Deploy SEs in Different Data Centers from Controllers

An oft asked question is whether Avi Controllers may be deployed in different data centers from their Avi Service Engines. Asked another way, can Controllers manage SEs in multiple data centers?  There is no strict requirement that will prevent Controllers managing remote SEs.  However, it is important to understand the best practices and ensure the deployment will scale with resilience.

Avi recommends deploying the Controller cluster and its Service Engines in the same data center.  Numerous tasks require connectivity, such as SE deployment (copying the SE image), log and metric collection, config propagation, and state backup (such as persistence tables). Increased latency may impact these operations and cause potential failures for data plane traffic.

If the latency is low enough, and the intent is to have the Controllers manage SEs in two or more data centers, redundant Controllers are recommended to be congregated in one data center. Should connectivity to the remote data center be lost, those SEs will run headless and not be able to receive configuration updates, but otherwise will continue to operate until connectivity is restored.

Note: The RTT (round-trip time) value between an Avi Controller and an Avi Service Engine should be less than 70 ms.