Data Center Technologies: May 2019

Installation of NSX T 2.4 Compute Host Transport Nodes

Compute Host Transport Nodes are hypervisors which are prepared for NSX-T.

Once the hypervisors are prepared for NSX-T, N-VDS is instantiated on those hosts.

More about those details are here in this post.

Compute Host Connectivity and Teaming Policy

Compute hosts are where the workloads are hosted, like VMs related to the different tiers viz. Web, Application and Database.

Now we are going to configure the compute hosts for NSX-T

We need to ensure that the transport zones and up-link profiles are in place.

Transport Zone for Overlay is already defined

Uplink Profile to be used in the Compute Transport Node Profile

In the above uplink profile, the VLAN ID for Transport VLAN is set as 2

This VLAN is used for Geneve traffic and the Tunnel End Points will reside in this VLAN.

Next, we will create a Transport Node Profile which will be used for preparing the compute hosts.

Transport Node Profile for Compute Hosts

N-VDS settings of Transport Node Profile related to Compute Hosts

Notice, the N-VDS has two uplinks.

IP Pool has been created which will be used to assign IP addresses to the TEP interfaces.

The uplink profile HUP uses teaming policy based on source port ID.

You need to ensure that vmnic3 and vmnic4 are unassigned.

Unassigned vmnics on the compute hosts

Configure NSX-T on Compute Hosts

Once the pre-requisites are in place, preparing the compute hosts for NSX-T is done by selecting the cluster and then you click on Configure NSX

Select the compute host transport node profile created earlier

NSX-T will begin the installation process on the compute hosts.

NSX Install in Progress

NSX has been installed

The compute hosts have been successfully prepared for NSX-T

NSX-T 2.4 Edge Transport Node Installation

In this lab, I am going to install NSX-T Edge Transport Nodes as VMs
NSX-T Edge Node VMs could be of VM form factor or could be baremetal.

Edge Node VM connectivity using a DVS

The above diagram shows that the vnics of Edge Transport Node VMs are mapped with Distributed Port Groups of VDS.
vnic 1 is used for management purpose and is mapped to management port group of DVS.
vnic 2 - EXT 1 Port Group - This corresponds to VLAN 1 which is used to peer with physical network.
vnic 3 - EXT 2 Port Group - This corresponds to VLAN 2 which is used to peer with physical network.
vnic 4 - TEP Port Group - This corresponds to Overlay VLAN which is used for handling encapsulated traffic.

NSX-T Edge Transport Node VMs will be deployed from the vcenter UI.

Select the OVA file for edge node

Select name and location

Select compute resource

Review details

Select Edge VM deployment configuration

The NSX Edge Small VM appliance size is suitable for lab and proof-of-concept deployments.
The NSX Edge Medium appliance size is suitable for a typical production environment and can support up to 64 hypervisors.
The large appliance is for large-scale deployments with more than 64 hypervisors

Select Storage

Select networks

The four interfaces are:

1. Management

2. VLAN 1 used for peering with physical network

3. VLAN 2 used for peering with physical network

4. Overlay - this interface handles encapsulation and de-encapsulation.

Edge Node VM connectivity is covered in this post.
We need to ensure that the vnics of the Edge Transport Node VM are mapped properly with appropriate Distributed Port Groups. This can be done from the vcenter GUI.

Specify the hostname, passwords, management IP, subnet mask and gateway, DNS server IP, NTP server IP, domain search list.
Also enable SSH

Register the edge node VM with NSX manager

Once the OVA is deployed, power on the edge node VM and SSH to it.

Get the NSX Manager thumbprint

Use the NSX Manager thumbprint to register the edge

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Configure NSX on Edge Transport Node

Before we start configuring NSX on Edge Transport Node, we need to make sure that the transport zones and uplink profiles are there in place.

Transport Zones

Uplink Profiles

Next up, we will configure NSX

Select the transport zones

N-VDS for Overlay Traffic

N-VDS for VLAN 1

N-VDS for VLAN 2

Edge Transport Nodes are now configured.

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Method 2

I prefer this method as in this case there is no need to register the edge node VM with NSX-T manager.

You can also install Edge Transport Node VMs using NSX Manager GUI