This topic describes how to upgrade a Basic Edition transit router to an Enterprise Edition transit router.

Background information

  • During the upgrade, the system automatically deletes the cloud service configurations on the Basic Edition transit router. After the upgrade is completed, you can configure cloud services on the transit router based on your business requirements.
  • During the upgrade, the dynamic routes that are learned by the virtual private cloud (VPC) from Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) are converted to custom routes. The next hop of the custom routes points to the Enterprise Edition transit router. The conversion does not affect your services.
  • After the upgrade is completed, the VPC cannot learn new routes from CEN. To modify the network connectivity of the VPC, you can add or delete custom routes. For more information, see Add and delete route entries.

    For example, after the upgrade is completed, the Enterprise Edition transit router is connected to a new VPC and the default configurations are used for the connection. If you want to connect the existing VPC to the new VPC, you must add a custom route to the existing VPC. You must set the destination CIDR block of the custom route to the CIDR block of the new VPC, and set the next hop to the Enterprise Edition transit router.

  • You can upgrade a Basic Edition transit router to an Enterprise Edition transit router only in specific regions.

    Area Region Zone
    Chinese mainland China (Hangzhou) Zone H and Zone I
    China (Shanghai) Zone F and Zone G
    China (Nanjing - Local Region) Zone A
    China (Shenzhen) Zone D and Zone E
    China (Heyuan) Zone A and Zone B
    China (Guangzhou) Zone A and Zone B
    China (Qingdao) Zone B and Zone C
    China (Beijing) Zone H and Zone G
    China (Zhangjiakou) Zone A and Zone C
    China (Hohhot) Zone A and Zone B
    China (Ulanqab) Zone A and Zone B
    China (Chengdu) Zone A and Zone B
    Asia Pacific Singapore (Singapore) Zone B and Zone C
    China (Hong Kong) Zone B and Zone C
    Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) Zone A and Zone B
    India (Mumbai) Zone A and Zone B
    Indonesia (Jakarta) Zone A and Zone B
    Philippines (Manila) Zone A
    Japan (Tokyo) Zone A and Zone B
    Europe Germany (Frankfurt) Zone A and Zone B
    UK (London) Zone A and Zone B
    North America US (Virginia) Zone A and Zone B
    US (Silicon Valley) Zone A and Zone B
    Australia Australia (Sydney) Zone A and Zone B

Step 1: Schedule an upgrade

You must schedule an upgrade. Before you schedule an upgrade, you must determine the start time and a time window for the upgrade.

  • After you schedule an upgrade, Alibaba Cloud applies for resources for the upgrade within 72 hours. You cannot upgrade a Basic Edition transit router before the resources are allocated. Therefore, we recommend that you reserve sufficient time for Alibaba Cloud to apply for the required resources. If you need an emergency upgrade, contact your business manager.
  • During the upgrade, network connections may be disrupted. We recommend that you migrate business traffic before the upgrade, notify users of network changes, and perform the upgrade during off-peak hours.
  • The upgrade requires 10 to 20 minutes. To ensure a smooth upgrade, we recommend that you reserve an upgrade window of 1 hour.
  1. Log on to the CEN console.
  2. On the Instances page, find the CEN instance that you want to manage and click the instance ID.
  3. On the details page of the CEN instance, you can use one of the following methods to go to the Upgrade Guide page.
    • On the Basic Settings > Transit Router tab, find the Basic Edition transit router that you want to upgrade and click Upgrade Now in the Edition column.
    • On the Basic Settings > Transit Router tab, find the Basic Edition transit router that you want to upgrade and click the ID of the transit router. On the details page of the transit router, click the Basic Settings tab. Click Upgrade Now next to Version.
  4. In the Upgrade Transit Routers to Enterprise Edition dialog box, view the features of and billing information about the Enterprise Edition transit router, and click Upgrade.
  5. On the Schedule Upgrade wizard page, select the primary and secondary zones of the Enterprise Edition transit router and click Schedule Upgrade.
    The Enterprise Edition transit router creates an elastic network interface (ENI) on the vSwitches in the primary and secondary zones. The ENIs receive traffic from the VPC to the Enterprise Edition transit router. For more information about the zones in which you can create an Enterprise Edition transit router, see the Background information section in this topic.

    After you schedule an upgrade, Alibaba Cloud applies for the required resources and approves your application within 72 hours. After your application is approved, the value of the Status parameter on the Schedule Upgrade page changes to Migrated.

Step 2: Prepare for the upgrade

Before you perform an upgrade, you must perform the following steps to prepare for the upgrade.

  1. If your Basic Edition transit router is connected to a VPC, you must create vSwitches for the VPC.

    Before the upgrade, make sure that at least one vSwitch is created in the primary and secondary zones of the Enterprise Edition transit router for each VPC that is connected to the Basic Edition transit router. The Enterprise Edition transit router creates an ENI on the vSwitches in the primary and secondary zones to receive traffic from the VPC to the Enterprise Edition transit router. The ENI uses one IP address of the vSwitch. Make sure that the vSwitch has sufficient IP addresses. For more information, see Create a vSwitch.

    For example, if you want to upgrade a Basic Edition transit router in the China (Hangzhou) region and the Basic Edition transit router is connected to VPC1 and VPC2, make sure that at least one vSwitch is created in Zone H and Zone I of VPC1, and that at least one vSwitch is created in Zone H and Zone I of VPC2.

    Note
    • When you create a vSwitch, we recommend that you use a subnet mask that does not exceed 28 bits in length.
    • If the Basic Edition transit router that you want to upgrade is connected to a virtual border router (VBR), you do not need to perform additional operations on the VBR before you perform the upgrade.
  2. Back up routes.
    Before you upgrade the Basic Edition transit router, we recommend that you back up all routes of the CEN instance to which the transit router belongs. After the upgrade is completed, you can compare the routes to make sure that the routes after the upgrade are the same as the routes before the upgrade.
    1. Log on to the CEN console.
    2. On the Instances page, find the CEN instance that you want to manage and click the instance ID.
    3. On the Basic Settings > Transit Router tab, find the Basic Edition transit router that you want to manage and click the instance ID.
    4. On the details page of the transit router, click the Route Table tab.
    5. On the Route Table tab, click the Download icon to download and save the information about the routes in the current region to your computer.
    6. Repeat the preceding steps to download and save the information about routes in all regions of the CEN instance.
  3. Prepare test resources based on your requirements. After the upgrade is completed, you can use the test resources to verify the network connectivity.

Step 3: Perform the upgrade

After you complete the preparations and your application is approved, perform the following operations to upgrade the transit router:

  1. Log on to the CEN console.
  2. On the Instances page, find the CEN instance that you want to manage and click the instance ID.
  3. On the details page of the CEN instance, you can use one of the following methods to go to the Upgrade Guide page.
    • On the Basic Settings > Transit Router tab, find the Basic Edition transit router that you want to upgrade and click Upgrade Now in the Edition column.
    • On the Basic Settings > Transit Router tab, find the Basic Edition transit router that you want to upgrade and click the ID of the transit router. On the details page of the transit router, click the Basic Settings tab. Click Upgrade Now next to Version.
  4. In the Upgrade Transit Routers to Enterprise Edition dialog box, click Upgrade.
  5. On the Schedule Upgrade wizard page, click Next.
  6. On the Specify vSwitch wizard page, set the following parameters and click Next.
    Parameter Description
    Select the primary and secondary zones for the transit router The system automatically uses the primary and secondary zones that you specify on the Schedule Upgrade page.
    Delete Default Cloud Service Select Delete Default Cloud Service.
    Select the vSwitch to which the VPC is connected Select vSwitches for the VPC.

    The Enterprise Edition transit router creates an ENI on each vSwitch that you specify.

  7. On the Configure VPC Routes wizard page, select Automatically Switch to Static Routes and click Next.
  8. On the Confirm Settings and Price wizard page, confirm the information about the network instance, view the billing information, and then click Next.
    After you complete the preceding configurations, the system automatically starts the upgrade. Do not close the upgrade window until the upgrade is completed.

Step 4: Configure cloud services

After the upgrade is completed, you can configure cloud services based on your business requirements. For more information, see Access cloud services and Configure PrivateZone.

Step 5: Verify the network connectivity

After you complete the preceding configurations, you must compare the routes and verify the network connectivity to make sure that the upgrade is successful.

  1. Compare routes.
    You can perform the following operations to view or download the information about routes after the upgrade, and then compare the routes to make sure that the routes after the upgrade are the same as the routes before the upgrade.
    1. Log on to the CEN console.
    2. On the Instances page, find the CEN instance that you want to manage and click its ID.
    3. On the Basic Settings > Transit Router tab, find the Enterprise Edition transit router that you want to manage and click the instance ID.
    4. On the details page of the transit router, click the Route Table tab.
    5. On the Route Entry tab, view the routes in the current region.
      If a large number of routes exist, you can click Export to download the information about the routes in the current region.
  2. Verify the network connectivity based on your business requirements to makes sure that your business is not interrupted.

What do I do if I fail to upgrade a Basic Edition transit router or the routes after the upgrade are different from the routes before the upgrade?

Contact your business manager for technical support.