticket update that the PER configuration is ready for your validation and testing.
Click Next.
Schedule a maintenance window during which you must provision the Transit Gateway to complete the PER network configuration. For more information, see PER use cases. To route the network traffic through PER, complete the following steps:
1. In the IBM Cloud console, from the navigation menu, select Infrastructure > Network > Direct link.
2. Click the Direct Link connection to which your workspace is connected. The connection details page for the selected connection is displayed.
3. Under Shortcuts, click Go to Route filters.
4. On the Route filters page, set the following filters:
  
  a. On the Import route filters tab, set the Default value to Deny all import routes.
  
  b. On the Export route filters tab, set the Default value to Deny all export routes.
  
  Setting both filters to deny blocks the Direct Link routes, which redirects the network traffic through the PER network.
Repeat the preceding steps for each Direct Link connection.
Verify that the network connection is working correctly. For example, from each VSI, you can ping the IBM Cloud DNS resolvers that are accessible over PER-enabled workspaces by running the ping 161.26.0.10 or ping 161.26.0.11 command.

If you encounter any PER connectivity issues, revert to the Direct Link path by setting the Import route filters default back to Permit all import routes and the Export route filters default back to Permit all export routes. This unblocks the Direct Link routes. Then disconnect the workspace from the Transit Gateway.
After successful verification, follow the steps in Deleting a Direct Link to remove the Direct Link connections, and then notify IBM by updating the ticket.
The Power Virtual Server team marks the workspace as Migrated and closes the ticket.
Open a support ticket to remove the backend device configuration, and then delete the pre-migration workspace.

Before you delete the pre-migration workspace, you must open a support ticket to remove the backend device configuration first.

After migration, if you need to make additional network configuration changes that require backend device configuration, complete the following actions:

Create a subnet: In the Power Virtual Server user interface, create the subnet, and then open a support ticket so that the Power Virtual Server operations team can configure the subnet on the backend devices.
Update or delete a subnet: First, open a support ticket so that the Power Virtual Server operations team can update or remove the configuration on the backend devices. Then, update or delete the subnet in the Power Virtual Server user interface.

Configuring FLS after migration

If you run Full Linux Subscription (FLS) on virtual server instances (VSIs) in the migrated workspace, you must update the DNS configuration after migration. FLS requires IBM DNS IP addresses to function correctly.

You can update the DNS configuration in two ways:

FLS works if you update the migrated subnets with DNS IP addresses.

Update the migrated subnet by adding DNS IP addresses, for example, 161.26.0.10 or 161.26.0.11.

Run the following command:
```
ibmcloud pi netu <network_id> --dns-servers "127.0.0.1 161.26.0.10 161.26.0.11"
```
Where 127.0.0.1 refers to the local stub resolver on the VSI.
For existing VSIs that are deployed by using migrated subnets, add the following DNS IP addresses, or the specific DNS IP addresses for your environment, to the /etc/resolv.conf file:
- nameserver 161.26.0.10
- nameserver 161.26.0.11