NSX-T 3.0 – Page 2 – Welcome to VirtualRove.com

NSX-T 3.0 Series: Part4-Create Transport Zones & Uplink Profiles

May 28, 2020October 6, 2021Roshan ChavanLeave a comment

Let’s get to the interesting part of NSX-T. In this post, we will discuss types of Transport Zones and why it is required to create one.

My lab has fully collapsed vSphere Cluster NSX-T Deployment. I have configured NSX Manager, host transport nodes, and NSX Edge VMs on a single cluster. Each host in the cluster has two physical NICs that are configured for NSX-T. Here is the detailed design from VMware’s official site.

Check out complete documentation here…

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-NSX-T-Data-Center/3.0/installation/GUID-3770AA1C-DA79-4E95-960A-96DAC376242F.html

It is very much important to understand Transport Zones and Uplink Profiles to configure NSX-T env.

Transport Zone:

All types of hypervisors (that gets added to nsx-t env) as well as EDGE VM are called as transport nodes and these transport nodes needs to be a part of transport zones to see particular networks. All transport nodes can not see all segments (aka logical switches) in NSX-T env unless they are part of transport zones that segments are connected to. Transport zones is technique to tie infrastructure together. Let’s have a look at the types of TZ.

Overlay TZ: This transport zone is used by host as well as Edge. You can configure N-VDS (NSX Managed VDS) and VDS when a host gets added to Overlay TZ. However, you can only configure N-VDS when a edge VM gets added to Overlay TZ.

VLAN TZ: This TZ primarily focuses on VLAN uplinks used by Edge and Host transport nodes. A VLAN N-VDS gets installed when you add a node to this TZ.

With all that theory, let’s get to the lab and start configuring things.

Log into NSX-T Manager cluster VIP and navigate to System >Transport Zones >Click on + sign.

Give an appropriate name and select ‘Overlay’

Follow the same process for VLAN TZ.

NSX-T Edge and Host transport node will be added to Horizon-Overlay-TZ, however both of them will in different VLAN-TZ. We have created ‘Horizon-VLAN-TZ’ for the host. Let’s create one for the EDGE.

Switch name is optional. You can also define Named Uplink Teaming Policy here.

Named teaming policy: A named teaming policy means that for every VLAN-based logical switch or segment, you can define a specific teaming policy mode and uplinks names. This policy type gives you the flexibility to select specific uplinks depending on the traffic steering policy, for example, based on bandwidth requirement.

If you define a named teaming policy, N-VDS uses that named teaming policy if it is attached to the VLAN-based transport zone and finally selected for specific VLAN-based logical switch or segment in the host.
If you do not define any named teaming policies, N-VDS uses the default teaming policy.

I have left this blank for now.

We will now move to creating uplink profiles for Host & Edge Transport Nodes.

An uplink profile defines how you want your network traffic to go outside of NSX-T env. This helps in consistent configuration of the network adaptors.

Let’s create one for the host transport node. Navigate to System >Profiles >Uplink Profile >Click on +

Name the profile.

Scroll down to ‘Teamings’

In ‘Default Teaming’ policy type, Click on little pencil shape edit icon.

Select Load Balanced Source. And type ‘uplink-1,uplink-2’ in ‘Active Uplink’ field.

This allows multiple Active uplinks on N-VDS and each uplink can have an IP address from the mentioned VLAN id below. VMware recommends Load Balanced Source teaming policy for traffic load balancing.

MTU can be left blank here. It picks up default value of 1600.

Verify the profile.

Transport VLAN 1634 mean, all hosts attached to this uplink profile will get a Tunnel Endpoint IP from this VLAN. I have configured DHCP for this VLAN on my TOR. Will talk more about it when we create host transport node.

We must create one more uplink profile for Edge Transport Node. Follow the same process except VLAN ID as 2713. So, we have two different VLAN ID’s for Host TEP as well as Edge TEP.

Verify the EDGE Uplink profile.

That’s it for this post. We are done with crating Transport Zones and Uplink Profiles. Thank you for reading. I hope that the blog was helpful. 😊

Are you looking out for a lab to practice VMware products..? If yes, then click here to know more about our Lab-as-a-Service (LaaS).

Leave your email address in below box to receive notification on my new blogs.

NSX-T 3.0 Series: Part3-Add a Compute Manager (vCenter Server)

May 24, 2020October 6, 2021Roshan ChavanLeave a comment

We have covered 2 parts till now, let’s get to the Part 3 of the series.

Unlike NSX-V (one to one relation with vCenter), you can add multiple compute managers to your NSX-T environment. NSX-T polls all compute managers to detect changes such as new hosts, clusters etc. You can also add standalone ESXi hosts as well as KVM hypervisor. Here is the list of standalone hosts that can be added to NSX-T env.

Log into NSX-T VIP and navigate to System >Fabric >Compute Managers and click on ADD

Fill out the required information and click on Save.

If you left the thumbprint value blank, you are prompted to accept the server provided thumbprint.

After you accept the thumbprint, it takes a few seconds for NSX-T Data Center to discover and register the vCenter Server resources.

It takes some time for NSX-T to register the vCenter and pull all the objects. Make sure to check the status as ‘Registered’ and connection status as ‘UP’.

All hosts from compute manager (vCenter) appears in ‘Host Transport Nodes’. You should also see all clusters from the vCenter. Let’s verify the same.

System >Fabric >Nodes >Host Transport Nodes

Change the ‘Managed by’ drop down to your vCenter.

Verify all clusters and hosts.

We are good here.

Change the ‘Managed by’ drop down to ‘None: Standalone Hosts’ to add standalone ESXi hosts and KVM hypervisors.

That’s it. We have added a compute manager to NSX-T env. Will continue the configuration in my next blog.

Hope the blog was information. Thank you.

Are you looking out for a lab to practice VMware products..? If yes, then click here to know more about our Lab-as-a-Service (LaaS).

Subscribe for my latest blogs…

NSX-T 3.0 Series: Part2-Add additional NSX-T Mangers & Configure VIP

May 24, 2020October 6, 2021Roshan ChavanLeave a comment

In earlier post, we discussed Part1 from the NSX-T 3.0 series. This post will focus on Part2 of the series.

We have completed NSX-T manager installation in my previous post. Let’s add an additional NSX-T manager for high availability.

Enter the appliance information. Make sure that the DNS record is created.

Enter the DNS as well as NTP server. Choose the deployment form factor & click Next.

Compute information and network.

Enable SSH & Root. Enter the password as per the password policy. And install the appliance.

Check the status of the appliance in UI once it is up and running.

Click on View Details and make sure that everything shows UP here.

Follow the same procedure for 3^rd (nsx01c.dtaglab.local) appliance.

Next, Set the VIP (Virtual IP) for the cluster. NSX-T Managers Cluster offer a built-in VIP for high availability. The VIP will be connected automatically to the active NSX Manager and rest two will be on stand by.

Enter the IP add >Save.

Create a DNS records for the VIP too.

Check the cluster status. It should show stable with all 3 appliances up and running.

Let’s check it on CLI.

SSH to VIP or any NSX-T manager IP and run few commands.

‘get managers’

‘get cluster config’

All 3 nodes should show up here with the node status as ‘JOINED’

‘get cluster status’

Overall status: Stable

All 3 members status: UP

‘get cluster status verbose’ This command will give you detailed information on each node.

We are done with the NSX-T configuration here. Will move further in my next post. Thank you for checking, I hope it was informational.

Share it if you like it.

Are you looking out for a lab to practice VMware products..? If yes, then click here to know more about our Lab-as-a-Service (LaaS).

Subscribe for my latest blogs…

NSX-T 3.0 Series: Part1-NSX-T Manager Installation

May 24, 2020October 6, 2021Roshan ChavanLeave a comment

VMware NSX-T 3.0 is a newly launched product version of NSX-T. It is highly scalable network virtualization platform. Unlike NSX-V, it can be configured for multi-hypervisor & workloads running in public could. This blog is divided into series of parts, which will help you to successfully install and configure NSX-T 3.0 environment. Like my other blogs, even this blog will focus on practical with limited theoretical information. Here is the VMware official documentation for your reference.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-NSX-T-Data-Center/index.html

With that lets get started…

I have nested vSphere 7 and VSAN 7 configured in my existing setup. I will use this lab to deploy and configure NSX-T env.

This series of NSX-T 3.0 includes following parts.

Let’s start with Part1-NSX-T Manager Installation.

NSX Manager provides a web-based UI to manage your NSX-T env. Let’s check the NSX Manager VM form factor and its compute requirements.

Procedure:

Obtain NSX-T Data Center OVA file from VMware downloads and deploy it into your vSphere env.

Upload the downloaded OVA file here.

Select appropriate name and location of the VM.

Select the form factor here.

Storage

Select your management network here.

Enter the password for Root and Admin user. Make sure your password meets the complexity rule or the deployment will fail.

Fill out network and DNS info. Make sure to create a DNS record for your FQDN. Leave the Role name to default.

No need to fill anything here.

Next & Finish.

Browse to the NSX Manager FQDN once it is up and running. We are good to configure it further. That’s it for this post.

Share it if you like it.

Are you looking out for a lab to practice VMware products..? If yes, then click here to know more about our Lab-as-a-Service (LaaS).

Subscribe for my latest blogs…