This walkthrough takes a look at installing VMware NSX 6.0 for vSphere 5.5. This series of posts will show the simplicity required in deploying a multi-tier application and delivering Network Function Virtualization to your network. This will allow application agility and scalability whilst alleviating reliance on traditional application and network architectures.
This demo assumes the NSX manager is installed as a VM and has IP connectivity into the management subnet of a distributed vSwitch. Below is the topology of the lab and the clusters managed by vCenter.
Firstly we will integrate the NSX manager into vCenter. The NSX manager provides the management plane for the environment. It opens up a REST API and vCenter plugin for use by either a customer or commercial Cloud Management Platform or an existing vCenter environment. Some examples of out of the box integration with CMPs are vCAC or Openstack via the neutron plugin.
First step is to install the plugin for Networking and Security into vCenter. This is done by logging into the NSX manager web interface with the user and password set during installation.
Upon login select Manage vCenter Registration. This opens up management options.
On the left side under Components select NSX Management Service and select Edit under vCenter Server.
The following information is required – vCenter Server Name, vCenter User Name and Password. When filled click OK to proceed.
Ensure the fingerprint is correct and the vCenter server you are connecting to is the machine you want to. This mapping to vCenter provides an administrative domain for NSX. NSX has maximums, but many of them are far larger than vCenter maximums.
Within the Home section of the vSphere web interface you can see Networking & Security icon. This provides you with a number features of the NSX for vSphere product.
Following the setup and connection of vCenter and NSX Manager we will deploy the NSX Controllers followed by the preparation of the cluster will commence. It is then where an administrator will define VXLAN VNI ranges, VTEP VMk interface settings and communication pools.
As demonstrated it is very easy to associate the NSX manager to vCenter and establish the beginnings of your NSX enabled network.
hi antony, could you send me the link where I can download NSX to install it on my infrastructure? thanks a lot
yay finally got this far 🙂
Hi Anthony,
I’m looking for some assistance with a nested NSX lab I’m trying to build. I have followed the examples on the net but seem to be hitting a silly problem getting basic VXLAN up and running. I’m sure it’s something simple. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I have a single ESXi 5.5 running…
– vCenter Server Appliance
– Nested ESXi host 1 (compute node 1)
– Windows Server 1
– Nested ESXi host 2 (compute node 2)
– Windows Server 2
– Nested ESXi host 3 (management and edge node)
– NSX Manager
I have kept the base networking simple; the vCenter and nested ESXi hosts have a single vNIC (VM Network) and everything is sitting in 192.168.1.0/24. I then put all three hosts in a single cluster and setup a single Distributed Switch.
I have managed to:
– Register the vCenter with the NSX Manager
– Deployed a single NSX Controller (installed on nested host 3, also on 192.168.1.0/24)
– Prepared the hosts by installing the VIBs
– Created VTEP VMkernel interfaces (again I kept these on the same subnet – 192.168.1.0/24)
– Set Segment ID Pool (5000-5999)
– Created a new Transport Zone (unicast mode)
– Created a new Logical Switch (unicast mode)
– Connected Windows Server vNICs to Logical Switch
Ping tests between VTEP IPs works fine but VM traffic over VXLAN is not working.
Can anyone see anything obviously witch the above? Or could point be in the direction of what to check? I have hit the wall.
Many thanks
Bobby