VMworld 2016 has come and gone and one of the best releases of new software (I could be bias here) is PowerNSX. PowerNSX is a PowerShell module that abstracts the VMware NSX for vSphere API to a set of easily used PowerShell functions. In January 2016, PowerNSX v1 was release. At that time it included around 100 cmdlets that covered a fraction of functions but just enough to operate NSX for vSphere. After some time and maturing it is time to see version 2 in the wild.
Version 2 covers a lot more functions and inturn delivers 208 cmdlets to help provide a more well rounded tool for automation of NSX for vSphere.
New features included in version 2:
- NSX Manager operations
- IP Pool operations
- Host and cluster prepartions
- Transport Zone definition
- Load Balancer statistics
- Security Tags
- Service Groups
- BGP support on DLR/Edge
As a result the core functionality of PowerNSX covers the areas listed below:
- NSX Manager setup
- Host Preparation
- Logical Switching
- Logical Routing
- NSX Edge Gateway
- Dynamic Routing
- Distributed Firewall
- Service Composer
- NSX Edge Load Balancer
- NSX Edge SSL VPN
With PowerNSX being a key part to my personal day to day operations I have stopped using the GUI for operations that are included within the PowerNSX module. It has become such a part of my workflow. Some simple tasks include creating new Security Groups, populating them, and then utilising them in a Security Group.
Some of the cool things created by PowerNSX by people:
- Guided NSX installer
- BDD tests to assert an NSX environments health
- Automated topology diagramming
- SDDC lockdown
- DFW memory heap utilisation checks
- Application segmentation
The author of PowerNSX, Nick Bradford, and I presented at VMworld USA 2016. The session introduced PowerNSX and how to operateThe session NET7514 and NET7514R was amongst some of the top rated session of VMworld (4.73 and 5.0 ratings). If you’re interested check it out here
PowerNSX resources
Download PowerNSX over at the VMware Github repository
Learn more about PowerNSX on the official Wiki
Find out more about PowerNSX from yours truly here
VMworld 2016: NET7514: PowerNSX and PyNSXv: Using PowerShell and Python for Automation and Management of VMware NSX for vSphere session link