Arista VeloCloud SD-WAN in vWAN NVA Template Mapping Instances correctly

Question

Arista VeloCloud SD-WAN in vWAN NVA Template Mapping Instances correctly

Hamzeh Tahat 0

I am Creating 2 Velocloud Edges instances in vWAN Hub as Network Vitrual Appliances using Marketplace template : Arista VeloCloud SD-WAN in vWAN

This template allows me to create 2 instances under NVA, during the deployment of NVA, it asks me for two VCE (Velocloud Edges Activation Key 1 & 2), which I provide correctly,

VCE1- ActivationKey1

VCE2 - ActivationKey2

once the deployment finishes, will create 2 Instances with the following mapping:

VCE1 - Not mapped to any instance ( and never get activated)

VCE2 - Mapped to Instance 1 (Which gets activated and takes the publicnicipconfig of Instance 1 IP configuration)

What do I think, that template mapping is incorrect, and we need to know why it does map VCE2 (with Activation Key2) and ignore VCE1 and doesn't map it to any instance?

Hamzeh Tahat 0 Reputation points

2026-07-31T19:05:23.2266667+00:00

I redeployed it twice and it behaves the same
Vinayteja Lellela 100 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-31T22:29:11.9233333+00:00
Hello Hamzeh Tahat,

Thanks for the detailed description. Based on what you shared, this sounds less like an “Azure mis-mapping” problem and more like an application/orchestration behavior of the Arista VeloCloud SD‑WAN managed NVA when you provide two activation keys during deployment.

Here, the key things we can ground on are:

NVAs are integrated into an Azure Virtual WAN hub to route branch/on-prem connectivity through the NVA.

Microsoft’s guidance for troubleshooting NVAs in Virtual WAN emphasizes using the built-in diagnostics to validate hub context and routing service/provisioning health (these don’t directly explain the specific “ActivationKey1/2 mapping” logic, but they help confirm whether the hub/NVA provisioning is healthy).

Microsoft documents that the SD‑WAN connectivity integration is handled via the partner’s managed application / partner automation, and the mapping/orchestration details are generally implemented by the partner’s managed NVA template.

**What’s likely happening

**When deploying the Arista VeloCloud SD‑WAN in vWAN Marketplace template, the two “activation keys” are typically used by the managed application to bring up edge/edge-gateway components inside the NVA. In many managed-NVA partner templates, one of the keys effectively becomes the “primary/active” service instance while the other may be:

left unused until additional configuration or activation steps occur, or

reserved for a second role (HA, additional edge binding, or later activation depending on the template’s internal workflow).

That would explain your observed behavior:

VCE1 not mapped / never activated

VCE2 mapped to Instance 1 and activated

However, with the documentation provided here, we do not have explicit details of the Arista template’s internal mapping rules for “Activation Key 1 vs Activation Key 2,” so we can’t definitively confirm whether this is “incorrect mapping” versus “expected partner template behavior.”

What to try next

Even though this is likely partner-template logic, the Azure-side recommended troubleshooting step is to run the Virtual WAN hub / NVA diagnostics to rule out provisioning/routing anomalies.

Diagnostics such as:

checking how many virtual hubs are configured

identifying symptoms like provisioning/routing maintenance/undetermined hub

In practice, you’d:

Use the Virtual WAN hub/NVA diagnostics referenced in the NVA routing and NVA in the virtual hub pages.

Confirm there aren’t any routing service maintenance / provisioning-state issues.

If diagnostics show healthy provisioning, then the “key-to-instance mapping” is almost certainly controlled by the Arista managed app orchestration rather than Azure.

Can you please update us if the action plan provided was helpful?

Should there be any follow-up questions or concerns, please let us know and we shall try to address them.

If these answer your question, click "Upvote" which may be beneficial to other community members reading this thread.

1 answer

Your answer

Hamzeh Tahat 0 Reputation points

2026-07-31T19:05:23.2266667+00:00

I redeployed it twice and it behaves the same

Answer 1

Hamzeh Tahat 0

we have deployed the same cluster 2 years ago on NVA v2 with the same configuration on Velocloud (Active/active) setup and they sre working fine after activation.

from parameters of the NVA, it shows it has labled VCE1 activation key to be instance0 which not available in NVA.

something in the template needed to be fix to map VCE1 to instance 1 and VCE2 to instance two.

all troubleshooting and health check were completed and all instances were reimaged but VCE1 never gets the activation message from Azure

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