Runs on NSX Edge nodes as the centralised half of a gateway. Handles north-south routing and stateful features like NAT and VPN. A Tier-0 always includes one, but a Tier-1 only if an Edge cluster has been chosen. See also the distributed router (DR), present on all transport nodes.
Also called SR.
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Terms in this definition
- Agents (classic) API
First-generation Foundry Agent Service API, based on threads, messages and runs. It is deprecated, replaced by conversations and responses, and retires on 31 March 2027.
- NSX Edge
Appliance that gives NSX external routing and hosts centralised services; it is deployed as a VM on ESX or on physical hardware. Tier-0 gateways need it, as do Tier-1 gateways running stateful services like NAT.
- Geographic
A Traffic Manager routing method that picks the endpoint according to where the user is located geographically.
- Document Intelligence add-on capabilities
Extra Document Intelligence options switched on with the features query parameter: barcodes, formulas, keyValuePairs, languages, ocrHighResolution, queryFields and styleFont.
- LIKE
Compares strings with a pattern that can contain the % and _ wildcards. Because it only understands character patterns, searching big volumes of text this way is much slower than using full-text search.
- Azure NAT Gateway
Gives every resource in a subnet a managed way out to the internet through one or more fixed public IP addresses, while accepting no unsolicited inbound connections. Azure Container Apps can use it only when the environment is a workload profiles one.
- VPN
Traffic sent through an encrypted tunnel across a public network, as in a site-to-site connection to a VPN gateway in an Azure GatewaySubnet.
- Distributed router
Half of an NSX Tier-0 or Tier-1 gateway: the portion present on every transport node of the transport zone, so packets are routed inside the hypervisor. Anything needing a central point lives in the service router (SR) on Edge nodes.
Related terms
- HA mode
Choose between active-active, where Edge nodes share the load, and active-standby, which some stateful services like IPsec and L2 VPN demand. For a Tier-1 there is a further Distributed Only option that omits the service router.
- interface group
Used with stateful active-active Tier-0 and Tier-1 gateways in NSX, it pools matching uplinks (one per service router) so that if an uplink fails, a peer one picks up its traffic.
- Tier-0 gateway
Gateway that ties NSX's virtual networks to the physical network for north-south traffic. Besides distributed routing it has a service router on Edge nodes for centralised routing and services; each Edge node can only host one.
- Tier-1 gateway
In NSX, a gateway that sits between segments (downlinks) and a Tier-0 (uplink). Choosing an Edge cluster for it is what causes a service router to be created on Edge nodes.