IBM Cloud Docs
Getting started with the Power Edge Router

Getting started with the Power Edge Router

A Power Edge Router (PER) is a high-performance router that provides advanced routing capabilities for IBM® Power® Virtual Server users.

PER improves network communication across different parts of the IBM network. The PER solution creates a direct connection to the IBM Cloud MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) backbone, making it easy for different parts of the IBM network to communicate with each other. The PER solution is consisted of two routers that enable an aggregate connectivity of 400 Gbps to each Power Virtual Server POD (acronym for Performance Optimized Data center that is modular data centers).

The PER capability will be deployed in all the data centers over time. See Data centers supporting PER for more information.

PER associates specific Power Virtual Server networks with unique MPLS route distinguishers (RDs). This makes it easy for different networks to communicate with each other across the IBM Cloud MPLS backbone.

To facilitate communication between Power Virtual Server instances and other parts of the network, such as Classic infrastructure, Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), and remote Power Virtual Server instances, Transit Gateway is used.

One of the benefits of the PER solution is that it makes it easier for a Power Virtual Server user to access other IBM Cloud services, such as IBM Cloud DNS, NTP, and Cloud Object Storage. You can connect to these services without having to use proxies or virtual routers, as the PER solution includes a Network Address Translation (NAT) device that simplifies the access process.

The following network architecture diagram explains how the PER is integrated into the IBM Cloud environment:

Power Edge Router network architecture diagram
Figure 1. Power Edge Router network architecture diagram

The network traffic in a PER environment can flow in the following two ways:

  • Accessing classic infrastructure through Transit Gateway.

    • 1 - Traffic from ACI tenants is forwarded to the PER.
    • 2 - PER forwards the traffic to classic infrastructure services that use Transit Gateway.

  • Accessing cloud services that can access each other's resources.

    • 1 - Traffic from ACI tenants is forwarded to the PER.
    • 3 - Traffic from PER is forwarded to the NAT services with Service Gateway routers for conversion of destination addresses to ADN and CSE networks.
    • 4 - The converted traffic from NAT is forwarded to PER.
    • 2 - Traffic from PER is now forwarded to IBM Cloud PPRs for final delivery.

The automation of ACI, PER, and NAT Services provisioning in IBM data centers is designed to simplify network integration and accelerate connection time for IBM Power Virtual Server users in the IBM Cloud.

For detailed networking PER use cases and architechture diagrams, see Power Edge Router use cases.

Considerations when using PER

  • You cannot create a Cloud Connection or a VPN connection in a PER workspace.
  • You can establish a connection between collocated workspaces if one colo is PER-enabled (such as DAL10) and the second colo (DAL12 / DAL13) uses Direct Link. Both collocated workspaces should be connected to the same Transit Gateway.
  • When a PER workspace is connected to a Transit Gateway, you can connect a Direct Link to the same Transit Gateway to achieve end to end connectivity from your on-premises network to the PER workspace.
  • You can establish a connection between VPC and Classic infrastructure with PER after adding them to the Transit Gateway.
  • When you create private networks in a PER workspace, a maximum of one DNS server can be specified.
  • A GRE (Generic Routing Encapsulation) tunnel is not supported in a PER workspace.
  • You cannot create a non-PER workspace in a PER-enabled data center. However, you can still use your old non-PER workspaces that are existing in a PER-enabled data center that are created before PER rollout.
  • In certain situations, local connection charges can apply when connecting from an on-premises location to Power Virtual Server. To ensure accurate pricing, it is important to use the cost estimator tool. See the Pricing of Power Edge Router to learn more about PER pricing.

Migrating to PER

PER is not supported in existing Power Virtual Server workspaces. To use PER, you need to create a new workspace or migrate your workspace to PER using a support ticket.

The automated migration of your existing network is not supported, but if your existing workspaces are in a PER-enabled data center and use a Transit Gateway based Cloud Connection, you can easily connect to new PER network instances.

Existing Power Virtual Server workspaces continue to support Cloud Connection and VPNaaS.

Existing non-PER workspaces continue to use existing routers. To use the PER solution's high-performance routers, you can create a new PER-enabled workspace to deploy in while continuing to use the non-PER-enabled workspace. You can also migrate existing workloads into the new PER-enabled workspace by backing up the data from the existing workspace and restoring the data into the PER-enabled new workspace.

Perform the following steps to connect an existing workspace to an existing Transit Gateway using the IBM Cloud CLI:

  1. Use the ibmcloud pi workspaces command to list the Power Virtual Server workspaces in your account. Make note of the CRN for the workspace you wish to connect to the Transit Gateway.

  2. Use the ibmcloud tg gateways command to list the Transit Gateways within your account. Make note of the gateway ID you wish to connect to the Power Virtual Server workspace.

  3. Use the ibmcloud tg connection-create command to create a new connection between the Transit Gateway and the PER-enabled workspace.

Here is an example command that can be executed where:

  • Transit Gateway ID is aaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeee
  • The Power Virtual Server workspace CRN is crn:v1:bluemix:public:power-iaas:fra02:a/aaaa:bbbb::
  • Executable command is ibmcloud tg connection-create aaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeee —name powervs_per_fra02 —network-id crn:v1:bluemix:public:power-iaas:fra02:a/aaaa:bbbb:: —network-type power_virtual_server

Creating a PER workspace

To create a PER workspace, follow the steps that are mentioned in Creating a Power Virtual Server workspace and choose a PER-enabled data center.

You can check whether a workspace is PER-enabled by selecting the workspace and viewing the workspace's details. The PER-enabled workspace shows an information message regarding Transit Gateway.

You can create, delete, attach, detach, and update private networks by using the Subnets and Virtual server instances pages on a PER workspace, the same as with a non-PER workspace. However, private networks on PER workspaces in a PER-enabled data center, such as DAL10, use upgraded networking technology for higher performance, and seamless connectivity. See, Configuring and adding a private network subnet to perform a wanted operation.

Use Transit Gateway only to configure the Virtual connections, as opposed to using Cloud Connection.

On a PER workspace, cloud Connections and VPN connections options are not available in the left navigation of the user interface since they are not required or supported by PER.

On a PER workspace, you can perform the following actions:

  1. Attach a network without any requirement of creating a separate Cloud Connection such as Direct Link.
  2. Effortlessly attach a connection to the IBM cloud network by attaching the Transit Gateway with your PER workspace.
  3. Connect to your on-premises network by creating a Direct Link and attaching it with the Transit Gateway present on the PER workspace.

You cannot delete PER workspaces that have Transit Gateway connections. You must delete the Transit Gateway connections first.

Using IBM cloud services in a PER workspace

From your PER workspace, you can create a virtual server instance and attach subnets to it. These virtual server instances can then access the IBM Cloud resources such as Cloud Object Storage (COS), Domain Name System (DNS), and other services that use the allocated IP addresses in the range 161.26.0.0/16. See IaaS endpoints for more information.

You need to attach to the Transit Gateway if you want to connect your workspace with the VPC and classic infrastructure.

Attaching Transit Gateway to a PER workspace

Transit Gateway is required to connect with VPC and classic infrastructure. To attach a virtual server instance from a PER workspace with Transit Gateway, complete the steps that are mentioned in Ordering IBM Cloud Transit Gateway.

Select Power Virtual Server under connection to attach a virtual server instance that was created on a PER-enabled workspace. You can also add VPC and Classic infrastructures as connection.

The connections that you attach to the Transit Gateway can ping each other. For example, if you add a Power Virtual Server workspace and VPC under Transit Gateway connection, they both can access each other resource.

Make sure that the classic infrastructure is Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) enabled before you attach it to the Transit Gateway.

OS support in a PER workspace

AIX, IBM i, and Linux operating systems are supported in a PER workspace.

AIX and IBM i support on PER

AIX and IBM i operating systems operate in PER workspaces in the same way that they do in non-PER workspaces.

Full Linux Subscription with PER

See Full Linux® subscription for Power Virtual Servers for Power Virtual Server to register RHEL84, SLES SP2, SLES SP3 images on a non-PER workspace.

Full Linux subscription RHEL86 and SLES15 SP4 images can be used in a PER workspace. Follow these instructions for a PER-enabled workspace to let the virtual server instance automatically register a full Linux subscription:

  1. Create a private network.

    1. Open the Power Virtual Server user interface from the IBM Cloud console.
    2. Click Subnets under Networking in the left navigation menu.
    3. Click Create subnet.
    4. Enter a unique name and CIDR. Make sure the CIDR being used is not the same as another CIDR already in use or a subset of that CIDR. The host server for the satellite server will be unable to resolve a network conflict as a result.
    5. Enter 161.26.0.10 in the DNS server field.

  2. Create a virtual server instance. See, Configuring a Power Virtual Server instance for detailed instructions.

  3. Attach the private network that you have created in step 1.

  4. Verify whether the registration is successful with the following commands:

For SUSE:

SUSEConnect -s

For RHEL:

subscription-manager status

CLI and API support with PER

PER uses the same existing Power Virtual Server network APIs and CLIs.

For more information, refer to the Power Virtual Server documentation on:

Data centers supporting PER

The table below shows the available data centers for Power Virtual Server and its corresponding status against PER:

Power Virtual Server supported data centers and its status for PER
Data centers PER available
CHE01 X
DAL10 Checkmark icon
DAL12 Checkmark icon
DAL13 X
FRA04 Checkmark icon
FRA05 Checkmark icon
LON06 Checkmark icon
MAD02 Checkmark icon
MAD04 Checkmark icon
OSA21 Checkmark icon
SAO01 Checkmark icon
SAO04 Checkmark icon
SYD04 X
SYD05 Checkmark icon
TOK04 Checkmark icon
TOR01 X
WDC04 X
WDC06 Checkmark icon
WDCO7 Checkmark icon