Upgrading to the Premier tier is easy, whether it's moving from the Essential (Standard Availability) tier, or if you're no longer using switches in your Bigleaf High Availability (HA) deployment. There are just a few steps to get the process started.
- Review the Premier plan features to make sure they fit your needs.
- Reach out to your Bigleaf Sales Representative, or go to the Bigleaf website and request a quote.
- The Bigleaf Sales Representative will work with the Sales Support team to begin the upgrade process. The Sales Support team creates an amendment to your current plan with Bigleaf and will reach out to you to explain the new pricing and equipment you’ll need.
- Your plan change is processed when you accept the new plan and you’ll receive new site and IP addresses and Bigleaf routers from our provisioning team.
Things to keep in mind when upgrading
Both Bigleaf routers need their own ISP connections
The Premier tier includes two Bigleaf routers (primary and secondary). You will need an additional IP address per WAN circuit provided by your ISP(s). If you have a /30 static assignment from your ISP, you may need a new /29 IP block so that both the primary and secondary Bigleaf routers have their own IP address for that WAN circuit. If your ISP provides IP addresses via DHCP, ensure the DHCP-provided IP addressing allows for 2 IP addresses.
Both routers must be actively connected to the ISP equipment, so be aware that some ISP equipment have only one port for connectivity. See Connecting the Bigleaf routers in a Premier tier setup below for workarounds and reference diagrams.
Some customers elect to connect the secondary Bigleaf router to only one WAN circuit for Internet connectivity, while the primary router is connected to two or more WAN circuits. In the case of a failover event where the primary Bigleaf router is unavailable, you may need to update the IP addresses for the secondary router or physically move cabling from the ISP equipment to the secondary router. Be advised this is not a fully redundant HA solution, but it can provide a means to meet requirements on a temporary basis.
Upgrading to a Premier environment
Upgrading from a /30 Bigleaf-provided IP block
Because the Premier tier includes two Bigleaf routers (primary and secondary), it requires a /29 Bigleaf-provided IP block or greater. If the site you’re upgrading has a /30 IP block with a single Bigleaf router, the Bigleaf Sales Support team will provide the new /29 Bigleaf IP block as part of the upgrade sales order. The new IP addresses will be provided to you during the provisioning and shipment of the new Bigleaf routers.
Upgrading from a /29 IP block
If you currently have a /29 or larger block, Bigleaf Support will move your current IP block to the new Premier site. This is typically done when ready to migrate to the new Premier site and decommission the Bigleaf router from the old site.
When upgrading and keeping your /29 IP block, you need three IP addresses from the existing IP block: two for the Bigleaf routers and one for the default gateway. By default, in a Premier setup, the first 3 sequential IP addresses are used by the Bigleaf routers and default gateway. But when using existing IPs, those first three IP addresses are likely already used on other devices at the site. Bigleaf Support can help you configure the Bigleaf routers to use available IP addresses from your existing /29 IP block during migration. Below is an example of having 3 IP addresses available:
Adding a new Bigleaf Premier site
If you add a new site that’s using a Premier setup, you’ll receive two new Bigleaf routers that are provisioned under the new site’s name in Bigleaf Cloud Connect. The new site is listed in Cloud Connect when you receive a notification that the routers have shipped.
Connecting the Bigleaf routers in a Premier tier setup
The Bigleaf routers using the Premier tier should be connected to all ISPs.
- For a simple Premier connection example, see Diagram 1 below.
- If using a DMZ switch in your environment to connect the Bigleaf routers to your firewall(s), see Diagram 2 below.
- The Premier setup uses AUX ports between the Bigleaf routers for router-to-router communication. If you were using an AUX port on the old router as a second LAN port, you can use the secondary Bigleaf router LAN port for this function. If you plan to use both LAN ports connected to your firewall(s) and need additional LAN port connectivity from Bigleaf routers, consider using a DMZ switch of your own or use the Bigleaf Expansion Card ports as LAN ports. For details about using the ports on the Expansion card, see this Help Center article: Configuring expansion Ports.
- If your ISP doesn’t offer multiple ports to connect to both Bigleaf routers, we recommend using a switch to connect between the ISP and the associated Bigleaf router WAN ports. A commonly used topology is to segment the ISP equipment and Bigleaf router’s WAN ports into a separate VLAN on an existing DMZ switch. If you don’t have a DMZ switch or don’t understand how to set this up, you could use a simple unmanaged 5 port switch. Refer to Diagram 3 below.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Diagram 1 – Basic Premier setup (switchless)
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Diagram 2 – Premier setup with a LAN switch
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Diagram 3 – Premier setup with an unmanaged ISP switch
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.