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NSX-T 3.0 – Reverse Migration of VMkernel to Port Group

May 4, 2021October 6, 2021Roshan ChavanLeave a comment

In this post, we will talk about the reverse migration of VMKernel adaptor from NSX-T to back to vCenter port group. If you did not get chance to look at my previous article on migration of vmk from vCenter to NSX-T, here is the link.

NSX-T 3.0 – VMkernel Migration to an N-VDS Switch

There can be multiple reasons for removing VMKernel ports from NSX-T. Here are some…
The third party application which had vmk in vCenter PG does not behave as expected,
The application itself (which uses vmk) is no longer needed,
You want to uninstall NSX-T from one of the host for any reason, you first have to move vmk’s from it or appropriate “Network Mappings for Uninstall” has to be in place before you move on.

Note: Uninstalling NSX-T Data Center from an ESXi host is disruptive if the physical interfaces or VMkernel interfaces are connected to N-VDS.

Here is one more important scenario mentioned at VMware docs, (copied from VMware site)

Transport node configuration on a node cannot be overriden if underlying segments or VMs are connected to that transport node. For example, consider a two ESXi host cluster, where host-1 is configured as transport-node-1, but host-2 is unprepared. Segments and VMs are connected to transport-node-1. After preparing host-1 as a transport node (associated to transport-zone-1), if you apply a transport node profile to that cluster (associated to transport-zone-2), then NSX-T does not override the transport node configuration with the transport node profile configuration. To successfully override configuration on host-1, power off the VMs and disconnect the segment before applying the transport node profile to associate host-1 to transport-zone-2 and disassociate it from transport-zone-1.

With that lets get started,

In previous post, I explained migration process of vmk from vCenter to NSX-T. Lets get started with reverting it back.
Verify the vmk location. It is on nsx-t logical switch “VLAN-1650” and the switch name is ‘data-nvds’

Back to NSX-T > System> Nodes> Select appropriate node> Action> ‘Migrate ESX Vmkernel and Physical Adaptors’

Select ‘Migrate to port group’ in this wizard.

Direction: Migrate to Port Groups
N-VDS: Select the target switch from where you want to remove vmk port.
Select the VMkernel Adapter (vmk3) and manually type the port group name ‘vDS-Test-1650’

Map the appropriate physical nics and uplinks in this wizard.
Note: Mapping physical nics here does not mean that it will remove mentioned nics from N-VDS.

Save.

Verify that the vmk3 is back to the VDS.

Test the connectivity to vmk from esxi. And we are done with the reverse migration of VMkernel port to the port group. That’s it for this post. Will come back soon with new content for my next blog.

Cheers..!!!

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NSX-T 3.0 – VMkernel Migration to an N-VDS Switch

March 18, 2021October 6, 2021Roshan Chavan1 Comment

Most of the customers are moving to NSX-T environment. One common use case / questions would have been, what happens to existing VMkernel Adaptors OR how does the migration of VMkernel works in NSX-T. One of my recent customer had similar use case, wherein he had backup application running in the VMware vSphere environment which had 2 vmk’s and the plan was to migrate all networks in to NSX-T (Overlay or VLAN). There are ‘n’ number of things to consider before we plan for such migrations. First, we got the email confirmation from the application vendor on application compatibility with NSX-T. It was also important to get confirmation from the vendor if the backup application will still behave as expected and will be able to backup VM’s connected to Overlay Segments.

Note: Some 3rd party applications do not support or understand Opaque networks. (For vCenter, all networks that have been created in NSX are Opaque networks)

In my case, customer had to upgrade the backup application to vendor suggested version to make it compatible with NSX-T and to be able to backup VM’s connected to NSX-T (Overlay & VLAN) networks.

Some additional points…
Please keep in mind that we are talking about 3rd party application vmkernel adaptors and NOT vMotion, management or vsan vmk’s. The migration process will always not be the way it is mentioned in this article. It completely depends on customers env and at what point you are planning for this migration and for which vmk’s. Shared Compute, Edge & Management cluster with only 2 pics and not on vSphere 7.0 version will need proper planning and migration methodology. Greenfield env will give you flexibility to migrate vmkernel using network mapping while configuring hosts transport nodes, whereas brownfield env will eat your head. So plan and prepare wisely before you propose your plan to the customer.

Following is my lab setup for this post.
NSX-T 3.0 installed and configured.
Four hosts cluster prepared and configured for NSX-T. It is a shared cluster for all components.
Physical Adaptors – vmnic0, vmnic1 connected to vDS on vCenter. And vmnic2, vmnic3 connected to nvds in nsx-t.
BGP routing is in place.
Edge VM’s uplinks have been configured and connected to logical segments.
Port group name ‘vDS-Test-1650’ with vlan id 1650 is in place. This port group has VMkernel Adaptor 3 (vmk3) and it has been configured on all hosts in the cluster.
‘Test-10’ VM connected to ‘vDS-Test-1650’ for testing connectivity.

Here is the plan.
Create vlan based logical segment in nsx-t for 1650 network.(VLAN-1650 LS)
Move ‘Test-10’ VM from ‘vDS-Test-1650’ port group to ‘VLAN-1650 LS’ logical segment.
Migrate vmkernel adaptor 3 (vmk3) from port group to logical segment.
Test connectivity from test vm to vmk ip after migration.
Revert the configuration.

With that lets get started…

‘vDS-Test-1650’ port group on distributed switch.

‘Test-10’ VM connected to ‘vDS-Test-1650’

Verify the connectivity to ‘172.16.31.110’ (DC in my env) from Test-10 VM.

ESXi01 has vmk3 created with network label as vDS-Test-1650 port group.

Similar configuration on other hosts.

Time to create vlan based logical segment in nsx-t.
Log into NSX-T VIP> Networking> Segments> Add Segment
Name: VLAN-1650
TZ: Shared VLAN TZ
VLAN: 1650

VLAN based logical segment is ready to move the VM’s into it.
Test-10 VM> Edit Settings> Change the network to newly create logical segment.

Test-10 VM now sits on VLAN based logical segment in NSX-T. Test the connectivity to DC again.

Let’s move vmkernel from vCenter PG to NSX-T LS.
System> Fabric> Nodes> Host TN> Select 1^st esxi and click on Action> ‘Migrate ESX VMkernel and Physical Adapters’

Select appropriate N-VDS to migrate to
Select the VMkernel Adaptor that you plan to migrate in to NSX-T.

And then the destination Logical switch that we created earlier.

Next > Select physical adaptors in N-VDS
Note: These vmnics have already been assigned to N-VDS and not the new ones.

Select physical nics and appropriate uplinks and SAVE.

You get a warning at this stage. Continue.

Once it is successful, verify it on the vCenter.
Notice that the vmk3 is sitting on the “data-nvds” instead of “DATA-VDS”

Testing connectivity to vmkernel (172.16.50.101) adaptor from the VM.

All Good. We have successfully migrated VMkernel (vmk3) to nsx-t. There may be situations where you want to revert back the configuration if expected results fails after vmk migration. I will cover the reverse migration in my next blog.

I hope that the blog has valuable information. See you all in next post.

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NSX-T 3.0 – Load Balancer Concept & Configuration

November 3, 2020October 6, 2021Roshan ChavanLeave a comment

It’s been a while since I wrote my last blog on NSX-T. Recently, I had several discussions with one of the customer to setup a NSX-T Logical Load Balancer. Hence, wanted to write a small blog with generic example. This will give you basic understanding of the NSX-T load balancer and how it is setup.

Let’s check on some theory part.

The NSX-T Data Center logical load balancer offers high-availability service for applications and distributes the network traffic load among multiple servers. The load balancer distributes incoming service requests evenly among multiple servers. You can map a virtual IP address to a set of pool servers for load balancing. The load balancer accepts TCP, UDP, HTTP, or HTTPS requests on the virtual IP address and decides which pool server to use.

Some key points to keep in mind before we proceed.

Logical load balancer is supported only on the tier-1 gateway.
One load balancer can be attached only to a tier-1 gateway.
Load balancer includes virtual servers, server pools, and health checks monitors. It can host single or multiple virtual servers.
NSX-T LB supports Layer 4 (TCP,UDP) as well as Layer 7 (HTTP,HTTPS).
Using a small NSX Edge node to run a small load balancer is not recommended in a production environment.
The VIP (Virtual IP) for the server pool can be placed in any subnet.

Load balancers can be deployed in either inline or one-arm mode.

Inline Topology

In the inline mode, the load balancer is in the traffic path between the client and the server. Clients and servers must not be connected to the same tier-1 logical router. LB-SNAT is not required in this case.

One-Arm Topology

In one-arm mode, the load balancer is not in the traffic path between the client and the server. In this mode, the client and the server can be anywhere. LB-SNAT is always required in this case.

Health check monitors is another area of discussion, which is used to test whether each server is correctly running the application, you can add health check monitors that checks the health status of a server.

Let’s get started with setting up the simple example of NSX-T Logical Load Balancer.

Here is the background of the lab. I have an NSX-T environment already running in the LAB. For demo purpose, I have already done following configuration.

New NSX-T logical segment called ‘LB_1680’ (Subnet: 172.16.80.253/24)
Installed and configured 2 test Web servers. (OS: Centos7 with web server role and added sample html file)
Connected 2 new web severs to LB_1680 segment.

Verify that you can access the web severs and web page is displayed.

1^st Web Server. (172.16.80.10)

2^nd Web Server. (172.16.80.11)

That was all background work. Lets start configuring the Logical NSX-T Load Balancer.

We have to configure the Server Pool first and then move on to next configuration.

Name: WevServerPool
Algorithm: Round Robin (To distribute the load in pool members)
SNAT Translation Mode: Automap (leave it to default)

Next, Click on Select Members> Add members & enter the information for the 1^st web server.

Follow the same procedure again for the 2^nd web server.

Click on Apply and Save.

Make sure that the status is Success.

Next, Click on Virtual Server and ADD L7 HTTP

Name: WebVirtualServer

IP: 192.168.10.15 (This IP can be in any subnet & We will use this IP add to access the Web Server)
Port: 80
Server Pool: WebServerPool (Select the pool that you created in earlier step)

Save & Make sure that the status is Success.

Let’s move to Load Balancer tab and click on Add Load Balancer.

Name: Web-LB
Size: Small (note the sizing information at the point)
Attachment: Select your existing Tier-1 gateway.

Click on Save and then click on NO to complete the configuration.

Now, we have to attach this Load Balancer to Virtual Server that we created in earlier step.

Go back to ‘Virtual Servers’ and click on Edit.

Under the LB, select the LB that we just created and Save.

Make sure that the status is Success for LB, Virtual Server & Server Pools.

That’s It. We are done with the configuration of NSX-T Load Balancer. Its time to test it.

Try to access the VIP (192.168.10.15), This ip should load the web page either from Web-1 server or Web-2.

The VIP is hitting to my 2^nd Web Server. Try to refresh the page.

Couple of refresh will route the traffic to 2^nd Web Server. You might have to try in different browser or try Ctrl+F5 to refresh the page.

Hurray…!! We have just configured NSX-T LB.

This is how my network topology looks. Web-LB is configured at tier-1 gateway.

Remember, there is much more than this when it comes to customer production environment. We must take several other things into consideration (health monitors, SNAT, LB rules etc…), and it is not that easy as it sounds. This blog was written to give you basic understanding of NSX-T LB.

I hope that the blog has valuable information. See you all in next post.

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NSX-T 3.0 – Active Directory Integration

June 6, 2020October 6, 2021Roshan ChavanLeave a comment

While working on NSX-T, you will want to add multiple users from Active Directory to manage your NSX-T environment. You can integrate up to 3 identity sources into your NSX-T env. Optionally, you can add VMware Identity Manager to authenticate users. In this post, we will cover AD integration with NSX-T.

I have created ‘NSX_ADMINS’ Security Group in (Users OU) my Active Directory and added few users to it.

Next, Select ‘Users’ >View > Select Advance Features to get additional Attributes of ‘Users’ OU.

Right Click on ‘Users’ OU >Properties >Attribute Editor Tab.

View & Copy the ‘distinguishedName’ Value

We need this value while configuring Identity Source in NSX-T.

Next, Log into NSX-T Manager VIP with ‘admin’ account.

Navigate to System >Users & Roles >LADAP & Click on ‘ADD IDENTITY SOURCES’

Name: DTAGLAB
Domain Name: dtaglab.local
Type: Active Directory over LDAP.
Base DN: Paste the value that copied earlier.
LADAP Server: Click on ‘SET’

Note: ‘SET’ will only populate when you fill entire information.

Click ADD LADAP SERVER

Hostname: dc.dtaglab.local
Protocol: LDAP
Port: Leave is to default.

Click on ‘Check Status’

It Failed because we did not provide the username.

Note: Even though ‘Bind Identity’ & ‘Password’ does not show mandatory asterisk, it is mandatory for LDAP.

Provide the correct credentials and you should be good to go.

Click ADD

Apply.

Verify that the ‘LDAP SERVERS’ shows ‘1’ and click on SAVE.

Click on ‘Check Status’ in Connection Type to verify.

We have added an identity source in NSX-T.
Next, move to adding users / groups from ‘Users’ OU.

Click on ‘Users’

A message appears, ‘Çhecking Authentication providers connection status’. Wait for some time until message clears. Then click on ADD.

Note: ‘Role Assignment for LDAP’ does not show up until the above message clears.

Select your domain and type nsx in next box. The AD group will auto populate. Click on Roles and select ‘Enterprise Admin’ & SAVE.

We have added ‘NSX_ADMINS’ group to ‘Enterprise Admin’ role. Any user added to this group now gets full permission to NSX-T Env.

Logout and Log back in with the user in ‘NSX_ADMINS’ OU and you should be good to go.

Additionally, NSX-T has built-in 11 Roles already added. Each Role has different permissions.

You can expand each Role to check what permissions it has.

That’s it for this post. Thank you for reading. 😊

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NSX-T 3.0 Series: Part10-Testing NSX-T Environment

June 4, 2020October 6, 2021Roshan ChavanLeave a comment

Hello Friends, We have completed all 9 parts and by now you should have your entire NSX-T 3.0 env up and running. This post will specifically focus on testing the env that we have deployed in this series.

This is how our logical topology looks like after the deployment.

All topologies in the NSX-T env can be found on NSX Manager UI.

Log into NSX Manager VIP >Networking >Networking Topology

You can filter to check specific object. Like I have filtered it for HR segment.
Export it to have a closer look.

Let’s verify north-south routing in the environment. We need to verify if the HR segment network shows as BGP learned route from 172.27.11.10 & 172.27.12.10 on respective TOR (VyOS) switches.

VyOS1

‘10.10.70.0’ network learned from ‘172.27.11.10’ and this is our Edge uplink1.

VyOS2

‘10.10.70.0’ network learned from ‘172.27.12.10’ and this is our Edge uplink2.

All good. We see the network on our TOR, which means our routing is working perfectly fine. Now, any network that gets added to NSX-T env will show up on TOR and should be reachable from TOR. Let’s check the connectivity from TOR.

Voila, we are able to ping the gateway of HR segment from both TOR. End to End (North-South) routing working as expected.

IF you don’t see newly created HR segment network on the TOR, then you have to check if the route is reaching till your Tier-0 router.

Log into edge03.dtaglab.local via putty.

Enable SSH from the console if you are not able to connect.

‘get logical-router’

We need to connect to Service Router of Tier-0 to check further details. Note that the VRF ID for Tier-0 Service Router is ‘1’

‘vrf 1’

‘get route’

We see ’10.10.70.0/24’ network as t1c (Tier-1 Connected). That means, route is reaching till Edge. If its not, you know what to troubleshoot.

Next, if route is on the Edge and not on the TOR, then you need to check BGP neighborship.

‘get bgp neighbor’

I see BGP state = Established for both BGP neighbor. (172.27.11.1 & 172.27.12.1). If not, then you need to recheck your BGP neighbor settings in NSX manager. Use ‘’traceroute’ command from vrf’s and edge to trace the packet.

That’s it for this series. I hope you enjoyed reading blogs from this series.

Happy Learning. 😊

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NSX-T 3.0 Series: Part9-Create Segments & attach to T1 gateway

June 4, 2020October 6, 2021Roshan ChavanLeave a comment

In Part 9, we move to creating a Segments (also known as logical switches in NSX-V).

Let me highlight logical switches / segments from the diagram in my earlier post.

App, Web & DB are segments in this diagram. And can have any network that you define while creating the segment. (.1) will be the gateway ip address for all VM’s that gets attached to these segments respectively. It’s a layer 2 domain since it has to cross the router to reach different network. Lets have a look at the types of Segments.

VLAN Baked Segments: In this type, you will define a VLAN ID for the segments, however you also have to make sure that the same vlan DOES exists on your physical infrastructure too.

Overlay Backed Segments: This segment can be configured without any configuration on the physical infrastructure. It gets attached to Overlay Transport Zone and traffic is carried by a tunnel between the hosts.

We will create an Overlay Backed Segment.

Log into NSX-T Manager VIP and navigate to Networking >Segments >Segments >ADD SEGMENT

Name: HR
Connectivity: Connect it to your Tier-1 Gateway that you created in earlier step.
Transport Zone: Select ‘Horizon-OverlayTZ’
Subnet: ’10.10.70.2/24’ You need to discuss this with your network admin beforehand.

Rest all parameters to be on default for now.

Click Save.

Likewise, You can create App, Web & DB segments and connect it to Tier-1 router. Attach a VM to respective segments and they should be able to ping to each other.

For example,
VM1 with an IP address 172.16.11.10/24 and gateway 172.16.11.1 – Connect it to App Segment.
VM2 with an IP address 172.16.12.10/24 and gateway 172.16.12.1 – Connect it to Web Segment.

Both of them should be able to ping each other. Here, we achieve East-West routing. Routing takes place at Tier-1 router without going North. Check the topology after creating those 3 segments.

That’s it. We have created new network for our VM’s to connect to.

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NSX-T 3.0 Series: Part8-Add a Tier-1 gateway

June 4, 2020October 6, 2021Roshan ChavanLeave a comment

In this post, we will add a Tier-1 Gateway for our Segments (Logical Switches) to connect to.

Tier-1 Gateway:

It’s a gateway that connects to Tier-0 router via its uplink and to our segments through downlink. You can define on which routes to be advertise from Tier-1 Gateway. Check my previous blog for Tier-1 gateway topology.

Log into NSX-T Manager VIP and navigate to Networking >Tier-1 Gateway > ADD TIER-1 GATEWAY

Name: Give an appropriate name.
Linked Tier-0 Gateway: Select the Tier-0 Gateway that we created in earlier post.
Edge Cluster: Select associated cluster.

Scroll down to Route and make sure that all routes are selected.

Rest all option to be default & Click on Save.

That’s it. Short and Simple. 😊

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NSX-T 3.0 Series: Part7-Add a Tier-0 gateway and configure BGP routing

June 2, 2020October 6, 2021Roshan Chavan2 Comments

We have completed 6 parts of this series. Check my earlier posts to move to Tier-0 & Tier-1 gateway.

Tier-0 Gateway:

This Gateway is used to process traffic between logical segments and physical network (TOR) by using routing protocol or static route. Here is the logical topology of Tier-0 & Tier-1 router.

Tier-0 & Tier-1 are logical routers. And each logical router has Service Router (SR) & Distributed Router (DR). Service Router is required for the services which can not be distributed like NAT, BGP, LB and Firewall. It’s a service on the Edge Node. Whereas, DR runs as a kernel module in all hypervisors also known as transport nodes and provides east-west routing.

With that, let’s get started creating Tier-0 router.

While creating Tier-0 gateway, we will configure uplink interfaces to TOR to form BGP neighborship. To connect your Uplink to TOR we need VLAN based logical switches in place. You must connect a Tier-0 router to VLAN based logical switch. VLAN ID for logical switch & TOR port for EDGE uplink should match. Here is the topology.

All components except TOR will be in same VLAN Transport Zone.

Log into NSX-T Manager VIP and navigate to Networking >Segments >Segments >ADD SEGMENT

Segment Name: Give an appropriate name.
Transport Zone: ‘Horizon-Edge-VLAN-TZ’

VLAN ID: 2711

Follow the same process to create one more segment for VLAN ID 2712.

We now move to creating Tier-0 Gateway.

Log into NSX-T Manager VIP and navigate to Networking >Tier-0 Gateways >ADD GATEWAY >Tier-0

Tier-0 Gateway Name: Horizon
HA Mode: Active-Active (default mode).

In Active-Active mode, traffic traffic is load balanced aross all members whereas ‘Active-Standby’ elects active member for traffic flow. NAT, Load Balance, Firewall & VPN is only supported in ‘Active-Standby’ Mode.

Edge Cluster: ‘HorizonEdgeClust’

Scroll down to configure additional settigns.
Click on ‘SET’ under ‘Interfaces’

Add Interface

Name: Give an appropriate name.
Type: External
IP Address: 172.27.11.10/24
Conneted To: Select the Segment for VLAN ID 2711
Edge Node: Edge03 (Since each edge will have different uplink)
MTU: 9000

Rest paramenter to be default. Click on Save.

Follow the same process to add an 2^nd uplink interface (172.27.12.10/24) for VLAN 2712.

Status for both the interfaces will show as ‘Uninitialized’ for few seconds. Click the Refresh and it should show ‘SUCCESS’

These two IP addresses will be configured on out TOR (VyOS) as a BGP neighbor.

Move to BGP section of Tier-0 Gateway to configure it further.

Local AS: 65004
InterSR iBGP: Enable (An iBGP peering gets established between both SR with Subnet (169.254.0.0/25) managed by NSX.
ECMP: Enabled
Graceful Restart: Graceful Restart & Helper.
By default, the Graceful Restart mode is set to Helper Only. Helper mode is useful for eliminating and/or reducing the disruption of traffic associated with routes learned from a neighbor capable of Graceful Restart. The neighbor must be able to preserve its forwarding table while it undergoes a restart.

BGP Neighbor: Click on Set.
IP Address: 172.27.11.1 (We have configured this as an interface IP on TOR (VyOS)
Remote AS: 65001 (Configured on TOR)
Source IP: 172.27.11.10 (Uplink IP)

Follow the same process for IP address ‘172.27.12.1’

Both Neighbors will show status as ‘Down’ until you configure BGP on your TOR.
Ran following commands on my TOR to form a neighborship.

VyOS1

set protocols bgp 65001 neighbor 172.27.11.10 update-source eth4
set protocols bgp 65001 neighbor 172.27.11.10 remote-as ‘65004’

VyOS2

set protocols bgp 65001 neighbor 172.27.12.10 update-source eth0
set protocols bgp 65001 neighbor 172.27.12.10 remote-as ‘65004’

Click Refresh and it should show ‘Success’

We have successfully deployed a Tier-0 Gateway and BGP has been established with TOR.

That’s it for this post. I hope you enjoyed reading. Comments are Welcome. 😊

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NSX-T 3.0 Series: Part6-Deploy Edge Transport Nodes & Create Edge Clusters

June 1, 2020October 6, 2021Roshan ChavanLeave a comment

We need our NSX-T networks to communicate with outside world and some network should also reach to internet. To achieve this, we need NSX Edge VM. Edge VM can perform routing services, east west routing as well as north south routing. Edge along with Tier 0 & Tier 1 routers provides routing services. In this post, we will focus on Edge deployment types and its configuration.

NSX-T Edge VM can be deployed using following methods.

NSX Manager: This method is recommended by VMware and straight forward.
vSphere Web Client: This method requires you to download the OVA file from VMware site and deploy it manually. In this method, you must manually join the Edge VM with NSX Management plane. Rest configuration remains same.
Bare Metal Edge Server: In this method, you can install an ISO on physical server using PXE server and then join it to management plane.

We will continue with VMware recommended method. Additional information can be found on here.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-NSX-T-Data-Center/3.0/installation/GUID-E9A01C68-93E7-4140-B306-19CD6806199F.html

Let’s get started with the deployment.

Create a DNS record for the new EDGE VM.

Log into NSX-T Manager VIP and navigate to System >Nodes >Edge Transport Nodes >Click on ‘ADD EDGE VM’

Provide Name, FQDN & Select Form Factor as ‘Medium’

Set the password for CLI and Root User. Make sure to set the password according to password policy.

At least 12 characters
At least one lower-case letter
At least one upper-case letter
At least one digit
At least one special character
At least five different characters

Allow SSH Login: Yes
Allow Root SSH Login: Yes

SSH Access is required for troubleshooting if routes doesn’t show up.

Select Compute Manager, Cluster & Datastore.

Select Static and enter Management IP & Gateway.

Click on ‘Select Interface’ and Select your management network.

Enter remaining information and click Next.

Edge Switch Name: Give an appropriate name.
Transport Zone:
Select ‘Horizon-OverlayTZ’. This is the same Overlay TZ that we selected for Host.
Select ‘Horizon-Edge-VLAN-TZ’. We created this for Edge. Check my earlier post.
Uplink Profile: ‘uplink-profile-2713’
IP Assignment: I have selected ‘Static’. You can also use Pool if it is per created. These will be your EDGE VM TEP IP’s.

Fill out gateway and subnet mask and move to next section.

Map you Edge uplinks with the Uplink portgroups that you have created in your vCenter. Make sure that these port groups are Trunk for all VLAN traffic to pass.

We will use an IP address from these uplink portgroups to form BGP neighborship with TOR when we create Tier-0 router. This part of the edge is little tricky and takes time understand. I have tried to keep it as simple as possible.

Click Finish and check if you see a VM getting deployed in vCenter.

Edge VM will appear under ‘Edge Transport Node’

Monitor the status.

Edge VM has been installed and configured successfully. We now move to Edge Cluster.

Navigate to System >Nodes >Edge Cluster >Click on ADD

Name: HorizonEdgeClust
Edge Cluster Profile: Default profile is selected automatically.
Transport Node: Move ‘edge03’ from Available to Selected.

Click Save.

We are done with creating Edge Cluster. This cluster will be used when we create Tier-0 Router.

You can deploy one more Edge VM and add it to edge cluster at a later stage.

That’s it for this post. I hope that the information was helpful. 😊

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NSX-T 3.0 Series: Part5-Configure NSX on Host Transport Nodes

May 30, 2020October 6, 2021Roshan ChavanLeave a comment

In my previous post, we created Transport Zones & Uplink Profiles. We need this for configuring transport nodes (Hypervisors & Edge VM). In this post, we will configure Host Transport Node.

For demo purpose, I have created ‘Horizon’ cluster & a VDS with the same name. Till now, we have completed NSX-T manager installation, added a compute manager and created Transport Zones & Uplink Profiles. Lets configure NSX for my newly installed ESXi host (esxi05.dtaglab.local).

Newly added cluster and associated hosts will show up in NSX-T under System >Nodes >Host Transport Nodes. Notice that the ‘NSX Configuration’ shows ‘Not Configured’.

Select the Host & click on ‘Configure NSX’

Next, Verify the host name and click Next.

Type: VDS
Mode: Standard
Name: Select your VDS.
Transport Zone: Select Overlay and VLAN TZ that we created in earlier post.
Uplink Profile: Select Uplink profile for host that we created earlier.
IP Assignment: As I mentioned, I have enabled DHCP on VLAN 1634 (this VLAN ID is configured in our Uplink Profile)

Enhanced Datapath Mode: Some workload/application requires accelerated network performance. You can enable this if your host has application servers/workloads that generates lot of network traffic. N-VDS supports this by performing additional configuration. Checkout VMware official documentation here.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-NSX-T-Data-Center/2.5/installation/GUID-F459E3E4-F5F2-4032-A723-07D4051EFF8D.html