NSX-T Data Center

Installation Guide
Modified on 12 AUG 2021
VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.0
NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide

You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at:

https://docs.vmware.com/

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Copyright 2021 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright and trademark information.

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 Contents

NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide 8

1 Overview of NSX-T Data Center 9

Key Concepts 10
NSX Manager 13
Configure User Interface Settings 16

2 NSX-T Data Center Installation Workflows 18

NSX-T Data Center Workflow for vSphere 18
NSX-T Data Center Installation Workflow for KVM 19
NSX-T Data Center Configuration Workflow for Bare Metal Server 19

3 Preparing for Installation 21

System Requirements 21
NSX Manager VM and Host Transport Node System Requirements 21
NSX Edge VM System Requirements 25
NSX Edge Bare Metal Requirements 27
Bare Metal Server System Requirements 29
Bare Metal Linux Container Requirements 30
Ports and Protocols 30

4 NSX Manager Installation 31

Modifying the Default Admin Password Expiration 35

5 Installing NSX-T Data Center on vSphere 37

Install NSX Manager and Available Appliances 37
Install NSX Manager on ESXi Using the Command-Line OVF Tool 41
Configure NSX-T Data Center to Display the GRUB Menu at Boot Time 47
Log In to the Newly Created NSX Manager 47
Add a Compute Manager 48
Deploy NSX Manager Nodes to Form a Cluster from the UI 51
Configure a Virtual IP Address for a Cluster 58
Configuring an External Load Balancer 60
Disable Snapshots on an NSX Appliance 61

6 Installing NSX-T Data Center on KVM 62

Set Up KVM 62
Manage Your Guest VMs in the KVM CLI 65

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Deploy an NSX Manager Cluster on KVM 66

Install NSX Manager on KVM 66
Form an NSX Manager Cluster Using the CLI 72
Install Third-Party Packages on a KVM Host 74
Verify Open vSwitch Version on RHEL, CentOS, or Oracle Linux KVM Hosts 76
Verify Open vSwitch Version on SUSE KVM Hosts 77
Verify Open vSwitch Version on Ubuntu KVM Hosts 78

7 Configuring Bare Metal Server to Use NSX-T Data Center 80

Install Third-Party Packages on a Bare Metal Server 80
Create Application Interface for Bare Metal Server Workloads 82
Ansible Server Configuration for Bare Metal Server 83
Secure Workloads on Windows Server 2016 Bare Metal Servers 83

8 NSX Manager Cluster Requirements 87

NSX Manager Cluster Requirements for Single, Dual, and Multiple Sites 87

9 Installing NSX Edge 91

NSX Edge Installation Requirements 91
NSX Edge Networking Setup 94
NSX Edge Installation Methods 100
Create an NSX Edge Transport Node 101
Create an NSX Edge Cluster 106
Install an NSX Edge on ESXi Using the vSphere GUI 107
Install NSX Edge on ESXi Using the Command-Line OVF Tool 111
Install NSX Edge via ISO File as a Virtual Appliance 116
Install NSX Edge on Bare Metal 119
Prepare the PXE Server for NSX Edge 120
Install NSX Edge Automatically via ISO File 124
Install NSX Edge Interactively via ISO File 127
Intel QAT Support for IPSec VPN Bulk Cryptography 130
Join NSX Edge with the Management Plane 131
Configure an NSX Edge as a Transport Node 132

10 Transport Zones and Transport Nodes 134

Create Transport Zones 134
Create an IP Pool for Tunnel Endpoint IP Addresses 136
Enhanced Data Path 138
Configuring Profiles 141
Create an Uplink Profile 141
Configuring Network I/O Control Profiles 145

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Add an NSX Edge Cluster Profile 154

Add an NSX Edge Bridge Profile 155
Add a Transport Node Profile 156
VMkernel Migration to an N-VDS Switch 161
VMkernel Migration Errors 166
Create a Standalone Host or Bare Metal Server Transport Node 170
Prepare a vSphere Distributed Switch for NSX-T 178
Configure a Managed Host Transport Node 179
Configure an ESXi Host Transport Node with Link Aggregation 185
Verify the Transport Node Status 187
Migrate ESXi VMkernel and Physical Adapters 189
NSX Maintenance Mode 190
Switch Visualization 190
Health Check VLAN ID Ranges and MTU Settings 191
View Bidirectional Forwarding Detection Status 194
Manual Installation of NSX-T Data Center Kernel Modules 195
Manually Install NSX-T Data Center Kernel Modules on ESXi Hypervisors 195
Manually Install NSX-T Data Center Software Packages on Ubuntu KVM Hypervisors 199
Manually Install NSX-T Data Center Software Packages on RHEL, CentOS, and Oracle Linux
KVM Hypervisors 200
Manually Install NSX-T Data Center Software Packages on SUSE KVM Hypervisors 201
Deploy a Fully Collapsed vSphere Cluster NSX-T 202
VLAN Micro-Segmentation 213

11 Host Profile integration with NSX-T 215

Auto Deploy Stateless Cluster 215
High-Level Tasks to Auto Deploy Stateless Cluster 215
Prerequisites and Supported Versions 216
Create a Custom Image Profile for Stateless Hosts 217
Associate the Custom Image with the Reference and Target Hosts 218
Set Up Network Configuration on the Reference Host 219
Configure the Reference Host as a Transport Node in NSX-T 220
Extract and Verify the Host Profile 223
Verify the Host Profile Association with Stateless Cluster 224
Update Host Customization 224
Trigger Auto Deployment on Target Hosts 225
Troubleshoot Host Profile and Transport Node Profile 234
Stateful Servers 237
Supported NSX-T and ESXi versions 237
Prepare a Target Stateful Cluster 238
VMkernel Migration with Host Profile Applied 239
VMkernel Migration without Host Profile Applied 241

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12 Getting Started with NSX Cloud 242

NSX Cloud Architecture and Components 242
Overview of Deploying NSX Cloud 244
Deploy NSX-T Data Center On-Prem Components 244
Install CSM 244
Join CSM with NSX Manager 245
Enable Access to Ports and Protocols 246
(Optional) Configure Proxy Servers 247
(Optional) Set Up vIDM for Cloud Service Manager 247
Add your Public Cloud Account 248
Adding your Microsoft Azure Subscription 248
Adding your AWS Account 254
Deploy the NSX Public Cloud Gateway 258
Deploying PCG in a VNet 261
Deploying PCG in a VPC 263
Link to a Transit VPC or VNet 267
Auto-Configurations after PCG Deployment or Linking 268
(Optional) Install NSX Tools on your Workload VMs 274
Undeploy or Unlink PCG 274
Remove the nsx.network tag in the Public Cloud 275
Disable Quarantine Policy in the NSX Enforced Mode 275
Delete User-created Logical Entities 276
Undeploy or Unlink from CSM 276
Troubleshooting PCG Undeployment 276

13 Getting Started with Federation 277

Federation Requirements 277
Install the Global Manager 278
Configuring the Global Manager and Local Managers 280
Make the Global Manager Active 280
Add a Location 280
Remove a Location 284

14 Uninstalling NSX-T Data Center from a Host Transport Node 286

Verify Host Network Mappings for Uninstall 286
Uninstall NSX-T Data Center from a vSphere Cluster 288
Uninstall NSX-T Data Center from a Host in a vSphere Cluster 292
Uninstall NSX-T Data Center from a Standalone Host 295
Triggering Uninstallation from the vSphere Web Client 297

15 Troubleshooting Installation Issues 301

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Installation Fails Due to Insufficient Space in Bootbank on ESXi Host 301

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NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide

The NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide describes how to install the VMware NSX-T™ Data
Center product. The information includes step-by-step configuration instructions and suggested
best practices.

Intended Audience
This information is intended for anyone who wants to install or use NSX-T Data Center. This
information is written for experienced system administrators who are familiar with virtual machine
technology and network virtualization concepts.

Technical Publications Glossary

VMware Technical Publications provides a glossary of terms that might be unfamiliar to you.
For definitions of terms as they are used in VMware technical documentation, go to https://
www.vmware.com/topics/glossary.

Related Documentation
You can find the VMware NSX® Intelligence™ documentation at https://docs.vmware.com/en/
VMware-NSX-Intelligence/index.html. The NSX Intelligence 1.0 content was initially included and
released with the NSX-T Data Center 2.5 documentation set.

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Overview of NSX-T Data Center
1
In the same way that server virtualization programmatically creates and manages virtual
machines, NSX-T Data Center network virtualization programmatically creates and managed
software-based virtual networks.

With network virtualization, the functional equivalent of a network hypervisor reproduces the
complete set of Layer 2 through Layer 7 networking services (for example, switching, routing,
access control, firewalling, QoS) in software. As a result, these services can be programmatically
assembled in any arbitrary combination, to produce unique, isolated virtual networks in a matter
of seconds.

NSX-T Data Center works by implementing three separate but integrated planes: management,
control, and data. These planes are implemented as a set of processes, modules, and agents
residing on two types of nodes: NSX Manager and transport nodes.

n Every node hosts a management plane agent.

n NSX Manager nodes host API services and the management plane cluster daemons.

n NSX Controller nodes host the central control plane cluster daemons.

n Transport nodes host local control plane daemons and forwarding engines.

NSX Manager provides a three-node clustering support which merges policy manager,
management, and central control services on a cluster of nodes. NSX Manager clustering
provides high availability of the user interface and API. The convergence of management and
control plane nodes reduces the number of virtual appliances that must be deployed and
managed by the NSX-T Data Center administrator.

The NSX Manager appliance is available in three different sizes for different deployment
scenarios.

n A small appliance for lab or proof-of-concept deployments.

n A medium appliance for deployments up to 64 hosts and a large appliance for customers
who deploy to a large-scale environment.

See NSX Manager VM and Host Transport Node System Requirements and Configuration
maximums tool.

This chapter includes the following topics:

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n Key Concepts

n NSX Manager

Key Concepts
The common NSX-T Data Center concepts that are used in the documentation and user interface.

Compute Manager

A compute manager is an application that manages resources such as hosts and VMs. One
example is vCenter Server.

Control Plane

Computes runtime state based on configuration from the management plane. Control
plane disseminates topology information reported by the data plane elements, and pushes
stateless configuration to forwarding engines.

Data Plane

Performs stateless forwarding or transformation of packets based on tables populated by

the control plane. Data plane reports topology information to the control plane and maintains
packet level statistics.

External Network

A physical network or VLAN not managed by NSX-T Data Center. You can link your logical
network or overlay network to an external network through an NSX Edge. For example, a
physical network in a customer data center or a VLAN in a physical environment.

Logical Port Egress

Outbound network traffic leaving the VM or logical network is called egress because traffic is
leaving virtual network and entering the data center.

Logical Port Ingress

Inbound network traffic leaving the data center and entering the VM is called ingress traffic.

Logical Router
NSX-T Data Center routing entity.

Logical Router Port

Logical network port to which you can attach a logical switch port or an uplink port to a
physical network.

Logical Switch

Entity that provides virtual Layer 2 switching for VM interfaces and Gateway interfaces. A
logical switch gives tenant network administrators the logical equivalent of a physical Layer
2 switch, allowing them to connect a set of VMs to a common broadcast domain. A logical

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switch is a logical entity independent of the physical hypervisor infrastructure and spans
many hypervisors, connecting VMs regardless of their physical location.

In a multi-tenant cloud, many logical switches might exist side-by-side on the same hypervisor
hardware, with each Layer 2 segment isolated from the others. Logical switches can be
connected using logical routers, and logical routers can provide uplink ports connected to the
external physical network.

Logical Switch Port

Logical switch attachment point to establish a connection to a virtual machine network

interface or a logical router interface. The logical switch port reports applied switching profile,
port state, and link status.

Management Plane

Provides single API entry point to the system, persists user configuration, handles user
queries, and performs operational tasks on all of the management, control, and data plane
nodes in the system. Management plane is also responsible for querying, modifying, and
persisting use configuration.

NSX Edge Cluster

Collection of NSX Edge node appliances that have the same settings as protocols involved in
high-availability monitoring.

NSX Edge Node

Component with the functional goal is to provide computational power to deliver the IP
routing and the IP services functions.

NSX Managed Virtual Distributed Switch or KVM Open vSwitch

The NSX managed virtual distributed switch (N-VDS, previously known as hostswitch)or OVS
is used for shared NSX Edge and compute cluster. N-VDS is required for overlay traffic
configuration.

An N-VDS has two modes: standard and enhanced datapath. An enhanced datapath N-
VDS has the performance capabilities to support NFV (Network Functions Virtualization)
workloads.

NSX Manager

Node that hosts the API services, the management plane, and the agent services. NSX
Manager is an appliance included in the NSX-T Data Center installation package. You can
deploy the appliance in the role of NSX Manager or nsx-cloud-service-manager. Currently,
the appliance only supports one role at a time.

NSX Manager Cluster

A cluster of NSX Managers that can provide high availability.

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Open vSwitch (OVS)

Open source software switch that acts as a virtual switch within XenServer, Xen, KVM, and
other Linux-based hypervisors.

Overlay Logical Network

Logical network implemented using Layer 2-in-Layer 3 tunneling such that the topology seen
by VMs is decoupled from that of the physical network.

Physical Interface (pNIC)

Network interface on a physical server that a hypervisor is installed on.

Segment

Entity that provides virtual Layer 2 switching for VM interfaces and Gateway interfaces. A
segment gives tenant network administrators the logical equivalent of a physical Layer 2
switch, allowing them to connect a set of VMs to a common broadcast domain. A segment
is a logical entity independent of the physical hypervisor infrastructure and spans many
hypervisors, connecting VMs regardless of their physical location. A segment is also known
as a logical switch.

In a multi-tenant cloud, many segments might exist side-by-side on the same hypervisor
hardware, with each Layer 2 segment isolated from the others. Segments can be connected
using gateways, which can provide connectivity to the external physical network.

Tier-0 Gateway or Tier-0 Logical Router

The Tier-0 Gateway in the Networking tab interfaces with the physical network and can
be realized as an active-active or active-standby cluster. The Tier-0 gateway runs BGP and
peers with physical routers. In active-standby mode the gateway can also provide stateful
services.

Tier-1 Gateway or Tier-1 Logical Router

The Tier-1 Gateway in the Networking tab connects to one Tier-0 gateway for northbound
connectivity and one or more overlay networks for southbound connectivity. A Tier-1
gateway can be an active-standby cluster that provides stateful services.

Transport Zone
Collection of transport nodes that defines the maximum span for logical switches. A transport
zone represents a set of similarly provisioned hypervisors and the logical switches that
connect VMs on those hypervisors. It also has been registered with the NSX-T Data Center
management plane and has NSX-T Data Center modules installed. For a hypervisor host or
NSX Edge to be part of the NSX-T Data Center overlay, it must be added to the NSX-T Data
Center transport zone.

Transport Node

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A node capable of participating in an NSX-T Data Center overlay or NSX-T Data Center VLAN
networking. For a KVM host, you can preconfigure the N-VDS, or you can have NSX Manager
perform the configuration. For an ESXi host, NSX Manager always configures the N-VDS.

Uplink Profile

Defines policies for the links from hypervisor hosts to NSX-T Data Center logical switches or
from NSX Edge nodes to top-of-rack switches. The settings defined by uplink profiles might
include teaming policies, active/standby links, the transport VLAN ID, and the MTU setting.
The transport VLAN set in the uplink profile tags overlay traffic only and the VLAN ID is used
by the TEP endpoint.

VM Interface (vNIC)

Network interface on a virtual machine that provides connectivity between the virtual guest
operating system and the standard vSwitch or vSphere distributed switch. The vNIC can be
attached to a logical port. You can identify a vNIC based on its Unique ID (UUID).

Virtual Tunnel Endpoint

Each hypervisor has a Virtual Tunnel Endpoint (VTEP) responsible for encapsulating the
VM traffic inside a VLAN header and routing the packet to a destination VTEP for further
processing. Traffic can be routed to another VTEP on a different host or the NSX Edge
gateway to access the physical network.

NSX Manager
The NSX Manager provides a web-based user interface where you can manage your NSX-T
environment. It also hosts the API server that processes API calls.

The NSX Manager interface provides two modes for configuring resources:

n Policy mode

n Manager mode

Accessing Policy Mode and Manager Mode

If present, you can use the Policy and Manager buttons to switch between the Policy and
Manager modes. Switching modes controls which menus items are available to you.

n By default, if your environment contains only objects created through Policy mode, your user
interface is in Policy mode and you do not see the Policy and Manager buttons.

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n By default, if your environment contains any objects created through Manager mode, you see
the Policy and Manager buttons in the top-right corner.

These defaults can be changed by modifying the user interface settings. See Configure User
Interface Settings for more information.

The same System tab is used in the Policy and Manager interfaces. If you modify Edge nodes,
Edge clusters, or transport zones, it can take up to 5 minutes for those changes to be visible
in Policy mode. You can synchronize immediately using POST /policy/api/v1/infra/sites/default/
enforcement-points/default?action=reload.

When to Use Policy Mode or Manager Mode

Be consistent about which mode you use. There are a few reasons to use one mode over the
other.

n If you are deploying a new NSX-T Data Center environment, using Policy mode to create and
manage your environment is the best choice in most situations.

n Some features are not available in Policy mode. If you need these features, use Manager
mode for all configurations.

n If you plan to use Federation, use Policy mode to create all objects. Global Manager supports
only Policy mode.

n If you are upgrading from an earlier version of NSX-T Data Center and your configurations
were created using the Advanced Networking & Security tab, use Manager mode.

The menu items and configurations that were found under the Advanced Networking &
Security tab are available in NSX-T Data Center 3.0 in Manager mode.

Important If you decide to use Policy mode, use it to create all objects. Do not use Manager
mode to create objects.

Similarly, if you need to use Manager mode, use it to create all objects. Do not use Policy mode
to create objects.

Table 1-1. When to Use Policy Mode or Manager Mode

Policy Mode Manager Mode

Most new deployments should use Policy mode. Deployments which were created using the advanced
Federation supports only Policy mode. If you want to use interface, for example, upgrades from versions before
Federation, or might use it in future, use Policy mode. Policy mode was available.

NSX Cloud deployments Deployments which integrate with other plugins. For
example, NSX Container Plug-in, Openstack, and other
cloud management platforms.

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Table 1-1. When to Use Policy Mode or Manager Mode (continued)

Policy Mode Manager Mode

Networking features available in Policy mode only: Networking features available in Manager mode only:
n DNS Services and DNS Zones n Forwarding up timer
n VPN
n Forwarding policies for NSX Cloud

Security features available in Policy mode only: Security features available in Manager mode only:
n Endpoint Protection n Bridge Firewall
n Network Introspection (East-West Service Insertion)
n Context Profiles
n L7 applications
n FQDN
n New Distributed Firewall and Gateway Firewall Layout
n Categories
n Auto service rules
n Drafts

Names for Objects Created in Policy Mode and Manager Mode

The objects you create have different names depending on which interface was used to create
them.

Table 1-2. Object Names

Objects Created Using Policy Mode Objects Created Using Manager Mode

Segment Logical switch

Tier-1 gateway Tier-1 logical router

Tier-0 gateway Tier-0 logical router

Group NSGroup, IP Sets, MAC Sets

Security Policy Firewall section

Gateway firewall Edge firewall

Policy and Manager APIs

The NSX Manager provides two APIs: Policy and Manager.

n The Policy API contains URIs that begin with /policy/api.

n The Manager API contains URIs that begin with /api.

For more information about using the Policy API, see the NSX-T Policy API Getting Started Guide.

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Security
NSX Manager has the following security features:

n NSX Manager has a built-in user account called admin, which has access rights to all
resources, but does not have rights to the operating system to install software. NSX-T
upgrade files are the only files allowed for installation. You cannot edit the rights of or delete
the admin user. Note that you can change the username admin.

n NSX Manager supports session time-out and automatic user logout. NSX Manager does not
support session lock. Initiating a session lock can be a function of the workstation operating
system being used to access NSX Manager. Upon session termination or user logout, users
are redirected to the login page.

n Authentication mechanisms implemented on NSX-T follow security best practices and are
resistant to replay attacks. The secure practices are deployed systematically. For example,
sessions IDs and tokens on NSX Manager for each session are unique and expire after the
user logs out or after a period of inactivity. Also, every session has a time record and the
session communications are encrypted to prevent session hijacking.

Configure User Interface Settings

There are two possible modes in the NSX Manager web interface: Policy and Manager. You can
control which mode is default, and if users can switch between them using the user interface
mode buttons.

If present, you can use the Policy and Manager buttons to switch between the Policy and
Manager modes. Switching modes controls which menus items are available to you.

n By default, if your environment contains only objects created through Policy mode, your user
interface is in Policy mode and you do not see the Policy and Manager buttons.

n By default, if your environment contains any objects created through Manager mode, you see
the Policy and Manager buttons in the top-right corner.

You can use the User Interface Settings to modify these defaults.

See NSX Manager for more information about the modes.

Procedure

1 From your browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-
ip-address>.

2 Navigate to System > User Interface Settings and click Edit.

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3 Modify the user interface settings: Toggle Visibility and Default Mode.

Toggle Visibility Description

Visible to All Users If Manager mode objects are present, the mode buttons are visible to all
users.

Visible to Users with the Enterprise If Manager mode objects are present, the mode buttons are visible to users
Admin Role with the Enterprise Admin role.

Hidden from All Users Even if Manager mode objects are present, the mode buttons are hidden
from all users.

Default Mode can be set to Policy or Manager.

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NSX-T Data Center Installation
Workflows 2
You can install NSX-T Data Center on vSphere or KVM hosts. You can also configure a bare metal
server to use NSX-T Data Center.

To install or configure any of the hypervisors or bare metal, follow the recommended tasks in the
workflows.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n NSX-T Data Center Workflow for vSphere

n NSX-T Data Center Installation Workflow for KVM

n NSX-T Data Center Configuration Workflow for Bare Metal Server

NSX-T Data Center Workflow for vSphere

Use the checklist to track your installation progress on a vSphere host.

Follow the recommended order of procedures.

1 Review the NSX Manager installation requirements. See Chapter 4 NSX Manager Installation.

2 Configure the necessary ports and protocols. See Ports and Protocols.

3 Install the NSX Manager. See Install NSX Manager and Available Appliances.

4 Log in to the newly created NSX Manager. See Log In to the Newly Created NSX Manager .

5 Configure a compute manager. See Add a Compute Manager.

6 Deploy additional NSX Manager nodes to form a cluster. See Deploy NSX Manager Nodes to
Form a Cluster from the UI.

7 Review the NSX Edge installation requirements. See NSX Edge Installation Requirements.

8 Install NSX Edges. See Install an NSX Edge on ESXi Using the vSphere GUI.

9 Create an NSX Edge cluster. See Create an NSX Edge Cluster.

10 Create transport zones. See Create Transport Zones.

11 Create host transport nodes. See Create a Standalone Host or Bare Metal Server Transport
Node or Configure a Managed Host Transport Node.

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NSX-T Data Center Installation Workflow for KVM

Use the checklist to track your installation progress on a KVM host.

Follow the recommended order of procedures.

1 Prepare your KVM environment. See Set Up KVM.

2 Review the NSX Manager installation requirements. See Chapter 4 NSX Manager Installation.

3 Configure the necessary ports and protocols. See Ports and Protocols.

4 Install the NSX Manager. See Install NSX Manager on KVM.

5 Log in to the newly created NSX Manager. See Log In to the Newly Created NSX Manager .

6 Configure third-party packages on the KVM host. See Install Third-Party Packages on a KVM
Host.

7 Deploy additional NSX Manager nodes to form a cluster. See Form an NSX Manager Cluster
Using the CLI .

8 Review the NSX Edge installation requirements. See NSX Edge Installation Requirements.

9 Install NSX Edges. See Install NSX Edge on Bare Metal .

10 Create an NSX Edge cluster. See Create an NSX Edge Cluster.

11 Create transport zones. See Create Transport Zones.

12 Create host transport nodes. See Create a Standalone Host or Bare Metal Server Transport
Node.

A virtual switch is created on each host. The management plane sends the host certificates to
the control plane, and the management plane pushes control plane information to the hosts.
Each host connects to the control plane over SSL presenting its certificate. The control plane
validates the certificate against the host certificate provided by the management plane. The
controllers accept the connection upon successful validation.

Post-Installation
When the hosts are transport nodes, you can create transport zones, logical switches, logical
routers, and other network components through the NSX Manager UI or API at any time. When
NSX Edges and hosts join the management plane, the NSX-T Data Center logical entities and
configuration state are pushed to the NSX Edges and hosts automatically.

For more information, see the NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide.

NSX-T Data Center Configuration Workflow for Bare Metal

Server
Use the checklist to track your progress when configuring bare metal server to use NSX-T Data
Center.

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Follow the recommended order of procedures.

1 Review the bare metal requirements. See Bare Metal Server System Requirements.

2 Configure the necessary ports and protocols. See Ports and Protocols.

3 Install the NSX Manager. See Install NSX Manager on KVM.

4 Configure third-party packages on the bare metal server. See Install Third-Party Packages on
a Bare Metal Server.

5 Create host transport nodes. See Create a Standalone Host or Bare Metal Server Transport
Node.

A virtual switch is created on each host. The management plane sends the host certificates to
the control plane, and the management plane pushes control plane information to the hosts.
Each host connects to the control plane over SSL presenting its certificate. The control plane
validates the certificate against the host certificate provided by the management plane. The
controllers accept the connection upon successful validation.

6 Create an application interface for bare metal server workload. See Create Application
Interface for Bare Metal Server Workloads.

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Preparing for Installation
3
Before installing NSX-T Data Center, make sure your environment is prepared.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n System Requirements

n Ports and Protocols

System Requirements
Before you install NSX-T Data Center, your environment must meet specific hardware and
resource requirements.

NSX Manager VM and Host Transport Node System Requirements

Before you install an NSX Manager or other NSX-T Data Center appliances, make sure that your
environment meets the supported requirements.

Supported Hypervisors as Host Transport Nodes

Hypervisor Version CPU Cores Memory

vSphere Supported vSphere version 4 16 GB

CentOS Linux KVM 7.6 4 16 GB

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.7, 7.6 4 16 GB

(RHEL) KVM

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3, 12 SP4 4 16 GB

KVM

Ubuntu KVM 16.04, 18.04.2 LTS 4 16 GB

Note To avoid memory errors on a hypervisor host running vSphere ESXi version 7.x.x, ensure
that at least 16 GB is available before deploying NSX Manager.

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Table 3-1. Supported Hosts for NSX Managers

Support Description Hypervisor

ESXi For supported hosts, see the VMware Product

Interoperability Matrices.

KVM RHEL 7.6 and Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS

For ESXi hosts, NSX-T Data Center supports the Host Profiles and Auto Deploy features
on vSphere 6.7 U1 or higher. See Understanding vSphere Auto Deploy in the VMware ESXi
Installation and Setup documentation for more information.

Caution On RHEL and Ubuntu, the yum update command might update the kernel version, which
must not be greater than 4.14.x, and break the compatibility with NSX-T Data Center. Disable the
automatic kernel update when you run yum update. Also, after running yum install, verify that
NSX-T Data Center supports the kernel version.

Hypervisor Host Network Requirements

The NIC card used must be compatible with the ESXi version that is running NSX-T Data Center.
For supported NIC card, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

Tip To quickly identify compatible cards in the Compatibility Guide, apply the following criteria:

n Under I/O Device Type, select Network.

n Optionally, to use supported GENEVE encapsulation, under Features, select the GENEVE
options.

n Optionally, to use Enhanced Data Path, select N-VDS Enhanced Data Path.

Enhanced Data Path NIC Drivers

Download the supported NIC drivers from the My VMware page.

NIC Card NIC Driver

Intel 82599 ixgben 1.1.0.26-1OEM.670.0.0.7535516

Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GbE SFP+ i40en 1.2.0.0-1OEM.670.0.0.8169922

Intel(R) Ethernet Controller XL710 for 40GbE QSFP+

NSX Manager VM Resource Requirements

Thin virtual disk size is 3.8 GB and thick virtual disk size is 300 GB.

Appliance Size Memory vCPU Disk Space VM Hardware Version

NSX Manager Extra Small 8 GB 2 300 GB 10 or later

NSX Manager Small VM 16 GB 4 300 GB 10 or later

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Appliance Size Memory vCPU Disk Space VM Hardware Version

NSX Manager Medium VM 24 GB 6 300 GB 10 or later

NSX Manager Large VM 48 GB 12 300 GB 10 or later

Note NSX Manager provides multiple roles which previously required separate appliances. This
includes the policy role, the management plane role and the central control plane role. The
central control plane role was previously provide by the NSX Controller appliance.

n You can use the Extra Small VM resource size only for the Cloud Service Manager appliance
(CSM). Deploy CSM in the Extra Small VM size or higher, as required. See Overview of
Deploying NSX Cloud for more information.

n The NSX Manager Small VM appliance size is suitable for lab and proof-of-concept
deployments, and must not be used in production.

n The NSX Manager Medium VM appliance size is suitable for typical production environments.
An NSX-T management cluster formed using this appliance size can support up to 64
hypervisors.

n The NSX Manager Large VM appliance size is suitable for large-scale deployments. An NSX-T
management cluster formed using this appliance size can support more than 64 hypervisors.

For maximum scale using the NSX Manager Large VM appliance size, go to the VMware
Configuration Maximums tool at https://configmax.vmware.com/guest and select NSX-T Data
Center from the product list.

Language Support
NSX Manager has been localized into multiple languages: English, German, French, Japanese,
Simplified Chinese, Korean, Traditional Chinese, and Spanish.

NSX Manager Browser Support

The following browsers are recommended for working with NSX Manager.

Browser Windows 10 Mac OS X 10.13, 10.14 Ubuntu 18.04

Google Chrome 80 Yes Yes Yes

Mozilla Firefox 72 Yes Yes Yes

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NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide

Browser Windows 10 Mac OS X 10.13, 10.14 Ubuntu 18.04

Microsoft Edge 80 Yes

Apple Safari 13 Yes

Note
n Internet Explorer is not supported.

n Supported Browser minimum resolution is 1280 x 800 px.

n Language support: NSX Manager has been localized into multiple languages: English, German,
French, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Traditional Chinese, and Spanish. However,
because NSX Manager localization utilizes the browser language settings, ensure that your
settings match the desired language. There is no language preference setting within the NSX
Manager interface itself.

Network Latency Requirements

The maximum network latency between NSX Managers in a NSX Manager cluster is 10ms.

The maximum network latency between NSX Managers and Transport Nodes is 150ms.

Storage Requirements
n The maximum disk access latency is under 10ms.

n It is recommended that NSX Managers be placed on shared storage.

n Storage should be highly available to avoid a storage outage causing all NSX Manager file
systems to be placed into read-only mode upon event of a storage failure.

Please consult documentation for your storage technology on how to best design a highly
available storage solution.

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NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide

NSX Edge VM System Requirements

Before you install NSX Edge, make sure that your environment meets the supported
requirements.

Note The following conditions apply to the hosts for the NSX Edge nodes:

n NSX Edge nodes are supported only on ESXi-based hosts with Intel-based and AMD-based
chipsets.

Otherwise, vSphere EVC mode may prevent NSX Edge nodes from starting, showing an error
message in the console.

n If vSphere EVC mode is enabled for the host for the NSX Edge VM, the CPU must be Haswell
or later generation.

n Only VMXNET3 vNIC is supported for the NSX Edge VM.

NSX Cloud Note If using NSX Cloud, note that the NSX Public Cloud Gateway(PCG) is deployed
in a single default size for each supported public cloud. See Deploy the NSX Public Cloud
Gateway for details.

NSX Edge VM Resource Requirements

Disk VM Hardware
Appliance Size Memory vCPU Space Version Notes

NSX Edge Small 4 GB 2 200 GB 11 or later The NSX Edge Small VM

(vSphere 6.0 or appliance size is suitable
later) for lab and proof-of-concept
deployments.

Note L7 rules are not realized

on a Tier-1 gateway if you
deploy a small sized NSX Edge
VM.

NSX Edge Medium 8 GB 4 200 GB 11 or later The NSX Edge Medium

(vSphere 6.0 or appliance size is suitable for
later) production environments with
load balancing.

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Disk VM Hardware
Appliance Size Memory vCPU Space Version Notes

NSX Edge Large 32 GB 8 200 GB 11 or later The NSX Edge Large

(vSphere 6.0 or appliance size is suitable for
later) production environments with
load balancing. See Scaling
Load Balancer Resources
in the NSX-T Data Center
Administration Guide. For
more information about what
the different load balance sizes
and NSX Edge form factors
can support, see https://
configmax.vmware.com.

NSX Edge Extra Large 64 GB 16 200 GB 11 or later The NSX Edge Extra Large
(vSphere 6.0 or appliance size is suitable for
later) production environments with
load balancing.
See Scaling Load Balancer
Resources in the NSX-T
Data Center Administration
Guide. For more information
about what the different
load balance sizes and
NSX Edge form factors
can support, see https://
configmax.vmware.com.

NSX Edge VM CPU Requirements

For the DPDK support, the underlaying platform needs to meet the following requirements:

n CPU must have AESNI capability.

n CPU must have 1 GB Huge Page support.

Hardware Type

CPU n Intel Xeon E7-xxxx (Westmere-EX and later CPU generation)

n Intel Xeon 56xx (Westmere-EP)
n Intel Xeon E5-xxxx (Sandy Bridge and later CPU generation)
n Intel Xeon Platinum (all generations)
n Intel Xeon Gold (all generations)
n Intel Xeon Silver (all generations)
n Intel Xeon Bronze (all generations)

n AMD EPYC™ 7XX1 series (Naples)

n AMD EPYC™ 3000 Embedded Family and newer
n AMD EPYC™ 7XX2 series (Rome)

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NSX Edge Bare Metal Requirements

Before you configure the NSX Edge bare metal, make sure that your environment meets the
supported requirements.

NSX Edge Bare Metal Memory, CPU, and Disk Requirements

Minimum Requirements

Memory CPU Cores Disk Space

32 GB 8 200 GB

Recommended Requirements

Memory CPU Cores Disk Space

256 GB 24 200 GB

NSX Edge Bare Metal DPDK CPU Requirements

For the DPDK support, the underlaying platform needs to meet the following requirements:

n CPU must have AES-NI capability.

n CPU must have 1 GB Huge Page support.

Hardware Type

CPU n Intel Xeon E7-xxxx (Westmere-EX and later CPU generation)

n Intel Xeon 56xx (Westmere-EP)
n Intel Xeon E5-xxxx (Sandy Bridge and later CPU generation)
n Intel Xeon Platinum (all generations)
n Intel Xeon Gold (all generations)
n Intel Xeon Silver (all generations)
n Intel Xeon Bronze (all generations)

n AMD EPYC 7xx1 Series (Naples)

n AMD EPYC 3000 Embedded Family and newer
n AMD EPYC 7xx2 Series (Rome)

NSX Edge Bare Metal Hardware Requirements

Verify that the bare metal NSX Edge hardware is listed in this URL
https://certification.ubuntu.com/server/models/?release=18.04%20LTS&category=Server. If the
hardware is not listed, the storage, video adapter, or motherboard components might not work
on the NSX Edge appliance.

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NSX Edge Bare Metal NIC Requirements

NIC Type Description PCI Device ID Firmware Version

Mellanox ConnectX-4 EN PCI_DEVICE_ID_MELLANOX_ 0x1013 12.21.1000 and above

CONNECTX4

Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx PCI_DEVICE_ID_MELLANOX_ 0x1015 14.21.1000 and above

EN CONNECTX4LX

Mellanox ConnectX-5 PCI_DEVICE_ID_MELLANOX_ 0x1017 16.21.1000 and above

CONNECTX5

Mellanox ConnectX-5 EX PCI_DEVICE_ID_MELLANOX_ 0x1019 16.21.1000 and above

CONNECTX5EX

Intel XXV710 I40E_DEV_ID_25G_B 0x158A 6.80 and later versions

I40E_DEV_ID_25G_SFP28 0x158B 6.80 and later versions

Intel X520/Intel 82599 IXGBE_DEV_ID_82599_KX4 0x10F7 n/a

IXGBE_DEV_ID_82599_KX4_ 0x1514 n/a
MEZZ 0x1517 n/a
IXGBE_DEV_ID_82599_KR 0x10F8 n/a
IXGBE_DEV_ID_82599_COM 0x000C n/a
BO_BACKPLANE 0x10F9 n/a
IXGBE_SUBDEV_ID_82599_K 0x10FB n/a
X4_KR_MEZZ
0x11A9 n/a
IXGBE_DEV_ID_82599_CX4
0x1F72 n/a
IXGBE_DEV_ID_82599_SFP
0x17D0 n/a
IXGBE_SUBDEV_ID_82599_S
0x0470 n/a
FP
0x1507 n/a
IXGBE_SUBDEV_ID_82599_R
0x154D n/a
NDC
0x154A n/a
IXGBE_SUBDEV_ID_82599_5
60FLR 0x1558 n/a

IXGBE_SUBDEV_ID_82599_E 0x1557 n/a

CNA_DP 0x10FC n/a
IXGBE_DEV_ID_82599_SFP_ 0x151C n/a
EM
IXGBE_DEV_ID_82599_SFP_
SF2
IXGBE_DEV_ID_82599_SFP_
SF_QP
IXGBE_DEV_ID_82599_QSFP
_SF_QP
IXGBE_DEV_ID_82599EN_SF
P
IXGBE_DEV_ID_82599_XAUI
_LOM
IXGBE_DEV_ID_82599_T3_L
OM

Intel X540 IXGBE_DEV_ID_X540T 0x1528 n/a

IXGBE_DEV_ID_X540T1 0x1560 n/a

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NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide

NIC Type Description PCI Device ID Firmware Version

Intel X550 IXGBE_DEV_ID_X550T 0x1563 n/a

IXGBE_DEV_ID_X550T1 0x15D1 n/a

Intel X710 I40E_DEV_ID_SFP_X710 0x1572 6.80 and later versions

I40E_DEV_ID_KX_C 0x1581 6.80 and later versions
I40E_DEV_ID_10G_BASE_T 0x1586 6.80 and later versions

Intel XL710 I40E_DEV_ID_KX_B 0x1580 6.80 and later versions

I40E_DEV_ID_QSFP_A 0x1583 6.80 and later versions
I40E_DEV_ID_QSFP_B 0x1584 6.80 and later versions
I40E_DEV_ID_QSFP_C 0x1585 6.80 and later versions

Cisco VIC 1300 series Cisco UCS Virtual Interface 0x0043 n/a
Card 1300

Note For all the supported NICs listed above, verify that the media adapters and cables you
use follow the vendor's supported media types. Any media adapter or cables not supported
by the vendor can result in unpredictable behavior, including the inability to boot up due
to an unrecognized media adapter. See the NIC vendor documentation for information about
supported media adapters and cables.

Bare Metal Server System Requirements

Before you configure the bare metal server, make sure that your server meets the supported
requirements.

Important The user performing the installation may require sudo command permissions for
some of the procedures. See Install Third-Party Packages on a Bare Metal Server.

Bare Metal Server Requirements

Operating System Version CPU Cores Memory

CentOS Linux 7.7, 7.6 (kernel: 3.10.0-957) 4 16 GB

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.7 4 16 GB

(RHEL) 7.6 (kernel: 3.10.0-957)

Oracle Linux 7.7 4 16 GB

7.6 (kernel: 3.10.0-957)

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 sp3, 12 sp4 4 16 GB

Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS (kernel: 4.4.0-*) 4 16 GB

18.04

Windows Server 2016 (minor version 14393.2248 or 4 16 GB

later)

n Ensure MTU is set to 1600 for Jumbo frame support for NIC and OS drivers.

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NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide

n Hosts running Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS must be upgraded from 16.04 or freshly installed.

Bare Metal Linux Container Requirements

For bare metal Linux container requirements, see the NSX Container Plug-in for OpenShift -
Installation and Administration Guide.

Ports and Protocols

Ports and protocols allow node-to-node communication paths in NSX-T Data Center, the paths
are secured and authenticated, and a storage location for the credentials are used to establish
mutual authentication.

Configure the ports and protocols required to be open on both the physical and the host
hypervisor firewalls in NSX-T Data Center. Refer to https://ports.vmware.com/home/NSX-T-Data-
Center for more details.

By default, all certificates are self-signed certificates. The northbound GUI and API certificates
and private keys can be replaced by CA signed certificates.

There are internal daemons that communicate over the loopback or UNIX domain sockets:

n KVM: MPA, OVS

n ESXi: nsx-cfgagent, ESX-DP (in the kernel)

Note To get access to NSX-T Data Center nodes, you must enable SSH on these nodes.

NSX Cloud Note See Enable Access to Ports and Protocols for a list of ports required for
deploying NSX Cloud.

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NSX Manager Installation
4
NSX Manager provides a graphical user interface (GUI) and REST APIs for creating, configuring,
and monitoring NSX-T Data Center components such as logical switches, logical routers, and
firewalls.

NSX Manager provides a system view and is the management component of NSX-T Data Center.

For high availability, NSX-T Data Center supports a management cluster of three NSX Managers.
For a production environment, deploying a management cluster is recommended. For a proof-of-
concept environment, you can deploy a single NSX Manager.

In a vSphere environment, the following functions are supported by NSX Manager:

n vCenter Server can use the vMotion function to live migrate NSX Manager across hosts and
clusters.

n vCenter Server can use the Storage vMotion function to live migrate file system of an NSX
Manager across hosts and clusters.

n vCenter Server can use the Distributed Resource Scheduler function to rebalance NSX
Manager across hosts and clusters.

n vCenter Server can use the Anti-affinity function to manage NSX Manager across hosts and
clusters.

NSX Manager Deployment, Platform, and Installation

Requirements
The following table details the NSX Manager deployment, platform, and installation requirements

Requirements Description

Supported deployment methods n OVA/OVF

n QCOW2

Supported platforms See NSX Manager VM and Host Transport Node System Requirements.
On ESXi, it is recommended that the NSX Manager appliance be installed on
shared storage.

IP address An NSX Manager must have a static IP address. You can change the IP address
after installation. Only IPv4 addresses are supported.

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NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide

Requirements Description

NSX-T Data Center appliance n At least 12 characters

password n At least one lower-case letter
n At least one upper-case letter
n At least one digit
n At least one special character
n At least five different characters
n Default password complexity rules are enforced by the following Linux PAM
module arguments:
n retry=3: The maximum number of times a new password can be entered,
for this argument at the most 3 times, before returning with an error.
n minlen=12: The minimum acceptable size for the new password. In addition
to the number of characters in the new password, credit (of +1 in length) is
given for each different kind of character (other, upper, lower and digit).
n difok=0: The minimum number of bytes that must be different in the new
password. Indicates similarity between the old and new password. With a
value 0 assigned to difok, there is no requirement for any byte of the old
and new password to be different. An exact match is allowed.
n lcredit=1: The maximum credit for having lower case letters in the new
password. If you have less than or 1 lower case letter, each letter will
count +1 towards meeting the current minlen value.
n ucredit=1: The maximum credit for having upper case letters in the new
password. If you have less than or 1 upper case letter each letter will
count +1 towards meeting the current minlen value.
n dcredit=1: The maximum credit for having digits in the new password. If
you have less than or 1 digit, each digit will count +1 towards meeting the
current minlen value.
n ocredit=1: The maximum credit for having other characters in the new
password. If you have less than or 1 other characters, each character will
count +1 towards meeting the current minlen value.
n enforce_for_root: The password is set for the root user.

Note For more details on Linux PAM module to check the password against
dictionary words, refer to the man page.

For example, avoid simple and systematic passwords such as VMware123!123

or VMware12345. Passwords that meet complexity standards are not simple and
systematic but are a combination of letters, alpahabets, special characters,
and numbers, such as VMware123!45, VMware 1!2345 or VMware@1az23x.

Hostname When installing NSX Manager, specify a hostname that does not contain invalid
characters such as an underscore or special characters such as dot ".". If the
hostname contains any invalid character or special characters, after deployment
the hostname will be set to nsx-manager.
For more information about hostname restrictions, see https://tools.ietf.org/html/
rfc952 and https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1123.

VMware Tools The NSX Manager VM running on ESXi has VMTools installed. Do not remove or
upgrade VMTools.

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NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide

Requirements Description

System n Verify that the system requirements are met. See System Requirements.
n Verify that the required ports are open. See Ports and Protocols.
n Verify that a datastore is configured and accessible on the ESXi host.
n Verify that you have the IP address and gateway, DNS server IP addresses,
domain search list, and the NTP Server IP or FQDN list for the NSX Manager
to use.
n If you do not already have one, create the target VM port group network.
Place the NSX-T Data Center appliances on a management VM network.

If you have multiple management networks, you can add static routes to the
other networks from the NSX-T Data Center appliance.
n Plan your NSX Manager IPv4 IP addressing scheme.

OVF Privileges Verify that you have adequate privileges to deploy an OVF template on the ESXi
host.
A management tool that can deploy OVF templates, such as vCenter Server or
the vSphere Client. The OVF deployment tool must support configuration options
to allow for manual configuration.
OVF tool version must be 4.0 or later.

Client Plug-in The Client Integration Plug-in must be installed.

Certificates If you plan to configure internal VIP on a NSX Manager cluster, you can apply a
different certificate to each NSX Manager node of the cluster. See Configure a
Virtual IP Address for a Cluster.
If you plan to configure an external load balancer, ensure only a single certificate
is applied to all NSX Manager cluster nodes. See Configuring an External Load
Balancer.

Note On an NSX Manager fresh install, reboot, or after an admin password change when
prompted on first login, it might take several minutes for the NSX Manager to start.

NSX Manager Installation Scenarios

Important When you install NSX Manager from an OVA or OVF file, either from vSphere Client
or the command line as a standalone host, OVA/OVF property values such as user names and
passwords are not validated before the VM is powered on. However, the static IP address field
is a mandatory field to install NSX Manager. When you install NSX Manager as a managed host
in vCenter Server, OVA/OVF property values such as user names and passwords are validated
before the VM is powered on.

n If you specify a user name for the admin or audit user, the name must be unique. If you
specify the same name, it is ignored and the default names (admin and audit) is used.

n If the password for the admin user does not meet the complexity requirements, you must
log in to NSX Manager through SSH or at the console as the admin user with the password
default. You are prompted to change the password.

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NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide

n If the password for the audit user does not meet the complexity requirements, the user
account is disabled. To enable the account, log in to NSX Manager through SSH or at the
console as the admin user and run the command set user audit to set the audit user's
password (the current password is an empty string).

n If the password for the root or admin user does not meet the complexity requirements, you
must log in to NSX Manager through SSH or at the console as root with password vmware and
admin with password default. You are prompted to change the password.

Caution Changes made to the NSX-T Data Center while logged in with the root user credentials
might cause system failure and potentially impact your network. You can only make changes
using the root user credentials with the guidance of VMware Support team.

Note The core services on the appliance do not start until a password with sufficient complexity
is set.

After you deploy NSX Manager from an OVA file, you cannot change the VM's IP settings by
powering off the VM and modifying the OVA settings from vCenter Server.

Configuring NSX Manager for Access by the DNS Server

By default, transport nodes access NSX Managers based on their IP addresses. However, this can
be based also on the DNS names of the NSX Managers.

You enable FQDN usage by publishing the FQDNs of the NSX Managers.

Note Enabling FQDN usage (DNS) on NSX Managers is required for multisite Lite and NSX
Cloud and deployments. (It is optional for all other deployment types.) See Multisite Deployment
of NSX-T Data Center in the NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide and Chapter 12 Getting
Started with NSX Cloud in this guide.

Publishing the FQDNs of the NSX Managers

After installing the NSX-T Data Center core components and CSM, to enable NAT using FQDN,
you must set up the forward and reverse lookup entries for the manager nodes on the DNS
server.

Important It is highly recommended that you configure both the forward and reverse lookup
entries for the NSX Managers' FQDN with a short TTL, for example, 600 seconds.

In addition, you must also enable publishing the NSX Manager FQDNs using the NSX-T API.

Example request: PUT https://<nsx-mgr>/api/v1/configs/management

{
"publish_fqdns": true,

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NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide

"_revision": 0
}

Example response:

{
"publish_fqdns": true,
"_revision": 1
}

See the NSX-T Data Center API Guide for details.

Note After publishing the FQDNs, validate access by the transport nodes as described in the
next section.

Validating Access via FQDN by Transport Nodes

After publishing the FQDNs of the NSX Managers, verify that the transport nodes are
successfully accessing the NSX Managers.

Using SSH, log into a transport node such as a hypervisor or Edge node, and run the get
controllers CLI command.

Example response:

Controller IP Port SSL Status Is Physical Master Session State Controller FQDN
192.168.60.5 1235 enabled connected true up nsxmgr.corp.com

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Modifying the Default Admin Password Expiration

Modifying the Default Admin Password Expiration

By default, the administrative password for the NSX Manager and NSX Edge appliances
expires after 90 days. However, you can reset the expiration period after initial installation and
configuration.

If the password expires, you will be unable to log in and manage components. Additionally, any
task or API call that requires the administrative password to execute will fail. If your password
expires, see Knowledge Base article 70691 NSX-T admin password expired.

Procedure

1 Use a secure program to connect to the NSX CLI console.

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NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide

2 Reset the expiration period.

You can set the expiration period for between 1 and 9999 days.

nsxcli> set user admin password-expiration <1 - 9999>

Note Alternatively, you can use API commands to set the admin password expiration period.

3 (Optional) You can disable password expiry so the password never expires.

nsxcli> clear user audit password-expiration

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Installing NSX-T Data Center on
vSphere 5
You can install the NSX-T Data Center components, NSX Manager and NSX Edge using the UI or
CLI.

Make sure that you have the supported vSphere version. See vSphere support.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Install NSX Manager and Available Appliances

n Configure a Virtual IP Address for a Cluster

n Configuring an External Load Balancer

n Disable Snapshots on an NSX Appliance

Install NSX Manager and Available Appliances

You can use the vSphere Client to deploy NSX Manager virtual appliances. The same OVF file can
used to deploy three different types of appliances: NSX Manager, NSX Cloud Service Manager
for NSX Cloud, and Global Manager for Federation.

Cloud Service Manager is a virtual appliance that uses NSX-T Data Center components and
integrates them with your public cloud.

Prerequisites

n Verify that the system requirements are met. See System Requirements.

n Verify that the required ports are open. See Ports and Protocols.

n Verify that a datastore is configured and accessible on the ESXi host.

n Verify that you have the IP address and gateway, DNS server IP addresses, domain search
list, and the NTP Server IP or FQDN list for the NSX Manager to use.

n If you do not already have one, create the target VM port group network. Place the NSX-T
Data Center appliances on a management VM network.

If you have multiple management networks, you can add static routes to the other networks
from the NSX-T Data Center appliance.

n Plan your NSX Manager IPv4 IP addressing scheme.

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NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide

Procedure

1 Locate the NSX-T Data Center OVA file on the VMware download portal.

Either copy the download URL or download the OVA file.

2 In the vSphere Client, select the host or host cluster on which to install NSX-T Data Center.

3 Right-click and select Deploy OVF template to start the installation wizard.

4 Enter the download OVA URL or navigate to the OVA file, and click Next.

5 Enter a name and a location for the NSX Manager VM, and click Next.

The name you enter appears in the vSphere and vCenter Server inventory.

6 Select a compute resource for the NSX Manager appliance, and click Next.

u To install on a ESXi host managed by vCenter, select a host on which to deploy the NSX
Manager appliance.
u To install on a standalone ESXi host, select the host on which to deploy the NSX Manager
appliance.

7 Review and verify the OVF template details, and click Next.

8 Specify the deployment configuration size, and click Next.

The Description panel on the right side of the wizard shows the details of selected
configuration.

9 Specify storage for the configuration and disk files.

a Select the virtual disk format.

b Select the VM storage policy.

c Specify the datastore to store the NSX Manager appliance files.

d Click Next.

10 Select a destination network for each source network.

11 Select the port group or destination network for the NSX Manager.

12 Configure IP Allocation settings.

a For IP allocation, specify Static - Manual.

b For IP protocol, select IPv4.

13 Click Next.

The following steps are all located in the Customize Template section of the Deploy OVF
Template wizard.

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NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide

14 In the Application section, enter the system root, CLI admin, and audit passwords for the NSX
Manager. The root and admin credentials are mandatory fields.

Your passwords must comply with the password strength restrictions.

n At least 12 characters

n At least one lower-case letter

n At least one upper-case letter

n At least one digit

n At least one special character

n At least five different characters

n Default password complexity rules are enforced by the following Linux PAM module
arguments:

n retry=3: The maximum number of times a new password can be entered, for this
argument at the most 3 times, before returning with an error.

n minlen=12: The minimum acceptable size for the new password. In addition to the
number of characters in the new password, credit (of +1 in length) is given for each
different kind of character (other, upper, lower and digit).

n difok=0: The minimum number of bytes that must be different in the new password.
Indicates similarity between the old and new password. With a value 0 assigned
to difok, there is no requirement for any byte of the old and new password to be
different. An exact match is allowed.

n lcredit=1: The maximum credit for having lower case letters in the new password. If
you have less than or 1 lower case letter, each letter will count +1 towards meeting the
current minlen value.

n ucredit=1: The maximum credit for having upper case letters in the new password. If
you have less than or 1 upper case letter each letter will count +1 towards meeting the
current minlen value.

n dcredit=1: The maximum credit for having digits in the new password. If you have less
than or 1 digit, each digit will count +1 towards meeting the current minlen value.

n ocredit=1: The maximum credit for having other characters in the new password. If
you have less than or 1 other characters, each character will count +1 towards meeting
the current minlen value.

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n enforce_for_root: The password is set for the root user.

Note For more details on Linux PAM module to check the password against dictionary
words, refer to the man page.

For example, avoid simple and systematic passwords such as VMware123!123 or

VMware12345. Passwords that meet complexity standards are not simple and systematic
but are a combination of letters, alpahabets, special characters, and numbers, such as
VMware123!45, VMware 1!2345 or VMware@1az23x.

15 In the Optional parameters section, leave the password fields blank. It is to avoid the risk of
compromising passwords set for VMC roles by a user who has access to the vCenter Server.
When deploying VMC for NSX-T Data Center, this field is used internally to set passwords for
the Cloud Admin and Cloud Audit roles.

16 In the Network Properties section, enter the hostname of the NSX Manager.

Note The host name must be a valid domain name. Ensure that each part of the host name
(domain/subdomain) that is separated by dot starts with an alphabet character.

17 Select a Rolename for the appliance. The default role is NSX Manager.

n To install an NSX Manager appliance, select the NSX Manager role.

n To install a Global Manager appliance for a Federation deployment, select the NSX Global
Manager role.

See Chapter 13 Getting Started with Federation for details.

n To install a Cloud Service Manager (CSM) appliance for an NSX Cloud deployment, select
the nsx-cloud-service-manager role.

See Overview of Deploying NSX Cloud for details.

18 (Required fields) Enter the default gateway, management network IPv4, and management
network netmask.

Important If you leave the Management Network IPv4 field blank without entering a static IP
address, no IP address is assigned to the NSX Manager during deployment of the appliance.
You cannot access the NSX Manager when it powers on. The workaround is to redeploy the
NSX Manager appliance.

19 In the DNS section, enter the DNS Server list and Domain Search list.

20 In the Services Configuration section, enter the NTP Server IP or FQDN list.

Optionally, you can enable SSH service and allow root SSH login. (Not recommended.)

21 Verify that all your custom OVF template specification is accurate and click Finish to initiate
the installation.

The installation might take 7-8 minutes.

22 From the vSphere Client, open the VM console to track the boot process of the node.

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23 After the node boots, log in to the CLI as admin and run the get interface eth0 command
to verify that the IP address was applied as expected.

24 Enter the get services command to verify that all default services are running.

The following services are not required by default and do not start automatically.

n liagent

n migration-coordinator: This service is used only when running migration coordinator. See
the NSX-T Data Center Migration Coordinator Guide before starting this service.

n snmp: For information on starting SNMP see Simple Network Management Protocol in the
NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide.

n nsx-message-bus: This service is not used in NSX-T Data Center 3.0.

25 Verify that your NSX Manager or Global Manager node has the required connectivity.

Make sure that you can perform the following tasks.

n Ping your node from another machine.

n The node can ping its default gateway.

n The node can ping the hypervisor hosts that are in the same network using the
management interface.

n The node can ping its DNS server and its NTP Server IP or FQDN list.

n If you enabled SSH, make sure that you can SSH to your node.

If connectivity is not established, make sure that the network adapter of the virtual appliance
is in the proper network or VLAN.

What to do next

Log in to the NSX Manager from a supported web browser. See Log In to the Newly Created NSX
Manager .

Install NSX Manager on ESXi Using the Command-Line OVF Tool

If you prefer to automate or use CLI for the NSX Manager installation, you can use the VMware
OVF Tool, which is a command-line utility.

By default, nsx_isSSHEnabled and nsx_allowSSHRootLogin are both disabled for security reasons.
When they are disabled, you cannot SSH or log in to the NSX Manager command line. If you
enable nsx_isSSHEnabled but not nsx_allowSSHRootLogin, you can SSH to NSX Manager but you
cannot log in as root.

Prerequisites

n Verify that the system requirements are met. See System Requirements.

n Verify that the required ports are open. See Ports and Protocols.

n Verify that a datastore is configured and accessible on the ESXi host.

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n Verify that you have the IP address and gateway, DNS server IP addresses, domain search
list, and the NTP server IP address for the NSX Manager to use.

n If you do not already have one, create the target VM port group network. Place the NSX-T
Data Center appliances on a management VM network.

If you have multiple management networks, you can add static routes to the other networks
from the NSX-T Data Center appliance.

n Plan your NSX Manager IPv4 IP addressing scheme.

Procedure

1 Run the ovftool command with the appropriate parameters.

The process depends on whether the host is standalone or managed by vCenter Server.

n For a standalone host:

Note On a standalone host, if you enter an incorrect role in the nsx_role property, then
the appliance is deployed in the NSX Manager role.

n Windows example:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool>ovftool \

--sourceType=OVA \
--name=nsx-manager \
--deploymentOption=medium \
--X:injectOvfEnv \
--X:logFile=<filepath>\nsxovftool.log \
--allowExtraConfig \
--datastore=<datastore name> \
--network=<network name> \
--acceptAllEulas \
--noSSLVerify \
--diskMode=thin \
--powerOn \
--prop:"nsx_role=NSX Manager" \
--prop:"nsx_ip_0=10.168.110.75" \
--prop:"nsx_netmask_0=255.255.255.0" \
--prop:"nsx_gateway_0=10.168.110.1" \
--prop:"nsx_dns1_0=10.168.110.10" \
--prop:"nsx_domain_0=corp.local" \
--prop:"nsx_ntp_0=10.168.110.10" \
--prop:"nsx_isSSHEnabled=<True|False>" \
--prop:"nsx_allowSSHRootLogin=<True|False>" \
--prop:"nsx_passwd_0=<password>" \
--prop:"nsx_cli_passwd_0=<password>" \

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--prop:"nsx_cli_audit_passwd_0=<password>" \
--prop:"nsx_hostname=nsx-manager" \
<nsx-unified-appliance-release>.ova \
vi://root:<password>@10.168.110.51

Note The above Windows code block uses the backslash (\) to indicate the
continuation of the command line. In actual use, omit the backslash and put the entire
command in a single line.

Note In the above example, 10.168.110.51 is the IP address of the host machine where
NSX Manager is to be deployed.

Note In the above example, --deploymentOption is set to the default size Medium.
To know the other supported sizes, see NSX Manager VM and Host Transport Node
System Requirements.

n Linux example:

mgrformfactor="small"
ipAllocationPolicy="fixedPolicy"
mgrdatastore="QNAP-Share-VMs"
mgrnetwork="Management-VLAN-210"

mgrname01="nsx-manager-01"
mgrhostname01="nsx-manager-01"
mgrip01="192.168.210.121"

mgrnetmask="255.255.255.0"
mgrgw="192.168.210.254"
mgrdns="192.168.110.10"
mgrntp="192.168.210.254"
mgrpasswd="<password>"
mgrssh="<True|False>"
mgrroot="<True|False>"
logLevel="trivia"

mgresxhost01="192.168.110.113"

ovftool --noSSLVerify --skipManifestCheck --powerOn \

--deploymentOption=$mgrformfactor \
--diskMode=thin \
--acceptAllEulas \
--allowExtraConfig \
--ipProtocol=IPv4 \
--ipAllocationPolicy=$ipAllocationPolicy \
--datastore=$mgrdatastore \
--network=$mgrnetwork \
--name=$mgrname01 \
--prop:nsx_hostname=$mgrhostname01 \
--prop:nsx_role="NSX Manager" \
--prop:nsx_ip_0=$mgrip01 \
--prop:nsx_netmask_0=$mgrnetmask \

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--prop:nsx_gateway_0=$mgrgw \
--prop:nsx_dns1_0=$mgrdns \
--prop:nsx_ntp_0=$mgrntp \
--prop:nsx_passwd_0=$mgrpasswd \
--prop:nsx_cli_passwd_0=$mgrpasswd \
--prop:nsx_cli_audit_passwd_0=$mgrpasswd \
--prop:nsx_isSSHEnabled=$mgrssh \
--prop:nsx_allowSSHRootLogin=$mgrroot \
--X:logFile=nsxt-manager-ovf.log \
--X:logLevel=$logLevel \
/home/<user/nsxt-autodeploy/<nsx-unified-appliance-release>.ova \
vi://root:<password>@$mgresxhost01

The result should look something like this:

Opening OVA source: nsx-<component>.ova

The manifest validates
Source is signed and the certificate validates
Opening VI target: vi://root:<password>@10.168.110.51
Deploying to VI: vi://root:<password>@10.168.110.51
Transfer Completed
Powering on VM: NSX Manager
Task Completed
Completed successfully

n For a host managed by vCenter Server:

n Windows example:

C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads>ovftool
--name=nsx-manager \
--deploymentOption=medium \
--X:injectOvfEnv \
--X:logFile=ovftool.log \
--allowExtraConfig \
--datastore=ds1 \
--network="management" \
--acceptAllEulas \
--noSSLVerify \
--diskMode=thin \
--powerOn \
--prop:"nsx_role=NSX Manager" \
--prop:"nsx_ip_0=10.168.110.75" \
--prop:"nsx_netmask_0=255.255.255.0" \
--prop:"nsx_gateway_0=10.168.110.1" \
--prop:"nsx_dns1_0=10.168.110.10" \
--prop:"nsx_domain_0=corp.local" \
--prop:"nsx_ntp_0=10.168.110.10" \
--prop:"nsx_isSSHEnabled=<True|False>" \
--prop:"nsx_allowSSHRootLogin=<True|False>" \
--prop:"nsx_passwd_0=<password>" \
--prop:"nsx_cli_passwd_0=<password>" \

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--prop:"nsx_cli_audit_passwd_0=<password>" \
--prop:"nsx_hostname=nsx-manager" \
<nsx-unified-appliance-release>.ova \
vi://[email protected]:<password>@10.168.110.24/?ip=10.168.110.51

Note The above Windows code block uses the backslash (\) to indicate the
continuation of the command line. In actual use, omit the backslash and put the entire
command in a single line.

Note In the above example, --deploymentOption is set to the default size Medium.
To know the other supported sizes, see NSX Manager VM and Host Transport Node
System Requirements.

n Linux example:

mgrformfactor="small"
ipAllocationPolicy="fixedPolicy"
mgrdatastore="QNAP-Share-VMs"
mgrnetwork="Management-VLAN-210"

mgrname01="nsx-manager-01"
mgrhostname01="nsx-manager-01"
mgrip01="192.168.210.121"

mgrnetmask="255.255.255.0"
mgrgw="192.168.210.254"
mgrdns="192.168.110.10"
mgrntp="192.168.210.254"
mgrpasswd="<password>"
mgrssh="<True|False>"
mgrroot="<True|False>"
logLevel="trivia"

vcadmin="[email protected]"
vcpass="<password>"
vcip="192.168.110.151"
mgresxhost01="192.168.110.113"

ovftool --noSSLVerify --skipManifestCheck --powerOn \

--deploymentOption=$mgrformfactor \
--diskMode=thin \
--acceptAllEulas \
--allowExtraConfig \
--ipProtocol=IPv4 \
--ipAllocationPolicy=$ipAllocationPolicy \
--datastore=$mgrdatastore \
--network=$mgrnetwork \
--name=$mgrname01 \
--prop:nsx_hostname=$mgrhostname01 \
--prop:nsx_role="NSX Manager" \
--prop:nsx_ip_0=$mgrip01 \
--prop:nsx_netmask_0=$mgrnetmask \
--prop:nsx_gateway_0=$mgrgw \

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--prop:nsx_dns1_0=$mgrdns \
--prop:nsx_ntp_0=$mgrntp \
--prop:nsx_passwd_0=$mgrpasswd \
--prop:nsx_cli_passwd_0=$mgrpasswd \
--prop:nsx_cli_audit_passwd_0=$mgrpasswd \
--prop:nsx_isSSHEnabled=$mgrssh \
--prop:nsx_allowSSHRootLogin=$mgrroot \
--X:logFile=nsxt-manager-ovf.log \
--X:logLevel=$logLevel \
/home/<user/nsxt-autodeploy/<nsx-unified-appliance-release>.ova \
vi://$vcadmin:$vcpass@$vcip/?ip=$mgresxhost01

The result should look something like this:

Opening OVA source: nsx-<component>.ova

The manifest validates
Source is signed and the certificate validates
Opening VI target: vi://[email protected]@10.168.110.24:443/
Deploying to VI: vi://[email protected]@10.168.110.24:443/
Transfer Completed
Powering on VM: NSX Manager
Task Completed
Completed successfully

2 You can also run the OVF tool in Probe mode to view contents of a source. OVA and OVF
packages can be probed among a list of other supported source types. You can use the
information returned by the Probe mode to configure deployments.

$> \ovftool --allowExtraConfig <OVA path or URL>

Where, --allowExtraConfig is the supported appliance type for Cloud Service Manager (CSM).

3 For an optimal performance, reserve memory for the appliance.

Set the reservation to ensure that NSX Manager has sufficient memory to run efficiently. See
NSX Manager VM and Host Transport Node System Requirements.

4 From the vSphere Client, open the VM console to track the boot process of the node.

5 After the node boots, log in to the CLI as admin and run the get interface eth0 command
to verify that the IP address was applied as expected.

6 Enter the get services command to verify that all default services are running.

The following services are not required by default and do not start automatically.

n liagent

n migration-coordinator: This service is used only when running migration coordinator. See
the NSX-T Data Center Migration Coordinator Guide before starting this service.

n snmp: For information on starting SNMP see Simple Network Management Protocol in the
NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide.

n nsx-message-bus: This service is not used in NSX-T Data Center 3.0.

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7 Verify that your NSX Manager or Global Manager node has the required connectivity.

Make sure that you can perform the following tasks.

n Ping your node from another machine.

n The node can ping its default gateway.

n The node can ping the hypervisor hosts that are in the same network using the
management interface.

n The node can ping its DNS server and its NTP Server IP or FQDN list.

n If you enabled SSH, make sure that you can SSH to your node.

If connectivity is not established, make sure that the network adapter of the virtual appliance
is in the proper network or VLAN.

What to do next

Log in to the NSX Manager from a supported web browser. See Log In to the Newly Created NSX
Manager .

Configure NSX-T Data Center to Display the GRUB Menu at Boot

Time
You must configure an NSX-T Data Center appliance to display the GRUB menu at boot time if
you want to reset the root password of the appliance.

Important If the configuration is not performed after deploying the appliance and you forget the
root password, resetting it is not possible.

Procedure

1 Log in to the VM as root.

2 Change the value for the parameter GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT in the /etc/default/grub file.

GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=2

3 (Optional) Generate a new GRUB password by running the following command:

run grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2

4 (Optional) Replace the existing GRUB password in the /etc/grub.d/40_custom file.

The default password is VMware1.

5 Update the GRUB configuration.

update-grub

Log In to the Newly Created NSX Manager

After you install NSX Manager, you can use the user interface to perform other installation tasks.

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After you install NSX Manager, you can join the Customer Experience Improvement Program
(CEIP) for NSX-T Data Center. See Customer Experience Improvement Program in the NSX-T
Data Center Administration Guide for more information about the program, including how to join
or leave the program later.

Prerequisites

Verify that NSX Manager is installed. See Install NSX Manager and Available Appliances.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

The EULA appears.

2 Read and accept the EULA terms.

3 Select whether to join the VMware's Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP).

4 Click Save

Add a Compute Manager

A compute manager, for example, vCenter Server, is an application that manages resources such
as hosts and VMs.

NSX-T Data Center polls compute managers to collect cluster information from vCenter Server.

When you add a vCenter Server compute manager, you must provide a vCenter Server user's
credentials. You can provide the vCenter Server administrator's credentials, or create a role and
a user specifically for NSX-T Data Center and provide this user's credentials. This role must have
the following vCenter Server privileges:

Extension.Register extension

Extension.Unregister extension

Extension.Update extension

Sessions.Message

Sessions.Validate session

Sessions.View and stop sessions

Host.Configuration.Maintenance

Host.Configuration.NetworkConfiguration

Host.Local Operations.Create virtual machine

Host.Local Operations.Delete virtual machine

Host.Local Operations.Reconfigure virtual machine

Tasks

Scheduled task

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Global.Cancel task

Permissions.Reassign role permissions

Resource.Assign vApp to resource pool

Resource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool

Virtual Machine.Configuration

Virtual Machine.Guest Operations

Virtual Machine.Provisioning

Virtual Machine.Inventory

Network.Assign network

vApp

For more information about vCenter Server roles and privileges, see the vSphere Security
document.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you use the supported vSphere version. See Supported vSphere version.

n IPv6 and IPv4 communication with vCenter Server.

n Verify that you use the recommended number of compute managers. See https://
configmax.vmware.com/home.

Note NSX-T Data Center does not support the same vCenter Server to be registered with
more than one NSX Manager.

Procedure

1 From your browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-
ip-address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Compute Managers > Add.

3 Complete the compute manager details.

Option Description

Name and Description Type the name to identify the vCenter Server.
You can optionally describe any special details such as, the number of
clusters in the vCenter Server.

FQDN or IP Address Type the FQDN or IP address of the vCenter Server.

Type The default compute manager type is set to vCenter Server.

HTTPS Port of Reverse Proxy The default port is 443. If you use another port, verify that the port is open
on all the NSX Manager appliances.
Set the reverse proxy port to register the compute manager in NSX-T.

Username and Password Type the vCenter Server login credentials.

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Option Description

SHA-256 Thumbprint Type the vCenter Server SHA-256 thumbprint algorithm value.

Enable Trust Supported only on vCenter Server 7.0 and later versions.
Enable this field to trust compute manager for authentication.

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.

Note If the FQDN, IP, or thumbprint of the compute manager changes after registration, edit
the computer manager and enter the new values.

4 If the progress icon changes from In progress to Not registered, perform the following steps
to resolve the error.

a Select the error message and click Resolve. One possible error message is the following:

Extension already registered at CM <vCenter Server name> with id <extension ID>

b Enter the vCenter Server credentials and click Resolve.

If an existing registration exists, it will be replaced.

Results

It takes some time to register the compute manager with vCenter Server and for the connection
status to appear as UP.

You can click the compute manager's name to view the details, edit the compute manager, or to
manage tags that apply to the compute manager.

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After the vCenter Server is successfully registered, do not power off and delete the NSX
Manager VM without deleting the compute manager first. Otherwise, when you deploy a new
NSX Manager, you will not be able to register the same vCenter Server again. You will get the
error that the vCenter Server is already registered with another NSX Manager.

Note After a vCenter Server (VC) compute manager is successfully added, it cannot be
removed if you successfully performed any of the following actions:

n Transport nodes are prepared using VDS that is dependent on the VC.

n Service VMs deployed on a host or a cluster in the VC using NSX service insertion.

n You use the NSX Manager UI to deploy Edge VMs, NSX Intelligence VM, or NSX Manager
nodes on a host or a cluster in the VC.

If you try to perform any of these actions and you encounter an error (for example, installation
failed), you can remove the VC if you have not successfully performed any of the actions listed
above.

If you have successfully prepared any transport node using VDS that is dependent on the VC or
deployed any VM, you can remove the VC after you have done the following:

n Unprepare all transport nodes. If uninstalling a transport node fails, you must force delete the
transport node.

n Undeploy all service VMs, any NSX Intelligence VM, all NSX Edge VMs and all NSX Manager
nodes. The undeployment must be successful or in a failed state.

n If an NSX Manager cluster consists of nodes deployed from the VC (manual method) and
nodes deployed from the NSX Manager UI, and you had to undeploy the manually deployed
nodes, then you cannot remove the VC. To sucessfully remove the VC, ensure that you
re-deploy an NSX Manager node from the VC.

This restriction applies to a fresh installation of NSX-T Data Center 3.0 as well as an upgrade.

Deploy NSX Manager Nodes to Form a Cluster from the UI

Forming an NSX Manager or Global Manager cluster provides high availability and reliability.
Deploying nodes using the UI is supported only on ESXi hosts managed by vCenter Server.

For other environments, see Form an NSX Manager Cluster Using the CLI .

When you deploy a new node from the UI, the node connects to the first deployed node to form
a cluster. All the repository details and the password of the first deployed node are synchronized
with the newly deployed node.

To create an NSX Manager cluster, deploy two additional nodes to form a cluster of three nodes
total.

To create a Global Manager cluster, deploy two additional nodes to form a cluster of three nodes
total. However, if your Global Manager has NSX-T Data Center 3.0.0 installed, deploy only one
node, and do not form a cluster. See Install the Global Manager.

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Prerequisites

n Verify that an NSX Manager or Global Manager node is installed. See Install NSX Manager and
Available Appliances.

n Verify that compute manager is configured. See Add a Compute Manager.

n Verify that the system requirements are met. See System Requirements.

n Verify that the required ports are open. See Ports and Protocols.

n Verify that a datastore is configured and accessible on the ESXi host.

n Verify that you have the IP address and gateway, DNS server IP addresses, domain search
list, and the NTP Server IP or FQDN list for the NSX Manager to use.

n If you do not already have one, create the target VM port group network. Place the NSX-T
Data Center appliances on a management VM network.

If you have multiple management networks, you can add static routes to the other networks
from the NSX-T Data Center appliance.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to the NSX Manager or Global Manager at
https://<manager-ip-address>.

2 Deploy an appliance.

n From NSX Manager, select System > Appliances > Add NSX Appliance.

n From Global Manager, select System > Global Manager Appliances > Add NSX
Appliance.

3 Enter the appliance information details.

Option Description

Host Name or FQDN Enter a name for the node.

Management IP/Netmask Enter an IP address to be assigned to the node.

Management Gateway Enter a gateway IP address to be used by the node.

DNS Servers Enter DNS server IP addresses to be used by the node.

NTP Server Enter an NTP server IP address to be used by the node.

Node Size Select the form factor to deploy the node from the following options:
n Small (4 vCPU, 16 GB RAM, 300 GB storage)
n Medium (6 vCPU, 24 GB RAM, 300 GB storage)
n Large (12 vCPU, 48 GB RAM, 300 GB storage)
For Global Manager select size Small.

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4 Enter the configuration details.

Option Description

Compute Manager Select the vCenter Server to provision compute resources for deploying the
node.

Compute Cluster Select the cluster the node is going to join.

Resource Pool Select either a resource pool or a host for the node from the drop-down
menu.

Host If you did not select a resource pool, select a host for the node.

Datastore Select a datastore for the node files from the drop-down menu.

Virtual Disk Format n For NFS datastores, select a virtual disk format from the available
provisioned policies on the underlying datastore.
n With hardware acceleration, Thin Provision, Thick Provision Lazy
Zeroed, and Thick Provision Eager Zeroed formats are supported.
n Without hardware acceleration, only Thin Provision format is
supported.
n For VMFS datastores, Thin Provision, Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed, and
Thick Provision Eager Zeroed formats are supported.
n For vSAN datastores, you cannot select a virtual disk format because the
VM storage policy defines the format.
n The vSAN storage policies determine the disk format. The default
virtual disk format for vSAN is Thin Provision. You can change the
vSAN storage policies to set a percentage of the virtual disk that
must be thick-provisioned.
By default, the virtual disk for an NSX Manager or Global Manager node is
prepared in the Thin Provision format.

Note You can provision each node with a different disk format based on
which policies are provisioned on the datastore.

Network Click Select Network to select the management network for the node.

5 Enter the access and credentials details.

Option Description

Enable SSH Toggle the button to allow an SSH login to the new node.

Enable Root Access Toggle the button to allow root access to the new node.

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Option Description

System Root Credentials Set the root password and confirm the password for the new node.
Your password must comply with the password strength restrictions.
n At least 12 characters
n At least one lower-case letter
n At least one upper-case letter
n At least one digit
n At least one special character
n At least five different characters
n Default password complexity rules are enforced by the following Linux
PAM module arguments:
n retry=3: The maximum number of times a new password can be
entered, for this argument at the most 3 times, before returning with
an error.
n minlen=12: The minimum acceptable size for the new password. In
addition to the number of characters in the new password, credit
(of +1 in length) is given for each different kind of character (other,
upper, lower and digit).
n difok=0: The minimum number of bytes that must be different in
the new password. Indicates similarity between the old and new
password. With a value 0 assigned to difok, there is no requirement
for any byte of the old and new password to be different. An exact
match is allowed.
n lcredit=1: The maximum credit for having lower case letters in the
new password. If you have less than or 1 lower case letter, each
letter will count +1 towards meeting the current minlen value.
n ucredit=1: The maximum credit for having upper case letters in the
new password. If you have less than or 1 upper case letter each letter
will count +1 towards meeting the current minlen value.
n dcredit=1: The maximum credit for having digits in the new
password. If you have less than or 1 digit, each digit will count +1
towards meeting the current minlen value.
n ocredit=1: The maximum credit for having other characters in the
new password. If you have less than or 1 other characters, each
character will count +1 towards meeting the current minlen value.
n enforce_for_root: The password is set for the root user.

Note For more details on Linux PAM module to check the password
against dictionary words, refer to the man page.

For example, avoid simple and systematic passwords such as VMware123!

123 or VMware12345. Passwords that meet complexity standards are not
simple and systematic but are a combination of letters, alpahabets,
special characters, and numbers, such as VMware123!45, VMware 1!2345 or
VMware@1az23x.

Admin CLI Credentials and Audit CLI Select the Same as root password check box to use the same password
Credentials that you configured for root, or deselect the check box and set a different
password.

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6 Click Install Appliance.

The new node is deployed. You can track the deployment process in the System >
Appliances page for NSX Manager, the System > Global Manager Appliances for Global
Manager, or the vCenter Server for either. Do not add additional nodes until the installation is
finished and the cluster is stable.

7 Wait for the deployment, cluster formation, and repository synchronization to finish.

The joining and cluster stabilizing process might take from 10 to 15 minutes. Run get cluster
status to view the status. Verify that the status for every cluster service group is UP before
making any other cluster changes.

Note
n If the first node reboots when the deployment of a new node is in progress, the new node
might fail to register with the cluster. It displays the Failed to Register message on the
new node's thumbnail. To redeploy the node manually on the cluster, delete and redeploy
the node.

n If a node deployment fails, you cannot reuse the same IP address to deploy another node
until the failed node is deleted.

8 After the node boots, log in to the CLI as admin and run the get interface eth0 command
to verify that the IP address was applied as expected.

9 Verify that your NSX Manager or Global Manager node has the required connectivity.

Make sure that you can perform the following tasks.

n Ping your node from another machine.

n The node can ping its default gateway.

n The node can ping the hypervisor hosts that are in the same network using the
management interface.

n The node can ping its DNS server and its NTP Server IP or FQDN list.

n If you enabled SSH, make sure that you can SSH to your node.

If connectivity is not established, make sure that the network adapter of the virtual appliance
is in the proper network or VLAN.

10 If your cluster has only two nodes, add another appliance.

n From NSX Manager, select System > Appliances > Add NSX Appliance and repeat the
configuration steps.

n From Global Manager, select System > Global Manager Appliances > Add NSX Appliance
and repeat the configuration steps.

What to do next

Configure NSX Edge. See Install an NSX Edge on ESXi Using the vSphere GUI.

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Form an NSX Manager Cluster Using the CLI

Forming an NSX Manager or Global Manager cluster provides high availability and reliability. You
can use the join command to create a cluster.

Prerequisites

n To create an NSX Manager cluster, deploy three nodes to create the cluster.

n To create a Global Manager cluster, deploy three nodes to create the cluster. However, if
your Global Manager has NSX-T Data Center 3.0.0 installed, deploy only one node, and do
not form a cluster. See Install the Global Manager.

Procedure

1 Open an SSH or console session to the first deployed NSX Manager or Global Manager node
and log in with the administrator credentials.

2 On the first deployed node, run the following commands.

a Run the get certificate api thumbprint command.

The command output is a string that is unique to this node.

b Run the get cluster config command to get the cluster ID of the first deployed node.

mgr-first> get cluster config

Cluster Id: 7b50abb9-0402-4ed5-afec-363587c3c705
Cluster Configuration Version: 0
Number of nodes in the cluster: 1

...

3 Open an SSH or console session to the new node and log in with the administrator
credentials.

4 On the new node that is joining the cluster, run the join command.

Provide the following information about the first deployed node in the join command:

n IP address

n Cluster ID

n User name

n Password

n Certificate thumbprint

mgr-new> join <Manager-IP> cluster-id <cluster-id> username <Manager-username> password <Manager-

password> thumbprint <Manager-thumbprint>

The joining and cluster stabilizing process might take from 10 to 15 minutes. Run get cluster
status to view the status. Verify that the status for every cluster service group is UP before
making any other cluster changes.

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5 Add the third node to the cluster.

Repeat step 4 on the third node.

6 Verify the cluster status on the web interface.

n On NSX Manager, log in to the NSX Manager web interface and select System >
Appliances.

n On Global Manager, log in to the Global Manager web interface and select System >
Global Manager Appliances.

Results

Verify the result by running the get managers command on your hosts.

host> get managers

- 192.168.110.47 Connected

In the NSX Manager UI in Fabric > Node > Hosts, verify that the host's MPA connectivity is Up.

You can also view the fabric host's state with the GET https://<nsx-mgr>/api/v1/fabric/nodes/
<fabric-node-id>/state API call:

{
"details": [],
"state": "success"
}

The management plane sends the host certificates to the control plane, and the control plane
pushes control plane information to the hosts.

You should see NSX Controller addresses in /etc/vmware/nsx/controller-info.xml on each

ESXi host or access the CLI using get controllers.

[root@host:~] cat /etc/vmware/nsx/controller-info.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<config>
<connectionList>
<connection id="0">
<server>10.143.1.47</server>
<port>1234</port>
<sslEnabled>true</sslEnabled>
<pemKey>-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----...-----END CERTIFICATE-----</pemKey>
</connection>
<connection id="1">
<server>10.143.1.45</server>
<port>1234</port>
<sslEnabled>true</sslEnabled>
<pemKey>-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----...-----END CERTIFICATE-----</pemKey>
</connection>
<connection id="2">
<server>10.143.1.46</server>
<port>1234</port>

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<sslEnabled>true</sslEnabled>
<pemKey>-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----...-----END CERTIFICATE-----</pemKey>
</connection>
</connectionList>
</config>

The host connection to NSX-T Data Centers is initiated and sits in "CLOSE_WAIT" status until the
host is promoted to a transport node. You can see this with the esxcli network ip connection list
| grep 1234 command.

# esxcli network ip connection list | grep 1234

tcp 0 0 192.168.210.53:45823 192.168.110.34:1234 CLOSE_WAIT 37256 newreno netcpa

For KVM, the command is netstat -anp --tcp | grep 1234.

user@host:~$ netstat -anp --tcp | grep 1234

tcp 0 0 192.168.210.54:57794 192.168.110.34:1234 CLOSE_WAIT -

What to do next

Create a transport zone. See Create a Standalone Host or Bare Metal Server Transport Node.

Configure a Virtual IP Address for a Cluster

To provide fault tolerance and high availability to NSX Manager nodes, assign a virtual IP address
(VIP) to a member of the NSX-T cluster.

NSX Manager nodes of a cluster become part of an HTTPS group to service API and UI requests.
The leader node of the cluster assumes ownership of the set VIP of the cluster to service any API
and UI request. Any API and UI request coming in from clients is directed to the leader node.

Note When assigning Virtual IP, all the NSX Manager VMs in the cluster must be configured in
the same subnet.

If the leader node that owns VIP becomes unavailable, NSX-T elects a new leader. The new
leader owns the VIP. It sends out a gratuitous ARP packet advertising the new VIP to MAC
address mapping. After a new leader node is elected, new API and UI requests are sent to the
new leader node.

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Failover of VIP to a new leader node of the cluster might take a few minutes to become
functional. If the VIP fails over to a new leader node because the previous leader node became
unavailable, reauthenticate credentials so that API requests are directed to the new leader node.

Note VIP is not designed to serve as a load-balancer and you cannot use it if you enable the
vIDM External Load Balancer Integration from System > Users > Configuration. Do not set up
a VIP if you want to use the External Load Balancer from vIDM. See Configure VMware Identity
Manager Integration in the NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide for more details.

Important If you reset the cluster VIP, then vIDM configurations that are using the VIP is cleared.
You will need to reconfigure vIDM configuration with the new VIP.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Go to System > Appliances.

3 In the Virtual IP field, click Set Virtual IP.

4 Enter the VIP for the cluster. Ensure that VIP is part of the same subnet as the other
management nodes.

5 Click Save.

6 To verify the cluster status and the API leader of the HTTPS group, enter the NSX Manager
CLI command get cluster status verbose in the NSX Manager console or over SSH.

The following is an example output with the leader marked in bold.

Group Type: HTTPS

Group Status: STABLE

Members:
UUID FQDN IP
STATUS
cdb93642-ccba-fdf4-8819-90bf018cd727 nsx-manager 192.196.197.84
UP
51a13642-929b-8dfc-3455-109e6cc2a7ae nsx-manager 192.196.198.156
UP
d0de3642-d03f-c909-9cca-312fd22e486b nsx-manager 192.196.198.54
UP

Leaders:
SERVICE LEADER LEASE
VERSION
api cdb93642-ccba-fdf4-8819-90bf018cd727 8

7 Verify that the VIP is working correctly.

From a browser, log in to the NSX Manager using the virtual IP address assigned to the
cluster at https://<vip-address>.

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Results

Any API requests to NSX-T are redirected to the virtual IP address of the cluster, which is owned
by the leader node. The leader node then routes the request forward to the other components of
the appliance.

Configuring an External Load Balancer

You can configure an external load balancer to distribute traffic to the NSX Managers in a
manager cluster.

An NSX Manager cluster does not require an external load balancer. The NSX Manager virtual IP
(VIP) provides resiliency in the event of a Manager node failure but has the following limitations:

n VIP does not perform load balancing across the NSX Managers.

n VIP requires all the NSX Managers to be in the same subnet.

n VIP recovery takes about 1 - 3 minutes in the event of a Manager node failure.

An external load balancer can provide the following benefits:

n Load balance across the NSX Managers.

n The NSX Managers can be in different subnets.

n Fast recovery time in the event of a Manager node failure.

Note that an external load balancer will not work with the NSX Manager VIP. Do not configure an
NSX Manager VIP if you use an external load balancer.

When accessing NSX Manager from a browser through an external load balancer, session
persistence must be enabled on the load balancer.

When accessing NSX Manager from an API client through an external load balancer, four
authentication methods are available (see the NSX-T Data Center API Guide for more
information):

n HTTP Basic Authentication - Load balancer session persistence is not required.

n Client Certificate Authentication - Load balancer session persistence is not required.

n Authenticating to vIDM - Load balancer session persistence is not required.

n Session-Based Authentication - Load balancer session persistence is required.

Recommendation:

n Configure a single IP on the external load balancer for both browser and API access. The load
balancer must have session persistence enabled.

Steps to set up an external load balancer:

n Configure the external load balancer to control traffic to the NSX Manager nodes.

n Configure the external load balancer to use the round robin method and configure source
persistence for the load balancer's virtual IP.

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n Create or import a signed certificate and apply the same certificate to all the NSX Manager
nodes. The certificate must have the FQDN of the virtual IP and each of the nodes in the SAN.

Disable Snapshots on an NSX Appliance

Clones and snapshots of NSX appliances, such as NSX Manager, NSX Edge and Global Manager,
are not supported. Follow the procedure below to disable snapshots.

Note Starting with NSX-T Data Center 3.0.1, snapshots are automatically disabled when an
NSX appliance is deployed from the NSX Manager GUI. However, if you are running NSX-T Data
Center 3.0.0 or if you deploy an NSX appliance manually, for example, using an OVA file, follow
the procedure below to disable snapshots.

Procedure

1 Locate the appliance VM in the vSphere Client.

2 Power down the VM.

3 Right-click the VM and select Edit Settings.

4 Click the VM Options tab, then expand Advanced.

5 In the Configuration Parameters field, click Edit Configuration....

6 In the Configuration Parameters window, click Add Configuration Params.

7 Enter the following:

n For Name, enter snapshot.MaxSnapshots.

n For Value, enter 0.

8 Click OK to save the changes.

9 Power the VM back on.

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Installing NSX-T Data Center on
KVM 6
NSX-T Data Center supports KVM in two ways: as a host transport node and as a host for NSX
Manager.

Make sure that you have the supported KVM versions. See NSX Manager VM and Host Transport
Node System Requirements.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Set Up KVM

n Manage Your Guest VMs in the KVM CLI

n Deploy an NSX Manager Cluster on KVM

n Install Third-Party Packages on a KVM Host

n Verify Open vSwitch Version on RHEL, CentOS, or Oracle Linux KVM Hosts

n Verify Open vSwitch Version on SUSE KVM Hosts

n Verify Open vSwitch Version on Ubuntu KVM Hosts

Set Up KVM
If you plan to use KVM as a transport node or as a host for NSX Manager guest VM, but you do
not already have a KVM setup, you can use the procedure described here.

Note The Geneve encapsulation protocol uses UDP port 6081. You must allow this port access
in the firewall on the KVM host.

Procedure

1 (Only RHEL) Open the /etc/yum.conf file.

2 Search for the line exclude.

3 Add the line "kernel* redhat-release*" to configure YUM to avoid any unsupported RHEL
upgrades.

exclude=[existing list] kernel* redhat-release*

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If you plan to run NSX-T Data Center Container Plug-in, which has specific compatibility
requirements, exclude the container-related modules as well.

exclude=[existing list] kernel* redhat-release* kubelet-* kubeadm-* kubectl-* docker-*

The supported RHEL versions are 7.6, and 7.7.

4 Install KVM and bridge utilities.

Linux Distribution Commands

Ubuntu apt-get install -y qemu-kvm libvirt-bin ubuntu-vm-builder bridge-utils

virtinst virt-manager virt-viewer libguestfs-tools

RHEL or CentOS Linux yum groupinstall "Virtualization Hypervisor"

yum groupinstall "Virtualization Client"
yum groupinstall "Virtualization Platform"
yum groupinstall "Virtualization Tools"

SUSE Linux Enterprise Start YaSt and select Virtualization > Install Hypervisor and Tools.
Server YaSt allows you to automatically enable and configure the network bridge.

5 For NSX manager to automatically install NSX software packages on KVM host, prepare the
network configuration of the uplink/data interface.

The KVM host can have multiple network interfaces. For the network interface that you
plan to provide as an uplink interface (data interface) for NSX-T purposes, it is important
to have network configuration files correctly populated. NSX-T looks at these network
configuration files to create NSX-T specific network devices. On Ubuntu, populate /etc/
network/interfaces file. On RHEL, CentOS, or SUSE, populate the /etc/sysconfig/network-
scripts/ifcfg-$uplinkdevice file.

In the following examples, interface "ens32" is the uplink device (data interface). Depending
on your deployment environment, this interface can use DHCP or static IP settings.

Note Interface names might vary in different environments.

Important For Ubuntu, all network configurations must be specified in /etc/network/

interfaces. Do not create individual network configuration files such as /etc/network/
ifcfg-eth1, which can lead to failure of transport node creation.

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Linux
Distribution Network Configuration

Ubuntu Edit /etc/network/interfaces:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual

auto ens32
iface ens32 inet manual

RHEL or Edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ens32:

CentOS Linux
DEVICE="ens32"
TYPE="Ethernet"
NAME="ens32"
UUID="<something>"
BOOTPROTO="none"
HWADDR="<something>"
ONBOOT="yes"
NM_CONTROLLED="no"

SUSE Linux If a SLES host already exists, verify that data interfaces is already configured on the host.
Enterprise If you do not have a pre-configured SLES host, see the reference configuration for the
Server management and data interface.
Edit /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-ens32:

DEVICE="ens32"
NAME="ens32"
UUID="<UUID>"
BOOTPROTO="none"
LLADDR="<HWADDR>"
STARTMODE="yes"

6 Restart networking service systemctl restart network or reboot the Linux server for the
networking changes take effect.

7 After the KVM host is configured as a transport node, the bridge interface 'nsx-vtep0.0' is
automatically created by NSX-T.

In Ubuntu, the /etc/network/interfaces file has entries such as the following:

iface nsx-vtep0.0 inet static

pre-up ip addr flush dev nsx-vtep0.0
address <IP_pool_address>
netmask <subnet_mask>
mtu 1600
down ifconfig nsx-vtep0.0 down
up ifconfig nsx-vtep0.0 up

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In RHEL, the host NSX agent (nsxa) creates a configuration file named ifcfg-nsx-vtep0.0
that has entries such as the following:

DEVICE=nsx-vtep0.0
BOOTPROTO=static
NETMASK=<IP address>
IPADDR=<subnet mask>
MTU=1600
ONBOOT=yes
USERCTL=no
NM_CONTROLLED=no

In SUSE,

DEVICE=nsx-vtep0.0
BOOTPROTO=static
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
IPADDR=192.168.13.119
MACADDR=ae:9d:b7:ca:20:4a
MTU=1600
USERCTL=no
STARTMODE=auto

8 Configure the syslog rotation policy as time-based instead of size-based policy. With a size-
based syslog rotation policy, the log files generated might be of very large sizes.

Manage Your Guest VMs in the KVM CLI

NSX Manager can be installed as KVM VMs. In addition, KVM can be used as the hypervisor for
NSX-T Data Center transport nodes.

KVM guest VM management is beyond the scope of this guide. However, here are some simple
KVM CLI commands to get you started.

To manage your guest VMs in the KVM CLI, use the virsh commands. Following are some
common virsh commands. Refer to the KVM documentation for additional information.

# List running
virsh list

# List all
virsh list --all

# Control instances
virsh start <instance>
virsh shutdown <instance>
virsh destroy <instance>
virsh undefine <instance>
virsh suspend <instance>

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virsh resume <instance>

# Access an instance's CLI

virsh console <instance>

In the Linux CLI, the ifconfig command shows the vnetX interface, which represents the
interface created for the guest VM. If you add additional guest VMs, additional vnetX interfaces
are added.

ifconfig
...

vnet0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr fe:54:00:b0:a0:6d

inet6 addr: fe80::fc54:ff:feb0:a06d/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:13183 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:181524 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:500
RX bytes:4984832 (4.9 MB) TX bytes:29498709 (29.4 MB)

Deploy an NSX Manager Cluster on KVM

To deploy an NSX Manager cluster, you install three NSX Manager nodes, and then use the join
command to create the cluster.

Install NSX Manager on KVM

Install NSX Manager on a KVM host running on a bare metal server. Do not install NSX Manager
on a KVM host running as a virtual appliance on another host (nested environment).

The QCOW2 installation procedure uses guestfish, a Linux command-line tool to write virtual
machine settings into the QCOW2 file.

The same QCOW2 file can be used to deploy three different types of appliances: NSX Manager,
NSX Cloud Service Manager for NSX Cloud, and Global Manager for Federation.

Prerequisites

n Verify that KVM is set up. See Set Up KVM.

n Verify that you have privileges to deploy a QCOW2 image on the KVM host.

n Verify that the password in the guestinfo adheres to the password complexity requirements
so that you can log in after installation. See Chapter 4 NSX Manager Installation.

n Familiarize yourself with the NSX Manager resource requirements. See NSX Manager VM and
Host Transport Node System Requirements.

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n If you plan to install Ubuntu OS, it is recommended to install Ubuntu version 18.04 before
installing NSX Manager on the KVM host.

Important
n If you are deploying an NSX Manager on a KVM v18.04 for a production environment, ensure
that the KVM host is not running as a virtual machine on an ESXi host. However, if you want
to deploy an NSX Manager in a nested KVM environment for purposes of proof-of-concept,
deploy the NSX Manager in the QEMU user space, by using virt-type qemu.

n Do not deploy NSX Manager on a single disk. If you install NSX Manager on a single disk,
some startup services might fail to come up.

Procedure

1 Download NSX Manager QCOW2 images (for primary and secondary disk) from My VMware:
https://www.vmware.com/go/download-nsx-t.

Select the version to download and click Go to Downloads. Download the QCOW2 files.

2 Make three copies of the images to the KVM machine that is going to run the NSX Manager
using SCP or sync.

3 (Ubuntu only) Add the currently logged in user as a libvirtd user:

adduser $USER libvirtd

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4 In the same directory where you saved the QCOW2 image, create three files (name:
guestinfo.xml) for the primary disk image and populate it with the NSX Manager VM's
properties. You do not need to create any files for the secondary disk image.

Property Description

n nsx_cli_passwd_0 Your passwords must comply with the password strength restrictions.
n nsx_cli_audit_passwd_0 n At least 12 characters
n nsx_passwd_0 n At least one lower-case letter
n At least one upper-case letter
n At least one digit
n At least one special character
n At least five different characters
n Default password complexity rules are enforced by the following Linux
PAM module arguments:
n retry=3: The maximum number of times a new password can be
entered, for this argument at the most 3 times, before returning with
an error.
n minlen=12: The minimum acceptable size for the new password. In
addition to the number of characters in the new password, credit
(of +1 in length) is given for each different kind of character (other,
upper, lower and digit).
n difok=0: The minimum number of bytes that must be different in
the new password. Indicates similarity between the old and new
password. With a value 0 assigned to difok, there is no requirement
for any byte of the old and new password to be different. An exact
match is allowed.
n lcredit=1: The maximum credit for having lower case letters in the
new password. If you have less than or 1 lower case letter, each
letter will count +1 towards meeting the current minlen value.
n ucredit=1: The maximum credit for having upper case letters in the
new password. If you have less than or 1 upper case letter each letter
will count +1 towards meeting the current minlen value.
n dcredit=1: The maximum credit for having digits in the new
password. If you have less than or 1 digit, each digit will count +1
towards meeting the current minlen value.
n ocredit=1: The maximum credit for having other characters in the
new password. If you have less than or 1 other characters, each
character will count +1 towards meeting the current minlen value.
n enforce_for_root: The password is set for the root user.

Note For more details on Linux PAM module to check the password
against dictionary words, refer to the man page.

For example, avoid simple and systematic passwords such as VMware123!

123 or VMware12345. Passwords that meet complexity standards are not
simple and systematic but are a combination of letters, alpahabets,
special characters, and numbers, such as VMware123!45, VMware 1!2345 or
VMware@1az23x.

nsx_hostname Enter the host name for the NSX Manager. The host name must be a valid
domain name. Ensure that each part of the host name (domain/subdomain)
that is separated by dot must start with an alphabet character.

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Property Description

nsx_role n To install an NSX Manager appliance, select the NSX Manager role.
n To install a Global Manager appliance for a Federation deployment,
select the NSX Global Manager role.

See Chapter 13 Getting Started with Federation for details.

n To install a Cloud Service Manager (CSM) appliance for an NSX Cloud
deployment, select the nsx-cloud-service-manager role.

See Overview of Deploying NSX Cloud for details.

nsx_isSSHEnabled You can enable or disable this property. If enabled, you can log in to the
NSX Manager using SSH.

nsx_allowSSHRootLogin You can enable or disable this property. If enabled, you can log in to
the NSX Manager using SSH as the root user. To use this property,
nsx_isSSHEnabled must be enabled.

n nsx_dns1_0 Enter IP addresses for the default gateway, management network IPv4,
n nsx_ntp_0 management network netmask, DNS, and NTP IP address.

n nsx_domain_0
n nsx_gateway_0
n nsx_netmask_0
n nsx_ip_0

For example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Environment
xmlns="http://schemas.dmtf.org/ovf/environment/1"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:oe="http://schemas.dmtf.org/ovf/environment/1">
<PropertySection>
<Property oe:key="nsx_cli_passwd_0" oe:value="<password>"/>
<Property oe:key="nsx_cli_audit_passwd_0" oe:value="<password>"/>
<Property oe:key="nsx_passwd_0" oe:value="<password>"/>
<Property oe:key="nsx_hostname" oe:value="nsx-manager1"/>
<Property oe:key="nsx_role" oe:value="NSX Manager"/>
<Property oe:key="nsx_isSSHEnabled" oe:value="True"/>
<Property oe:key="nsx_allowSSHRootLogin" oe:value="True"/>
<Property oe:key="nsx_dns1_0" oe:value="10.168.110.10"/>
<Property oe:key="nsx_ntp_0" oe:value="10.168.110.10"/>
<Property oe:key="nsx_domain_0" oe:value="corp.local"/>
<Property oe:key="nsx_gateway_0" oe:value="10.168.110.83"/>
<Property oe:key="nsx_netmask_0" oe:value="255.255.252.0"/>

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<Property oe:key="nsx_ip_0" oe:value="10.168.110.19"/>

</PropertySection>
</Environment>

Note In the example, nsx_isSSHEnabled and nsx_allowSSHRootLogin are both enabled. When
they are disabled, you cannot SSH or log in to the NSX Manager command line. If you enable
nsx_isSSHEnabled but not nsx_allowSSHRootLogin, you can SSH to NSX Manager but you cannot
log in as root.

5 Use guestfish to write the guestinfo.xml file into the QCOW2 image.

Note After the guestinfo information is written into a QCOW2 image, the information
cannot be overwritten.

sudo guestfish --rw -i -a nsx-unified-appliance-<BuildNumber>.qcow2 upload guestinfo /config/

guestinfo

6 Deploy the QCOW2 image with the virt-install command.

The vCPU and RAM values are suitable for a large VM. For details on other appliance sizes,
see NSX Manager VM and Host Transport Node System Requirements. The network name
and portgroup name are specific to your environment. The model must be virtio.

(On RHEL hosts)

sudo virt-install \
--import \
--ram 48000 \
--vcpus 12 \
--name <manager-name> \
--disk path=<manager-qcow2-file-path>,bus=virtio,cache=none \
--disk path=<secondary-qcow2-file-path>,bus=virtio,cache=none \
--network [bridge=<bridge-name> or network=<network-name>],
portgroup=<portgroup-name>,model=virtio \
--noautoconsole \
--cpu mode=host-passthrough

Starting install...
Domain installation still in progress. Waiting for installation to complete.

(On Ubuntu hosts)

sudo virt-install \
--import \
--ram 48000 \
--vcpus 12 \
--name <manager-name> \
--disk path=<manager-qcow2-file-path>,bus=virtio,cache=none \
--disk path=<secondary-qcow2-file-path>,bus=virtio,cache=none \

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--network [bridge=<bridge-name> or network=<network-name>],

portgroup=<portgroup-name>,model=virtio \
--noautoconsole \
--cpu mode=host-passthrough,cache.mode=passthrough

Starting install...
Domain installation still in progress. Waiting for installation to complete.

7 Verify that the NSX Manager is deployed.

virsh list --all

Id Name State
---------------------------------
18 nsx-manager1 running

8 Open the NSX Manager console and log in.

virsh console 18
Connected to domain nsx-manager1
Escape character is ^]

nsx-manager1 login: admin

Password:

9 After the node boots, log in to the CLI as admin and run the get interface eth0 command
to verify that the IP address was applied as expected.

10 Enter the get services command to verify that all default services are running.

The following services are not required by default and do not start automatically.

n liagent

n migration-coordinator: This service is used only when running migration coordinator. See
the NSX-T Data Center Migration Coordinator Guide before starting this service.

n snmp: For information on starting SNMP see Simple Network Management Protocol in the
NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide.

n nsx-message-bus: This service is not used in NSX-T Data Center 3.0.

11 Verify that your NSX Manager or Global Manager node has the required connectivity.

Make sure that you can perform the following tasks.

n Ping your node from another machine.

n The node can ping its default gateway.

n The node can ping the hypervisor hosts that are in the same network using the
management interface.

n The node can ping its DNS server and its NTP Server IP or FQDN list.

n If you enabled SSH, make sure that you can SSH to your node.

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If connectivity is not established, make sure that the network adapter of the virtual appliance
is in the proper network or VLAN.

12 Exit the KVM console.

control-]

13 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

What to do next

Log in to the NSX Manager. See Log In to the Newly Created NSX Manager .

Form an NSX Manager Cluster Using the CLI

Forming an NSX Manager or Global Manager cluster provides high availability and reliability. You
can use the join command to create a cluster.

Prerequisites

n To create an NSX Manager cluster, deploy three nodes to create the cluster.

n To create a Global Manager cluster, deploy three nodes to create the cluster. However, if
your Global Manager has NSX-T Data Center 3.0.0 installed, deploy only one node, and do
not form a cluster. See Install the Global Manager.

Procedure

1 Open an SSH or console session to the first deployed NSX Manager or Global Manager node
and log in with the administrator credentials.

2 On the first deployed node, run the following commands.

a Run the get certificate api thumbprint command.

The command output is a string that is unique to this node.

b Run the get cluster config command to get the cluster ID of the first deployed node.

mgr-first> get cluster config

Cluster Id: 7b50abb9-0402-4ed5-afec-363587c3c705
Cluster Configuration Version: 0
Number of nodes in the cluster: 1

...

3 Open an SSH or console session to the new node and log in with the administrator
credentials.

4 On the new node that is joining the cluster, run the join command.

Provide the following information about the first deployed node in the join command:

n IP address

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n Cluster ID

n User name

n Password

n Certificate thumbprint

mgr-new> join <Manager-IP> cluster-id <cluster-id> username <Manager-username> password <Manager-

password> thumbprint <Manager-thumbprint>

The joining and cluster stabilizing process might take from 10 to 15 minutes. Run get cluster
status to view the status. Verify that the status for every cluster service group is UP before
making any other cluster changes.

5 Add the third node to the cluster.

Repeat step 4 on the third node.

6 Verify the cluster status on the web interface.

n On NSX Manager, log in to the NSX Manager web interface and select System >
Appliances.

n On Global Manager, log in to the Global Manager web interface and select System >
Global Manager Appliances.

Results

Verify the result by running the get managers command on your hosts.

host> get managers

- 192.168.110.47 Connected

In the NSX Manager UI in Fabric > Node > Hosts, verify that the host's MPA connectivity is Up.

You can also view the fabric host's state with the GET https://<nsx-mgr>/api/v1/fabric/nodes/
<fabric-node-id>/state API call:

{
"details": [],
"state": "success"
}

The management plane sends the host certificates to the control plane, and the control plane
pushes control plane information to the hosts.

You should see NSX Controller addresses in /etc/vmware/nsx/controller-info.xml on each

ESXi host or access the CLI using get controllers.

[root@host:~] cat /etc/vmware/nsx/controller-info.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<config>
<connectionList>

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<connection id="0">
<server>10.143.1.47</server>
<port>1234</port>
<sslEnabled>true</sslEnabled>
<pemKey>-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----...-----END CERTIFICATE-----</pemKey>
</connection>
<connection id="1">
<server>10.143.1.45</server>
<port>1234</port>
<sslEnabled>true</sslEnabled>
<pemKey>-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----...-----END CERTIFICATE-----</pemKey>
</connection>
<connection id="2">
<server>10.143.1.46</server>
<port>1234</port>
<sslEnabled>true</sslEnabled>
<pemKey>-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----...-----END CERTIFICATE-----</pemKey>
</connection>
</connectionList>
</config>

The host connection to NSX-T Data Centers is initiated and sits in "CLOSE_WAIT" status until the
host is promoted to a transport node. You can see this with the esxcli network ip connection list
| grep 1234 command.

# esxcli network ip connection list | grep 1234

tcp 0 0 192.168.210.53:45823 192.168.110.34:1234 CLOSE_WAIT 37256 newreno netcpa

For KVM, the command is netstat -anp --tcp | grep 1234.

user@host:~$ netstat -anp --tcp | grep 1234

tcp 0 0 192.168.210.54:57794 192.168.110.34:1234 CLOSE_WAIT -

What to do next

Create a transport zone. See Create a Standalone Host or Bare Metal Server Transport Node.

Install Third-Party Packages on a KVM Host

To prepare a KVM host to be a fabric node, you must install some third-party packages.

Prerequisites

n (RHEL and CentOS Linux) Before you install the third-party packages, run the following
commands to install the virtualization packages.

yum groupinstall “Virtualization Hypervisor”

yum groupinstall “Virtualization Client”
yum groupinstall "Virtualization Platform"
yum groupinstall "Virtualization Tools"

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If you are not able to install the packages, you can manually install them by running yum
install glibc.i686 nspr command on a new installation.

n (Ubuntu) Before you install the third-party packages, run the following commands to install
the virtualization packages.

apt install -y \
qemu-kvm \
libvirt-bin \
virtinst \
virt-manager \
virt-viewer \
ubuntu-vm-builder \
bridge-utils

n (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) Before you install the third-party packages, run the following
commands to install the virtualization packages.

libcap-progs

Procedure

u On Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS, run apt-get install <package_name> to install the following third-
party packages manually.

traceroute
python-mako
python-simplejson
python-unittest2
python-yaml
python-netaddr
python-netifaces
dkms
libc6-dev
libelf-dev

u On RHEL and CentOS Linux, run yum install <package_name> to install the third-party
packages manually.

If you manually prepare the host that is already registered to RHEL or CentOS, you do not
need to install third-party packages on the host.

RHEL 7.7, 7.6 CentOS Linux 7.6

wget wget
PyYAML PyYAML
libunwind libunwind
python-gevent python-gevent
python-mako python-mako
python-netaddr python-netaddr
python-netifaces python-netifaces
redhat-lsb-core redhat-lsb-core
tcpdump tcpdump

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u On SUSE, run zypper install <package_name> to install the third-party packages manually.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12.0

python-simplejson
python-PyYAML
python-netaddr
python-netifaces
lsb-release
libcap-progs

Verify Open vSwitch Version on RHEL, CentOS, or Oracle

Linux KVM Hosts
Skip this topic if there are no OVS packages on the RHEL, CentOS, or Oracle Linux host. If OVS
packages already exist on a RHEL, CentOS or Oracle Linux host, you must either remove the
existing OVS packages and install the NSX-T supported OVS packages or upgrade the existing
OVS packages to NSX-T supported ones.

The supported Open vSwitch version is 2.12.1.xxxxxx.

Procedure

1 Verify the current version of the Open vSwitch installed on the host.

ovs-vswitchd --version

Important If the existing Open vSwitch packages run the latest or an earlier version, you
must replace the existing Open vSwitch packages with the supported version.

2 Verify if there are existing Open vSwitch packages on the host.

rpm -qa | grep openvswitch

3 Navigate to the Open vSwitch packages required by NSX-T Data Center.

a Log in to the host as an administrator.

b Download and copy the nsx-lcp file into the /tmp directory.

c Untar the package.

tar -zxvf nsx-lcp-<release>-rhel77_x86_64.tar.gz

d Navigate to the package directory.

cd nsx-lcp-rhel77_x86_64/

4 Verify the Open vSwitch packages in the nsx-lcp bundle.

ls | grep openvswitch

5 Delete the Open vSwitch packages.

rpm -e <package1> <package2> <package3>...

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6 If the Open vSwitch packages are successfully deleted on the host, proceed to the NSX
Manager UI to prepare the KVM host as a transport node. If the Open vSwitch packages
cannot be deleted, then proceed to the next step.

7 If packages cannot be deleted, upgrade the existing Open vSwitch package version with the
supported one.

rpm -Uv --replacepkgs --oldpackage *openvswitch*.rpm

Verify Open vSwitch Version on SUSE KVM Hosts

Skip this topic if there are no OVS packages on the SUSE host. If OVS packages exist on a SUSE
host, you must either remove the existing OVS packages and install the NSX-T supported OVS
packages or upgrade the existing OVS packages to NSX-T supported ones.

The supported Open vSwitch version is 2.12.1.xxxxxx.

Procedure

1 Verify the current version of the Open vSwitch installed on the host.

ovs-vswitchd --version

Important If the existing Open vSwitch packages run the latest or an earlier version, you
must replace the existing Open vSwitch packages with the supported version.

2 Verify if there are existing Open vSwitch packages on the host.

rpm -qa | grep openvswitch

3 Navigate to the Open vSwitch packages required by NSX-T Data Center.

a Log in to the host as an administrator.

b Download and copy the nsx-lcp file into the /tmp directory.

c Untar the package.

nsx-lcp-3.0.0.0.0.14335404-linux64-sles12sp3.tar.gz

d Navigate to the package directory.

nsx-lcp-linux64-sles12sp3/

4 Verify the Open vSwitch packages in the nsx-lcp bundle.

ls | grep openvswitch

5 Delete the Open vSwitch packages.

rpm -e <package1> <package2> <package3>...

6 If the Open vSwitch packages are successfully deleted on the host, proceed to the NSX
Manager UI to prepare the KVM host as a transport node. If the Open vSwitch packages
cannot be deleted, then proceed to the next step.

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7 If packages cannot be deleted, upgrade the existing Open vSwitch package version with the
supported one.

rpm -Uv --replacepkgs --oldpackage *openvswitch*.rpm

Verify Open vSwitch Version on Ubuntu KVM Hosts

Skip this topic if there are no OVS packages on the Ubuntu host. If OVS packages already exist
on the Ubuntu host, you must either remove the existing OVS packages and install the NSX-T
supported OVS packages or upgrade the existing OVS packages to NSX-T supported ones.

The supported Open vSwitch version is 2.12.1.xxxxxx.

Procedure

1 Verify the current version of the Open vSwitch installed on the host.

ovs-vswitchd --version

Important If the existing Open vSwitch packages run the latest or an earlier version, you
must replace the existing Open vSwitch packages with the supported version.

2 Verify if there are existing Open vSwitch packages on the host.

dpkg -l | grep openvswitch

3 Navigate to the Open vSwitch packages required by NSX-T Data Center.

a Log in to the host as an administrator.

b Download and copy the nsx-lcp file into the /tmp directory.

c Untar the package.

tar -zxvf nsx-lcp-<release>-ubuntu-xenial_amd64.tar.gz OR

tar -zxvf nsx-lcp-<version>-linux64-bionic_amd64.tar.gz

d Navigate to the package directory.

cd nsx-lcp-xenial_amd64 OR
cd nsx-lcp-bionic_amd64

4 Verify the Open vSwitch packages in the nsx-lcp bundle.

ls | grep openvswitch

5 Delete the Open vSwitch packages.

dpkg --purge <package1> <package2> <package3>….

6 If the Open vSwitch packages are successfully deleted on the host, proceed to the NSX
Manager UI to prepare the KVM host as a transport node. If the Open vSwitch packages
cannot be deleted, then proceed to the next step.

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7 If packages cannot be deleted, upgrade the existing Open vSwitch package version with the
supported one.

dpkg -iRB *openvswitch*.deb

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Configuring Bare Metal Server to
Use NSX-T Data Center 7
To use NSX-T Data Center on a bare metal (BM) server, you must install supported third-party
packages.

Bare Metal Concepts:

n Application - represents the actual application running on the bare metal server, such as a
web server or a data base server.

n Application Interface - represents the network interface card (NIC) which the application
uses for sending and receiving traffic. One application interface per bare metal server is
supported.

n Management Interface - represents the NIC which manages the bare metal server.

n VIF - the peer of the application interface which is attached to the logical switch. This is
similar to a VM vNIC.

NSX-T Data Center supports the bare metal server in two ways: as a host transport node and as
a host for NSX Manager.

Make sure that you have the supported bare metal server versions. See Bare Metal Server
System Requirements.

Note If your NSX Edges are in VM form factor and you intend to use the NSX DHCP service
(deployed on VLAN-based logical switch), you must set the forged transmits option to Accept
on the bare metal hosts on which the NSX Edges are deployed. See Forged Transmits in the
vSphere product documentation.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Install Third-Party Packages on a Bare Metal Server

n Create Application Interface for Bare Metal Server Workloads

n Ansible Server Configuration for Bare Metal Server

n Secure Workloads on Windows Server 2016 Bare Metal Servers

Install Third-Party Packages on a Bare Metal Server

To prepare a bare metal server to be a fabric node, you must install some third-party packages.

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Prerequisites

n Verify that the user performing the installation has administrative permission to do the
following actions, some of which may require sudo permissions:

n Download and untar the bundle.

n Run dpkg or rpm commands for installing/uninstalling NSX components.

n Execute nsxcli command for executing join management plane commands.

n Verify that the virtualization packages are installed.

n Redhat, CentOS or Oracle Linux- yum install libvirt-libs

n Ubuntu - apt-get install libvirt0

n Oracle Linux - rpm-qa | grep xxx

n SUSE - zypper install libvirt-libs

Procedure

u On Ubuntu, run apt-get install <package_name> to install the third-party packages.

Ubuntu 18.04.2 Ubuntu 16.04

traceroute libunwind8
python-mako libgflags2v5
python-netaddr libgoogle-perftools4
python-simplejson traceroute
python-unittest2 python-mako
python-yaml python-simplejson
python-openssl python-unittest2
dkms python-yaml
libvirt0 python-netaddr
libelf-dev python-openssl
python-netifaces libboost-filesystem1.58.0
libboost-chrono1.58.0
libgoogle-glog0v5
dkms
libboost-date-time1.58.0
python-protobuf
python-gevent
libsnappy1v5
libleveldb1v5
libboost-program-options1.58.0
libboost-thread1.58.0
libboost-iostreams1.58.0
libvirt0
libelf-dev
python-netifaces

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u On RHEL, CentOS, and Oracle Linux run yum install to install the third-party packages.

RHEL 7.7, 7.6, and 7.5 CentOS 7.7, 7.6, and 7.5 Oracle Linux 7.6 and 7.7

tcpdump tcpdump tcpdump

boost-filesystem boost-filesystem boost-filesystem
PyYAML PyYAML PyYAML
boost-iostreams boost-iostreams boost-iostreams
boost-chrono boost-chrono boost-chrono
python-mako python-mako python-mako
python-netaddr python-netaddr python-netaddr
python-six python-six python-six
gperftools-libs gperftools-libs gperftools-libs
libunwind libunwind libunwind
libelf-dev libelf-dev snappy
snappy snappy boost-date-time
boost-date-time boost-date-time c-ares
c-ares c-ares redhat-lsb-core
redhat-lsb-core redhat-lsb-core wget
wget wget net-tools
net-tools net-tools yum-utils
yum-utils yum-utils lsof
lsof lsof libvirt-libs
python-gevent python-gevent python-netifaces
libev libev python-greenlet
python-greenlet python-greenlet libev
libvirt-libs libvirt-libs python-gevent
python-netifaces python-netifaces

u On SUSE, run zypper install <package_name> to install the third-party packages manually.

net-tools
tcpdump
python-simplejson
python-netaddr
python-PyYAML
python-six
libunwind
wget
lsof
libcap-progs
libvirt-libs
python-netifaces

Create Application Interface for Bare Metal Server

Workloads
You must configure NSX-T Data Center install Linux third-party packages before you create or
migrate an application interface for bare metal server workloads.

NSX-T Data Center does not support Linux OS interface bonding. You must use Open vSwitch
(OVS) bonding for Bare Metal Server Transport Nodes. See Knowledge Base article 67835 Bare
Metal Server supports OVS bonding for Transport Node configuration in NSX-T.

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Procedure

1 Install the required third-party packages.

See Install Third-Party Packages on a Bare Metal Server.

2 Configure the TCP and UDP ports.

See https://ports.vmware.com/home/NSX-T-Data-Center.

3 Add a bare metal server to the NSX-T Data Center fabric and create a transport node.

See Create a Standalone Host or Bare Metal Server Transport Node.

4 Use the Ansible playbook to create an application interface.

See Ansible Server Configuration for Bare Metal Server.

Ansible Server Configuration for Bare Metal Server

When virtual interfaces (VIFs) are being configured, unique IDs of the VIFs have to be configured
to be used as the segment port.

Ansible support modes are a set of automated scripts that set up the application interface for
bare metal servers.

n Static Mode - Application interface IP Address is configured manually.

n DHCP Mode - Application interface IP Address is configured dynamically.

n Migrate Mode - This mode supports management and application sharing the same IP
address. Also called underlay mode or VLAN-0.

For all Linux or Windows VM and physical machines:

1 Install Ansible based on the operating system: –https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/

installation_guide/intro_installation.html

2 Run the command ansible-version, and check that Ansible is version is 2.4.3 or later.

3 Download and extract the Bare Metal integration with NSX-T Data Centerfrom Github: –
https://github.com/vmware/bare-metal-server-integration-with-nsxt

For Windows Bare Metal Servers only:

1 Install pip for pywinrm.

2 Install pywinrm, and run pip install pywinrm.

Secure Workloads on Windows Server 2016 Bare Metal

Servers
Use Ansible to configure an application VIF on Windows Server 2016 and integrate it with NSX-T.
The NSX-T agent installed on the servers provides connectivity and security to the bare metal
workloads.

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In this procedure, establish connectivity between the workloads and NSX Manager. Then,
configure DFW rules to secure ingress and egress traffic running between virtual or physical
and Windows Server 2016 bare metal workloads.

Procedure

1 Enable Windows Remote Management (WinRM) on Windows Server 2016 to allow the
Windows server to interoperate with third-party software and hardware. To enable the
WinRM service with a self-signed certificate.

a Run PS$ wget -o

ConfigureWinRMService.ps1 https://github.com/vmware/bare-metal-server-integration-
with-nsxt/blob/master/bms-ansible-nsx/windows/ConfigureWinRMService.ps1.

b Run PS$ powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -File

ConfigureWinRMService.ps1.

2 Configure WinRM to use HTTPS. The default port used for HTTPS is 5986.

a Run Powershell as an administrator.

b Run winrm quickconfig.

c Run winrm set winrm/config/service/auth @{Basic="true"}.

d Run winrm set winrm/config/service @{AllowUnencrypted="true"}.

e Run winrm create winrm/config/Listener?Address=*+Transport=HTTPS

@{Hostname="win16-colib-001";CertificateThumbprint="cd 65 61 d8 b2 25 a7 ca
99 f8 1f a5 0c 55 8b f1 38 0d 06 26"}.

f Verify configuration of WinRM. Run winrm e winrm/config/listener.

3 Using Ansible, create an application interface for the Windows server.

See https://github.com/vmware/bare-metal-server-integration-with-nsxt.

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4 Using Ansible, create a segment and segment ports on NSX Manager over the WinRM
channel.

The application virtual interface, NSX Manager, and Windows Remote Management are
synchronized with the segment and ports created for the application virtual interface.

5 In Windows, customize OVSIM driver for the Windows server to create two new network
adapters - application virtual interfaces and virtual tunnel endpoint (VTEP) for overlay-backed
workload.

$:> Get-NetAdapter
vEthernet1-VTEP: Used for overlay-backed VTEP interface. Not needed for a VLAN-backed
workload.
vEthernet1-VIF1: Used for virtual interface or application interface of the bare metal
Windows server.

6 To verify network adapters, go to the Windows server and run Get-NetAdapter.

7 Add the bare metal server as a standalone transport node. In the NSX Manager, go to
System → Fabric → Nodes → Host Transport Nodes.

8 In the Managed by drop-down menu, select Standalone Hosts and click + Add.

9 During transport node creation, ensure the following conditions are met:

n In the Uplink field, map an uplink to an available IP address on the Windows server. Run
Get-NetAdapter on the Windows Server to know which ethernet address to configure as
uplinks for the bare metal transport node.

n On overlay-backed workloads, select among IP Pool, Static IP, or DHCP as the mode for
assigning a VTEP address to the host.

n On VLAN-backed workloads, there is not IP assignment required for the host.

Note NSX-T does not support NIC teaming or OVS bond configurations on Windows
Server 2016 servers.

The NSX Manager automatically installs required NSX-T VIBs and NSX-T agent on the bare
metal server. For more details, see Create a Standalone Host or Bare Metal Server Transport
Node.

10 Alternatively, you can manually prepare the bare metal server as a transport node or follow
the interactive mode to prepare the server as a transport node.

a Download and install the NSX-T LCP Windows bundle using the wget command.

b To silently install NSX-T, run \\install_helper.ps1 -operation install -setupFile

VMware-NSX-<version>_baremetal-server_setup.exe -installPath <path>.

c To interactively install NSX-T, double click the setup.exe file and follow the wizard to
complete installation.

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d Run the nsxcli command to join the Windows Server to the NSX Manager.

e Configure the host as a transport node either from the NSX Manager UI or REST APIs. For
more details, see Create a Standalone Host or Bare Metal Server Transport Node.

11 Verify whether OVS bridges are created on the Windows server. The OVS bridge connects
the application virtual interface to the nsx switch on the transport node.

ovs-vsctl show

The output must show the bridges created from nsxswitch and nsx managed host
component. The nsxswitch bridge is for the transport node that was created. The nsx
managed bridge is created for the application virtual interface on the Windows host. These
bridge entries indicate that communication channel is established between the nsx switch and
Windows remote listener.

12 Using the Ansible client, configure a static IP address for the overlay or VLAN-backed
segment.

Run vi win_hosts

13 Launch Ansible playbook for the service to configure Windows bare metal server.

Run ansible-playbook -i win_hosts win_static_config.yml

14 On the overlay-backed transport node, verify:

n The static IP address is reflected as the IP address of the overlay segment to which the
Windows Server workload is connected.

n The GENEVE tunnels are created between the nsx switch and the nsx managed host
component on the Windows host.

Note Likewise, on a VLAN-backed transport node, verify that the static IP address is
reflected as the IP address of the VLAN segment to which the Windows Server workload
is connected.

15 Verify connectivity between the application, Windows bare metal server, and NSX Manager .

16 Add and publish L2 or L3 DFW rules for the overlay or VLAN-backed bare metal workload.

17 Verify ingress and egress traffic between virtual or physical workloads and bare metal
workloads is flowing as per the DFW rules published.

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NSX Manager Cluster
Requirements 8
The following subsections describe the NSX Manager cluster requirements and provides
recommendations for specific site deployments. They also describe how you can use vSphere
HA (High Availability) with NSX-T Data Center to enable quick recovery if the host running the
NSX Manager node fails.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n NSX Manager Cluster Requirements for Single, Dual, and Multiple Sites

NSX Manager Cluster Requirements for Single, Dual, and

Multiple Sites
Your NSX Manager cluster configuration will vary depending on whether your deployment is for
single, dual, or multiple sites.

You can use vSphere HA with NSX-T Data Center to enable quick recovery if the host running the
NSX Manager node fails.

Note See Creating and Using vSphere HA Clusters in the vSphere product documentation.

Cluster Requirements
n In a production environment, the NSX Manager cluster must have three members to avoid an
outage to the management and control planes.

Each cluster member should be placed on a unique hypervisor host with three physical
hypervisor hosts in total. This is required to avoid a single physical hypervisor host failure
impacting the NSX control plane. It is recommended you apply anti-affinity rules to ensure
that all three cluster members are running on different hosts.

The normal production operating state is a three-node NSX Manager cluster. However, you
can add additional, temporary NSX Manager nodes to allow for IP address changes.

Important As of NSX-T Data Center 2.4, the NSX Manager contains the NSX Central
Control Plane process. This service is critical for the operation of NSX. If there is a complete
loss of NSX Managers, or if the cluster is reduced from three NSX Managers to one NSX
Manager, you will not be able to make topology changes to your environment, and vMotion
of machines depending on NSX will fail.

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n For lab and proof-of-concept deployments where there are no production workloads, you
can run a single NSX Manager to save resources. NSX Manager nodes can be deployed on
either ESXi or KVM. However, mixed deployments of managers on both ESXi and KVM are
not supported.

Single Site Requirements and Recommendations

The following recommendations apply to single site NSX-T Data Center deployments.

n It is recommended that you place your NSX Managers on different hosts to avoid a single
host failure impacting multiple managers.

n Maximum latency between NSX Managers is 10ms.

n You can place NSX Managers in different vSphere clusters or in a common vSphere cluster.

n It is recommended that you place NSX Managers in different management subnets or a

shared management subnet. When using vSphere HA it is recommended to use a shared
management subnet soNSX Managers that are recovered by vSphere can preserve their IP
address.

n It is recommended that you place NSX Managers on shared storage also. For vSphere HA,
please review the requirements for that solution.

You can also use vSphere HA with NSX-T to provide recovery of a lost NSX Manager when the
host where the NSX Manager is running fails.

Scenario example:

n A vSphere cluster in which all three NSX Managers are deployed.

n The vSphere cluster consists of four or more hosts:

n Host-01 with nsxmgr-01 deployed

n Host-02 with nsxmgr-02 deployed

n Host-03 with nsxmgr-03 deployed

n Host-04 with no NSX Manager deployed

n vSphere HA is configured to recover any lost NSX Manager (e.g., nsxmgr-01) from any host
(e.g., Host-01) to Host-04.

Thus, upon the loss of any hosts where a NSX Manager is running, vSphere recovers the lost NSX
Manager on Host-04.

Dual Site Requirements and Recommendations

The following recommendations apply to dual site (Site A/Site B) NSX-T Data Center
deployments.

n It is not recommended to deploy NSX Managers in a dual-site scenario without vSphere HA.
In this scenario, one site requires the deployment of twoNSX Managers and the loss of that
site will impact the operation of NSX-T Data Center.

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n Deployment of NSX Managers in a dual site scenario with vSphere HA can be done with the
following considerations:

n A single stretched vSphere cluster contains all the hosts for NSX Managers.

n All three NSX Managers are deployed to a common management subnet/VLAN to allow
IP address preservation upon recovery of a lost NSX Managers.

n For latency between sites, see the storage product requirements.

Scenario example:

n A vSphere cluster in which all three NSX Managers are deployed.

n The vSphere cluster consists of six or more hosts, with three hosts in Site A and three hosts in
Site B.

n The three NSX Managers are deployed to distinct hosts with additional hosts for placement
of recovered NSX Managers:

Site A:

n Host-01 with nsxmgr-01 deployed

n Host-02 with nsxmgr-02 deployed

n Host-03 with nsxmgr-03 deployed

Site B:

n Host-04 with no NSX Manager deployed

n Host-05 with no NSX Manager deployed

n Host-06 with no NSX Manager deployed

n vSphere HA is configured to recover any lost NSX Manager (e.g., nsxmgr-01) from any host
(e.g., Host-01) in Site A to one of the hosts in Site B.

Thus, upon failure of Site A, vSphere HA will recover all NSX Managers to hosts in site B.

Important You must you properly configure anti-affinity rules to prevent NSX Managers from
being recovered to the same common host.

Multiple (Three or More) Site Requirements and Recommendations

The following recommendations apply to multiple-site (Site A/Site B/Site C) NSX-T Data Center
deployments.

In a scenario with three or more sites, you can deploy NSX Managers with or without vSphere
HA.

If you deploy without vSphere HA:

n It is recommended that you use separate management subnets or VLANs per site.

n Maximum latency between NSX Managers is 10ms.

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Scenario example (three sites):

n Three separate vSphere clusters, one per site.

n At least one host per site running NSX Manager:

n Host-01 with nsxmgr-01 deployed

n Host-02 with nsxmgr-02 deployed

n Host-03 with nsxmgr-03 deployed

Failure scenarios:

n Single site failure: Two remaining NSX Managers in other sites continue to operate. NSX-T
Data Center is in a degraded state but still operational. It is recommended you manually
deploy a third NSX Manager to replace the lost cluster member.

n Two site failure: Loss of quorum and therefore impact to NSX-T Data Center operations.

Recovery of NSX Managers may take as long as 20 minutes depending on environmental

conditions such as CPU speed, disk performance, and other deployment factors.

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9
Install NSX Edge on ESXi using the NSX-T UI, the vSphere web client, or the command-line OVF
tool.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n NSX Edge Installation Requirements

n NSX Edge Networking Setup

n NSX Edge Installation Methods

n Create an NSX Edge Transport Node

n Create an NSX Edge Cluster

n Install an NSX Edge on ESXi Using the vSphere GUI

n Install NSX Edge on Bare Metal

n Join NSX Edge with the Management Plane

n Configure an NSX Edge as a Transport Node

NSX Edge Installation Requirements

The NSX Edge provides routing services and connectivity to network NSX Edges that are
external to the NSX-T Data Center deployment. An NSX Edge is required if you want to deploy
a tier-0 router or a tier-1 router with stateful services such as network address translation (NAT),
VPN, and so on.

Note There can be only one tier-0 router per NSX Edge node. However, multiple tier-1 logical
routers can be hosted on one NSX Edge node. NSX Edge VMs of different sizes can be combined
in the same cluster; however, it is not recommended.

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Table 9-1. NSX Edge Deployment, Platforms, and Installation Requirements

Requirements Description

Supported deployment methods n OVA/OVF

n ISO with PXE
n ISO without PXE

Supported platforms NSX Edge is supported only on ESXi or on bare metal.

NSX Edge is not supported on KVM.

PXE installation The Password string must be encrypted with sha-512

algorithm for the root and admin user password.

NSX-T Data Center appliance password n At least 12 characters

n At least one lower-case letter
n At least one upper-case letter
n At least one digit
n At least one special character
n At least five different characters
n No dictionary words
n No palindromes
n More than four monotonic character sequence is not
allowed

Hostname When installing NSX Edge, specify a hostname that

does not contain invalid characters such as an
underscore. If the hostname contains any invalid
character, after deployment the hostname will be set
to localhost. For more information about hostname
restrictions, see https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc952 and
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1123.

VMware Tools The NSX Edge VM running on ESXi has VMTools installed.
Do not remove or upgrade VMTools.

System Verify that the system requirements are met. See NSX
Edge VM System Requirements.

Ports Verify that the required ports are open. See Ports and
Protocols.

IP Addresses If you have multiple management networks, you can add

static routes to the other networks from the NSX-T Data
Center appliance.
Plan your NSX Edge IPv4 or IPv6 IP addressing scheme.

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Table 9-1. NSX Edge Deployment, Platforms, and Installation Requirements (continued)

Requirements Description

OVF Template n Verify that you have adequate privileges to deploy an

OVF template on the ESXi host.
n Verify that hostnames do not include underscores.
Otherwise, the hostname is set to localhost.
n A management tool that can deploy OVF templates,
such as vCenter Server or the vSphere Client.

The OVF deployment tool must support configuration

options to allow for a manual configuration.
n The Client Integration Plug-in must be installed.

NTP Server The same NTP server must be configured on all NSX Edge
VMs or Bare Metal Edges in an Edge cluster.

Intel-based Chipsets
NSX Edge nodes are supported on ESXi-based hosts with Intel chipsets. If an unsupported
chipset type is used, vSphere EVC mode may prevent Edge nodes from starting, showing an
error message in the console. See NSX Edge VM System Requirements.

AMD EPYC
NSX Edge nodes are also supported on AMD-based chipsets. NSX Edge nodes can now be
deployed on AMD EPYC series chipsets. See NSX Edge VM System Requirements.

n AMD EPYC 7xx1 Series (Naples)

n AMD EPYC 3000 Embedded Family and newer

n AMD EPYC 7xx2 Series (Rome)

NSX Edge Support of vSphere Business Continuity Features

Starting in NSX-T Data Center 2.5.1, vMotion, DRS, and vSphere HA are supported for NSX Edge
nodes.

NSX Edge VM Support on a Host Configured in Enhanced Mode

In a collapsed cluster topology, where the NSX Edge VM, management VM, and host transport
nodes are deployed on a single host, if you want to install an NSX Edge VM on a transport node
configured in Enhanced mode, ensure that the host version is ESXi 6.7p02.

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NSX Edge Installation Scenarios

Important When you install NSX Edge from an OVA or OVF file, either from vSphere Web Client
or the command line, OVA/OVF property values such as user names, passwords, or IP addresses
are not validated before the VM is powered on.

n If you specify a user name for the admin or audit user, the name must be unique. If you
specify the same name, it is ignored and the default names (admin and audit) is used.

n If the password for the admin user does not meet the complexity requirements, you must log
in to NSX Edge through SSH or at the console as the admin user with the password default.
You are prompted to change the password.

n If the password for the audit user does not meet the complexity requirements, the user
account is disabled. To enable the account, log in to NSX Edge through SSH or at the console
as the admin user and run the command set user audit to set the audit user's password
(the current password is an empty string).

n If the password for the root user does not meet the complexity requirements, you must log
in to NSX Edge through SSH or at the console as root with the password vmware. You are
prompted to change the password.

Caution Changes made to the NSX-T Data Center while logged in with the root user credentials
might cause system failure and potentially impact your network. You can only make changes
using the root user credentials with the guidance of VMware Support team.

Note The core services on the appliance do not start until a password with sufficient complexity
has been set.

After you deploy NSX Edge from an OVA file, you cannot change the VM's IP settings by
powering off the VM and modifying the OVA settings from vCenter Server.

NSX Edge Networking Setup

NSX Edge can be installed using ISO, OVA/OVF, or PXE start. Regardless of the installation
method, make sure that the host networking is prepared before you install NSX Edge.

High-Level View of NSX Edge Within a Transport Zone

The high-level view of NSX-T Data Center shows two transport nodes in a transport zone. One
transport node is a host. The other is an NSX Edge.

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Figure 9-1. High-Level Overview of NSX Edge

Transport Zone
NSX Edge Transport Node
Tier 0
SR
Intra-Tier 0 transit
169.254.0.0/28
Tier 0 DR DR

Tier 0-Tier 1 router

Host 100.64.1.0/24
Transport Tier 1
Node
SR
Intra-Tier 1 transit
CCP 169.254.0.0/28
Tier 1 DR DR

LCP

N-VDS
MP
bond
vmxnet3
physical ports
fp-ethX
pnic1 pnic2 managed by datapath

When you first deploy an NSX Edge, you can think of it as an empty container. The NSX Edge
does not do anything until you create logical routers. The NSX Edge provides the compute
backing for tier-0 and tier-1 logical routers. Each logical router contains a services router (SR) and
a distributed router (DR). When we say that a router is distributed, we mean that it is replicated
on all transport nodes that belong to the same transport zone. In the figure, the host transport
node contains the same DRs contained on the tier-0 and tier-1 routers. A services router is
required if the logical router is going to be configured to perform services, such as NAT. All tier-0
logical routers have a services router. A tier-1 router can have a services router if needed based
on your design considerations.

By default, the links between the SR and the DR use the 169.254.0.0/28 subnet. These intra-
router transit links are created automatically when you deploy a tier-0 or tier-1 logical router. You
do not need to configure or modify the link configuration unless the 169.254.0.0/28 subnet is
already in use in your deployment. On a tier-1 logical router, the SR is present only if you select
an NSX Edge cluster when creating the tier-1 logical router.

The default address space assigned for the tier-0-to-tier-1 connections is 100.64.0.0/10. Each
tier-0-to-tier-1 peer connection is provided a /31 subnet within the 100.64.0.0/10 address space.
This link is created automatically when you create a tier-1 router and connect it to a tier-0 router.
You do not need to configure or modify the interfaces on this link unless the 100.64.0.0/10
subnet is already in use in your deployment.

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Each NSX-T Data Center deployment has a management plane cluster (MP) and a control plane
cluster (CCP). The MP and the CCP push configurations to each transport zone's local control
plane (LCP). When a host or NSX Edge joins the management plane, the management plane
agent (MPA) establishes connectivity with the host or NSX Edge, and the host or NSX Edge
becomes an NSX-T Data Center fabric node. When the fabric node is then added as a transport
node, LCP connectivity is established with the host or NSX Edge.

Lastly, the figure shows an example of two physical NICs (pNIC1 and pNIC2) that are bonded
to provide high availability. The datapath manages the physical NICs. They can serve as either
VLAN uplinks to an external network or as tunnel endpoint links to internal NSX-T Data Center-
managed VM networks.

It is a best practice to allocate at least two physical links to each NSX Edge that is deployed
as a VM. Optionally, you can overlap the port groups on the same pNIC using different VLAN
IDs. The first network link found is used for management. For example, on an NSX Edge VM, the
first link found might be vnic1. On a bare-metal installation, the first link found might be eth0 or
em0. The remaining links are used for the uplinks and tunnels. For example, one might be for a
tunnel endpoint used by NSX-T Data Center-managed VMs. The other might be used for an NSX
Edge-to-external TOR uplink.

You can view the physical link information of the NSX Edge, by logging in to the CLI as an
administrator and running the get interfaces and get physical-ports commands. In the API,
you can use the GET fabric/nodes/<edge-node-id>/network/interfaces API call. Physical links are
discussed in more detail in the next section.

Whether you install NSX Edge as a VM appliance or on bare metal, you have multiple options for
the network configuration, depending on your deployment.

Transport Zones and N-VDS

To understand NSX Edge networking, you must know something about transport zones and
N-VDS. Transport zones control the reach of Layer 2 networks in NSX-T Data Center. N-VDS is a
software switch that gets created on a transport node. The purpose of N-VDS is to bind logical
router uplinks and downlinks to physical NICs. For each transport zone that an NSX Edge belongs
to, a single N-VDS gets installed on the NSX Edge.

There are two types of transport zones:

n Overlay for internal NSX-T Data Center tunneling between transport nodes.

n VLAN for uplinks external to NSX-T Data Center.

An NSX Edge can belong to zero VLAN transport zones or many. For zero VLAN transport
zones, the NSX Edge can still have uplinks because the NSX Edge uplinks can use the same
N-VDS installed for the overlay transport zone. You might do this if you want each NSX Edge to
have only one N-VDS. Another design option is for the NSX Edge to belong to multiple VLAN
transport zones, one for each uplink.

The most common design choice is three transport zones: One overlay and two VLAN transport
zones for redundant uplinks.

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To use the same VLAN ID for a transport network for overlay traffic and other for VLAN traffic,
such as a VLAN uplink, configure the ID on two different N-VDS, one for VLAN and the other for
overlay.

Virtual-Appliance/VM NSX Edge Networking

When you install NSX Edge as a virtual appliance or VM, internal interfaces are created, called
fp-ethX, where X is 0, 1, 2, and 3. These interfaces are allocated for uplinks to a top-of-rack (ToR)
switches and for NSX-T Data Center overlay tunneling.

When you create the NSX Edge transport node, you can select fp-ethX interfaces to associate
with the uplinks and the overlay tunnel. You can decide how to use the fp-ethX interfaces.

On the vSphere distributed switch or vSphere Standard switch, you must allocate at least two
vmnics to the NSX Edge: One for NSX Edge management and one for uplinks and tunnels.

In the following sample physical topology, fp-eth0 is used for the overlay tunnel traffic, carrying
the TEP IP address. fp-eth1 is used for the tier-0 gateway uplink supporting north-south traffic.
fp-eth2 is unused because the topology only consists of gateways. You can use fp-eth2 if an L2
bridge is configured. eth0/vNIC1 is assigned to the management network.

Figure 9-2. One Suggested Link Setup for NSX Edge VM Networking

ESXi

VM VDS/VSS

NSX Edge VM eth0 vmnic0

Mgmt vNIC1

fp-eth0
Overlay N-VDS Overlay/Tunnel vNIC2

vmnic1

fp-eth1
VLAN uplink N-VDS Uplink vNIC3
fp-eth2
(Unused) vNIC4

The NSX Edge shown in this example belongs to two transport zones (one overlay and one
VLAN) and therefore has two N-VDS, one for tunnel and one for uplink traffic.

This screenshot shows the virtual machine port groups, nsx-tunnel, and vlan-uplink.

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During deployment, you must specify the network names that match the names configured on
your VM port groups. For example, to match the VM port groups in the example, your network
ovftool settings can be as follows if you were using the ovftool to deploy NSX Edge:

--net:"Network 0-Mgmt" --net:"Network 1-nsx-tunnel" --net:"Network 2=vlan-uplink"

The example shown here uses the VM port group names Mgmt, nsx-tunnel, and vlan-uplink. You
can use any names for your VM port groups.

The tunnel and uplink VM port groups configured for the NSX Edge do not need to be associated
with VMkernel ports or given IP addresses. This is because they are used at Layer 2 only. If your
deployment uses DHCP to provide an address to the management interface, make sure that only
one NIC is assigned to the management network.

Notice that the VLAN and tunnel port groups are configured as trunk ports. This is required. For
example, on a standard vSwitch, you configure trunk ports as follows: . Host > Configuration >
Networking > Add Networking > Virtual Machine > VLAN ID All (4095).

If you are using an appliance-based or VM NSX Edge, you can use standard vSwitches or
vSphere distributed switches.

NSX Edge VM can be installed on an NSX-T Data Center prepared host and configured as a
transport node. There are two types of deployment:

n NSX Edge VM can be deployed using VSS/VDS port groups where VSS/VDS consume
separate pNIC(s) on the host. Host transport node consumes separate pNIC(s) for N-VDS
installed on the host. N-VDS of the host transport node co-exists with a VSS or VDS, both
consuming separate pNICs. Host TEP (Tunnel End Point) and NSX Edge TEP can be in the
same or different subnets.

n NSX Edge VM can be deployed using VLAN-backed logical switches on the N-VDS of the
host transport node. Host TEP and NSX Edge TEP must be in different subnets.

Optionally, you can install multiple NSX Edge appliances/VMs on a single host, and the same
management, VLAN, and tunnel endpoint port groups can be used by all installed NSX Edges.

With the underlying physical links up and the VM port groups configured, you can install the NSX
Edge.

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Bare-Metal NSX Edge Networking

The bare-metal NSX Edge contains internal interfaces called fp-ethX, where X is up to 16
interfaces. The number of fp-ethX interfaces created depends on the number of physical NICs
on bare-metal NSX Edge server. Up to four of these interfaces can be allocated for uplinks to
top-of-rack (ToR) switches and NSX-T Data Center overlay tunneling.

When you create the NSX Edge transport node, you can select fp-ethX interfaces to associate
with the uplinks and the overlay tunnel.

You can decide how to use the fp-ethX interfaces. In the following sample physical topology, fp-
eth0 and fp-eth1 are bonded and used for the overlay tunnel traffic, carrying the TEP IP address.
fp-eth2 and fp-eth3 are used for the tier-0 gateway uplink supporting north-south traffic. eth0/
vNIC1 is assigned to the management network.

Figure 9-3. One Suggested Link Setup for Bare-Metal NSX Edge Networking

Management Bond
eth0 Physical NIC 1
Bare Metal NSX Edge Node
Transport node eth1 Physical NIC 2

Overlay Bond
fp-eth0
Physical NIC 3
Overlay N-VDS
Physical NIC 4
fp-eth1

fp-eth2
VLAN uplink N-VDS 1 Physical NIC 5

fp-eth3
VLAN uplink N-VDS 2 Physical NIC 6

NSX Edge Uplink Redundancy

NSX Edge uplink redundancy allows two VLAN equal-cost multipath (ECMP) uplinks to be used
on the NSX Edge-to-external TOR network connection.

When you have two ECMP VLAN uplinks, you must also have two TOR switches for high
availability and fully meshed connectivity. Each VLAN logical switch has an associated VLAN
ID.

When you add an NSX Edge to a VLAN transport zone, a new N-VDS is installed. For example,
if you add an NSX Edge node to four VLAN transport zones, as shown in the figure, four N-VDS
get installed on the NSX Edge.

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Figure 9-4. One Suggested ECMP VLAN Setup for NSX Edges to TORs
ToR ToR

VLAN 100 VLAN 300 VLAN 200 VLAN 400

VLAN TZ VLAN TZ VLAN TZ VLAN TZ

VLAN 100 VLAN 200 VLAN 300 VLAN 400

logical switch logical switch logical switch logical switch

tier-0 tier-0
logical logical
router router

NSX Edge NSX Edge

Note For an Edge VM deployed on an ESXi host that has the vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS)
and not N-VDS, you must do the following:

n On a vDS switch running version prior (<) to 6.6, enable promiscuous mode for the port
connected to NSX Edge VM virtual NIC that provides VLAN connectivity.

n On a vDS switch running version equal to or greater than (>=) 6.6, enable mac learning
and disable promiscuous mode. These settings ensure that packets are received at the
destination where destination mac address does not match the virtual NIC effective MAC
address.

n Enable forged transmit on the vDS switch. Forged transmit enables sending packets with
source mac address not matching the virtual NIC effective MAC addresses. These settings are
needed to support bridging or L2VPN and DHCP functionality for VLAN networks.

NSX Edge Installation Methods

Install NSX Edge on an ESXi host using NSX Manager UI (recommended method), vSphere web
client, or the vSphere command-line OVF tool.

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NSX Edge Installation Methods

Installation Method Instructions

NSX Manager (recommended method to n Ensure NSX Edge network requirements are met. See NSX Edge
install an NSX Edge VM appliance only) Installation Requirements.
n Create an NSX Edge transport node. See Create an NSX Edge
Transport Node.
n Create an NSX Edge cluster. See Create an NSX Edge Cluster.

vSphere web client or vSphere command- n Ensure NSX Edge network requirements are met. See NSX Edge
line OVF tool Installation Requirements.
n Choose vSphere web client or vSphere command-line OVF tool to
install NSX Edge.
n (Web Client) Install NSX Edge on ESXi. See Install an NSX Edge on
ESXi Using the vSphere GUI.
n (Command-line OVF tool) Install NSX Edge on ESXi. See Install NSX
Edge on ESXi Using the Command-Line OVF Tool.
n Join NSX Edge with the Management Plane. See Join NSX Edge with
the Management Plane.
n Configure an NSX Edge as a transport node. See Configure an NSX
Edge as a Transport Node.
n Create an NSX Edge cluster. See Create an NSX Edge Cluster.

Bare Metal Server (Automated or You can configure automated installation of NSX Edge on a bare metal
Interactive mode via ISO file) or NSX Edge server or install NSX Edge as a VM appliance using PXE. Note that PXE
VM appliance boot installation procedure is not supported on NSX Manager.
n Ensure NSX Edge network requirements are met. See NSX Edge
Installation Requirements.
n Prepare PXE server. See Prepare the PXE Server for NSX Edge .
Choose from one of the supported installation methods:
n (Automated installation) Install NSX Edge via ISO File on Bare Metal.
See Install NSX Edge Automatically via ISO File.
n (Automated installation) Install NSX Edge via ISO File as a Virtual
Appliance. See Install NSX Edge via ISO File as a Virtual Appliance.
n (Manual installation) Manually Install NSX Edge via ISO File. See
Install NSX Edge Interactively via ISO File .
n Join NSX Edge with the Management Plane. See Join NSX Edge with
the Management Plane.
n Configure an NSX Edge as a transport node. See Configure an NSX
Edge as a Transport Node.
n Create an NSX Edge cluster. See Create an NSX Edge Cluster.

Create an NSX Edge Transport Node

You can add an NSX Edge VM to the NSX-T Data Center fabric and proceed to configure it as a
NSX Edge transport node VM.

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An NSX Edge Node is a transport node that runs the local control plane daemons and forwarding
engines implementing the NSX-T data plane. It runs an instance of the NSX-T virtual switch called
the NSX Virtual Distributed Switch, or N-VDS. The Edge Nodes are service appliances dedicated
to running centralized network services that cannot be distributed to the hypervisors. They can
be instantiated as a bare metal appliance or in virtual machine form factor. They are grouped in
one or several clusters, representing a pool of capacity.

An NSX Edge can belong to one overlay transport zone and multiple VLAN transport zones. An
NSX Edge belongs to at least one VLAN transport zone to provide the uplink access.

Note If you plan to create transport nodes from a template VM, make sure that there are
no certificates on the host in /etc/vmware/nsx/. nsx-proxy does not create a certificate if a
certificate already exists.

Prerequisites

n Transport zones must be configured. See Create Transport Zones.

n Verify that compute manager is configured. See Add a Compute Manager.

n An uplink profile must be configured or you can use the default uplink profile for NSX Edge
nodes. See Create an Uplink Profile.

n An IP pool must be configured or must be available in the network deployment. See Create
an IP Pool for Tunnel Endpoint IP Addresses.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Nodes > Edge Transport Nodes > Add Edge VM.

3 Type a name for the NSX Edge.

4 Type the Host name or FQDN from vCenter Server.

5 Select the form factor for the NSX Edge VM appliance.

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6 To customize CPU and memory allocated to an NSX Edge VM appliance, tune the following
parameters. However, for maximum performance NSX Edge VM appliance must be assigned
100% of the available resources .

Caution If you customize resources allocated to the NSX Edge VM, turn back the reservation
later on to 100% to get maximum performance.

Option Description

Memory Reservation (%) Reservation percentage is relative to the pre-defined value in the form
factor.
100 indicates 100% of memory is reserved for the NSX Edge VM.
If you enter 50, it indicates that 50% of the allocated memory is reserved for
the Edge transport node.

CPU Reservation Priority Select the number of shares to be allocated to an NSX Edge VM relative to
other VMs that are contending for shared resources.
The following shares are for an NSX Edge VM in Medium form factor:
n Low - 2000 shares
n Normal - 4000 shares
n High - 8000 shares
n Extra High - 10000 shares

CPU Reservation (MHz) Caution Unless you need fine grained control over CPU reservations,
do not use this field. Instead, change CPU reservations from the CPU
Reservation Priority field.

The maximum CPU reservation value must not exceed the number of vCPUs
multiplied by the normal CPU operation rate of the physical CPU core.
If the MHz value entered exceeds the maximum CPU capacity of the physical
CPU cores, the NSX Edge VM might fail to start even though the allocation
was accepted.
For example, consider a system with two Intel Xeon E5-2630 CPUs. Each
CPU contains ten cores running at 2.20 GHz. The maximum CPU allocation
for a VM configured with two vCPUs is 2 x 2200 MHz = 4400 MHz. If
CPU reservation is specified as 8000 MHz, the reconfiguration of the VM
completes successfully. However, the VM fails to power on.

7 In the Credentials window, enter the following details.

n Specify the CLI and the root passwords for the NSX Edge. Your passwords must comply
with the password strength restrictions.

n At least 12 characters

n At least one lower-case letter

n At least one upper-case letter

n At least one digit

n At least one special character

n At least five different characters

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n No dictionary words

n No palindromes

n More than four monotonic character sequence is not allowed

n To enable SSH for an administrator, toggle the Allow SSH Login button.

n To enable SSH for a root user, toggle the Allow Root SSH Login button.

n Enter credentials for the Audit role. If you do not enter credentials in the Audit
Credentials section, the audit role remains disabled.

8 Enter the NSX Edge details.

Option Description

Compute Manager Select the compute manager from the drop-down menu.
The compute manager is the vCenter Server registered in the Management
Plane.

Cluster Designate the cluster the NSX Edge is going to join from the drop-down
menu.

Resource Pool or Host Assign either a resource pool or a specific host for the NSX Edge from the
drop-down menu.

Datastore Select a datastore for the NSX Edge files from the drop-down menu.

9 Enter the NSX Edge interface details.

Option Description

IP Assignment It is the IP address assigned to NSX Edge node which is required to

communicate with NSX Manager and NSX Controller.
Select DHCP or Static IP.
If you select Static, enter the values for:
n Management IP: Enter IP address of NSX Edge in the CIDR notation.
n Default gateway: Enter the gateway IP address of NSX Edge.

Management Interface Select the management network interface from the drop-down menu. This
interfaces must either be reachable from NSX Manager or must be in the
same management interface as NSX Manager and NSX Controller.
The NSX Edge management interface establishes communication with the
NSX Manager management interface.

Search Domain Names Enter domain names in the format 'example.com' or enter an IP address.

DNS Servers Enter the IP address of the DNS server.

NTP Servers Enter the IP address of the NTP server.

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10 Enter the N-VDS information.

Option Description

Edge Switch Name Select a VLAN or Overlay switch from the drop-down menu.

Transport Zone Select the transport zones that this transport node belongs to. An NSX
Edge transport node belongs to at least two transport zones, an overlay for
NSX-T Data Center connectivity and a VLAN for uplink connectivity.

Note NSX Edge Nodes support multiple overlay tunnels (multi-TEP) when
the following prerequistes are met:
n TEP configuration must be done on one N-VDS only.
n All TEPs must use same transport VLAN for overlay traffic.
n All TEP IPs must be in same subnet and use same default gateway.

Uplink Profile Select the uplink profile from the drop-down menu.
The available uplinks depend on the configuration in the selected uplink
profile.

IP Assignment IP address is assigned to the NSX Edge switch that is configured. It is used
to route packets on an overlay or VLAN network.
Select Use IP Pool or Use Static IP List for the overlay N-VDS.
n If you select Use Static IP List, specify:
n Static IP List: Enter a list of comma-separated IP addresses to be
used by the NSX Edge switch.
n Gateway: Enter the default gateway IP address, which is used to
route packets between NSX Edge transport nodes in an overlay
network.
n Subnet mask: Enter the subnet mask for the configured gateway.
n If you selected Use IP Pool for IP assignment, specify the IP pool name.

DPDK Fastpath Interfaces / Virtual Select the data path interface name for the uplink interface.
NICs
Note If the uplink profile applied to the Edge node is using a Named
Teaming policy, ensure the following condition is met:
n All uplinks in the Default Teaming policy must be mapped to the physical
network interfaces on the Edge VM for traffic to flow through a logical
switch that uses the Named Teaming policies.

Note
n LLDP profile is not supported on an NSX Edge VM appliance.

n Uplink interfaces are displayed as DPDK Fastpath Interfaces if the NSX Edge is installed
using NSX Manager or on a Bare Metal server.

n Uplink interfaces are displayed as Virtual NICs if the NSX Edge is installed manually using
vCenter Server.

11 View the connection status on the Transport Nodes page.

After adding the NSX Edge as a transport node, the connection status changes to Up in 10-12
minutes.

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12 (Optional) View the transport node with the GET https://<nsx-manager>/api/v1/transport-

nodes/<transport-node-id> API call.

13 (Optional) For status information, use the GET https://<nsx-mgr>/api/v1/transport-nodes/

<transport-node-id>/status API call.

14 After an NSX Edge node is migrated to a new host using vCenter Server, you might find NSX
Manager UI reporting stale configuration details (Compute, Datastore, Network, SSH, NTP,
DNS, Search Domains) of the NSX Edge. To get the latest configuration details of NSX Edge
on the new host, run the API command.

POST api/v1/transport-nodes/<transport-node-id>?
action=refresh_node_configuration&resource_type=EdgeNode

What to do next

Add the NSX Edge node to an NSX Edge cluster. See Create an NSX Edge Cluster.

Create an NSX Edge Cluster

Having a multi-node cluster of NSX Edges helps ensure that at least one NSX Edge is always
available.

In order to create a tier-0 logical router or a tier-1 router with stateful services such as NAT, load
balancer, and so on. You must associate it with an NSX Edge cluster. Therefore, even if you have
only one NSX Edge, it must still belong to an NSX Edge cluster to be useful.

An NSX Edge transport node can be added to only one NSX Edge cluster.

An NSX Edge cluster can be used to back multiple logical routers.

After creating the NSX Edge cluster, you can later edit it to add additional NSX Edges.

Prerequisites

n Install at least one NSX Edge node.

n Verify that the NSX Edge node is stable, with all services up and running and all groups are
stable, before joining the node to the cluster.

n Join the NSX Edges with the management plane.

n Add the NSX Edges as transport nodes.

n Optionally, create an NSX Edge cluster profile for high availability (HA). You can also use the
default NSX Edge cluster profile.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Nodes > Edge Clusters > Add.

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3 Enter the NSX Edge cluster a name.

4 Select an NSX Edge cluster profile from the drop-down menu.

5 In Member Type drop-down menu, select either Edge Node if the virtual machine is deployed
on-premises or Public Cloud Gateway if the virtual machine is deployed in a public cloud.

6 From the Available column, select NSX Edges and click the right-arrow to move them to the
Selected column.

What to do next

You can now build logical network topologies and configure services. See the NSX-T Data Center
Administration Guide.

Install an NSX Edge on ESXi Using the vSphere GUI

You can use the vSphere Web Client or vSphere Client to interactively install an NSX Edge on
ESXi.

Note Starting in NSX-T Data Center 2.5.1, the NSX Edge VM supports vMotion.

Prerequisites

See NSX Edge network requirements in NSX Edge Installation Requirements.

Procedure

1 Locate the NSX Edge node appliance OVA file on the VMware download portal.

Either copy the download URL or download the OVA file onto your computer.

2 In the vSphere Client, select the host on which to install NSX Edge node appliance.

3 Right-click and select Deploy OVF template to start the installation wizard.

4 Enter the download OVA URL or navigate to the saved OVA file, and click Next.

5 Enter a name and location for the NSX Edge node , and click Next.

The name you type appears in the vCenter Server and vSphere inventory.

6 Select a compute resource for the NSX Edge node appliance, and click Next.

7 For an optimal performance, reserve memory for the NSX Edge appliance.

Set the reservation to ensure that NSX Edge has sufficient memory to run efficiently. See NSX
Manager VM and Host Transport Node System Requirements.

8 Review and verify the OVF template details, and click Next.

9 Select a deployment configuration, Small, Medium, Large, or XLarge and click Next.

The Description panel on the right side of the wizard shows the details of selected
configuration.

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10 Select storage for the configuration and disk files, and click Next.

a Select the virtual disk format.

b Select the VM storage policy.

c Specify the datastore to store the NSX Edge node appliance files.

11 Select a destination network for each source network.

a For network 0, select the VDS management portgroup.

b For networks 1, 2, and 3, select the previously configured VDS trunk portgroups.

12 Configure IP Allocation settings.

a For IP allocation, specify Static - Manual.

b For IP protocol, select IPv4.

13 Click Next.

The following steps are all located in the Customize Template section of the Deploy OVF
Template wizard.

14 Enter the NSX Edge node system root, CLI admin, and audit passwords.

Note In the Customize Template window, ignore the message All properties have valid
values that is displayed even before you have entered values in any of the fields. This
message is displayed because all parameters are optional. The validation passes as you have
not entered values in any of the fields.

When you log in for the first time, you are prompted to change the password. This password
change method has strict complexity rules, including the following:

n At least 12 characters

n At least one lower-case letter

n At least one upper-case letter

n At least one digit

n At least one special character

n At least five different characters

n No dictionary words

n No palindromes

n More than four monotonic character sequence is not allowed

Important The core services on the appliance do not start until a password with sufficient
complexity has been set.

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15 (Optional) If you have an available NSX Manager and want to register the NSX Edge
node with the management plane during the OVA deployment, complete the Manager IP,
Username, Password, and Thumbprint.

n Manager IP: Enter the NSX Manager node IP address.

Note Do not register the NSX Edge node with the virtual IP (VIP) address of the
management plane during the OVA deployment.

n Manager Username: Enter the NSX Manager username.

n Manager Password: Enter the NSX Manager password.

n Manager Thumbprint: Enter the NSX Manager thumbprint.

Note An NSX Manager thumbprint is required to join an NSX Edge node to an NSX
Manager. To retrieve thumbprint on an NSX Manager node, run get certificate api
thumbprint.

n Node ID: Leave the field blank. The Node UUID field is only for internal use.

16 (Optional) If you want to deploy the NSX Edge node as an autonomous edge in a L2 VPN
topology, enable the option. An autonomous edge is not managed by NSX-T Data Center.
Do not enable the option if you want to deploy an NSX Edge node that provides centralized
edge services to host transport nodes in an NSX-T Data Center topology.

Note The fields in the External and HA sections are required only when you are configure an
autonomous edge node.

17 Enter the hostname of the NSX Edge.

18 Enter the default gateway, management network IPv4, and management network netmask
address.

Skip any VMC network settings.

19 Enter the DNS Server list, the Domain Search list, and the NTP Server IP or FQDN list.

20 (Optional) Do not enable SSH if you prefer to access NSX Edge using the console. However, if
you want root SSH login and CLI login to the NSX Edge command line, enable the SSH option.

By default, SSH access is disabled for security reasons.

21 Verify that all your custom OVA template specification is accurate and click Finish to initiate
the installation.

The installation might take 7-8 minutes.

22 Open the console of the NSX Edge node to track the boot process.

If the console window does not open, make sure that pop-ups are allowed.

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23 After the NSX Edge node starts, log in to the CLI with admin credentials.

Note After NSX Edge node starts, if you do not log in with admin credentials for the first
time, the data plane service does not automatically start on the NSX Edge node.

24 Run the get interface eth0 (without VLAN) or get interface eth0.<vlan_ID> (with a
VLAN) command to verify that the IP address was applied as expected.

nsx-edge-1> get interface eth0.100

Interface: eth0.100
Address: 192.168.110.37/24
MAC address: 00:50:56:86:62:4d
MTU: 1500
Default gateway: 192.168.110.1
Broadcast address: 192.168.110.255
...

Note When bringing up NSX Edge nodes on non-NSX managed host, verify that the MTU
setting is set to 1600 (instead of 1500) on the physical host switch for the data NIC.

25 Run the get managers command to verify that the NSX Edge node is registered.

- 10.173.161.17 Connected (NSX-RPC)

- 10.173.161.140 Connected (NSX-RPC)
- 10.173.160.204 Connected (NSX-RPC)

26 If NSX Edge is not registered with the management plane, see Join NSX Edge with the
Management Plane.

27 Verify that the NSX Edge node has the required connectivity.

If you enabled SSH, make sure that you can SSH to your NSX Edge node and verify the
following:

n You can ping your NSX Edge node management interface.

n From the NSX Edge node, you can ping the node's default gateway.

n From the NSX Edge node, you can ping the hypervisor hosts that are either in the same
network or a network reachable through routing.

n From the NSX Edge node, you can ping the DNS server and NTP Server IP or FQDN list.

28 Troubleshoot connectivity problems.

Note If connectivity is not established, make sure the VM network adapter is in the proper
network or VLAN.

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By default, the NSX Edge node datapath claims all virtual machine NICs except the
management NIC (the one that has an IP address and a default route). If you incorrectly
assigned a NIC as the management interface, follow these steps to use DHCP to assign
management IP address to the correct NIC.
a Log in to the NSX Edge CLI and type the stop service dataplane command.

b Type the set interface interface dhcp plane mgmt command.

c Place interface into the DHCP network and wait for an IP address to be assigned to that
interface.

d Type the start service dataplane command.

The datapath fp-ethX ports used for the VLAN uplink and the tunnel overlay are shown in
the get interfaces and get physical-port commands on the NSX Edge node.

What to do next

Configure NSX Edge as a transport node. See Configure an NSX Edge as a Transport Node.

Install NSX Edge on ESXi Using the Command-Line OVF Tool

If you prefer to automate NSX Edge installation, you can use the VMware OVF Tool, which is a
command-line utility.

Prerequisites

n Verify that the system requirements are met. See System Requirements.

n Verify that the required ports are open. See Ports and Protocols.

n Verify that a datastore is configured and accessible on the ESXi host.

n Verify that you have the IP address and gateway, DNS server IP addresses, domain search
list, and the NTP Server IP or FQDN list for the NSX Manager to use.

n If you do not already have one, create the target VM port group network. Place the NSX-T
Data Center appliances on a management VM network.

If you have multiple management networks, you can add static routes to the other networks
from the NSX-T Data Center appliance.

n Plan your NSX Manager IPv4 IP addressing scheme.

n See NSX Edge network requirements in NSX Edge Installation Requirements.

n Verify that you have adequate privileges to deploy an OVF template on the ESXi host.

n Verify that hostnames do not include underscores. Otherwise, the hostname is set to
localhost.

n OVF Tool version 4.3 or later.

n Know parameters that you can use to deploy a NSX Edge VM and join it to the management
plane.

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Field Name OVF Parameter Field Type

System root password nsx_passwd_0 Required to install. NSX Edge

CLI admin password nsx_cli_passwd_0 Required to install NSX Edge.

CLI audit password nsx_cli_audit_passwd_0 Optional

CLI admin username nsx_cli_username Optional

CLI audit username nsx_cli_audit_username Optional

NSX Manager IP mpIp Required to join NSX Edge VM to

NSX Manager.

NSX Manager token mpToken Required to join NSX Edge VM to

NSX Manager.
To retrieve token, on the
NSX Manager, run POST
https://<nsx-manager>/api/v1/aaa/
registration-token.

NSX Manager thumbprint mpThumbprint Required to join NSX Edge VM to

NSX Manager.
To retrieve thumbprint, on the NSX
Manager node, run get certificate
api thumbprint.

Node Id mpNodeId Only for internal use.

Hostname nsx_hostname Optional

Default IPv4 gateway nsx_gateway_0 Optional

Management network IP address nsx_ip_0 Optional

Management network netmask nsx_netmask_0 Optional

DNS servers nsx_dns1_0 Optional

Domain Search suffixes nsx_domain_0 Optional

NTP Servers nsx_ntp_0 Optional

Is SSH service enabled nsx_isSSHEnabled Optional

Is SSH enabled for root login nsx_allowSSHRootLogin Optional

Is autonomous Edge is_autonomous_edge Optional. Valid values: True, False

(default)

Procedure

u For a standalone host, run the ovftool command with the appropriate parameters.

C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads>ovftool
--name=nsx-edge-1
--deploymentOption=medium
--X:injectOvfEnv
--X:logFile=ovftool.log
--allowExtraConfig
--datastore=ds1

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--net:"Network 0=Mgmt"
--net:"Network 1=nsx-tunnel"
--net:"Network 2=vlan-uplink"
--net:"Network 3=vlan-uplink"
--acceptAllEulas
--noSSLVerify
--diskMode=thin
--powerOn
--prop:nsx_ip_0=192.168.110.37
--prop:nsx_netmask_0=255.255.255.0
--prop:nsx_gateway_0=192.168.110.1
--prop:nsx_dns1_0=192.168.110.10
--prop:nsx_domain_0=corp.local
--prop:nsx_ntp_0=192.168.110.10
--prop:nsx_isSSHEnabled=True
--prop:nsx_allowSSHRootLogin=True
--prop:nsx_passwd_0=<password>
--prop:nsx_cli_passwd_0=<password>
--prop:nsx_hostname=nsx-edge
--prop:mpIp=<NSXManager-IP>
--prop:mpToken=<NSXManager-Token>
--prop:mpThumbprint=<NSXManager-Thumbprint>
--prop:is_autonomous_edge=False
<path/url to nsx component ova>
vi://root:<password>@192.168.110.51

Opening OVA source: nsx-<component>.ova

The manifest validates
Source is signed and the certificate validates
Opening VI target: vi://[email protected]
Deploying to VI: vi://[email protected]
Transfer Completed
Powering on VM: nsx-edge-1
Task Completed
Completed successfully

u For a host managed by vCenter Server, run the ovftool command with the appropriate
parameters.

C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads>ovftool
--name=nsx-edge-1
--deploymentOption=medium
--X:injectOvfEnv
--X:logFile=ovftool.log
--allowExtraConfig
--datastore=ds1
--net:"Network 0=Mgmt"
--net:"Network 1=nsx-tunnel"
--net:"Network 2=vlan-uplink"
--net:"Network 3=vlan-uplink"
--acceptAllEulas

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--noSSLVerify
--diskMode=thin
--powerOn
--prop:nsx_ip_0=192.168.110.37
--prop:nsx_netmask_0=255.255.255.0
--prop:nsx_gateway_0=192.168.110.1
--prop:nsx_dns1_0=192.168.110.10
--prop:nsx_domain_0=corp.local
--prop:nsx_ntp_0=192.168.110.10
--prop:nsx_isSSHEnabled=True
--prop:nsx_allowSSHRootLogin=True
--prop:nsx_passwd_0=<password>
--prop:nsx_cli_passwd_0=<password>
--prop:nsx_hostname=nsx-edge
--prop:mpIp=<NSXManager-IP>
--prop:mpToken=<NSXManager-Token>
--prop:mpThumbprint=<NSXManager-Thumbprint>
--prop:is_autonomous_edge=False
<path/url to nsx component ova>
vi://[email protected]:<password>@192.168.110.24/?ip=192.168.210.53

Opening OVA source: nsx-<component>.ova

The manifest validates
Source is signed and the certificate validates
Opening VI target: vi://[email protected]@192.168.110.24:443/
Deploying to VI: vi://[email protected]@192.168.110.24:443/
Transfer Completed
Powering on VM: nsx-edge-1
Task Completed
Completed successfully

u For an optimal performance, reserve memory for the appliance.

Set the reservation to ensure that NSX Manager has sufficient memory to run efficiently. See
NSX Manager VM and Host Transport Node System Requirements.

u Open the console of the NSX Edge node to track the boot process.

u After the NSX Edge node starts, log in to the CLI with admin credentials.

u Run the get interface eth0 (without VLAN) or get interface eth0.<vlan_ID> (with a
VLAN) command to verify that the IP address was applied as expected.

nsx-edge-1> get interface eth0.100

Interface: eth0.100
Address: 192.168.110.37/24
MAC address: 00:50:56:86:62:4d

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MTU: 1500
Default gateway: 192.168.110.1
Broadcast address: 192.168.110.255
...

Note When bringing up NSX Edge nodes on non-NSX managed host, verify that the MTU
setting is set to 1600 (instead of 1500) on the physical host switch for the data NIC.

u Verify that the NSX Edge node has the required connectivity.

If you enabled SSH, make sure that you can SSH to your NSX Edge node and verify the
following:

n You can ping your NSX Edge node management interface.

n From the NSX Edge node, you can ping the node's default gateway.

n From the NSX Edge node, you can ping the hypervisor hosts that are either in the same
network or a network reachable through routing.

n From the NSX Edge node, you can ping the DNS server and NTP Server IP or FQDN list.

u Troubleshoot connectivity problems.

Note If connectivity is not established, make sure the VM network adapter is in the proper
network or VLAN.

By default, the NSX Edge node datapath claims all virtual machine NICs except the
management NIC (the one that has an IP address and a default route). If you incorrectly
assigned a NIC as the management interface, follow these steps to use DHCP to assign
management IP address to the correct NIC.
a Log in to the NSX Edge CLI and type the stop service dataplane command.

b Type the set interface interface dhcp plane mgmt command.

c Place interface into the DHCP network and wait for an IP address to be assigned to that
interface.

d Type the start service dataplane command.

The datapath fp-ethX ports used for the VLAN uplink and the tunnel overlay are shown in
the get interfaces and get physical-port commands on the NSX Edge node.

What to do next

If you did not join the NSX Edge with the management plane, see Join NSX Edge with the
Management Plane.

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Install NSX Edge via ISO File as a Virtual Appliance

You can install NSX Edge VMs in a manual fashion using an ISO file.

Important The NSX-T Data Center component virtual machine installations include VMware
Tools. Removal or upgrade of VMware Tools is not supported for NSX-T Data Center appliances.

Prerequisites

n See NSX Edge network requirements in NSX Edge Installation Requirements.

Procedure

1 Go to your MyVMware account (myvmware.com) and navigate to VMware NSX-T Data

Center > Downloads.

2 Locate and download the ISO file for NSX Edge.

3 In the vSphere Client, select the host datastore.

4 Select Files > Upload Files > Upload a File to a Datastore, browse to the ISO file, and upload.

If you are using a self-signed certificate, open the IP address in a browser and accept the
certificate and reupload the ISO file.

5 In the vSphere Client inventory, select the host you uploaded the ISO file. or in the vSphere
Client,

6 Right-click and select New Virtual Machine .

7 Select a compute resource for the NSX Edge appliance.

8 Select a datastore to store the NSX Edge appliance files.

9 Accept the default compatibility for your NSX Edge VM.

10 Select the supported ESXi operating systems for your NSX Edge VM.

11 Configure the virtual hardware.

n New Hard Disk - 200 GB

n New Network - VM Network

n New CD/DVD Drive - Datastore ISO File

You must click Connect to bind the NSX Edge ISO file to the VM.

12 Power on the new NSX Edge VM.

13 During ISO boot, open the VM console and choose Automated installation.

There might be a pause of 10 seconds after you press Enter.

During installation, the installer prompts you to enter a VLAN ID for the management
interface. Select Yes and enter a VLAN ID to create a VLAN subinterface for the network
interface. Select No if you do not want to configure VLAN tagging on the packet.

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During power-on, the VM requests a network configuration via DHCP. If DHCP is not available
in your environment, the installer prompts you for IP settings.

By default, the root login password is vmware, and the admin login password is default.

When you log in for the first time, you are prompted to change the password. This password
change method has strict complexity rules, including the following:

n At least 12 characters

n At least one lower-case letter

n At least one upper-case letter

n At least one digit

n At least one special character

n At least five different characters

n No dictionary words

n No palindromes

n More than four monotonic character sequence is not allowed

Important The core services on the appliance do not start until a password with sufficient
complexity has been set.

14 For an optimal performance, reserve memory for the NSX Edge appliance.

Set the reservation to ensure that NSX Edge has sufficient memory to run efficiently. See NSX
Manager VM and Host Transport Node System Requirements.

15 After the NSX Edge node starts, log in to the CLI with admin credentials.

Note After NSX Edge node starts, if you do not log in with admin credentials for the first
time, the data plane service does not automatically start on the NSX Edge node.

16 There are three ways to configure a management interface.

Note If the server uses Mellanox NIC cards, do not configure the Edge in In-band
management interface.

n Untagged interface. This interface type creates an out-of-band management interface.

(DHCP) set interface eth0 dhcp plane mgmt

(Static) set interface eth0 ip <CIDR> gateway <gateway-ip> plane mgmt

n Tagged interface.

set interface eth0 vlan <vlan_ID> plane mgmt

(DHCP) set interface eth0.<vlan_ID> dhcp plane mgmt

(Static) set interface eth0.<vlan_ID> ip <CIDR> gateway <gateway-ip> plane mgmt

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n In-band interface.

set interface mac <mac_address> vlan <vlan_ID> in-band plane mgmt

(DHCP) set interface eth0.<vlan_ID> dhcp plane mgmt

(Static) set interface eth0.<vlan_ID> ip <CIDR> gateway <gateway-ip> plane mgmt

17 (Optional) Start SSH service. Run start service ssh .

18 Run the get interface eth0 (without VLAN) or get interface eth0.<vlan_ID> (with a
VLAN) command to verify that the IP address was applied as expected.

nsx-edge-1> get interface eth0.100

Interface: eth0.100
Address: 192.168.110.37/24
MAC address: 00:50:56:86:62:4d
MTU: 1500
Default gateway: 192.168.110.1
Broadcast address: 192.168.110.255
...

Note When bringing up NSX Edge nodes on non-NSX managed host, verify that the MTU
setting is set to 1600 (instead of 1500) on the physical host switch for the data NIC.

19 (Tagged interface and In-band interface) Any existing VLAN management interface must be
cleared before creating a new one.

Clear interface eth0.<vlan_ID>

To set a new interface, refer to step 15.

20 Verify that the NSX Edge node has the required connectivity.

If you enabled SSH, make sure that you can SSH to your NSX Edge node and verify the
following:

n You can ping your NSX Edge node management interface.

n From the NSX Edge node, you can ping the node's default gateway.

n From the NSX Edge node, you can ping the hypervisor hosts that are either in the same
network or a network reachable through routing.

n From the NSX Edge node, you can ping the DNS server and NTP Server IP or FQDN list.

21 Troubleshoot connectivity problems.

Note If connectivity is not established, make sure the VM network adapter is in the proper
network or VLAN.

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By default, the NSX Edge node datapath claims all virtual machine NICs except the
management NIC (the one that has an IP address and a default route). If you incorrectly
assigned a NIC as the management interface, follow these steps to use DHCP to assign
management IP address to the correct NIC.
a Log in to the NSX Edge CLI and type the stop service dataplane command.

b Type the set interface interface dhcp plane mgmt command.

c Place interface into the DHCP network and wait for an IP address to be assigned to that
interface.

d Type the start service dataplane command.

The datapath fp-ethX ports used for the VLAN uplink and the tunnel overlay are shown in
the get interfaces and get physical-port commands on the NSX Edge node.

What to do next

If you did not join the NSX Edge with the management plane, see Join NSX Edge with the
Management Plane.

Install NSX Edge on Bare Metal

Use PXE server to automate installation of NSX Edge on a bare metal server or use ISO file to
install NSX Edge as a VM appliance or on a bare metal server.

PXE boot installation is not supported for NSX Manager. You also cannot configure networking
settings, such as the IP address, gateway, network mask, NTP, and DNS.

Prerequisites

n If the NSX Edge Bare Metal server is running version 6.7u3 or earlier, do not upgrade
the NSX Edge virtualHW.version to 14 or higher in vCenter Server. By default, the
virtualHW.version is set to 13.

n By default, NSX Edge Bare Metal bond devices aggregating Ethernet devices to form a LAG
are optimized for load balancing. So, a bond device only uses network devices that are on
a local NUMA node whose CPU transmits packets. If the devices forming the bond span
multiple NUMA nodes but the CPUs allocated to packet processing belong to a subset of the
NUMA nodes, then only some of the devices send out traffic. In short, not all devices are
used for balancing traffic that is sent out of the bond device.You cannot disable the default
optimization.

However, if you want to use all Ethernet devices of the bond to load balance traffic, you
must move all Ethernet devices to the NUMA nodes where the packet processing CPUs are
attached.

Note Failover is exclusive of load balancing. If the Ethernet device attached to the local
NUMA node is down, then the bond sends traffic to the other device even though it is not
NUMA local. The load-balancing optimization does not impact failover functionality.

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Prepare the PXE Server for NSX Edge

PXE is made up of several components: DHCP, HTTP, and TFTP. This procedure demonstrates
how to set up a PXE server on Ubuntu.

DHCP dynamically distributes IP settings to NSX-T Data Center components, such as NSX Edge.
In a PXE environment, the DHCP server allows NSX Edge to request and receive an IP address
automatically.

TFTP is a file-transfer protocol. The TFTP server is always listening for PXE clients on the
network. When it detects any network PXE client asking for PXE services, it provides the NSX-T
Data Center component ISO file and the installation settings contained in a preseed file.

Prerequisites

n A PXE server must be available in your deployment environment. The PXE server can be
set up on any Linux distribution. The PXE server must have two interfaces, one for external
communication and another for providing DHCP IP and TFTP services.

If you have multiple management networks, you can add static routes to the other networks
from the NSX-T Data Center appliance.

n Verify that the preseeded configuration file has the parameters net.ifnames=0 and
biosdevname=0 set after -- to persist after reboot.

n See NSX Edge network requirements in NSX Edge Installation Requirements.

Procedure

1 (Optional) Use a kickstart file to set up a new TFTP or DHCP services on an Ubuntu server.

A kickstart file is a text file that contains CLI commands that you run on the appliance after
the first boot.

Name the kickstart file based on the PXE server it is pointing to. For example:

nsxcli.install

The file must be copied to your Web server, for example at /var/www/html/nsx-edge/
nsxcli.install.

In the kickstart file, you can add CLI commands. For example, to configure the IP address of
the management interface:

stop dataplane
set interface eth0 <ip-cidr-format> plane mgmt
start dataplane

To change the admin user password:

set user admin password <new_password> old-password <old-password>

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If you specify a password in the preseed.cfg file, use the same password in the kickstart file.
Otherwise, use the default password, which is "default".

To join the NSX Edge with the management plane:

join management-plane <manager-ip> thumbprint <manager-thumbprint> username <manager-username>

password <manager password>

2 Create two interfaces, one for management and another for DHCP and TFTP services.

Make sure that the DHCP/TFTP interface is in the same subnet that the NSX Edge resides in.

For example, if the NSX Edge management interfaces are going to be in the 192.168.210.0/24
subnet, place eth1 in that same subnet.

# The loopback network interface

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# PXE server's management interface

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.110.81
gateway 192.168.110.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
dns-nameservers 192.168.110.10

# PXE server's DHCP/TFTP interface

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
address 192.168.210.82
gateway 192.168.210.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
dns-nameservers 192.168.110.10

3 Install DHCP server software.

sudo apt-get install isc-dhcp-server -y

4 Edit the /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server file, and add the interface that provides the DHCP
service.

INTERFACES="eth1"

5 (Optional) If you want this DHCP server to be the official DHCP server for the local network,
uncomment the authoritative; line in the /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf file.

...
authoritative;
...

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6 In the /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf file, define the DHCP settings for the PXE network.

For example:

subnet 192.168.210.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {

range 192.168.210.90 192.168.210.95;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option domain-name-servers 192.168.110.10;
option routers 192.168.210.1;
option broadcast-address 192.168.210.255;
default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;
}

7 Start the DHCP service.

sudo service isc-dhcp-server start

8 Verify that the DHCP service is running.

service --status-all | grep dhcp

9 Install Apache, TFTP, and other components that are required for PXE booting.

sudo apt-get install apache2 tftpd-hpa inetutils-inetd

10 Verify that TFTP and Apache are running.

service --status-all | grep tftpd-hpa

service --status-all | grep apache2

11 Add the following lines to the /etc/default/tftpd-hpa file.

RUN_DAEMON="yes"
OPTIONS="-l -s /var/lib/tftpboot"

12 Add the following line to the /etc/inetd.conf file.

tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /usr/sbin/in.tftpd -s /var/lib/tftpboot

13 Restart the TFTP service.

sudo /etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa restart

14 Copy or download the NSX Edge installer ISO file to a temporary folder.

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15 Mount the ISO file and copy the install components to the TFTP server and the Apache
server.

sudo mount -o loop ~/nsx-edge.<build>.iso /mnt

cd /mnt
sudo cp -fr install/netboot/* /var/lib/tftpboot/
sudo mkdir /var/www/html/nsx-edge
sudo cp -fr /mnt/* /var/www/html/nsx-edge/

16 (Optional) Edit the /var/www/html/nsx-edge/preseed.cfg file to modify the encrypted

passwords.

You can use a Linux tool such as mkpasswd to create a password hash.

sudo apt-get install whois

sudo mkpasswd -m sha-512

Password:
$6$SUFGqs[...]FcoHLijOuFD

a Modify the root password, edit /var/www/html/nsx-edge/preseed.cfg and search for the
following line:

d-i passwd/root-password-crypted password $6$tgmLNLMp$9BuAHhN...

b Replace the hash string.

You do not need to escape any special character such as $, ', ", or \.

c Add the usermod command to preseed.cfg to set the password for root, admin, or both.

For example, search for the echo 'VMware NSX Edge' line and add the following
command.

usermod --password '\$6\$VS3exId0aKmzW\$U3g0V7BF0DXlmRI.LR0v/VgloxVotEDp00bO2hUF8u/' root; \

usermod --password '\$6\$VS3exId0aKmzW\$U3g0V7BF0DXlmRI.LR0v/VgloxVotEDp00bO2hUF8u/' admin; \

The hash string is an example. You must escape all special characters. The root password
in the first usermod command replaces the password that is set in d-i passwd/root-
password-crypted password $6$tgm....

If you use the usermod command to set the password, the user is not prompted to change
the password at the first login. Otherwise, the user must change the password at the first
login.

17 Add the following lines to the /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default file.

Replace 192.168.210.82 with the IP address of your TFTP server.

label nsxedge
kernel ubuntu-installer/amd64/linux
ipappend 2
append netcfg/dhcp_timeout=60 auto=true priority=critical vga=normal partman-lvm/

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device_remove_lvm=true netcfg/choose_interface=auto debian-installer/allow_unauthenticated=true

preseed/url=http://192.168.210.82/nsx-edge/preseed.cfg mirror/country=manual mirror/http/
hostname=192.168.210.82 nsx-kickstart/url=http://192.168.210.82/nsx-edge/nsxcli.install mirror/
http/directory=/nsx-edge initrd=ubuntu-installer/amd64/initrd.gz mirror/suite=xenial --

18 Add the following lines to the /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf file.

Replace 192.168.210.82 with the IP address of your DHCP server.

allow booting;
allow bootp;

next-server 192.168.210.82; #Replace this IP address

filename "pxelinux.0";

19 Restart the DHCP service.

sudo service isc-dhcp-server restart

Note If an error is returned, for example: "stop: Unknown instance: start: Job failed to start",
run sudo /etc/init.d/isc-dhcp-server stop and then sudo /etc/init.d/isc-dhcp-server
start. The sudo /etc/init.d/isc-dhcp-server start command returns information about
the source of the error.

What to do next

Install NSX Edge on bare metal using an ISO file. See Install NSX Edge Automatically via ISO File.

Install NSX Edge Automatically via ISO File

You can install NSX Edge devices in a manual fashion on bare metal using an ISO file. This
includes configuring networking settings, such as IP address, gateway, network mask, NTP, and
DNS.

Prerequisites

n Verify that the system BIOS mode is set to Legacy BIOS.

n See NSX Edge network requirements in NSX Edge Installation Requirements.

Procedure

1 Go to your MyVMware account (myvmware.com) and navigate to VMware NSX-T Data

Center > Downloads.

2 Locate and download the ISO file for NSX Edge for Bare Metal.

3 Log in to the out-of-band management interface (for example, Integrated Lights-Out (ILO) on
HP servers) of the bare metal.

4 Click Launch in the virtual console preview.

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5 Select Virtual Media > Connect Virtual Media.

Wait a few seconds for the virtual media to connect.

6 Select Virtual Media > Map CD/DVD and browse to the ISO file.

7 Select Next Boot > Virtual CD/DVD/ISO.

8 Select Power > Reset System (warm boot).

The installation duration depends on the bare metal environment.

9 Choose Automated installation.

There might be a pause of 10 seconds after you press Enter.

10 Select the applicable primary network interface.

During power-on, the installer requests a network configuration via DHCP. If DHCP is not
available in your environment, the installer prompts you for IP settings.

By default, the root login password is vmware, and the admin login password is default.

11 Open the console of the NSX Edge node to track the boot process.

If the console window does not open, make sure that pop-ups are allowed.

12 After the NSX Edge node starts, log in to the CLI with admin credentials.

Note After NSX Edge node starts, if you do not log in with admin credentials for the first
time, the data plane service does not automatically start on the NSX Edge node.

13 After the reboot, you can log in with either admin or root credentials. The default root
password is vmware.

14 There are three ways to configure a management interface.

Note If the server uses Mellanox NIC cards, do not configure the Edge in In-band
management interface.

n Untagged interface. This interface type creates an out-of-band management interface.

(DHCP) set interface eth0 dhcp plane mgmt

(Static) set interface eth0 ip <CIDR> gateway <gateway-ip> plane mgmt

n Tagged interface.

set interface eth0 vlan <vlan_ID> plane mgmt

(DHCP) set interface eth0.<vlan_ID> dhcp plane mgmt

(Static) set interface eth0.<vlan_ID> ip <CIDR> gateway <gateway-ip> plane mgmt

n In-band interface.

set interface mac <mac_address> vlan <vlan_ID> in-band plane mgmt

(DHCP) set interface eth0.<vlan_ID> dhcp plane mgmt

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(Static) set interface eth0.<vlan_ID> ip <CIDR> gateway <gateway-ip> plane mgmt

n (Optional) Create a bond0 interface for management HA interface with multiple interfaces.

You can configure a bond management interface on an NSX Edge using the following CLI
command. Use console to clear existing mangement IP before you create a bond and add
an interface to it.

Note Only active-backup mode is allowed on a bond interface. It does not allows you to
configure VLAN. So, you need to configure VLAN on an access VLAN that sits closer to
the physical switch.

set interface bond0 ip x.x.x.x/mask gateway x.x.x.x plane mgmt mode active-
backup members eth0, eth1 primary eth0

15 Run the get interface eth0 (without VLAN) or get interface eth0.<vlan_ID> (with a
VLAN) command to verify that the IP address was applied as expected.

nsx-edge-1> get interface eth0.100

Interface: eth0.100
Address: 192.168.110.37/24
MAC address: 00:50:56:86:62:4d
MTU: 1500
Default gateway: 192.168.110.1
Broadcast address: 192.168.110.255
...

Note When bringing up NSX Edge nodes on non-NSX managed host, verify that the MTU
setting is set to 1600 (instead of 1500) on the physical host switch for the data NIC.

16 (Tagged interface and In-band interface) Any existing VLAN management interface must be
cleared before creating a new one.

clear interface eth0.<vlan_ID>

To set a new interface, refer to step 13.

17 Set physical NICs to be used by NSX-T Data Center dataplane from the list of available PCI
devices.

a get dataplane device list

b set dataplane device list <NIC1>, <NIC2>, <NIC3>

c restart service dataplane

d get physical-port
After selecting physical NICs, restart NSX-T Data Center dataplane services for changes to
take effect.

Note Claim up to 16 physical NICs.

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18 To avoid network configuration errors, verify that the physical NICs selected match the NICs
configured in the transport node profiles.

19 Before creating NSX Edge as a transport node, reset the NIC list on dataplane.

reset dataplane nic list

20 Verify that the NSX Edge node has the required connectivity.

If you enabled SSH, make sure that you can SSH to your NSX Edge node and verify the
following:

n You can ping your NSX Edge node management interface.

n From the NSX Edge node, you can ping the node's default gateway.

n From the NSX Edge node, you can ping the hypervisor hosts that are either in the same
network or a network reachable through routing.

n From the NSX Edge node, you can ping the DNS server and NTP Server IP or FQDN list.

21 Troubleshoot connectivity problems.

Note If connectivity is not established, make sure the VM network adapter is in the proper
network or VLAN.

By default, the NSX Edge node datapath claims all virtual machine NICs except the
management NIC (the one that has an IP address and a default route). If you incorrectly
assigned a NIC as the management interface, follow these steps to use DHCP to assign
management IP address to the correct NIC.
a Log in to the NSX Edge CLI and type the stop service dataplane command.

b Type the set interface interface dhcp plane mgmt command.

c Place interface into the DHCP network and wait for an IP address to be assigned to that
interface.

d Type the start service dataplane command.

The datapath fp-ethX ports used for the VLAN uplink and the tunnel overlay are shown in
the get interfaces and get physical-port commands on the NSX Edge node.

What to do next

If you did not join the NSX Edge with the management plane, see Join NSX Edge with the
Management Plane.

Install NSX Edge Interactively via ISO File

Install NSX Edge devices on bare metal using an ISO file in the interactive mode.

Prerequisites

n Verify that the system BIOS mode is set to Legacy BIOS.

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n See NSX Edge network requirements in NSX Edge Installation Requirements.

Procedure

1 Go to your MyVMware account (myvmware.com) and navigate to VMware NSX-T Data

Center > Downloads.

2 Locate and download the ISO file for NSX Edge for Bare Metal.

3 Log in to the ILO of the bare metal.

4 Click Launch in the virtual console preview.

5 Select Virtual Media > Connect Virtual Media.

Wait a few seconds for the virtual media to connect.

6 Select Virtual Media > Map CD/DVD and browse to the ISO file.

7 Select Next Boot > Virtual CD/DVD/ISO.

8 Select Power > Reset System (warm boot).

The installation duration depends on the bare metal environment.

9 Choose Interactive Install.

There might be a pause of 10 seconds after you press Enter.

10 In the Configure the keyboard window, select Yes if the installer must auto-detect the
keyboard or select No if the keyboard must not be detected by the console.

11 Select English US as the language.

12 In the Configure the network window, select the applicable primary network interface.

13 Enter the host name that connects to the selected primary interface and click Ok.

During power-on, the installer requests a network configuration via DHCP. If DHCP is not
available in your environment, the installer prompts you for IP settings.

By default, the root login password is vmware, and the admin login password is default.

14 In the Configure NSX appliance using kickstart window:

n Enter the URL of the NSX kickstart config file if you want to automate NSX configuration
on the bare metal server.

n Leave the field blank if you want to manually configure NSX on the bare metal server.

15 In the Partition disks window, choose one of the following options:

n Select Yes if you want to unmount existing partitions so that new partitions can be
created on disks.

n Select No if you want to use existing partitions.

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16 After the NSX Edge node starts, log in to the CLI with admin credentials.

Note After NSX Edge node starts, if you do not log in with admin credentials for the first
time, the data plane service does not automatically start on the NSX Edge node.

17 Run the get interface eth0 (without VLAN) or get interface eth0.<vlan_ID> (with a
VLAN) command to verify that the IP address was applied as expected.

nsx-edge-1> get interface eth0.100

Interface: eth0.100
Address: 192.168.110.37/24
MAC address: 00:50:56:86:62:4d
MTU: 1500
Default gateway: 192.168.110.1
Broadcast address: 192.168.110.255
...

Note When bringing up NSX Edge nodes on non-NSX managed host, verify that the MTU
setting is set to 1600 (instead of 1500) on the physical host switch for the data NIC.

18 Troubleshoot connectivity problems.

Note If connectivity is not established, make sure the VM network adapter is in the proper
network or VLAN.

By default, the NSX Edge node datapath claims all virtual machine NICs except the
management NIC (the one that has an IP address and a default route). If you incorrectly
assigned a NIC as the management interface, follow these steps to use DHCP to assign
management IP address to the correct NIC.
a Log in to the NSX Edge CLI and type the stop service dataplane command.

b Type the set interface interface dhcp plane mgmt command.

c Place interface into the DHCP network and wait for an IP address to be assigned to that
interface.

d Type the start service dataplane command.

The datapath fp-ethX ports used for the VLAN uplink and the tunnel overlay are shown in
the get interfaces and get physical-port commands on the NSX Edge node.

What to do next

If you did not join the NSX Edge with the management plane, see Join NSX Edge with the
Management Plane.

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Intel QAT Support for IPSec VPN Bulk Cryptography

Beginning with the NSX-T Data Center 3.0 release, support for the Intel QuickAssist Technology
(QAT) is provided on bare metal servers. Intel QAT provides the hardware acceleration for
various cryptography operations.

The QAT feature is enabled by default if the NSX Edge is deployed on a bare metal server
with an Intel QuickAssist PCIe card that is based on the installed C62x chipset (Intel QuickAssist
Adapter 8960 or 8970). The single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) interface must be enabled in
the BIOS firmware.

To check the status of the QAT feature, enter the following command on the NSX Edge bare
metal server CLI.

get dataplane qat

The possible responses you might receive are listed in the following table.

Status of QAT Feature Definition

QAT present, enabled, running The QAT feature is enabled and running.

QAT present, enabled, not running The QAT feature has been enabled, but the dataplane
service must be restarted for the status change to take
effect.

QAT present, disabled, not running The QAT feature is disabled.

QAT present, disabled, running The QAT feature has been disabled, but the dataplane
service must be restarted for the status change to take
effect.

QAT not present The bare metal server on which you ran the CLI command
does not have a QAT device installed.

QAT not supported in VM You ran the CLI command on a VM edge.

To disable or enable the use of an installed QAT device, use the following CLI commands. The
expected responses are also shown.

set dataplane qat disabled

QAT disabled. Please restart service dataplane to take effect.

set dataplane qat enabled

QAT enabled. Please restart service dataplane to take effect.

Important You must enter the restart service dataplane command at the CLI prompt for the
QAT feature status change to take effect.

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Join NSX Edge with the Management Plane

To establish communication between NSX Edges and NSX Manager or NSX Manager cluster, join
NSX Edges with NSX Manager. You only need to register NSX Edges with one NSX Manager to
ensure communication with the management plane.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have admin privileges to log in to the NSX Edges and NSX Manager appliance.

Procedure

1 Open an SSH session or console session to one of the NSX Manager appliances.

2 Open an SSH session or console session to the NSX Edge node VM.

3 On the NSX Manager appliance, run the get certificate api thumbprint command.

The command output is a string of alphanumeric numbers that is unique to this NSX Manager.
For example:

NSX-Manager1> get certificate api thumbprint

659442c1435350edbbc0e87ed5a6980d892b9118f851c17a13ec76a8b985f57

4 On the NSX Edge node VM, run the join management-plane command.

Provide the following information:

n Hostname or IP address of the NSX Manager with an optional port number

n User name of the NSX Manager

n Certificate thumbprint of the NSX Manager

n Password of the NSX Manager

NSX-Edge1> join management-plane <Manager-IP> thumbprint <Manager-thumbprint> username admin

Repeat this command on each NSX Edge node VM.

5 Verify the result by running the get managers command on your NSX Edge node VMs.

nsx-edge-1> get managers

- 10.173.161.17 Connected (NSX-RPC)
- 10.173.161.140 Connected (NSX-RPC)
- 10.173.160.204 Connected (NSX-RPC)

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6 In the NSX Manager UI, navigate to System > Fabric > Nodes > Edge Transport Nodes.

On the NSX Edge Transport Node page:

n The Configuration State column displays Configure NSX. Click Configure NSX to begin
configuration on the node. If the NSX Version column does not display the version
number installed on the node, try refreshing the browser window.

n Before you configure NSX on the NSX Edge node, the Node Status and Tunnel Status
columns display state Not Available. The Transport Zones and N-VDS switches columns
display value 0, indicating there are no transport zones attached or N-VDS switches
configured on the NSX Edge node.

What to do next

When installing NSX Edge using NSX Manager see Create an NSX Edge Transport Node.

When installing NSX Edge manually, see Configure an NSX Edge as a Transport Node.

Configure an NSX Edge as a Transport Node

After manually installing NSX Edge on ESXi or Bare Metal, configure an NSX Edge to the NSX-T
Data Center fabric as a transport node.

A transport node is a node that is capable of participating in an NSX-T Data Center overlay or
NSX-T Data Center VLAN networking. Any node can serve as a transport node if it contains an
N-VDS. Such nodes include but are not limited to NSX Edges.

An NSX Edge can belong to one overlay transport zone and multiple VLAN transport zones. If a
VM requires access to the outside world, the NSX Edge must belong to the same transport zone
that the VM's logical switch belongs to. Generally, the NSX Edge belongs to at least one VLAN
transport zone to provide the uplink access.

Prerequisites

n Transport zones must be configured.

n Verify that compute manager is configured. See Add a Compute Manager.

n An uplink profile must be configured or you can use the default uplink profile for bare-metal
NSX Edge nodes.

n An IP pool must be configured or must be available in the network deployment.

n At least one unused physical NIC must be available on the host or NSX Edge node.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Nodes > Edge Transport Nodes > Edit Edge.

3 Select the Edge node and click Edit.

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4 Enter the N-VDS information.

Option Description

Edge Switch Name Select a VLAN switch from the drop-down menu.

Transport Zone Select the transport zones that this transport node belongs to. An NSX
Edge transport node belongs to at least two transport zones, an overlay for
NSX-T Data Center connectivity and a VLAN for uplink connectivity.

Note Multiple VTEPs in a transport zone must be configured to the same

network segment. If VTEPs in a transport zone are configured to different
network segments, BFD sessions cannot be established between the VTEPs.

Uplink Profile Select the uplink profile from the drop-down menu.
The available uplinks depend on the configuration in the selected uplink
profile.

IP Assignment Select Use IP Pool or Use Static IP List for the overlay N-VDS. These IP
addresses are assigned as VTEPs to the NSX Edge transport node. Multiple
VTEPs on an NSX Edge must be in the same subnet.
n If you select Use Static IP List, you must specify a list of comma-
separated IP addresses, a gateway, and a subnet mask.
n If you selected Use IP Pool for IP assignment, specify the IP pool name.

DPDK Fastpath Interfaces / Virtual Select the data path interface name for the uplink interface.
NICs
Note To ensure that traffic flows through logical switches configured with
named teaming policies, map all uplinks in the default teaming policy to
physical network interfaces on the NSX Edge VM.

5 View the connection status on the Transport Nodes page.

After adding the NSX Edge as a transport node, the connection status changes to Up in 10-12
minutes.

6 (Optional) View the transport node with the GET https://<nsx-manager>/api/v1/transport-

nodes/<transport-node-id> API call.

7 (Optional) For status information, use the GET https://<nsx-mgr>/api/v1/transport-nodes/

<transport-node-id>/status API call.

8 After an NSX Edge node is migrated to a new host using vCenter Server, you might find NSX
Manager UI reporting stale configuration details (Compute, Datastore, Network, SSH, NTP,
DNS, Search Domains) of the NSX Edge. To get the latest configuration details of NSX Edge
on the new host, run the API command.

POST api/v1/transport-nodes/<transport-node-id>?
action=refresh_node_configuration&resource_type=EdgeNode

What to do next

Add the NSX Edge node to an NSX Edge cluster. See Create an NSX Edge Cluster.

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Nodes 10
Transport zones and transport nodes are important concepts in NSX-T Data Center.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Create Transport Zones

n Create an IP Pool for Tunnel Endpoint IP Addresses

n Enhanced Data Path

n Configuring Profiles

n Create a Standalone Host or Bare Metal Server Transport Node

n Manual Installation of NSX-T Data Center Kernel Modules

n Deploy a Fully Collapsed vSphere Cluster NSX-T

n VLAN Micro-Segmentation

Create Transport Zones

Transport zones dictate which hosts and, therefore, which VMs can participate in the use of a
particular network. A transport zone does this by limiting the hosts that can "see" a logical switch
—and, therefore, which VMs can be attached to the logical switch. A transport zone can span one
or more host clusters.

An NSX-T Data Center environment can contain one or more transport zones based on your
requirements. A host can belong to multiple transport zones. A logical switch can belong to only
one transport zone.

NSX-T Data Center does not allow connection of VMs that are in different transport zones in the
Layer 2 network. The span of a logical switch is limited to a transport zone, so virtual machines in
different transport zones cannot be on the same Layer 2 network.

The overlay transport zone is used by both host transport nodes and NSX Edges. When a host
is added to an overlay transport zone, you can configure an N-VDS or a VDS switch on the
host. When an NSX Edge transport node is added to an overlay transport zone, you can only
configure an N-VDS switch.

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The VLAN transport zone is used by the NSX Edge and host transport nodes for its VLAN
uplinks. When an NSX Edge is added to a VLAN transport zone, a VLAN N-VDS is installed on the
NSX Edge.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Transport Zones > Add.

3 Enter a name for the transport zone and optionally a description.

4 Select a traffic type between Overlay and VLAN.

5 Enter one or more uplink teaming policy names. These named teaming policies can be used
by logical switches attached to the transport zone. If the logical switches do not find a
matching named teaming policy, then the default uplink teaming policy is used.

6 After you add the transport zone, go to the Transport Zones page and view the newly added
transport zone.

7 (Optional) You can also view the new transport zone with the GET https://<nsx-mgr>/api/v1/
transport-zones API call.

{
"cursor": "00369b661aed-1eaa-4567-9408-ccbcfe50b416tz-vlan",
"result_count": 2,
"results": [
{
"resource_type": "TransportZone",
"description": "comp overlay transport zone",
"id": "efd7f38f-c5da-437d-af03-ac598f82a9ec",
"display_name": "tz-overlay",
"host_switch_name": "overlay-hostswitch",
"transport_type": "OVERLAY",
"transport_zone_profile_ids": [
{
"profile_id": "52035bb3-ab02-4a08-9884-18631312e50a",
"resource_type": "BfdHealthMonitoringProfile"
}
],
"_create_time": 1459547126454,
"_last_modified_user": "admin",
"_system_owned": false,
"_last_modified_time": 1459547126454,
"_create_user": "admin",
"_revision": 0,
"_schema": "/v1/schema/TransportZone"
},
{
"resource_type": "TransportZone",
"description": "comp vlan transport zone",
"id": "9b661aed-1eaa-4567-9408-ccbcfe50b416",

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"display_name": "tz-vlan",
"host_switch_name": "vlan-uplink-hostwitch",
"transport_type": "VLAN",
"transport_zone_profile_ids": [
{
"profile_id": "52035bb3-ab02-4a08-9884-18631312e50a",
"resource_type": "BfdHealthMonitoringProfile"
}
],
"_create_time": 1459547126505,
"_last_modified_user": "admin",
"_system_owned": false,
"_last_modified_time": 1459547126505,
"_create_user": "admin",
"_revision": 0,
"_schema": "/v1/schema/TransportZone"
}
]
}

What to do next

Optionally, create a custom transport-zone profile and bind it to the transport zone. You can
create custom transport-zone profiles using the POST /api/v1/transportzone-profiles API. There
is no UI workflow for creating a transport-zone profile. After the transport-zone profile is created,
you can find it to the transport zone with the PUT /api/v1/transport-zones/<transport-zone-id>
API.

Create a transport node. See Create a Standalone Host or Bare Metal Server Transport Node.

Create an IP Pool for Tunnel Endpoint IP Addresses

You can use an IP pool for the tunnel endpoints. Tunnel endpoints are the source and destination
IP addresses used in the external IP header to identify the hypervisor hosts originating and
end the NSX-T Data Center encapsulation of overlay frames. You can also use either DHCP or
manually configured IP pools for tunnel endpoint IP addresses.

If you are using both ESXi and KVM hosts, one design option might be to use two different
subnets for the ESXi tunnel endpoint IP pool (sub_a) and the KVM tunnel endpoint IP Pool
(sub_b). In this case, on the KVM hosts a static route to sub_a must be added with a dedicated
default gateway.

An example of the resulting routing table on an Ubuntu host where sub_a = 192.168.140.0 and
sub_b = 192.168.150.0. (The management subnet, for example, might be 192.168.130.0).

Kernel IP routing table:

Destination Gateway Genmask Iface

0.0.0.0 192.168.130.1 0.0.0.0 eth0
192.168.122.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 virbr0

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192.168.130.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 eth0

192.168.140.0 192.168.150.1 255.255.255.0 nsx-vtep0.0
192.168.150.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 nsx-vtep0.0

The route can be added in at least two different ways. Of these two methods, the route persists
after host reboot only if you add the route by editing the interface. Adding a route using the
route add command does not persist after a host reboot.

route add -net 192.168.140.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.150.1 dev nsx-vtep0.0

In /etc/network/interfaces before "up ifconfig nsx-vtep0.0 up" add this static route:

post-up route add -net 192.168.140.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.150.1

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select Networking → IP Address Pools → Add IP Address Pool.

3 Enter the IP pool details.

Option Parameter Example

Name and Description Enter the IP pool and optional description.

IP Ranges IP allocation ranges

192.168.200.100 - 192.168.200.115

Gateway 192.168.200.1

CIDR Network address in a CIDR notation

192.168.200.0/24

DNS Servers Comma-separated list of DNS servers

192.168.66.10

DNS Suffix corp.local

Results

The IPv4 or IPv6 address pool is listed on the IP pool page.

You can also use the GET https://<nsx-mgr>/api/v1/pools/ip-pools API call to view the IP pool list.

What to do next

Create an uplink profile. See Create an Uplink Profile.

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Enhanced Data Path

Enhanced data path is a networking stack mode, which when configured provides superior
network performance. It is primarily targeted for NFV workloads, which offer performance
benefits leverging DPDK capability.

The N-VDS switch can be configured in the enhanced data path mode only on an ESXi host. ENS
also supports traffic flowing through Edge VMs.

In the enhanced data path mode, both traffic modes are supported:

n Overlay traffic

n VLAN traffic

Supported VMkernel NICs

With NSX-T Data Center supporting multiple ENS host switches, the maximum number of
VMkernel NICs supported per host is 32.

High-Level Process to Configure Enhanced Data Path

As a network administrator, before creating transport zones supporting N-VDS in the enhanced
data path mode, you must prepare the network with the supported NIC cards and drivers. To
improve network performance, you can enable the Load Balanced Source teaming policy to
become NUMA node aware.

The high-level steps are as follows:

1 Use NIC cards that support the enhanced data path.

See VMware Compatibility Guide to know NIC cards that support enhanced data path.

On the VMware Compatibility Guide page, under the IO devices category, select ESXi 6.7, IO
device Type as Network, and feature as N-VDS Enhanced Datapath.

2 Download and install the latest NIC drivers from the My VMware page.

a Go to Drivers & Tools > Driver CDs.

b Download NIC drivers:

VMware ESXi 6.7 ixgben-ens 1.1.3 NIC Driver for Intel Ethernet Controllers
82599, x520, x540, x550, and x552 family

VMware ESXi 6.7 i40en-ens 1.1.3 NIC Driver for Intel Ethernet Controllers
X710, XL710, XXV710, and X722 family

c To use the host as an ENS host, at least one ENS capable NIC must be available on the
system. If there are no ENS capable NICs, the management plane will not allow hosts to
be added to ENS transport zones.

d List the ENS driver.

esxcli software vib list | grep -E "i40|ixgben"

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e Verify whether the NIC is capable to process ENS datapath traffic.

esxcfg-nics -e

Name Driver ENS Capable ENS Driven MAC Address Description

vmnic0 ixgben True False e4:43:4b:7b:d2:e0 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller
X550
vmnic1 ixgben True False e4:43:4b:7b:d2:e1 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller
X550
vmnic2 ixgben True False e4:43:4b:7b:d2:e2 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller
X550
vmnic3 ixgben True False e4:43:4b:7b:d2:e3 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller
X550
vmnic4 i40en True False 3c:fd:fe:7c:47:40 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller
X710/X557-AT 10GBASE-T
vmnic5 i40en True False 3c:fd:fe:7c:47:41 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller
X710/X557-AT 10GBASE-T
vmnic6 i40en True False 3c:fd:fe:7c:47:42 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller
X710/X557-AT 10GBASE-T
vmnic7 i40en True False 3c:fd:fe:7c:47:43 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller
X710/X557-AT 10GBASE-T

f Install the ENS driver.

esxcli software vib install -v file:///<DriverInstallerURL> --no-sig-check

g Alternately, download the driver to the system and install it.

wget <DriverInstallerURL>

esxcli software vib install -v file:///<DriverInstallerURL> --no-sig-check

h Reboot the host to load the driver. Proceed to the next step.

i To unload the driver, follow these steps:

vmkload_mod -u i40en

ps | grep vmkdevmgr

kill -HUP "$(ps | grep vmkdevmgr | awk {'print $1'})"

ps | grep vmkdevmgr

kill -HUP <vmkdevmgrProcessID>

kill -HUP "$(ps | grep vmkdevmgr | awk {'print $1'})"

j To uninstall the ENS driver, esxcli software vib remove --vibname=i40en-ens --force
--no-live-install.

3 Create an uplink policy.

See Create an Uplink Profile.

4 Create a transport zone.

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See Create Transport Zones.

Note ENS transport zones configured for overlay traffic: For a Microsoft Windows virtual
machine running VMware tools version earlier to version 11.0.0 and vNIC type is VMXNET3,
ensure MTU is set to 1500. For a Microsoft Windows virtual machine running vSphere 6.7 U1
and VMware tools version 11.0.0 and later, ensure MTU is set to a value less than 8900. For
virtual machines running other supported OSes, ensure that the virtual machine MTU is set to
a value less than 8900.

5 Create a host transport node. Configure mode in Enhanced Datapath on an N-VDS or VDS
switch with logical cores and NUMA nodes.

See Create a Standalone Host or Bare Metal Server Transport Node.

Load Balanced Source Teaming Policy Mode Aware of NUMA

The Load Balanced Source teaming policy mode defined for an enhanced datapath N-VDS
becomes aware of NUMA when the following conditions are met:

n The Latency Sensitivity on VMs is High.

n The network adapter type used is VMXNET3.

If the NUMA node location of either the VM or the physical NIC is not available, then the Load
Balanced Source teaming policy does not consider NUMA awareness to align VMs and NICs.

The teaming policy functions without NUMA awareness in the following conditions:

n The LAG uplink is configured with physical links from multiple NUMA nodes.

n The VM has affinity to multiple NUMA nodes.

n The ESXi host failed to define NUMA information for either VM or physical links.

ENS Support for Applications Requiring Traffic Reliability

NFV workloads might use multi-homing and redundancy features provided by Stream Control
Transmission Protocol (SCTP) to increase resiliency and reliability to the traffic running on
applications. Multi-homing is the ability to support redundant paths from a source VM to a
destination VM.

Depending upon the number of physical NICs available to be used as an uplink for an overlay or
a VLAN network, those many redundant network paths are available for a VM to send traffic over
to the target VM. The redundant paths are used when the pinned pNIC to a logical switch fails.
The enhanced data path switch provides redundant network paths between the hosts.

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Figure 10-1. Multi-homing and Redundancy of Traffic over ENS

The high-level tasks are:

1 Prepare host as an NSX-T Data Center transport node.

2 Prepare VLAN or Overlay Transport Zone with two N-VDS switches in Enhanced Data Path
mode.

3 On N-VDS 1, pin the first physical NIC to the switch.

4 On N-VDS 2, pin the second physical NIC to the switch.

The N-VDS in enhanced data path mode ensures that if pNIC1 becomes unavailable, then traffic
from VM 1 is routed through the redundant path - vNIC 1 → tunnel endpoint 2 → pNIC 2 → VM 2.

Configuring Profiles
Profiles allow you to consistently configure identical capabilities for network adapters across
multiple hosts or nodes.

Profiles are containers for the properties or capabilities that you want your network adapters to
have. Instead of configuring individual properties or capabilities for each network adapter, you
can specify the capabilities in the profiles, which you can then apply across multiple hosts or
nodes.

Create an Uplink Profile

An uplink is a link from the NSX Edge nodes to the top-of-rack switches or NSX-T Data Center
logical switches. A link is from a physical network interface on an NSX Edge node to a switch.

An uplink profile defines policies for the uplinks. The settings defined by uplink profiles can
include teaming policies, active and standby links, transport VLAN ID, and MTU setting.

Configuring uplinks for VM appliance-based NSX Edge nodes and Host Transport nodes:

n If the Failover teaming policy is configured for an uplink profile, then you can only configure a
single active uplink in the teaming policy. Standby uplinks are not supported and must not be
configured in the failover teaming policy. When you install NSX Edge as a virtual appliance or
host transport node, use the default uplink profile.

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n If the Load Balanced Source teaming policy is configured for an uplink profile, then you
can configure multiple active uplinks on the same N-VDS. Each uplink is associated with
one physical NIC with a distinct name and IP address. The IP address assigned to an uplink
endpoint is configurable using IP Assignment for the N-VDS.

You must use the Load Balanced Source teaming policy for traffic load balancing.

Prerequisites

n See NSX Edge network requirements in NSX Edge Installation Requirements.

n Each uplink in the uplink profile must correspond to an up and available physical link on your
hypervisor host or on the NSX Edge node.

For example, your hypervisor host has two physical links that are up: vmnic0 and vmnic1.
Suppose vmnic0 is used for management and storage networks, while vmnic1 is unused. This
might mean that vmnic1 can be used as an NSX-T Data Center uplink, but vmnic0 cannot.
To do link teaming, you must have two unused physical links available, such as vmnic1 and
vmnic2.

For an NSX Edge, tunnel endpoint and VLAN uplinks can use the same physical link.
For example, vmnic0/eth0/em0 might be used for your management network and vmnic1/
eth1/em1 might be used for your fp-ethX links.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Profiles > Uplink Profiles > Add.

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3 Complete the uplink profile details.

Option Description

Name and Description Enter an uplink profile name.

Add an optional uplink profile description.

LAGs (Optional) In the LAGs section, click Add for Link aggregation groups (LAGs)
using Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) for the transport network.

Note Multiple LAG is not supported on KVM hosts.

The active and standby uplink names you create can be any text to
represent physical links. These uplink names are referenced later when you
create transport nodes. The transport node UI/API allows you to specify
which physical link corresponds to each named uplink.
Possible LAG hashing mechanism options:
n Source MAC address
n Destination MAC address
n Source and destination MAC address
n Source and destination IP address and VLAN
n Source and destination MAC address, IP address, and TCP/UDP port
Supported LAG hashing mechanisms on hosts types:
n NSX Edge nodes: Source and destination MAC address, IP address, and
TCP/UDP port.
n KVM hosts: Source MAC address.
n ESXi hosts with N-VDS in Enhanced Networking Stack (ENS) mode:
Source MAC address, Destination MAC address, and Source and
destination MAC address.
n ESXi hosts with N-VDS in Standard mode: Source MAC address,
Destination MAC address, Source and destination MAC address, and
Source and destination IP address and VLAN.
n ESXi hosts with vSphere Distributed Switch (v 7.0 and later that supports
NSX-T Data Center): LACP is not configured in NSX-T Data Center. You
need to configure it in vCenter Server.

Teamings In the Teaming section, you can either enter a default teaming policy or you
can choose to enter a named teaming policy. Click Add to add a naming
teaming policy. A teaming policy defines how N-VDS uses its uplink for
redundancy and traffic load balancing. You can configure a teaming policy in
the following modes:
n Failover Order: Select an active uplink is specified along with an optional
list of standby uplinks. If the active uplink fails, the next uplink in the
standby list replaces the active uplink. No actual load balancing is
performed with this option.
n Load Balance Source: Select a list of active uplinks. When you configure
a transport node, you can pin each interface of the transport node to
one active uplink. This configuration allows use of several active uplinks
at the same time.

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Option Description

n Load Balance Source MAC Address: Select an uplink based on a hash of

the source Ethernet.

Note
n On hypervisor hosts:
n KVM hosts: Only Failover Order teaming policy is supported,
whereas Load Balance Source and Load Balance Source MAC
teaming policies are not supported.
n ESXi hosts: Load Balance Source MAC, Load Balance Source, and
Failover Order teaming policies are supported.
n On NSX Edge: For default teaming policy, Load Balance Source and
Failover Order teaming policies are supported. For named teaming
policy, only Failover Order policy is supported.

Important To manage VLAN traffic, if you configure a default teaming

policy in Load Balance Source mode, then on failure of the first uplink,
traffic will not fail over to the second uplink interface.

( ESXi hosts and NSX Edge) You can define the following policies for a
transport zone:
n A Named teaming policy for every VLAN-based logical switch or
segment.
n A Default teaming policy for the entire N-VDS.
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.
n 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.
n If you do not define any named teaming policies, N-VDS uses the default
teaming policy.

4 Enter a Transport VLAN value. The transport VLAN set in the uplink profile tags overlay
traffic only and the VLAN ID is used by the TEP endpoint.

5 Enter the MTU value.

The uplink profile MTU default value is 1600.

The global physical uplink MTU configures the MTU value for all the N-VDS instances in the
NSX-T Data Center domain. If the global physical uplink MTU value is not specified, the MTU
value is inferred from the uplink profile MTU if configured or the default 1600 is used. The
uplink profile MTU value can override the global physical uplink MTU value on a specific host.

The global logical interface MTU configures the MTU value for all the logical router interfaces.
If the global logical interface MTU value is not specified, the MTU value is inferred from the
tier-0 logical router. The logical router uplink MTU value can override on a specific port the
global logical interface MTU value.

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Results

In addition to the UI, you can also view the uplink profiles with the API call GET /api/v1/host-
switch-profiles.

What to do next

Create a transport zone. See Create Transport Zones.

Configuring Network I/O Control Profiles

Use the Network I/O Control (NIOC) profile to allocate the network bandwidth to business-critical
applications and to resolve situations where several types of traffic compete for common
resources.

NIOC profile introduces a mechanism to reserve bandwidth for the system traffic based on the
capacity of the physical adapters on a host. Version 3 of the Network I/O Control feature offers
improved network resource reservation and allocation across the entire switch.

Network I/O Control version 3 for NSX-T Data Center supports the resource management of the
system traffic related to virtual machines and to infrastructure services, such as vSphere Fault
Tolerance. System traffic is strictly associated with an ESXi host.

Note NIOC profiles cannot be applied to NSX Edge transport nodes.

Bandwidth Guarantee to System Traffic

Network I/O Control version 3 provisions bandwidth to the network adapters of virtual machines
by using constructs of shares, reservation, and limit. These constructs can be defined in the
NSX-T Data Center Manager UI. The bandwidth reservation for virtual machine traffic is also used
in the admission control. When you power on a virtual machine, admission control utility verifies
that enough bandwidth is available before placing a VM on a host that can provide the resource
capacity.

Bandwidth Allocation for System Traffic

You can configure Network I/O Control to allocate a certain amount of bandwidth for traffic
generated by vSphere Fault Tolerance, vSphere vMotion, virtual machines, and so on.

n Management Traffic: is traffic for a host management

n Fault Tolerance (FT) traffic: is traffic for failover and recovery.

n NFS Traffic: is traffic related to a file transfer in the network file system.

n vSAN Traffic: is traffic generated by virtual storage area network.

n vMotion Traffic: is traffic for computing resource migration.

n vSphere Replication Traffic: is traffic for replication.

n vSphere Data Protection Backup Traffic: is traffic generated by backup of data.

n Virtual machine Traffic: is traffic generated by virtual machines.

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n iSCSI Traffic: is traffic for Internet Small Computer System Interface.

vCenter Server propagates the allocation from the distributed switch to each physical adapter on
the hosts that are connected to the switch.

Bandwidth Allocation Parameters for System Traffic

By using several configuration parameters, the Network I/O Control service allocates the
bandwidth to traffic from basic vSphere system features. Allocation Parameters for System
Traffic.

Allocation Parameters for System Traffic

n Shares: Shares, from 1 to 100, reflect the relative priority of a system traffic type against
the other system traffic types that are active on the same physical adapter. The relative
shares assigned to a system traffic type and the amount of data transmitted by other system
features determine the available bandwidth for that system traffic type.

n Reservation: The percentage of uplink bandwidth that must be guaranteed on a single

physical adapter. The total bandwidth reserved among all system traffic types cannot exceed
75 percent of the bandwidth that the physical network adapter with the lowest capacity can
provide. Reserved bandwidth that is unused becomes available to other types of system
traffic. However, Network I/O Control does not redistribute the capacity that system traffic
does not use to virtual machine placement.

n Limit: The maximum bandwidth, in Mbps or Gbps, that a system traffic type can consume on a
single physical adapter.

Note You can reserve no more than 75 percent of the bandwidth of a physical network adapter.

For example, if the network adapters connected to an ESXi host are 10 GbE, you can only
allocate 7.5 Gbps bandwidth to the various traffic types. You might leave more capacity
unreserved. The host can allocate the unreserved bandwidth dynamically according to shares,
limits, and use. The host reserves only the bandwidth that is enough for the operation of a
system feature.

Configure Network I/O Control and Bandwidth Allocation for System Traffic on
an N-VDS
To guarantee the minimum bandwidth to the system traffic running on NSX-T Data Center hosts,
enable and configure a network resource management on an N-VDS.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Profiles > NIOC Profiles > Add.

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3 Enter the NIOC profile details.

Option Description

Name and Description Enter a NIOC profile name.

You can optionally enter the profile details such as, the traffic types enabled.

Status Toggle to enable the bandwidth allocations listed in the traffic resources.

Host Infra Traffic Resource You can accept the default listed traffic resources.
Click Add and enter your traffic resource to customize the NIOC profile.
(Optional) Select an existing traffic type and click Delete to remove the
resource from the NIOC profile.

The new NIOC profile is added to the NIOC profiles list.

Configure Network I/O Control and Bandwidth Allocation for System Traffic on
an N-VDS Using APIs
You can use NSX-T Data Center APIs to configure the network and bandwidth for applications
running on the host.

Procedure

1 Query the host to display both system-defined and user-defined host switch profiles.

2 GET https://<nsx-mgr>/api/v1/host-switch-profiles?include_system_owned=true.

The sample response displays the NIOC profile that is applied to the host.

{
"description": "This profile is created for Network I/O Control (NIOC).",
"extends": {
"$ref": "BaseHostSwitchProfile"+
},
"id": "NiocProfile",
"module_id": "NiocProfile",
"polymorphic-type-descriptor": {
"type-identifier": "NiocProfile"
},
"properties": {
"_create_time": {
"$ref": "EpochMsTimestamp"+,
"can_sort": true,
"description": "Timestamp of resource creation",
"readonly": true
},
"_create_user": {
"description": "ID of the user who created this resource",
"readonly": true,
"type": "string"
},
"_last_modified_time": {
"$ref": "EpochMsTimestamp"+,
"can_sort": true,

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"description": "Timestamp of last modification",

"readonly": true
},

"_last_modified_user": {
"description": "ID of the user who last modified this resource",
"readonly": true,
"type": "string"
},

"_links": {
"description": "The server will populate this field when returning the resource. Ignored on PUT
and POST.",
"items": {
"$ref": "ResourceLink"+
},

"readonly": true,
"title": "References related to this resource",
"type": "array"
},
"_protection": {
"description": "Protection status is one of the following:
PROTECTED - the client who retrieved the entity is not allowed to modify it.
NOT_PROTECTED - the client who retrieved the entity is allowed to modify it
REQUIRE_OVERRIDE - the client who retrieved the entity is a super user and can modify it,
but only when providing the request header X-Allow-Overwrite=true.
UNKNOWN - the _protection field could not be determined for this entity.",
"readonly": true,
"title": "Indicates protection status of this resource",
"type": "string"
},

"_revision": {
"description": "The _revision property describes the current revision of the resource.
To prevent clients from overwriting each other's changes, PUT operations must include the
current _revision of the resource,
which clients should obtain by issuing a GET operation.
If the _revision provided in a PUT request is missing or stale, the operation
will be rejected.",
"readonly": true,
"title": "Generation of this resource config",
"type": "int"
},

"_schema": {
"readonly": true,
"title": "Schema for this resource",
"type": "string"
},

"_self": {
"$ref": "SelfResourceLink"+,
"readonly": true,
"title": "Link to this resource"

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},

"_system_owned": {
"description": "Indicates system owned resource",
"readonly": true,
"type": "boolean"
},

"description": {
"can_sort": true,
"maxLength": 1024,
"title": "Description of this resource",
"type": "string"
},

"display_name": {
"can_sort": true,
"description": "Defaults to ID if not set",
"maxLength": 255,
"title": "Identifier to use when displaying entity in logs or GUI",
"type": "string"
},

"enabled": {
"default": true,
"description": "The enabled property specifies the status of NIOC feature.

When enabled is set to true, NIOC feature is turned on and the bandwidth allocations
specified for the traffic resources are enforced.
When enabled is set to false, NIOC feature is turned off and no bandwidth allocation is
guaranteed.

By default, enabled will be set to true.",

"nsx_feature": "Nioc",
"required": false,
"title": "Enabled status of NIOC feature",
"type": "boolean"
},

"host_infra_traffic_res": {
"description": "host_infra_traffic_res specifies bandwidth allocation for various traffic
resources.",
"items": {
"$ref": "ResourceAllocation"+
},
"nsx_feature": "Nioc",
"required": false,
"title": "Resource allocation associated with NiocProfile",
"type": "array"
},

"id": {
"can_sort": true,
"readonly": true,

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"title": "Unique identifier of this resource",

"type": "string"
},

"required_capabilities": {
"help_summary":
"List of capabilities required on the fabric node if this profile is
used.
The required capabilities is determined by whether specific features are enabled in the
profile.",
"items": {
"type": "string"
},
"readonly": true,
"required": false,
"type": "array"
},

"resource_type": {
"$ref": "HostSwitchProfileType"+,
"required": true
},

"tags": {
"items": {
"$ref": "Tag"+
},

"maxItems": 30,
"title": "Opaque identifiers meaningful to the API user",
"type": "array"
}
},
"title": "Profile for Nioc",
"type": "object"
}

3 If a NIOC profile does not exist, create a NIOC profile.

POST https://<nsx-mgr>/api/v1/host-switch-profiles

{
"description": "Specify limit, shares and reservation for all kinds of traffic.
Values for limit and reservation are expressed in percentage. And for shares,
the value is expressed as a number between 1-100.\nThe overall reservation among all traffic
types should not exceed 75%.
Otherwise, the API request will be rejected.",

"id": "ResourceAllocation",
"module_id": "NiocProfile",
"nsx_feature": "Nioc",
"properties": {
"limit": {
"default": -1.0,
"description": "The limit property specifies the maximum bandwidth allocation for a given

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traffic type and is expressed in percentage. The default value for this
field is set to -1 which means the traffic is unbounded for the traffic
type. All other negative values for this property is not supported\nand will be rejected by
the API.",
"maximum": 100,
"minimum": -1,
"required": true,
"title": "Maximum bandwidth percentage",
"type": "number"
},

"reservation": {
"default": 0.0,
"maximum": 75,
"minimum": 0,
"required": true,
"title": "Minimum guaranteed bandwidth percentage",
"type": "number"
},

"shares": {
"default": 50,
"maximum": 100,
"minimum": 1,
"required": true,
"title": "Shares",
"type": "int"
},

"traffic_type": {
"$ref": "HostInfraTrafficType"+,
"required": true,
"title": "Resource allocation traffic type"
}

},

"title": "Resource allocation information for a host infrastructure traffic type",

"type": "object"

4 Update the transport node configuration with the NIOC profile ID of the newly created NIOC
profile.

PUT https://<nsx-mgr>/api/v1/transport-nodes/<TN-id>

{
"resource_type": "TransportNode",
"description": "Updated NSX configured Test Transport Node",
"id": "77816de2-39c3-436c-b891-54d31f580961",
"display_name": "NSX Configured TN",
"host_switch_spec": {
"resource_type": "StandardHostSwitchSpec",
"host_switches": [
{
"host_switch_profile_ids": [

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{
"value": "e331116d-f59e-4004-8cfd-c577aefe563a",
"key": "UplinkHostSwitchProfile"
},
{
"value": "9e0b4d2d-d155-4b4b-8947-fbfe5b79f7cb",
"key": "LldpHostSwitchProfile"
}
{
"value": "b0185099-8003-4678-b86f-edd47ca2c9ad",
"key": "NiocProfile"
}
],
"host_switch_name": "nsxvswitch",
"pnics": [
{
"device_name": "vmnic1",
"uplink_name": "uplink1"
}
],
"ip_assignment_spec": {
"resource_type": "StaticIpPoolSpec",
"ip_pool_id": "ecddcdde-4dc5-4026-ad4f-8857995d4c92"
}
}
]
},
"transport_zone_endpoints": [
{
"transport_zone_id": "e14c6b8a-9edd-489f-b624-f9ef12afbd8f",
"transport_zone_profile_ids": [
{
"profile_id": "52035bb3-ab02-4a08-9884-18631312e50a",
"resource_type": "BfdHealthMonitoringProfile"
}
]
}
],

"host_switches": [
{
"host_switch_profile_ids": [
{
"value": "e331116d-f59e-4004-8cfd-c577aefe563a",
"key": "UplinkHostSwitchProfile"
},
{
"value": "9e0b4d2d-d155-4b4b-8947-fbfe5b79f7cb",
"key": "LldpHostSwitchProfile"
}
],

"host_switch_name": "nsxvswitch",
"pnics": [
{

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"device_name": "vmnic1",
"uplink_name": "uplink1"
}
],
"static_ip_pool_id": "ecddcdde-4dc5-4026-ad4f-8857995d4c92"
}
],
"node_id": "41a4eebd-d6b9-11e6-b722-875041b9955d",
"_revision": 0
}

5 Verify that the NIOC profile parameters are updated in the com.vmware.common.respools.cfg
file.

# [root@ host:] net-dvs -l

switch 1d 73 f5 58 99 7a 46 6a-9c cc d0 93 17 bb 2a 48 (vswitch)

max ports: 2560
global properties:

com.vmware.common.opaqueDvs = true , propType = CONFIG

com.vmware.nsx.kcp.enable = true , propType = CONFIG
com.vmware.common.alias = nsxvswitch , propType = CONFIG
com.vmware.common.uplinkPorts: uplink1 propType = CONFIG
com.vmware.common.portset.mtu = 1600, propType = CONFIG
com.vmware.etherswitch.cdp = LLDP, listen propType = CONFIG
com.vmware.common.respools.version = version3, propType = CONFIG
com.vmware.common.respools.cfg:
netsched.pools.persist.ft:0:50:-1:255
netsched.pools.persist.hbr:0:50:-1:255
netsched.pools.persist.vmotion:0:50:-1:255
netsched.pools.persist.vm:0:100:-1:255
netsched.pools.persist.iscsi:0:50:-1:255
netsched.pools.persist.nfs:0:50:-1:255
netsched.pools.persist.mgmt:0:50:-1:255
netsched.pools.persist.vdp:0:50:-1:255
netsched.pools.persist.vsan:0:50:-1:255
propType = CONFIG

6 Verify NIOC profiles in the host kernel.

# [root@ host:] vsish

/ > get /net/portsets/DvsPortset-1/ports/50335755/niocVnicInfo

Vnic NIOC Info

{
Uplink reserved on:vmnic4
Reservation in Mbps:200
Shares:50
Limit in Mbps:4294967295
World ID:1001400726
vNIC Index:0
Respool Tag:0

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NIOC Version:3
Active Uplink Bit Map:15
Parent Respool ID:netsched.pools.persist.vm
}

7 Verify the NIOC profile information.

# [root@ host:] vsish

/ > get /net/portsets/DvsPortset-1/uplinks/vmnic4/niocInfo

Uplink NIOC Info

{
Uplink device:vmnic4
Link Capacity in Mbps:750
vm respool reservation:275
link status:1
NetSched Ready:1
Infrastructure reservation:0
Total VM reservation:200
Total vnics on this uplink:1
NIOC Version:3
Uplink index in BitMap:0
}

Results

NIOC profile is configured with a pre-defined bandwidth allocation for applications running on
NSX-T Data Center hosts.

Add an NSX Edge Cluster Profile

The NSX Edge cluster profile defines the policies for the NSX Edge transport node.

Prerequisites

Verify that the NSX Edge cluster is available.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Profiles > Edge Cluster Profiles > Add.

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3 Enter the NSX Edge cluster profile details.

Option Description

Name and Description Enter a NSX Edge cluster profile name.

You can optionally enter the profile details such as, the Bidirectional
Forwarding Detection (BFD) setting.

BFD Probe Interval Accept the default setting.

BFD is detection protocol used to identify the forwarding path failures. You
can set the interval timing for BFD to detect a forwarding path failure.

BFD Allowed Hops Accept the default setting.

You can set the number of multihop BFD sessions allowed for the profile.

BFD Declare Dead Multiple Accept the default setting.

You can set the number of number of times the BFD packet is not received
before the session is flagged as down.

Stand By Relocation Threshold Accept the default setting.

Add an NSX Edge Bridge Profile

The NSX Edge bridge profile defines the policies for the ESXi bridge cluster.

A bridge cluster is a collection of ESXi host transport nodes.

Prerequisites

n Verify that the NSX Edge cluster is available.

n Verify that the ESXi bridge cluster is available.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select Networking → Segments → Edge Bridge Profiles → Add Edge Bridge Profile.

3 Enter the NSX Edge cluster profile details.

Option Description

Name and Description Enter a NSX Edge bridge cluster profile name.
You can optionally enter the profile details such as, the primary and backup
node details.

Edge Cluster Select the NSX Edge cluster that you can to use.

Primary Node Designate the preferred NSX Edge node from the cluster.

Backup Node Designate the back up NSX Edge node if the primary node fails.

Failover Mode Select either Preemptive or Non-Preemptive mode.

The default HA mode is preemptive, which can slowdown traffic when the
preferred NSX Edge node goes back online. The non-preemptive mode
does not cause any traffic slowdown.

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Add a Transport Node Profile

A transport node profile is a template to define configuration that is applied to a cluster. It is not
applied to prepare standalone hosts. Prepare vCenter Server cluster hosts as transport nodes by
applying a transport node profile. Transport node profiles define transport zones, member hosts,
N-VDS switch configuration including uplink profile, IP assignment, mapping of physical NICs to
uplink virtual interfaces and so on.

Note Transport node profiles are only applicable to hosts. It cannot be applied to NSX Edge
transport nodes.

Transport node creation begins when a transport node profile is applied to a vCenter Server
cluster. NSX Manager prepares the hosts in the cluster and installs the NSX-T Data Center
components on all the hosts. Transport nodes for the hosts are created based on the
configuration specified in the transport node profile.

On a cluster prepared with a transport node profile, these outcomes are true:

n When you move an unprepared host into a cluster applied with a transport node profile,
NSX-T Data Center automatically prepares the host as a transport node using the transport
node profile.

n When you move a transport node from the cluster to an unprepared cluster or directly as
a standalone host under the data center, first the transport node configuration applied to
the node is removed and then NSX-T Data Center VIBs are removed from the host. See
Triggering Uninstallation from the vSphere Web Client.

To delete a transport node profile, you must first detach the profile from the associated cluster.
The existing transport nodes are not affected. New hosts added to the cluster are no longer
automatically converted into transport nodes.

Points to note when you create a Transport Node Profile:

n You can add a maximum of four N-VDS or VDS switches for each configuration: enhanced
N-VDS or VDS created for VLAN transport zone, standard N-VDS or VDS created for overlay
transport zone, enhanced N-VDS or VDS created for overlay transport zone.

n There is no limit on the number of standard N-VDS switches created for VLAN transport
zone.

n In a single host cluster topology running multiple standard overlay N-VDS switches and edge
VM on the same host, NSX-T Data Center provides traffic isolation such that traffic going
through the first N-VDS is isolated from traffic going through the second N-VDS and so on.
The physical NICs on each N-VDS must be mapped to the edge VM on the host to allow the
north-south traffic connectivity with the external world. Packets moving out of a VM on the
first transport zone must be routed through an external router or an external VM to the VM
on the second transport zone.

n Each N-VDS switch name must be unique. NSX-T Data Center does not allow use of duplicate
switch names.

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n Each transport zone ID associated with each N-VDS or VDS host in a transport node
configuraiton or transport node profile configuration must be unique.

Prerequisites

n Verify that the hosts are part of a vCenter Server cluster.

n vCenter Server must have at least one cluster.

n Verify that a transport zone is configured. See Create Transport Zones.

n Verify that a cluster is available. See Deploy NSX Manager Nodes to Form a Cluster from the
UI.

n Verify that an IP pool is configured, or DHCP must be available in the network deployment.
See Create an IP Pool for Tunnel Endpoint IP Addresses.

n Verify that a compute manager is configured. See Add a Compute Manager.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Profiles > Transport Node Profiles > Add.

3 Enter a name to identify the transport node profile.

You can optionally add the description about the transport node profile.

4 In the Add Transport Node Profile panel, expand New Node Switch.

5 In the Type field, select between N-VDS and VDS as the host switch type to prepare the
transport node.

6 In the Mode field, depending upon the workload requirements, select the appropriate mode:

n Standard mode that applies to all the supported hosts. It is used for regular workloads.

n Enhanced Datapath is a networking stack mode that applies to only transport nodes of
ESXi host version 6.7 and later type that can belong in a transport zone. It is used for
telecom workloads that require relatively higher throughput and performance.

7 Select the available transport zones and click the > button to include the transport zones in
the transport node profile.

Note You can add multiple transport zones.

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8 Select N-VDS as the host switch type and enter the switch details. Skip to the next step to
select VDS as the host switch.

Option Description

Name Enter a name for the N-VDS switch.

Transport Zones Shows the transport zones that are realized by the associated host switches.
You cannot add a transport zone if it is not realized by any N-VDS in the
transport node profile.

NIOC Profile Select the NIOC profile from the drop-down menu.
The bandwidth allocations specified in the profile for the traffic resources
are enforced.

Uplink Profile Select an existing uplink profile from the drop-down menu or create a
custom uplink profile.
You can also use the default uplink profile.

LLDP Profile By default, NSX-T only receives LLDP packets from a LLDP neighbor.
However, NSX-T can be set to send LLDP packets to and receive LLDP
packets from a LLDP neighbor.

IP Assignment Select Use DHCP, Use IP Pool, or Use Static IP List to assign an IP address
to virtual tunnel endpoints (VTEPs) of the transport node.
If you select Use Static IP List, you must specify a list of comma-separated
IP addresses, a gateway, and a subnet mask. All the VTEPs of the transport
node must be in the same subnet otherwise bidirectional flow (BFD) session
is not established.

IP Pool If you selected Use IP Pool for an IP assignment, specify the IP pool name.

Physical NICs Add physical NICs to the transport node. You can use the default uplink or
assign an existing uplink from the drop-down menu.
Click Add PNIC to configure additional physical NICs to the transport node.

Note Migration of the physical NICs that you add in this field depends on
how you configure PNIC only Migration, Network Mappings for Install, and
Network Mappings for Uninstall.

n To migrate a used physical NIC (for example, by a vSphere Standard

Switch or a vSphere Distributed Switch) without an associated VMkernel
mapping, ensure that PNIC only Migration is enabled. Otherwise, the
transport node state remains in partial success, and the fabric node LCP
connectivity fails to establish.
n To migrate a used physical NIC with an associated VMkernel network
mapping, disable PNIC only Migration and configure the VMkernel
network mapping.
n To migrate a free physical NIC, enable PNIC only Migration.

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Option Description

PNIC only Migration Before setting this field, consider the following points:
n Know whether the physical NIC defined is a used NIC or a free NIC.
n Determine whether VMkernel interfaces of a host need to be migrated
along with physical NICs.
Set the field:
n Enable PNIC only Migration if you only want to migrate physical NICs
from a VSS or DVS switch to an N-VDS switch.
n Disable PNIC only Migration if you want to migrate a used physical
NIC and its associated VMkernel interface mapping. A free or available
physical NIC is attached to the N-VDS switch when a VMkernel interface
migration mapping is specified.
On a host with multiple host switches:
n If all host switches are to migrate only PNICs, then you can migrate the
PNICs in a single operation.
n If some hosts switches are to migrate VMkernel interfaces and the
remaining host switches are to migrate only PNICs:
1 In the first operation, migrate only PNICs.
2 In the second operation, migrate VMkernel interfaces. Ensure that
PNIC only Migration is disabled.
Both PNIC only migration and VMkernel interface migration are not
supported at the same time across multiple hosts.

Note To migrate a management network NIC, configure its associated

VMkernel network mapping and keep PNIC only Migration disabled. If you
only migrate the management NIC, the host loses connectivity.

For more information, see VMkernel Migration to an N-VDS Switch.

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Option Description

Network Mappings for Install To migrate VMkernels to N-VDS switch during installation, map VMkernels to
an existing logical switch. The NSX Manager migrates the VMkernel to the
mapped logical switch on N-VDS.

Caution Ensure that the management NIC and management VMkernel

interface are migrated to a logical switch that is connected to the same
VLAN that the management NIC was connected to before migration.
If vmnic<n> and VMkernel<n> are migrated to a different VLAN, then
connectivity to the host is lost.

Caution For pinned physical NICs, ensure that the host switch mapping
of physical NIC to a VMkernel interface matches the configuration specified
in the transport node profile. As part of the validation procedure, NSX-T
Data Center verifies the mapping and if the validation passes migration of
VMkernel interfaces to an N-VDS switch is successful. It is also mandatory
to configure the network mapping for uninstallation because NSX-T Data
Center does not store the mapping configuration of the host switch after
migrating the VMkernel interfaces to the N-VDS switch. If the mapping is
not configured, connectivity to services, such as vSAN, can be lost after
migrating back to the VSS or VDS switch.

For more information, see VMkernel Migration to an N-VDS Switch.

Network Mappings for Uninstall To revert the migration of VMkernels attached to an N-VDS switch during
uninstallation, map VMkernels to port groups on VSS or DVS, so that NSX
Manager knows which port group the VMkernel must be migrated back to
on the VSS or DVS. For a DVS switch, ensure that the port group is of the
type Ephemeral.
To revert the migration of VMkernels attached to a NSX-T port group
created on a vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) during uninstallation, map
VMkernels to port groups on VSS or DVS, so that NSX Manager knows
which port group the VMkernel must be migrated back to on the VSS or
DVS. For a DVS switch, ensure that the port group is of the type Ephemeral.

Caution For pinned physical NICs, ensure that the transport node
profile mapping of physical NIC to VMkernel interface matches the
configuration specified in the host switch. It is mandatory to configure the
network mapping for uninstallation because NSX-T Data Center does not
store the mapping configuration of the host switch after migrating the
VMkernel interfaces to the N-VDS switch. If the mapping is not configured,
connectivity to services, such as vSAN, can be lost after migrating back to
the VSS or VDS switch.

For more information, see VMkernel Migration to an N-VDS Switch.

9 Select VDS as the host switch type and enter the switch details.

Option Description

Name (Hosts managed by a vSphere cluster) Select the vCenter Server that
manages the host switch.
Select the VDS that is created in vCenter Server.

Transport Zones Shows the transport zones that are realized by the associated host switches.
You cannot add a transport zone if it is not realized by any host switch.

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Option Description

Uplink Profile Select an existing uplink profile from the drop-down menu or create a
custom uplink profile.

Note Ensure MTU value entered in the NSX-T Data Center uplink profile
and VDS switch is set to at least 1600. If the MTU value in vCenter Server
for the VDS switch is lower than the MTU value entered in the uplink profile,
then NSX-T Data Center displays an error asking you to enter an appropriate
MTU value in the vCenter Server.

You can also use the default uplink profile.

Note Link Aggregation Groups defined in an uplink profile cannot be

mapped to VDS uplinks.

IP Assignment Select Use DHCP, Use IP Pool, or Use Static IP List to assign an IP address
to virtual tunnel endpoints (VTEPs) of the transport node.
If you select Use Static IP List, you must specify a list of comma-separated
IP addresses, a gateway, and a subnet mask. All the VTEPs of the transport
node must be in the same subnet otherwise bidirectional flow (BFD) session
is not established.

IP Pool If you selected Use IP Pool for an IP assignment, specify the IP pool name.

Teaming Policy Switch Mapping Map the uplinks defined in the NSX-T uplink profile with the VDS switch
uplinks. Alternatively, NSX-T uplinks can also be mapped to LAGs configured
on the VDS switch.
To configure or view the VDS switch uplinks, go to vCenter Server →
vSphere Distributed Switch. Click Actions → Settings → Edit Settings.

Note For a VDS switch, Uplinks/LAGs, NIOC profile, LLDP profile can be defined only in
vSphere ESXi host. These configurations are not available in NSX Manager. In addition, in NSX
Manager, you cannot configure networking mapping for install and uninstall if the host switch
is a VDS switch. To manage VMkernel adapters on a VDS switch, go to vCenter Server to
attach VMkernel adapters to Distributed Virtual port groups or NSX port groups.

10 If you have selected multiple transport zones, click ADD SWITCH again to configure the
switch for the other transport zones.

11 Click Finish to complete the configuration.

What to do next

Apply the transport node profile to an existing vSphere cluster. See Configure a Managed Host
Transport Node.

VMkernel Migration to an N-VDS Switch

To migrate VMkernel interfaces from a VSS or DVS switch to an N-VDS switch at a cluster-level,
configure the transport node profile with network-mapping details required for migration (map
VMkernel interfaces to logical switches). Similarly, to migrate VMkernel interfaces on a host node,
configure the transport node configuration. To revert migrate VMkernel interfaces back to a VSS

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or DVS switch, configure uninstall network-mapping (map logical ports to VMkernel interface) in
the transport node profile to be realized during uninstallation.

During migration physical NICs currently in use are migrated to an N-VDS switch, while available
or free physical NICs are attached to the N-VDS switch after migration.

Note Transport node profiles are applied to all member hosts of a cluster. But if you want to
limit migration of VMkernel interfaces on specific hosts, you can directly configure the host. After
migration, N-VDS handles traffic on the VLAN and overlay network for those interfaces attached
to the N-VDS switch.

Important Configurations done to individual hosts are marked with the Overridden flag. Any
further updates to the transport node profile are not applied to these overridden hosts. These
hosts remain in overridden state until NSX-T Data Center is uninstalled.

In the following figure, if a host has only two physical NICs, you might want to assign both
those NICs to the N-VDS for redundancy and their associated VMkernel interfaces so that the
interfaces do not lose connectivity with the host.

Figure 10-2. Pre and Post Migration of Network Interfaces to an N-VDS

Overlay Transport Zone

Kernel interfaces

Management-VLAN-
Management
Logical switch
Storage-VLAN-
Storage
Logical switch

vMotion-VLAN-
vMotion
Logical switch

VLAN Transport Zone

vmnic0 vmnic1 vmnic0 vmnic1

vSwitch0 N-VDS
vmk0, vmk1, vmk2 vmk0, vmk1, vmk2

ESXi ESXi

Pre-migration state of physical Post-migration state of physical

NICs and kernel interfaces NICs and kernel interfaces

Before migration, the ESXi host has two uplinks derived from the two physical ports - vmnic0 and
vmnic1. Here, vmnic0 is configured to be in an active state, attached to a VSS, whereas vmnic1 is
unused. In addition, there are three VMkernel interfaces: vmk0, vmk1, and vmk2.

You can migrate VMkernel interfaces by using the NSX-T Data Center Manager UI or NSX-T Data
Center APIs. See NSX-T Data Center API Guide.

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Post migration, the vmnic0, vmnic1, and their VMkernel interfaces are migrated to the N-VDS
switch. Both vmnic0 and vmnic1 are connected over VLAN and overlay transport zones.

Considerations for VMkernel Migration

n PNIC and VMkernel migration: Before you migrate pinned physical NICs and associated
VMkernel interfaces to an N-VDS switch, make a note of the network-mapping (physical NICs
to port group mapping) on the host switch.

n PNIC only migration: If you plan to only migrate PNICs, ensure that the management physical
NIC connected to the management VMkernel interface is not migrated. It results in loss of
connectivity with the host. For more details, see the PNIC only Migration field in Add a
Transport Node Profile.

n Revert migration: Before you plan to revert migrate VMkernel interfaces to the VSS or DVS
host switch for pinned physical NICs, ensure that you make a note of the network-mapping
(physical NIC to port group mapping) on the host switch. It is mandatory to configure
the transport node profile with the host switch mapping in the Network Mapping for
Uninstallation field. Without this mapping, NSX-T Data Center does not know which port
groups must the VMkernel interfaces be migrated back to. This situation can lead to loss of
connectivity to the vSAN network.

n vCenter Server registration before migration: If you plan to migrate a VMkernel or PNIC
connected to a DVS switch, ensure that a vCenter Server is registered with the NSX Manager.

n Match VLAN ID: After migration, the management NIC and management VMkernel interface
must be on the same VLAN the management NIC was connected to before migration. If
vmnic0 and vmk0 are connected to the management network and migrated to a different
VLAN, then connectivity to the host is lost.

n Migration to VSS switch: Cannot migrate back two VMkernel interfaces to the same port
group of a VSS witch.

n vMotion: Perform vMotion to move VM workloads to another host before VMkernel and/or
PNIC migration. If migration fails, then workload VMs are not impacted.

n vSAN: If the vSAN traffic is running on the host, place the host in maintenance mode through
vCenter Server and move VMs out of the host using vMotion functionality before VMkernel
and/or PNIC migration.

n Migration: If a VMkernel is already connected to a target switch, it can still be selected to

be migrated into the same switch. This property makes the VMK and/or PNIC migration
operation idempotent. It helps when you want to migrate only PNICs into a target switch. As
migration always requires at least one VMkernel and a PNIC, you select a VMkernel that is
already migrated to a target switch when you migrate only PNICs into a target switch. If no
VMkernel needs to be migrated, create a temp VMkernel through a vCenter Server in either
the source switch or target switch. Then migrate it together with the PNICs, and delete the
temp VMkernel through vCenter Server after the migration is finished.

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n MAC sharing: If a VMkernel interface and a PNIC share the same MAC and they are in the
same switch, they must be migrated together to the same target switch if they will be both
used after migration. Always keep vmk0 and vmnic0 in the same switch.

Check the MACs used by all VMKs and PNICs in the host by running the following commands:

esxcfg-vmknic -l

esxcfg-nics -l

n VIF logical ports created after migration: After you migrate VMkernel from a VSS or DVS
switch to an N-VDS switch, a logical switch port of the type VIF is created on the NSX
Manager. You must not create distributed firewall rules on these VIF logical switch ports.

Migrate VMkernel Interfaces to an N-VDS Switch

The high-level workflow to migrate VMkernel Interfaces to an N-VDS switch:

1 Create a logical switch if needed.

2 Power off VMs on the host from which VMkernel interfaces and PNICs are migrated to an
N-VDS switch.

3 Configure a transport node profile with a network mapping that is used to migrate the
VMkernel interfaces during the creation of transport nodes. Network mapping means
mapping a VMkernel interface to a logical switch.

For more details, see Add a Transport Node Profile.

4 Verify that the network adapter mappings in vCenter Server reflect a new association of the
VMkernel switch with an N-VDS switch. In case of pinned physical NICs, verify the mapping in
NSX-T Data Center reflects any VMkernels pinned to a physical NIC in the vCenter Server.

5 In NSX Manager, go to Networking → Segments. On the Segments page, verify that the
VMkernel interface is attached to the segment through a newly created logical port.

6 Go to System > Nodes > Host Transport Node. For each transport node, verify the status
on the Node Status column is Success to confirm that the transport node configuration is
successfully validated.

7 On the Host Transport Node page, verify the status on the Configuration State is Success to
confirm that the host is successfully realized with the specified configuration.

After you migrate VMkernel interfaces and PNICs from a VDS to a N-VDS switch using NSX-T
UI or transport node API, vCenter Server displays warnings for the VDS. If the host need be
connected to the VDS, remove the host out of the VDS. The vCenter Server no longer displays
any warning for VDS.

For details on errors that might encounter during migration, see VMkernel Migration Errors

Revert Migration of VMkernel Interfaces to a VSS or DVS Switch

The high-level workflow to revert migration of VMkernel Interfaces from an N-VDS switch to a
VSS or DVS switch during NSX-T Data Center uninstallation:

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1 On the ESXi host, power off VMs connected to the logical ports that hosts the VMkernel
interface after migration.

2 Configure the transport node profile with network mapping that is used to migrate the
VMkernel interfaces during the uninstallation process. Network mapping during uninstallation
maps the VMkernel interfaces to a port group on VSS or DVS switch on the ESXi host.

Note Reverting migration of a VMkernel to a port group on a DVS switch, ensure that the
port group type is set to Ephemeral.

For more details, see Add a Transport Node Profile.

3 Verify the network adapter mappings in vCenter Server reflect a new association of the
VMkernel switch with a port group of VSS or DVS switch.

4 In NSX Manager, go to Networking → Segments. On the Segments page, verify that the
segment containing VMkernel interfaces are deleted.

For details on errors that you might encounter during migration, see VMkernel Migration Errors

Update Host Switch Mapping

Important
n Stateful hosts: Add and Update operations are supported. To update an existing mapping,
you can add a new VMkernel interface entry to the network-mapping configuration. If you
update the network mapping configuration of a VMkernel interface that is already migrated
to the N-VDS switch, the updated network mapping is not realized on the host.

n Stateless hosts: Add, Update, and Remove operations are supported. Any changes you make
to the network-mapping configuration is realized after the host reboots.

To update the VMkernel interfaces to a new logical switch, you can edit the transport node
profile to apply the network mappings at a cluster level. If you only want the updates to be
applied to a single host, configure the transport node using host-level APIs.

Note After you update the transport node configuration for an individual host, then any new
updates applied through the transport node profile are not applied to that host. That host state
turns to overriden.

1 To update all hosts in a cluster, edit the Network Mapping during Installation field to update
the VMkernel mapping to logical switches.

For more details, see Add a Transport Node Profile.

2 Save the changes. Changes made to a transport node profile is automatically applied to all
the member hosts of the cluster, except on hosts that are marked with the overridden state.

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3 Similarly, to update an individual host, edit the VMkernel mapping in the transport node
configuration.

Note If you update the Network Mapping during Installation field with a new VMkernel
mapping, then the same VMkernel interface must be added to the Network Mapping during
uninstallation field.

For details on errors that you might encounter during migration, see VMkernel Migration Errors

Migrate VMkernel Interfaces on a Stateless Cluster

1 Prepare and configure a host as a reference host using transport node APIs.

2 Extract the host profile from the reference host.

3 In the vCenter Server, apply the host profile to the stateless cluster.

4 In NSX-T Data Center, apply the transport node profile to the stateless cluster.

5 Reboot each host of the cluster.

The cluster hosts might take several minutes to realize the updated states.

Migration Failure Scenarios

n If migration fails for some reason, the host attempts to migrate the physical NICs and
VMkernel interfaces three times.

n If the migration still continues to fail, the host performs a rollback to the earlier configuration
by retaining VMkernel connectivity with the management physical NIC, vmnic0.

n In case the rollback also fails such that the VMkernel configured to the management physical
NIC was lost, you must reset the host.

Unsupported Migration Scenarios

The following scenarios are not supported:

n VMkernel interfaces from two different VSS or DVS switches are migrated at the same time.

n On stateful hosts, network mapping is updated to map VMkernel interface to another logical
switch. For example, before migration the VMkernel is mapped to Logical Switch 1, and the
VMkernel interface is mapped to Logical Switch 2.

VMkernel Migration Errors

You can encounter errors when migrating VMkernel interfaces and physical NICs from a VSS or
DVS switch to an N-VDS switch or revert migrating interfaces to a VSS or DVS host switch.

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Table 10-1. VMkernel Migration Errors

Error Code Problem Cause Resolution

8224 Unable to find the host switch The host switch ID cannot be n Ensure that the transport
specified by the transport found. zone is created with the
node configuration. host switch name and then
create the transport node.
n Ensure that a valid
host switch is used
in the transport node
configuration.

8225 VMkernel migration is in Migration is in progress. Wait for the migration to

progress. complete before performing
another action.

8226 VMkernel migration is only Migration is only valid for ESXi Ensure that the host is a
supported on a ESXi host. hosts. ESXi host before you initiate
migration.

8227 VMkernel interface is not On a host with multiple host If the host has multiple N-
appended with the host switch switches, NSX-T Data Center VDS host switches, ensure the
name. cannot identify association of each VMkernel interface is appended
VMkernel interface with its host with the host switch name
switch. of the N-VDS the host is
connected to.
For example, the network
mapping for uninstallation of
a host with N-VDS host
switch name nsxvswitch1 and
VMkernel1 and another N-VDS
host switch name nsxvswitch2
and VMkernel2 must be defined
as follows: device_name:
VMkernel1@nsxvswitch1,
destination_network:
DPortGroup.

8228 Host switch used in the Incorrect host switch name. Enter the correct host switch
device_name field not found name.
on the host.

8229 Transport node did not Transport zone not added. Add the transport zone to the
specify the transport zone of transport node configuration.
the logical switch.

8230 No physical NIC on the host There must be at least one physical Specify at least one physical
switch. NIC on the host switch. NIC to an uplink profile and
the VMkernel network mapping
configuration to a logical switch.

8231 Host switch name does not If the host switch name used in Ensure that the host switch
match. vmk1@host_switch does not match name specified in the network
the host switch name used by the mapping configuration matches
destination logical switch of the the name used by the logical
interface. switch of the interface.

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Table 10-1. VMkernel Migration Errors (continued)

Error Code Problem Cause Resolution

8232 Logical switch not realized on Realization of logical switch on the Synchronize the host with the
the host. host was unsuccessful. NSX Manager.

8233 Unexpected logical switch The network interface mapping Network mapping for
in the network interface for installation and uninstallation installation must only contain
mapping. lists both logical switches and port logical switches as destination
groups. targets. Similarly, network
mapping for uninstallation must
only contain port groups as
destination targets.

8294 Logical switch does not exist Logical switches not specified. Ensure that logical switches
in the network interface are specified in the
mapping. network interface mapping
configuration.

8296 Host switch mismatch. The network interface mapping for Ensure that the host switch
uninstallation is configured with the name used in the mapping
incorrect host switch name. configuration matches the name
entered on the host switch
where the VMkernel interfaces
reside on.

8297 Duplicate VMkernel. Duplicate VMkernels are specified Ensure that no duplicate
for migration. VMkernel interfaces are
specified in the installation
or uninstallation mapping
configuration.

8298 Mismatch of number of Incorrect configuration. Ensure that each VMkernel

VMkernel interfaces and interface has a corresponding
destinations. destination specified in the
configuration.

8299 Cannot delete transport node VMkernel interfaces are using Revert the migration of all
as the VMkernel interface is ports from the N-VDS switch. VMkernel interfaces from the
using ports on N-VDS. N-VDS switch to a VSS/DVS
switch. Then attempt to delete
the transport node.

9412 VMkernel cannot be migrated Unsupported action. Revert the migration of the
from one N-VDS to another N- VMkernel interface to a VSS
VDS. or DVS switch. Then, you can
migrate the VMkernel interface
to another N-VDS switch.

9413 VMkernel interfaces cannot be On stateful hosts, a VMkernel Revert the migration of the
migrated to a different logical connected to a logical switch VMkernel from the logical
switch. cannot be migrated to another switch to a VSS/DVS switch.
logical switch. Then, migrate the VMkernel to
another logical switch on the N-
VDS.

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Table 10-1. VMkernel Migration Errors (continued)

Error Code Problem Cause Resolution

9414 Duplicate VMkernel interfaces. Duplicate VMkernel interfaces Ensure that each VMkernel
mapped in the installation interface is unique in the
and uninstallation mapping installation and uninstallation
configuration. mappings.

9415 Powered on VMs on the host. With powered on VMs, migration Power off the VMs on the host
does not proceed. before you initiate migration of
VMkernel interfaces.

9416 VMkernel cannot be found on Did not specify a VMkernel that Specify a VMkernel that
the host. exists on the host in the network exists in the network mapping
mapping configuration. configuration.

9417 Port group not found. Did not specify a port group that Specify a port group that
exists on the host in the network exists in the network mapping
mapping configuration. configuration.

9419 Logical switch not found Did not find the logical switch Specify a logical switch that
during migration. defined in the network interface exists in the network interface
mapping configuration. mapping configuration.

9420 Logical port not found during During migration, NSX-T Data Ensure that no logical ports are
migration. Center does not find the ports deleted from the logical switch
created on the logical switch. for migration to be successful.

9421 Host information missing to Unable to retrieve host information Retry the migration process.
validate the migration process. from inventory.

9423 Pinned physical NICs to a A pinned physical NIC was found in A physical NIC pinned with
VMkernel interface are not the environment but the VMkernel VMkernel interface must have
migrated to the correct host and physical NIC are not being a transport node configuration
switch. migrated to the same host switch. that maps the physical NIC with
the VMkernel on the same host
switch.

600 Object not found. The specified transport zone used n Specify a transport zone
by the logical switch does not which exists in the
exist. environment.
The logical switch found in the n Create the desired logical
VMK mapping destination cannot switch or use an existing
be found. VLAN logical switch.

8310 The logical switch type is The logical switch type is Overlay. Create a VLAN logical switch.
incorrect.

9424 Cannot migrate if both PNIC Migration progresses only when Ensure that either the PNIC only
only Migration and Network one of these settings is configured. Migration or Network Mapping
Mapping for install or uninstall for install or uninstall setting is
settings are configured at the configured.
same time.

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Create a Standalone Host or Bare Metal Server Transport

Node
You must first add your ESXi host, KVM host, or bare metal server to the NSX-T Data Center
fabric and then configure the transport node.

For a host or bare metal server to be part of the NSX-T Data Center overlay, it must first be
added to the NSX-T Data Center fabric.

A transport node is a node that participates in an NSX-T Data Center overlay or NSX-T Data
Center VLAN networking.

For a KVM host or bare metal server, you can preconfigure the N-VDS, or you can have NSX
Manager perform the configuration. For a ESXi host, NSX Manager always configures the N-VDS.

Note If you plan to create transport nodes from a template VM, make sure that there are
no certificates on the host in /etc/vmware/nsx/. nsx-proxy does not create a certificate if a
certificate exists.

Bare metal server supports an overlay and VLAN transport zone. You can use the management
interface to manage the bare metal server. The application interface allows you to access the
applications on the bare metal server.

Single physical NICs provide an IP address for both the management and application IP
interfaces.

Dual physical NICs provide a physical NIC and a unique IP address for the management interface.
Dual physical NICs also provide a physical NIC, and a unique IP address for the application
interface.

Multiple physical NICs in a bonded configuration provide dual physical NICs, and a unique IP
address for both the management interface and the application insterface.

You can add a maximum of four N-VDS switches for each configuration:

n standard N-VDS created for VLAN transport zone

n enhanced N-VDS created for VLAN transport zone

n standard N-VDS created for overlay transport zone

n enhanced N-VDS created for overlay transport zone

In a single host cluster topology running multiple standard overlay N-VDS switches and edge VM
on the same host, NSX-T Data Center provides traffic isolation such that traffic going through the
first N-VDS is isolated from traffic going through the second N-VDS. The physical NICs on each
N-VDS must be mapped to the edge VM on the host to allow the north-south traffic connectivity
with the external world. Packets moving out of a VM on the first transport zone must be routed
through an external router, or an external VM to the VM on the second transport zone.

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Prerequisites

n The host must be joined with the management plane, and connectivity must be Up.

n The reverse proxy service on all nodes of the NSX Manager cluster must be Up and running.

To verify, run get service http. If the service is down, restart the service by running
restart service http on each NSX Manager node. If the service is still down, contact
VMware support.

n A transport zone must be configured.

n An uplink profile must be configured, or you can use the default uplink profile.

n An IP pool must be configured, or DHCP must be available in the network deployment.

n At least one unused physical NIC must be available on the host node.

n Hostname

n Management IP address

n User name

n Password

n (Optional) (KVM) SHA-256 SSL thumbprint

n (Optional) (ESXi) SHA-256 SSL thumbprint

n Verify that the required third-party packages are installed.

n See Install Third-Party Packages on a KVM Host.

n See Install Third-Party Packages on a Bare Metal Server.

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Procedure

1 (Optional) Retrieve the hypervisor thumbprint so that you can provide it when adding the
host to the fabric.

a Gather the hypervisor thumbprint information.

Use a Linux shell.

# echo -n | openssl s_client -connect <esxi-ip-address>:443 2>/dev/null | openssl x509 -noout

-fingerprint -sha256

Use the ESXi CLI in the host.

[root@host:~] openssl x509 -in /etc/vmware/ssl/rui.crt -fingerprint -sha256 -noout

SHA256
Fingerprint=49:73:F9:A6:0B:EA:51:2A:15:57:90:DE:C0:89:CA:7F:46:8E:30:15:CA:4D:5C:95:28:0A:9E:A
2:4E:3C:C4:F4

b Retrieve the SHA-256 thumbprint from a KVM hypervisor, run the command in the KVM
host.

# awk '{print $2}' /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key.pub | base64 -d | sha256sum -b | sed 's/ .*$//'

| xxd -r -p | base64

2 Select System > Fabric > Nodes > Host Transport Nodes.

3 From the Managed by field, select Standalone Hosts and click + Add.

4 Enter the standalone host or bare metal server details to add to the fabric.

Option Description

Name and Description Enter the name to identify the standalone host or bare metal server.
You can optionally add the description of the operating system used for the
host or bare metal server.

IP Addresses Enter the host or bare metal server IP address.

Operating System Select the operating system from the drop-down menu.
Depending on your host or bare metal server, you can select any of the
supported operating systems. See System Requirements.

Important Among the different flavors of Linux supported, you must know
the distinction between a bare metal server running a Linux distribution
versus using a Linux distribution as a hypervisor host. For example, selecting
Ubuntu Server as the operating system means setting up a bare metal
server running a Linux server, whereas selcting Ubuntu KVM means the
Linux hypervisior deployed is Ubuntu.

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Option Description

Username and Password Enter the host user name and password.

SHA-256 Thumbprint Enter the host thumbprint value for authentication.

If you leave the thumbprint value empty, you are prompted to accept the
server provided value. It takes a few seconds for NSX-T Data Center to
discover and authenticate the host.

5 (Required) For a KVM host or bare metal server, select the N-VDS type.

Option Description

NSX Created NSX Manager creates the N-VDS.

This option is selected by default.

Preconfigured The N-VDS is already configured.

For an ESXi host, the N-VDS type is always set to NSX Created.

6 If you select the N-VDS switch to operate in Standard (All hosts) mode, enter value to the
following fields. You can configure multiple N-VDS switches on a single host.

Option Description

Name Enter a name for the N-VDS host switch.

Transport Zone From the drop-down menu, select a transport zone that this transport node.

NIOC Profile From the drop-down menu, select an NIOC profile for the ESXi host or
create a custom NIOC profile.
You can also select the default NIOC profile.

Uplink Profile Select an existing uplink profile from the drop-down menu or create a
custom uplink profile.
You can also use the default uplink profile.

LLDP Profile By default, NSX-T only receives LLDP packets from a LLDP neighbor.
However, NSX-T can be set to send LLDP packets to and receive LLDP
packets from a LLDP neighbor.

IP Assignment Select Use DHCP, Use IP Pool, or Use Static IP List.

If you select Use Static IP List, you must specify a list of comma-separated
IP addresses, a gateway, and a subnet mask.

IP Pool If you selected Use IP Pool for IP assignment, specify the IP pool name.

Teaming Policy Switch Mapping Add physical NICs to the transport node. You can use the default uplink or
assign an existing uplink from the drop-down menu.

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Option Description

PNIC only Migration Before setting this field, consider the following points:
n Know whether the physical NIC defined is a used NIC or a free NIC.
n Determine whether VMkernel interfaces of a host need to be migrated
along with physical NICs.
Set the field:
n Enable PNIC only Migration if you only want to migrate physical NICs
from a VSS or DVS switch to an N-VDS switch.
n Disable PNIC only Migration if you want to migrate a used physical
NIC and its associated VMkernel interface mapping. A free or available
physical NIC is attached to the N-VDS switch when a VMkernel interface
migration mapping is specified.
On a host with multiple host switches:
n If all host switches are to migrate only PNICs, then you can migrate the
PNICs in a single operation.
n If some hosts switches are to migrate VMkernel interfaces and the
remaining host switches are to migrate only PNICs:
1 In the first operation, migrate only PNICs.
2 In the second operation, migrate VMkernel interfaces. Ensure that
PNIC only Migration is disabled.
Both PNIC only migration and VMkernel interface migration are not
supported at the same time across multiple hosts.

Note To migrate a management network NIC, configure its associated

VMkernel network mapping and keep PNIC only Migration disabled. If you
only migrate the management NIC, the host loses connectivity.

For more information, see VMkernel Migration to an N-VDS Switch.

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Option Description

Network Mappings for Install To migrate VMkernels to N-VDS switch during installation, map VMkernels to
an existing logical switch. The NSX Manager migrates the VMkernel to the
mapped logical switch on N-VDS.

Caution Ensure that the management NIC and management VMkernel

interface are migrated to a logical switch that is connected to the same
VLAN that the management NIC was connected to before migration.
If vmnic<n> and VMkernel<n> are migrated to a different VLAN, then
connectivity to the host is lost.

Caution For pinned physical NICs, ensure that the host switch mapping
of physical NIC to a VMkernel interface matches the configuration specified
in the transport node profile. As part of the validation procedure, NSX-T
Data Center checks the mapping and if the validation passes migration of
VMkernel interfaces to an N-VDS switch is successful. At the same time it
is mandatory to configure the network mapping for uninstallation because
NSX-T Data Center does not store the mapping configuration of the host
switch after migrating the VMkernel interfaces to the N-VDS switch. If the
mapping is not configured, connectivity to services, such as vSAN, can be
lost after migrating back to the VSS or VDS switch.

For more information, see VMkernel Migration to an N-VDS Switch.

Network Mappings for Uninstall To revert the migration of VMkernels during uninstallation, map VMkernels
to port groups on VSS or DVS, so that NSX Manager knows which port
group the VMkernel must be migrated back to on the VSS or DVS. For a
DVS switch, ensure the port group is of the type Ephemeral.
To revert the migration of VMkernels attached to a NSX-T port group
created on a vSphere Distributed Virtual Switch 7.0 during uninstallation,
map VMkernels to port groups on VSS or DVS, so that NSX Manager knows
which port group the VMkernel must be migrated back to on the VSS or
DVS. For a DVS switch, ensure that the port group is of the type Ephemeral.

Caution For pinned physical NICs, ensure that the transport node
profile mapping of physical NIC to VMkernel interface matches the
configuration specified in the host switch. It is mandatory to configure the
network mapping for uninstallation because NSX-T Data Center does not
store the mapping configuration of the host switch after migrating the
VMkernel interfaces to the N-VDS switch. If the mapping is not configured,
connectivity to services, such as vSAN, can be lost after migrating back to
the VSS or VDS switch.

For more information, see VMkernel Migration to an N-VDS Switch.

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7 If you select the N-VDS switch to operate in Performance mode, enter values to the following
additional fields. You can configure multiple N-VDS switches on a single host.

Option Description

(CPU Config) In the NUMA Node Index drop-down menu, select the NUMA node that you
NUMA Node Index want to assign to an N-VDS switch. The first NUMA node present on the
node is represented with the value 0.
You can find out the number for NUMA nodes on your host by running the
esxcli hardware memory get command.

Note If you want to change the number of NUMA nodes that have affinity
with an N-VDS switch, you can update the NUMA Node Index value.

(CPU Config) In the Lcore per NUMA node drop-down menu, select the number of logical
LCores per NUMA Nodes cores that must be used by enhanced datapath.
You can find out the maximum number of logical cores that can be created
on the NUMA node by running the esxcli network ens maxLcores get
command.

Note If you exhaust the available NUMA nodes and logical cores, any new
switch added to the transport node cannot be enabled for ENS traffic.

8 For a preconfigured N-VDS, provide the following details.

Option Description

N-VDS External ID Must be the same as the N-VDS name of the transport zone that this node
belongs to.

VTEP Virtual tunnel endpoint name.

9 View the connection status on the Host Transport Nodes page. During the configuration
process, each transport node displays the percentage of progress of the installation process.
If installation fails at any stage, you can restart the process by clicking the Resolve link that is
available against the failed stage of the process.

After adding the host or bare metal server as a transport node, the connection to NSX
Manager state displays as UP only after the host is successfully created as a transport node.

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10 Alternatively, view the connection status using CLI commands.

u For ESXi, enter the esxcli network ip connection list | grep 1234 command.

# esxcli network ip connection list | grep 1234

tcp 0 0 192.168.210.53:20514 192.168.110.34:1234 ESTABLISHED 1000144459 newreno
nsx-cfgagent

u For KVM, enter the command netstat -anp --tcp | grep 1234.

user@host:~$ netstat -anp --tcp | grep 1234

tcp 0 0 192.168.210.54:57794 192.168.110.34:1234 ESTABLISHED -

n For Windows, from a command prompt enter netstat | find "1234"

n For Windows, from a command prompt enter netstat | find "1235"

11 Verify that the NSX-T Data Center modules are installed on your host or bare metal server.

As a result of adding a host or bare metal server to the NSX-T Data Center fabric, a collection
of NSX-T Data Center modules are installed on the host or bare metal server.

The modules on different hosts are packaged as follows:

n KVM on RHEL, CentOS, Oracle Linux, or SUSE - RPMs.

n KVM on Ubuntu - DEBs

n On ESXi, enter the command esxcli software vib list | grep nsx.

The date is the day you performed the installation.

n On RHEL, CentOS, or Oracle Linux, enter the command yum list installed or rpm -qa.

n On Ubuntu, enter the command dpkg --get-selections.

n On SUSE, enter the command rpm -qa | grep nsx.

n On Windows, open Task Manager. Or, from the command line enter tasklist /V | grep
nsx findstr “nsx ovs

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12 (Optional) Change the polling intervals of certain processes, if you have 500 hypervisors or
more.

The NSX Manager might experience high CPU use and performance problems if there are
more than 500 hypervisors.
a Use the NSX-T Data Center CLI command copy file or the API POST /api/v1/node/file-
store/<file-name>?action=copy_to_remote_file to copy the aggsvc_change_intervals.py
script to a host.

b Run the script, which is located in the NSX-T Data Center file store.

python aggsvc_change_intervals.py -m '<NSX ManagerIPAddress>' -u 'admin' -p '<password>' -i

900

c (Optional) Change the polling intervals back to their default values.

python aggsvc_change_intervals.py -m '<NSX ManagerIPAddress>' -u 'admin' -p '<password>' -r

Results

Note For an NSX-T Data Center created N-VDS, after the transport node is created, if you
want to change the configuration, such as IP assignment to the tunnel endpoint, you must do it
through the NSX Manager GUI and not through the CLI on the host.

What to do next

Migrate network interfaces from a vSphere Standard Switch to an N-VDS switch. See VMkernel
Migration to an N-VDS Switch.

Prepare a vSphere Distributed Switch for NSX-T

Before you configure an NSX-T transport node using vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) as a host
switch, ensure that the VDS created on a vCenter Server 7.0 or a later version is configured to
manage NSX-T traffic.

High-level tasks to configure a cluster or a standalone managed host using a VDS switch.

Important To create a VDS switch supporting NSX-T networking, the following conditions must
be met:

n vCenter Server 7.0 or a later version

n ESXi 7.0 or a later version

Prerequisites

n Verify that ESXi hosts have the required number of physical NICs to meet networking
requirements. For example, if you plan to configure teaming policies and remote span port
mirroring, ensure that a free physical NIC is available to avoid uplink conflicts.

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Procedure

1 In a vCenter Server, create a VDS. For more information about creating a VDS, see the
vSphere Networking documentation.

n Set the MTU value for the VDS to at least 1600.

n Connect the switch to hosts that you want to prepare for NSX-T networking.

n Assign physical NICs to uplinks on the VDS.

2 In NSX-T, add an uplink profile that defines a teaming policy mapping NSX-T uplinks with VDS
uplinks.

3 In NSX-T, prepare an ESXi host using VDS as the host switch.

At the end of the configuration, the host is prepared as NSX-T transport node with VDS as
the host switch.

What to do next

Configure the host as a transport node. See Configure a Managed Host Transport Node.

Configure a Managed Host Transport Node

If you have a vCenter Server, you can automate the installation and creation of transport nodes
on all the NSX-T Data Center hosts instead of configuring manually.

This task is only to prepare individual ESXi nodes as transport nodes. If you want to prepare a
cluster so that all hosts in that cluster are prepared as transport nodes, apply the cluster with
transport node profile. See Add a Transport Node Profile.

Prerequisites

n Verify that all hosts in the vCenter Server are powered on.

n Verify that the system requirements are met. See System Requirements.

n The reverse proxy service on all nodes of the NSX Manager cluster must be Up and running.

To verify, run get service http. If the service is down, restart the service by running
restart service http on each NSX Manager node. If the service is still down, contact
VMware support.

n Verify that a transport zone is available. See Create Transport Zones.

n Verify that a transport node profile is configured. See Add a Transport Node Profile.

n (Host in lockdown mode) If your exception list for vSphere lockdown mode includes expired
user accounts, NSX-T Data Center installation on vSphere fails. Ensure that you delete
all expired user accounts before you begin installation. For more information on accounts
with access privileges in lockdown mode, see Specifying Accounts with Access Privileges in
Lockdown Mode in the vSphere Security Guide.

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n With VMware vSphere® Lifecycle Manager enabled on a cluster, these limitations apply:

n You cannot prepare an individual host that is part of the cluster as a transport node. Even
though a standalone prepared host can be included in the cluster, you must avoid moving
such a transport node to the cluster. Because, when an administrator remediates the
host, NSX-T VIBs are removed from the transport node. See vSphereLifecycle Manager
Guide.

n You cannot apply transport node profile to the cluster to prepare cluster hosts as
transport nodes.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Nodes > Host Transport Nodes.

3 From the Managed By drop-down menu, select an existing vCenter Server.

The page lists the available vSphere clusters and/or ESXi hosts from the selected vCenter
Server. You may need to expand a cluster to view the ESXi hosts.

4 Select a single host from the list and click Configure NSX.

The Configure NSX dialog box opens.

a Verify the host name in the Host Details panel. Optionally, you can add a description.

b Click Next to move to the Configure NSX panel.

c Select the available transport zones and click the > button to include the transport zones
in the transport node profile.

5 Verify the host name in the Host Details panel, and click Next.

Optionally, you can add a description.

6 In the Configure NSX panel, expand New Node Switch.

7 In the Type field, select between N-VDS and VDS as the host switch type to prepare the
transport node.

8 In the Mode field, depending upon the workload requirements, select the appropriate mode:

n Standard mode that applies to all the supported hosts. It is used for regular workloads.

n Enhanced Datapath is a networking stack mode that applies to only transport nodes of
ESXi host version 6.7 and later type that can belong in a transport zone. It is used for
telecom workloads that require relatively higher throughput and performance.

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9 Select N-VDS as the host switch type and enter the switch details. Skip to the next step to
select VDS as the host switch.

Option Description

Name Enter a name for the N-VDS switch.

Transport Zones Shows the transport zones that are realized by the associated host switches.
You cannot add a transport zone if it is not realized by any N-VDS in the
transport node profile.

NIOC Profile Select the NIOC profile from the drop-down menu.
The bandwidth allocations specified in the profile for the traffic resources
are enforced.

Uplink Profile Select an existing uplink profile from the drop-down menu or create a
custom uplink profile.
You can also use the default uplink profile.

LLDP Profile By default, NSX-T only receives LLDP packets from a LLDP neighbor.
However, NSX-T can be set to send LLDP packets to and receive LLDP
packets from a LLDP neighbor.

IP Assignment Select Use DHCP, Use IP Pool, or Use Static IP List to assign an IP address
to virtual tunnel endpoints (VTEPs) of the transport node.
If you select Use Static IP List, you must specify a list of comma-separated
IP addresses, a gateway, and a subnet mask. All the VTEPs of the transport
node must be in the same subnet otherwise bidirectional flow (BFD) session
is not established.

IP Pool If you selected Use IP Pool for an IP assignment, specify the IP pool name.

Physical NICs Add physical NICs to the transport node. You can use the default uplink or
assign an existing uplink from the drop-down menu.
Click Add PNIC to configure additional physical NICs to the transport node.

Note Migration of the physical NICs that you add in this field depends on
how you configure PNIC only Migration, Network Mappings for Install, and
Network Mappings for Uninstall.

n To migrate a used physical NIC (for example, by a vSphere Standard

Switch or a vSphere Distributed Switch) without an associated VMkernel
mapping, ensure that PNIC only Migration is enabled. Otherwise, the
transport node state remains in partial success, and the fabric node LCP
connectivity fails to establish.
n To migrate a used physical NIC with an associated VMkernel network
mapping, disable PNIC only Migration and configure the VMkernel
network mapping.
n To migrate a free physical NIC, enable PNIC only Migration.

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Option Description

PNIC only Migration Before setting this field, consider the following points:
n Know whether the physical NIC defined is a used NIC or a free NIC.
n Determine whether VMkernel interfaces of a host need to be migrated
along with physical NICs.
Set the field:
n Enable PNIC only Migration if you only want to migrate physical NICs
from a VSS or DVS switch to an N-VDS switch.
n Disable PNIC only Migration if you want to migrate a used physical
NIC and its associated VMkernel interface mapping. A free or available
physical NIC is attached to the N-VDS switch when a VMkernel interface
migration mapping is specified.
On a host with multiple host switches:
n If all host switches are to migrate only PNICs, then you can migrate the
PNICs in a single operation.
n If some hosts switches are to migrate VMkernel interfaces and the
remaining host switches are to migrate only PNICs:
1 In the first operation, migrate only PNICs.
2 In the second operation, migrate VMkernel interfaces. Ensure that
PNIC only Migration is disabled.
Both PNIC only migration and VMkernel interface migration are not
supported at the same time across multiple hosts.

Note To migrate a management network NIC, configure its associated

VMkernel network mapping and keep PNIC only Migration disabled. If you
only migrate the management NIC, the host loses connectivity.

For more information, see VMkernel Migration to an N-VDS Switch.

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Option Description

Network Mappings for Install To migrate VMkernels to N-VDS switch during installation, map VMkernels to
an existing logical switch. The NSX Manager migrates the VMkernel to the
mapped logical switch on N-VDS.

Caution Ensure that the management NIC and management VMkernel

interface are migrated to a logical switch that is connected to the same
VLAN that the management NIC was connected to before migration.
If vmnic<n> and VMkernel<n> are migrated to a different VLAN, then
connectivity to the host is lost.

Caution For pinned physical NICs, ensure that the host switch mapping
of physical NIC to a VMkernel interface matches the configuration specified
in the transport node profile. As part of the validation procedure, NSX-T
Data Center verifies the mapping and if the validation passes migration of
VMkernel interfaces to an N-VDS switch is successful. It is also mandatory
to configure the network mapping for uninstallation because NSX-T Data
Center does not store the mapping configuration of the host switch after
migrating the VMkernel interfaces to the N-VDS switch. If the mapping is
not configured, connectivity to services, such as vSAN, can be lost after
migrating back to the VSS or VDS switch.

For more information, see VMkernel Migration to an N-VDS Switch.

Network Mappings for Uninstall To revert the migration of VMkernels attached to an N-VDS switch during
uninstallation, map VMkernels to port groups on VSS or DVS, so that NSX
Manager knows which port group the VMkernel must be migrated back to
on the VSS or DVS. For a DVS switch, ensure that the port group is of the
type Ephemeral.
To revert the migration of VMkernels attached to a NSX-T port group
created on a vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) during uninstallation, map
VMkernels to port groups on VSS or DVS, so that NSX Manager knows
which port group the VMkernel must be migrated back to on the VSS or
DVS. For a DVS switch, ensure that the port group is of the type Ephemeral.

Caution For pinned physical NICs, ensure that the transport node
profile mapping of physical NIC to VMkernel interface matches the
configuration specified in the host switch. It is mandatory to configure the
network mapping for uninstallation because NSX-T Data Center does not
store the mapping configuration of the host switch after migrating the
VMkernel interfaces to the N-VDS switch. If the mapping is not configured,
connectivity to services, such as vSAN, can be lost after migrating back to
the VSS or VDS switch.

For more information, see VMkernel Migration to an N-VDS Switch.

10 Select VDS as the host switch type and enter the switch details.

Option Description

Name (Hosts managed by a vSphere cluster) Select the vCenter Server that
manages the host switch.
Select the VDS that is created in vCenter Server.

Transport Zones Shows the transport zones that are realized by the associated host switches.
You cannot add a transport zone if it is not realized by any host switch.

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Option Description

Uplink Profile Select an existing uplink profile from the drop-down menu or create a
custom uplink profile.

Note Ensure MTU value entered in the NSX-T Data Center uplink profile
and VDS switch is set to at least 1600. If the MTU value in vCenter Server
for the VDS switch is lower than the MTU value entered in the uplink profile,
then NSX-T Data Center displays an error asking you to enter an appropriate
MTU value in the vCenter Server.

You can also use the default uplink profile.

Note Link Aggregation Groups defined in an uplink profile cannot be

mapped to VDS uplinks.

IP Assignment Select Use DHCP, Use IP Pool, or Use Static IP List to assign an IP address
to virtual tunnel endpoints (VTEPs) of the transport node.
If you select Use Static IP List, you must specify a list of comma-separated
IP addresses, a gateway, and a subnet mask. All the VTEPs of the transport
node must be in the same subnet otherwise bidirectional flow (BFD) session
is not established.

IP Pool If you selected Use IP Pool for an IP assignment, specify the IP pool name.

Teaming Policy Switch Mapping Map the uplinks defined in the NSX-T uplink profile with the VDS switch
uplinks. Alternatively, NSX-T uplinks can also be mapped to LAGs configured
on the VDS switch.
To configure or view the VDS switch uplinks, go to vCenter Server →
vSphere Distributed Switch. Click Actions → Settings → Edit Settings.

Note For a VDS switch, Uplinks/LAGs, NIOC profile, LLDP profile can be defined only in
vSphere ESXi host. These configurations are not available in NSX Manager. In addition, in NSX
Manager, you cannot configure networking mapping for install and uninstall if the host switch
is a VDS switch. To manage VMkernel adapters on a VDS switch, go to vCenter Server to
attach VMkernel adapters to Distributed Virtual port groups or NSX port groups.

11 If you have selected multiple transport zones, click ADD SWITCH again to configure the
switch for the other transport zones.

12 Click Finish to complete the configuration.

13 (Optional) View the ESXi connection status.

# esxcli network ip connection list | grep 1235

tcp 0 0 192.168.210.53:20514 192.168.110.34:1234 ESTABLISHED 1000144459 newreno nsx-
proxy

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14 From the Host Transport Node page, verify that the NSX Manager connectivity status of
hosts in the cluster is Up and NSX-T Data Center configuration state is Success. During
the configuration process, each transport node displays the percentage of progress of the
installation process. If installation fails at any stage, you can restart the process by clicking
the Resolve link that is available against the failed stage of the process.

You can also see that the transport zone is applied to the hosts in the cluster.

Note If you again configure a host that is part of a cluster that is already prepared by a
transport node profile, the configuration state of a node is in Configuration Mismatch state.

15 (Optional) Remove an NSX-T Data Center VIBs on the host.

a Select one or more hosts and click Actions > Remove NSX.

The uninstallation takes up to three minutes. Uninstallation of NSX-T Data Center removes the
transport node configuration on hosts and the host is detached from the transport zone(s)
and N-VDS switch. Similar to the installation process, you can follow the percentage of the
uninstallation process completed on each transport node. If uninstallation fails at any stage,
you can restart the process by clicking the Resolve link that is available against the failed
stage of the process.

16 (Optional) Remove a transport node from the transport zone.

a Select a single transport node and click Actions > Remove from Transport Zone.

What to do next

When the hosts are transport nodes, you can create transport zones, logical switches, logical
routers, and other network components through the NSX Manager UI or API at any time. When
NSX Edge nodes and hosts join the management plane, the NSX-T Data Center logical entities
and configuration state are pushed to the NSX Edge nodes and hosts automatically. You can
create transport zones, logical switches, logical routers, and other network components through
the NSX Manager UI or API at any time. When the hosts are transport nodes, these entities gets
realized on the host.

Create a logical switch and assign logical ports. See the Advanced Switching section in the NSX-T
Data Center Administration Guide.

Configure an ESXi Host Transport Node with Link Aggregation

This procedure describes how to create an uplink profile that has a link aggregation group
configured, and how to configure an ESXi host transport node to use that uplink profile.

Prerequisites

n Familiarize yourself with the steps to create an uplink profile. See Create an Uplink Profile.

n Familiarize yourself with the steps to create a host transport node. See Create a Standalone
Host or Bare Metal Server Transport Node.

n If you plan to configure a VDS switch on the host, configure LAG on the VDS switch.

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Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Profiles > Uplink Profiles > Add.

3 Enter a name and optionally a description.

For example, you enter the name uplink-profile1.

4 (Only N-VDS) Under LAGs, click Add to add a link aggregation group.

For example, you add an LAG called lag1 with 2 uplinks.

5 Under Teamings, select Default Teaming.

6 In the Active Uplinks field, do one of the following:

a (N-VDS) Enter the name of the LAG that you added in the step 4. In this example, the
name is lag1.

b (VDS) Enter the name of the LAG that you configured on the VDS switch in vCenter
Server.

7 Enter the VLAN ID for Transport VLAN.

8 (Only N-VDS) Enter a value for MTU. If left blank, NSX-T Data Center sets the value to 1600.
This field is not applicable to VDS.

9 Click Add at the bottom of the dialog box.

10 Under Teamings, click Add to add an entry for link aggregation.

11 Select Fabric > Nodes > Host Transport Nodes > Managed by.

12 Select the vCenter Server that hosts the ESXi host.

13 In the Host Details tab, enter IP address, OS name, admin credentials, and SHA-256
thumbprint of the host.

14 During the switch configuration, depending on N-VDS or VDS switch, select the uplink profile
uplink-profile1 that was created in step 3.

15 (N-VDS) In the Physical NICs field, the physical NICs and uplinks dropdown list reflects the
new NICs and uplink profile. Specifically, the uplinks lag1-0 and lag1-1, corresponding to the
LAG lag1 that was created in step 4 are displayed. Select a physical NIC for lag1-0 and a
physical NIC for lag1-1.

16 (VDS) In the Physical NICs field, the physical NICs and uplinks dropdown list reflects the new
NICs and uplink profile. Specifically, the uplink LAG that is configured on the VDS switch is
displayed in the uplink profile drop-down list. Select the VDS uplink physical NIC for LAG-0
and LAG-1.

17 Enter information for the other fields and complete host preparation.

The ESXi host is prepared as a transport node using the LAG profile.

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Verify the Transport Node Status

Make sure that the transport node creation process is working correctly.

After creating a host transport node, the N-VDS gets installed on the host.

Procedure

1 Log in to the NSX-T Data Center.

2 Navigate to the Transport Node page and view the N-VDS status.

3 Alternatively, view the N-VDS on ESXi with the esxcli network ip interface list
command.

On ESXi, the command output should include a vmk interface (for example, vmk10) with a
VDS name that matches the name you used when you configured the transport zone and the
transport node.

# esxcli network ip interface list

...

vmk10
Name: vmk10
MAC Address: 00:50:56:64:63:4c
Enabled: true
Portset: DvsPortset-1
Portgroup: N/A
Netstack Instance: vxlan
VDS Name: overlay-hostswitch
VDS UUID: 18 ae 54 04 2c 6f 46 21-b8 ae ef ff 01 0c aa c2
VDS Port: 10
VDS Connection: 10
Opaque Network ID: N/A
Opaque Network Type: N/A
External ID: N/A
MTU: 1600
TSO MSS: 65535
Port ID: 67108895

...

If you are using the vSphere Client, you can view the installed N-VDS in the UI by selecting
host Configuration > Network Adapters.

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The KVM command to verify the N-VDS installation is ovs-vsctl show. Note that on KVM, the
N-VDS name is nsx-switch.0. It does not match the name in the transport node configuration.
This is by design.

# ovs-vsctl show
...
Bridge "nsx-switch.0"
Port "nsx-uplink.0"
Interface "em2"
Port "nsx-vtep0.0"
tag: 0
Interface "nsx-vtep0.0"
type: internal
Port "nsx-switch.0"
Interface "nsx-switch.0"
type: internal
ovs_version: "2.4.1.3340774"

4 Check the transport node's assigned tunnel endpoint address.

The vmk10 interface receives an IP address from the NSX-T Data Center IP pool or DHCP, as
shown here:

# esxcli network ip interface ipv4 get

Name IPv4 Address IPv4 Netmask IPv4 Broadcast Address Type DHCP DNS
----- -------------- ------------- --------------- ------------ --------
vmk0 192.168.210.53 255.255.255.0 192.168.210.255 STATIC false
vmk1 10.20.20.53 255.255.255.0 10.20.20.255 STATIC false
vmk10 192.168.250.3 255.255.255.0 192.168.250.255 STATIC false

In KVM, you can verify the tunnel endpoint and IP allocation with the ifconfig command.

# ifconfig
...
nsx-vtep0.0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr ba:30:ae:aa:26:53
inet addr:192.168.250.4 Bcast:192.168.250.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
...

5 Check the API for transport node state information.

Use the GET https://<nsx-mgr>/api/v1/transport-nodes/<transport-node-id>/state API call. For

example:

{
"state": "success",
"host_switch_states": [

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{
"endpoints": [
{
"default_gateway": "192.168.250.1",
"device_name": "vmk10",
"ip": "192.168.250.104",
"subnet_mask": "255.255.255.0",
"label": 69633
}
],
"transport_zone_ids": [
"efd7f38f-c5da-437d-af03-ac598f82a9ec"
],
"host_switch_name": "overlay-hostswitch",
"host_switch_id": "18 ae 54 04 2c 6f 46 21-b8 ae ef ff 01 0c aa c2"
}
],
"transport_node_id": "2d030569-5769-4a13-8918-0c309c63fdb9"
}

Migrate ESXi VMkernel and Physical Adapters

After preparing a host as a transport node, you can make changes to the current migration
configuration of VMkernel adapters and physical adapters.

Prerequisites

n Ensure that the host has at least one free physical adapter.

n Ensure that VMkernel adapters and port groups exist on the host.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Go to System > Fabric > Host Transport Nodes.

3 Select a transport node and click Actions > Migrate ESX VMkernel and Physical Adapters.

4 In the Migrate ESX VMkernel and Physical Adapters, enter the following details.

Field Description

Direction Make a selection:

n Migrate to Logical Switches: To migrate VMkernel
adapters from a VSS or VDS switch to an N-VDS
switch in NSX-T Data Center.
n Migrate to Port Groups: To migrate VMkernel
adapters from an N-VDS switch to a VSS or VDS
switch.

Select Switch Select the switch from which you want to migrate the
VMkernel adapters and physical adapters. You can select
from the available switches.

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Field Description

Select VMkernel Adapters to Migrate Click Add to enter the VMkernel adapter name and
select destination as a logical switch or port group
depending on where you want to migrate to.

Edit Physical Adapters in N-VDS Click Add to enter the physical adapter name and map it
to an uplink on the host switch.

5 Click Save to begin migration of VMkernel adapters and physical adapters.

Results

The updated VMkernel adapters and physical adapters are migrated to the N-VDS switch or
revert migrated to the VSS or VDS switch in the ESXi host.

NSX Maintenance Mode

If you want to avoid vMotion of VMs to a transport node that is not functional, place that
transport node in NSX Maintenance Mode.

To put a transport node in NSX Maintenance Mode, select the node, click Actions → NSX
Maintenance Mode.

When you put a host in NSX Maintenance Mode, the transport node cannot participate in
networking. Also, VMs running on other transport nodes that have N-VDS or vSphere Distributed
Switch as the host switch cannot be vMotioned to this transport node. In addition, logical network
cannot be configured on ESXi or KVM hosts.

Scenarios to put the transport node in NSX Maintenance Mode:

n A transport node is not functional.

n If a host has hardware or software issues that are unrelated to NSX-T, but you want to retain
the node and its configurations in NSX-T, place the host in NSX Maintenance Mode.

n A transport node is automatically put in NSX Maintenance Mode when an upgrade on that
transport node fails.

Any transport node put in the NSX Maintenance Mode is not upgraded.

Switch Visualization
You get a granular view of N-VDS or vSphere Distributed Switch at an individual host level.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Nodes > Host Transport Nodes.

3 From the Managed by drop-down menu, select Standalone Hosts or a compute manager.

4 Select the host.

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5 Click the Switch Visualization tab to view the uplinks configured on the switch and physical
NICs that are connected to uplinks.

Health Check VLAN ID Ranges and MTU Settings

Run health check APIs to verify compatibility between VLAN ID ranges you specified and the
MTU settings on a transport node with the corresponding settings on a physical switch.

VLAN or MTU configuration mismatch is a common configuration error that can lead to
connectivity outage.

Note
n Health check results are only indicators of possible network configuration errors. For
example, health check run on hosts from different L2 domains results in untrunked VLAN
IDs. This result cannot be considered as a configuration error as hosts must be in the same L2
domain for the health check tool to give correct results.

n Only 50 health check operations can be in progress at any given time.

n After a health check finishes, NSX-T Data Center preserves that result on the system only for
24 hours.

In a health check operation, the NSX-T Data Center opsAgent sends probe packets from a
transport node to another node to verify compatibility between VLAN ID range you specified and
the MTU value on the transport node with corresponding settings on the physical switch.

As the number of VLAN ID ranges to be verified increases, the waiting time increases.

Number of VLANs Waiting Time (secs)

[3073,4095] 150

[1025, 3072] 120

[513, 1024] 80

[128, 512] 60

[64, 127] 30

[1, 63] 20

Prerequisites

n At least two uplinks configured on N-VDS for VLAN and MTU check to work.

n Transport nodes on the same L2 domain.

n Health check supported on ESX hosts running v6.7U2 or later.

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Procedure

1 Create a manual health check.

POST https://<NSXManager_IP>/api/v1/manual-health-checks

Example Request:
POST https://<nsx-mgr>/api/v1/manual-health-checks
{
"resource_type": "ManualHealthCheck",
"display_name": "Manual HealthCheck 002",
"transport_zone_id": "7754341c-8f3c-443f-9c1a-2d635d5b0d1c",
"vlans":{
"vlan_ranges":[{
"start": 0,
"end": 6
},]
},
}
Example Response:
{
"operation_status": "FINISHED",
"transport_zone_id": "7754341c-8f3c-443f-9c1a-2d635d5b0d1c",
"vlans": {
"vlan_ranges": [
{
"start": 0,
"end": 6
}
]
},
"result": {
"vlan_mtu_status": "UNTRUNKED",
"results_per_transport_node": [
{
"transport_node_id": "dfcabffa-8839-11e9-b30e-6f45344d8a04",
"result_on_host_switch": {
"host_switch_name": "nsxvswitch",
"results_per_uplink": [
{
"uplink_name": "uplink1",
"vlan_and_mtu_allowed": [
{
"start": 0,
"end": 0
}
],
"mtu_disallowed": [],
"vlan_disallowed": [
{
"start": 1,
"end": 6
}
]
}

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]
}
},
{
"transport_node_id": "a300ea62-8839-11e9-a94e-31732bb71949",
"result_on_host_switch": {
"host_switch_name": "nsxvswitch",
"results_per_uplink": [
{
"uplink_name": "uplink1",
"vlan_and_mtu_allowed": [
{
"start": 0,
"end": 0
}
],
"mtu_disallowed": [],
"vlan_disallowed": [
{
"start": 1,
"end": 6
}
]
}
]
}
}
]
},
"resource_type": "ManualHealthCheck",
"id": "8a56ed9e-a31b-479e-987b-2dbfbde07c38",
"display_name": "mc1",
"_create_user": "admin",
"_create_time": 1560149933059,
"_last_modified_user": "system",
"_last_modified_time": 1560149971220,
"_system_owned": false,
"_protection": "NOT_PROTECTED",
"_revision": 0
}

A new health check object is created with id 8a56ed9e-a31b-479e-987b-2dbfbde07c38.

2 To get a list of all manual health check operations initiated, make the API call.

GET https://<NSXManager_IP>/api/v1/manual-health-checks

3 To delete a manual health check, make the API call.

DELETE https://<NSXManager_IP>/api/v1/manual-health-checks/<Health-check-ID>

4 To get a single health check initiated manually, make the API call.

GET https://<NSXManager_IP>/api/v1/manual-health-checks/< Health-check-ID>

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Results

The API response section contains the health check results. The NSX Ops agent waits for
an acknowledgement packet from the destination transport node to retrieve VLAN ID ranges
supported on the physical switch.

n Untrunked: Lists the VLAN ID ranges that are not compatible with a physical switch. The
VLAN ID ranges that are compatible with the physical switch are also listed.

n Trunked: Lists the VLAN ID ranges that are compatible with a physical switch.

n Unknown: There is no valid result for some or all uplinks because of infrastructure issues or
unsupported platform types such as KVM and Edge.

Parameters in the API response section:

n vlan_and_mtu_allowed: Lists the VLAN ID ranges that are compatible.

n mtu_disallowed: Lists the VLAN ID ranges for which the MTU value is not compatible with a
physical switch.

n vlan_disallowed: Lists the VLAN ID ranges that are not compatible with a physical switch.

What to do next

n In an overlay-based transport zone, update both VLAN ID and MTU config in the uplink profile
on N-VDS. Likewise, update VLAN or MTU on the physical switch.

n In a vlan-based transport zone, update MTU config in the uplink profile. And, update VLAN
config on logical switches of that transport zone. Likewise update VLAN or MTU on the
physical switch.

View Bidirectional Forwarding Detection Status

View BFD status between transport nodes. Each transport node detects connectivity status with
another remote transport node through a tunnel status that displays the BFD status among other
details related to the node.

Both Host Transport nodes (standalone and hosts registered to a vCenter) and Edge nodes
display the tunnel status. BFD packets support both GENEVE and STT encapsulation. GENEVE is
the default encapsulation.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Navigate to System > Fabric > Nodes > Host Transport Nodes.

3 On the Tunnel column, click the tunnel number that is displayed.

The Monitor page displays the status of tunnel, BFD diagnostic code, remote node UUID,
encapsulation on BFD packets, and tunnel name.

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The tunnel BFD diagnostic code indicates the reason for the change in the session state.

Code Description

0 No Diagnostic

1 Control Detection Time Expired

2 Echo Function Failed

3 Neighbor Signaled Session Down

4 Forwarding Plane Reset

5 Path Down

6 Concatenated Path Down

7 Administratively Down

8 Reverse Concatenated Path Down

Results

If the BFD status is down, use the diagnostic code to establish connectivity between transport
nodes.

Manual Installation of NSX-T Data Center Kernel Modules

As an alternative to using the NSX-T Data Center Fabric > Nodes > Hosts > Add UI or the
POST /api/v1/fabric/nodes API, you can install NSX-T Data Center kernel modules manually from
the hypervisor command line.

Note You cannot manually install of NSX-T Data Center kernel modules on a bare metal server.

Manually Install NSX-T Data Center Kernel Modules on ESXi

Hypervisors
To prepare hosts to participate in NSX-T Data Center, you must install NSX-T Data Center
kernel modules on ESXi hosts. This allows you to build the NSX-T Data Center control-plane and
management-plane fabric. NSX-T Data Center kernel modules packaged in VIB files run within
the hypervisor kernel and provide services such as distributed routing, distributed firewall, and
bridging capabilities.

You can download the NSX-T Data Center VIBs manually and make them part of the host image.
The download paths can change for each release of NSX-T Data Center. Always check the NSX-T
Data Center downloads page to get the appropriate VIBs.

Procedure

1 Log in to the host as root or as a user with administrative privileges

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2 Navigate to the /tmp directory.

[root@host:~]: cd /tmp

3 Download and copy the nsx-lcp file into the /tmp directory.

4 Run the install command.

[root@host:/tmp]: esxcli software vib install -d /tmp/nsx-lcp-<release>.zip

Installation Result
Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the
changes to be effective.
Reboot Required: true
VIBs Installed: VMware_bootbank_nsx-adf_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-aggservice_<release>,
VMware_bootbank_nsx-cli-libs_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-common-libs_<release>,
VMware_bootbank_nsx-context-mux_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-esx-datapath_<release>,
VMware_bootbank_nsx-exporter_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-host_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-
metrics-libs_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-mpa_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-nestdb-
libs_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-nestdb_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-netcpa_<release>,
VMware_bootbank_nsx-netopa_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-opsagent_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-
platform-client_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-profiling-libs_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-
proxy_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-python-gevent_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-python-
greenlet_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-python-logging_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-
python-protobuf_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-rpc-libs_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-
sfhc_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-shared-libs_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-upm-
libs_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-vdpi_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsxcli_<release>,
VMware_bootbank_vsipfwlib_<release>
VIBs Removed:
VIBs Skipped:

Depending on what was already installed on the host, some VIBs might be installed, some
might be removed, and some might be skipped. A reboot is not required unless the command
output says Reboot Required: true.

Results

As a result of adding an ESXi host to the NSX-T Data Center fabric, the following VIBs get
installed on the host.

nsx-adf

(Automated Diagnostics Framework) Collects and analyzes performance data to produce

both local (at host) and central (across datacenter) diagnoses of performance issues.

nsx-aggservice

Provides host-side libraries for NSX-T Data Center aggregation service. NSX-T Data Center
aggregation service is a service that runs in the management-plane nodes and fetches
runtime state from NSX-T Data Center components.

nsx-cfgagent

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Provides communication between the central control plane and hypervisors. Receives logical
networking state from the central control plane and programs this state in the data plane.

nsx-cli-libs

Provides the NSX-T Data Center CLI on hypervisor hosts.

nsx-common-libs

Provide some utilities classes such as AES, SHA-1, UUID, bitmap, and others.

nsx-context-mux

Provides NSX Guest Introspection relay functionality. Allows VMware Tools guest agents to
relay guest context to inhouse and registered third-party partner appliances.

nsx-esx-datapath

Provides NSX-T Data Center data plane packet processing functionality.

nsx-exporter

Provides host agents that report runtime state to the aggregation service running in the
management plane.

nsx-host

Provides metadata for the VIB bundle that is installed on the host.

nsx-metrics-libs

Provides metric utility classes for collecting daemon metrics.

nsx-mpa

Provides communication between NSX Manager and hypervisor hosts.

nsx-nestdb

NestDB is a database that stores NSX configurations related to the host (desired/runtime
state, etc).

nsx-opsagent
Communicates operations agent executions (transport node realization, Link Layer Discovery
Protocol - LLDP,traceflow, packet capture, etc.) with the management plane.

nsx-netcpa

Provides communication required by the different components.

nsx-platform-client

Provides a common CLI execution agent, for centralized CLI and audit log collecting.

nsx-profiling-libs

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Provides the functionality of profiling based on gpeftool which used for daemon process
profiling.

nsx-proxy

Provides the only northbound contact point agent, which talks to the central control plane
and management plane.

nsx-python-gevent

Contains Python Gevent.

nsx-python-greenlet

Contains Python Greenlet library (third party libraries).

nsx-python-logging

Contains the Python logs.

nsx-python-protobuf

Provides Python bindings for protocol buffers.

nsx-rpc-libs

This library provides nsx-rpc functionality.

nsx-sfhc

Service fabric host component (SFHC). Provides a host agent for managing the lifecycle of
the hypervisor as a fabric host in the management plane's inventory. This provides a channel
for operations such as NSX-T Data Center upgrade and uninstall and monitoring of NSX-T
Data Center modules on hypervisors.

nsx-shared-libs

Contains the shared NSX libraries.

nsx-upm-libs

Provides unified profile management functionality for flattening client-side configuration and
avoiding duplicate data transmission.

nsx-vdpi

Provides Deep Packet Inspection capabilities for NSX-T Data Center Distributed Firewall.

vsipfwlib

Provides distributed firewall functionality.

nsxcli

Provides the NSX-T Data Center CLI on hypervisor hosts.

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To verify, you can run the esxcli software vib list | grep -E 'nsx|vsip' or esxcli software vib list |
grep <yyyy-mm-dd> command on the ESXi host, where the date is the day that you performed
the installation.

What to do next

Add the host to the NSX-T Data Center management plane. See Form an NSX Manager Cluster
Using the CLI .

Manually Install NSX-T Data Center Software Packages on Ubuntu

KVM Hypervisors
To prepare hosts to participate in NSX-T Data Center, you can manually install NSX-T Data
Center kernel modules on Ubuntu KVM hosts. This allows you to build the NSX-T Data Center
control-plane and management-plane fabric. NSX-T Data Center kernel modules packaged in
DEB files run within the hypervisor kernel and provide services such as distributed routing,
distributed firewall, and bridging capabilities.

You can download the NSX-T Data Center DEBs manually and make them part of the host image.
Be aware that download paths can change for each release of NSX-T Data Center. Always check
the NSX-T Data Center downloads page to get the appropriate DEBs.

Prerequisites

n Verify that the required third-party packages are installed. See Install Third-Party Packages
on a KVM Host.

Procedure

1 Log in to the host as a user with administrative privileges.

2 (Optional) Navigate to the /tmp directory.

cd /tmp

3 Download and copy the nsx-lcp file into the /tmp directory.

4 Untar the package.

tar -xvf nsx-lcp-<release>-ubuntu-trusty_amd64.tar.gz

5 Navigate to the package directory.

cd nsx-lcp-trusty_amd64/

6 Install the packages.

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

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7 Reload the OVS kernel module.

/etc/init.d/openvswitch-switch force-reload-kmod

If the hypervisor uses DHCP on OVS interfaces, restart the network interface on which DHCP
is configured. You can manually stop the old dhclient process on the network interface and
restart a new dhclient process on that interface.

8 To verify, you can run the dpkg -l | egrep 'nsx|openvswitch' command.

The installed packages in the output must match the packages in the nsx-lcp-trusty_amd64
directory.

Any errors are most likely caused by incomplete dependencies. The apt-get install
-f command can attempt to resolve dependencies and re-run the NSX-T Data Center
installation.

What to do next

Add the host to the NSX-T Data Center management plane. See Form an NSX Manager Cluster
Using the CLI .

Manually Install NSX-T Data Center Software Packages on RHEL,

CentOS, and Oracle Linux KVM Hypervisors
To prepare hosts to participate in NSX-T Data Center, you can manually install NSX-T Data
Center kernel modules on RHEL, CentOS, or Oracle Linux.

This allows you to build the NSX-T Data Center control-plane and management-plane fabric.
NSX-T Data Center kernel modules packaged in RPM files run within the hypervisor kernel and
provide services such as distributed routing, distributed firewall, and bridging capabilities.

You can download the NSX-T Data Center RPMs manually and make them part of the host image.
Be aware that download paths can change for each release of NSX-T Data Center. Always check
the NSX-T Data Center downloads page to get the appropriate RPMs.

Prerequisites

Ability to reach a RHEL, CentOS, or Oracle Linux repository.

Procedure

1 Log in to the host as an administrator.

2 Download and copy the nsx-lcp file into the /tmp directory.

3 Untar the package.

tar -zxvf nsx-lcp-<release>-rhel7.4_x86_64.tar.gz

4 Navigate to the package directory.

cd nsx-lcp-rhel74_x86_64/

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5 Install the packages.

sudo yum install *.rpm

When you run the yum install command, any NSX-T Data Center dependencies are resolved,
assuming the RHEL, CentOS, or Oracle Linux can reach their respective repositories.

6 Reload the OVS kernel module.

/usr/share/openvswitch/scripts/ovs-systemd-reload force-reload-kmod

If the hypervisor uses DHCP on OVS interfaces, restart the network interface on which DHCP
is configured. You can manually stop the old dhclient process on the network interface and
restart a new dhclient process on that interface.

7 To verify, run the rpm -qa | egrep 'nsx|openvswitch' command.

The installed packages in the output must match the packages in the nsx-rhel74, nsx-
centos74, or nsxdirectory.

What to do next

Add the host to the NSX-T Data Center management plane. See Form an NSX Manager Cluster
Using the CLI .

Manually Install NSX-T Data Center Software Packages on SUSE

KVM Hypervisors
To prepare hosts to participate in NSX-T Data Center, you can manually install NSX-T Data
Center kernel modules on SUSE KVM hosts.

This allows you to build the NSX-T Data Center control-plane and management-plane fabric.
NSX-T Data Center kernel modules packaged in RPM files run within the hypervisor kernel and
provide services such as distributed routing, distributed firewall, and bridging capabilities.

You can download the NSX-T Data Center RPMs manually and make them part of the host image.
Be aware that download paths can change for each release of NSX-T Data Center. Always check
the NSX-T Data Center downloads page to get the appropriate RPMs.

Prerequisites

Ability to reach a SUSE repository.

Procedure

1 Log in to the host as an administrator.

2 Download and copy the nsx-lcp file into the /tmp directory.

3 Untar the package.

tar -zxvf nsx-lcp-3.0.0.0.0.14335404-linux64-sles12sp3.tar.gz

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4 Navigate to the package directory.

cd nsx-lcp-linux64-sles12sp3

5 Install the packages.

sudo zypper --no-gpg-checks install -y *.rpm

When you run the zypper install command, any NSX-T Data Center dependencies are
resolved, assuming the SUSE hosts can reach their respective repositories.

6 Reload the OVS kernel module.

/usr/share/openvswitch/scripts/ovs-systemd-reload force-reload-kmod

If the hypervisor uses DHCP on OVS interfaces, restart the network interface on which DHCP
is configured. You can manually stop the old dhclient process on the network interface and
restart a new dhclient process on that interface.

7 To verify, you can run the zypper packages --installed-only | grep System | egrep
'openvswitch|nsx' command.

The installed packages in the output must match the packages in the nsx-lcp-linux64-
sles12sp3 directory.

What to do next

Add the host to the NSX-T Data Center management plane. See Form an NSX Manager Cluster
Using the CLI .

Deploy a Fully Collapsed vSphere Cluster NSX-T

You can configure NSX Manager, host transport nodes, and NSX Edge VMs on a single cluster.
Each host in the cluster provides two physical NICs that are configured for NSX-T.

Important Deploy the fully collapsed single vSphere cluster topology starting with NSX-T 2.4.2
or 2.5 release.

The topology referenced in this procedure uses:

n vSAN configured with the hosts in the cluster.

n A minimum of two physical NICs per host.

n vMotion and Management VMkernel interfaces.

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Figure 10-3. Topology: Single N-VDS Switch Managing

Host Communication with NSX Edge and Guest

VMs

Prerequisites

n All the hosts must be part of a vSphere cluster.

n Each host has two physical NIC cards enabled.

n Register all hosts to a vCenter Server.

n Verify on the vCenter Server that shared storage is available to be used by the hosts.

n The host TEP IP and NSX Edge TEP IP must be in different VLAN segments. Any north-south
traffic coming from host workloads is encapsulated in GENEVE and sent to an NSX Edge
node with Source IP as host TEP and destination IP as NSX Edge TEP. Since these TEPs
must belong to different VLANs or subnets, traffic must be routed through top-of-rack (TOR)
switches. In this illustration, the transport VLAN used for the host is VLAN 200 and for NSX
Edge is VLAN 600. The reason to configure separate VLAN for the host TEP and NSX Edge
TEP is because a TEP can receive traffic from or send traffic to only on a physical network
adapter but not from an internal port group.

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Procedure

1 Prepare four ESXi hosts with vmnic0 on vSS or vDS, vmnic1 is free.

2 On Host 1, install vCenter Server, configure a vSS/vDS port group, and install NSX Manager on
the port group created on the host.

3 Prepare ESXi hosts 1, 2, 3 and 4 to be transport nodes.

a Create VLAN transport zone and overlay transport zone with a named teaming policy.
See Create Transport Zones.

b Create an IP pool or DHCP for tunnel endpoint IP addresses for the hosts. See Create an
IP Pool for Tunnel Endpoint IP Addresses.

c Create an IP pool or DHCP for tunnel endpoint IP addresses for the Edge node. See
Create an IP Pool for Tunnel Endpoint IP Addresses.

d Create an uplink profile with a named teaming policy. See Create an Uplink Profile.

Note To optimally utilize the bandwidth available on uplinks, VMware recommends using
teaming policy that distributes load across all available uplinks of the host.

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e Configure a Network I/O Control profile to manage traffic on hosts. See Configuring
Network I/O Control Profiles.

Note VMware recommends to allocate 100 shares for management traffic.

f Configure hosts as transport nodes by applying a transport node profile. In this step, the
transport node profile only migrates vmnic1 (unused physical NIC) to the N-VDS switch.
After the transport node profile is applied to the cluster hosts, the N-VDS switch is
created and vmnic1 is connected to the N-VDS switch. See Add a Transport Node Profile.

vmnic1 on all hosts are added to the N-VDS switch. So, out of the two physical NICs, one
is migrated to the N-VDS switch. The vmnic0 interface is still connected to the vSS or vDS
switch, which ensures connectivity to the host is available.

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4 In the NSX Manager UI, create VLAN-backed segments for NSX Manager, vCenter Server,
and NSX Edge. Ensure to select the correct teaming policy for each of the VLAN-backed
segments. Do not use VLAN trunk logical switch as the target. When creating the target
segments in NSX Manager UI, in the Enter List of VLANs field, enter only one VLAN value.

5 On Host 2, Host 3, and Host 4, you must migrate the vmk0 adapter and vmnic0 together from
VSS/VDS to N-VDS switch. Update the NSX-T configuration on each host. While migrating
ensure

n vmk0 is mapped to Edge Management Segment .

n vmnic0 is mapped to an active uplink, uplink-1 .

6 In the vCenter Server, go to Host 2, Host 3, and Host 4, and verify that vmk0 adapter is
connected to vmnic0 physical NIC on the N-VDS and must be reachable.

7 In the NSX Manager UI, go to Host 2, Host 3, and Host 4, and verify both pNICs are on the
N-VDSswitch.

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8 On Host 2 and Host 3, from the NSX Manager UI, install NSX Manager and attach NSX
Manager to the segment. Wait for approximately 10 minutes for the cluster to form and verify
that the cluster has formed.

9 Power off the first NSX Manager node. Wait for approximately 10 minutes.

10 Reattach the NSX Manager and vCenter Server to the previously created logical switch. On
host 4, power on the NSX Manager. Wait for approximately 10 minutes to verify that the
cluster is in a stable state. With the first NSX Manager powered off, perform cold vMotion to
migrate the NSX Manager and vCenter Server from host 1 to host 4.

For vMotion limitations, see https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/56991.

11 From the NSX Manager UI, go to Host 1, migrate vmk0 and vmnic0 together from VSS to
N-VDS switch.

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12 In the Network Mapping for Install field, ensure that the vmk0 adapter is mapped to the
Edge Management Segment on the N-VDS switch.

13 On Host 1, install the NSX Edge VM from the NSX Manager UI.

See Create an NSX Edge Transport Node.

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14 Join the NSX Edge VM with the management plane.

See Join NSX Edge with the Management Plane.

15 To establish the north-south traffic connectivity, configure NSX Edge VM with an external
router.

16 Verify that north-south traffic connectivity between the NSX Edge VM and the external
router.

17 If there is a power failure scenario where the whole cluster is rebooted, the NSX-T
management component might not come up and communicate with N-VDS. To avoid this
scenario, perform the following steps:

Caution Any API command that is incorrectly run results in a loss of connectivity with the
NSX Manager.

Note In a single cluster configuration, management components are hosted on an N-VDS

switch as VMs. The N-VDS port to which the management component connects to by default
is initialized as a blocked port due to security considerations. If there is a power failure
requiring all the four hosts to reboot, the management VM port will be initialized in a blocked
state. To avoid circular dependencies, it is recommended to create a port on N-VDS in the
unblocked state. An unblocked port ensures that when the cluster is rebooted, the NSX-T
management component can communicate with N-VDS to resume normal function.

At the end of the subtask, the migration command takes the :

n UUID of the host node where the NSX Manager resides.

n UUID of the NSX Manager VM and migrates it to the static logical port which is in an
unblocked state.

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If all the hosts are powered-off or powered-on or if an NSX Manager VM moves to another
host, then after the NSX Manager comes back up it gets attached to the unblocked port, so
preventing loss of connectivity with the management component of NSX-T.
a In the NSX Manager UI, go to Manager Mode > Networking > Logical Switches tab (3.0
and later releases). Search for the Segment Compute VM segment. Select the Overview
tab, find and copy the UUID. The UUID used in this example is, c3fd8e1b-5b89-478e-
abb5-d55603f04452.

b Create a JSON payload for each NSX Manager.

n In the JSON payload, create logical ports with initialization status in UNBLOCKED_VLAN
state by replacing the value for logical_switch_id with the UUID of the previously
created Edge Management Segment.

n In the payload for each NSX Manager, the attachment_type_id and display_name
values will be different.

Important Repeat this step to create a total of four JSON files - three for NSX Managers
and one for vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA).

port1.json
{
"admin_state": "UP",
"attachment": {
"attachment_type": "VIF",
"id": "nsxmgr-port-147"
},
"display_name": "NSX Manager Node 147 Port",
"init_state": "UNBLOCKED_VLAN",
"logical_switch_id": "c3fd8e1b-5b89-478e-abb5-d55603f04452"
}

Where,

n admin_state: This is state of the port. It must UP.

n attachment_type: Must be set to VIF. All VMs are connected to NSX-T switch ports
using a VIF ID.

n id: This is the VIF ID. It must be unique for each NSX Manager. If you have three NSX
Managers, there will be three payloads, and each one of them must have a different
VIF ID. To generate a unique UUID, log into the root shell of the NSX Manager and
run /usr/bin/uuidgen to generate a unique UUID.

n display_name: It must be unique to help NSX admin identify it from other NSX Manager
display names.

n init_state: With the value set to UNBLOCKED_VLAN, NSX unblocks the port for NSX
Manager, even if the NSX Manager is not available.

n logical_switch_id: This is the logical switch ID of the Edge Management Segment.

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c If there are three NSX Managers deployed, you need to create three payloads, one for
each logical port of a NSX Manager. For example, port1.json, port2.json, port3.json.

Run the following commands to create payloads.

curl -X POST -k -u '<username>:<password>' -H 'Content-Type:application/json' -d

@port1.json https://nsxmgr/api/v1/logical-ports

curl -X POST -k -u '<username>:<password>' -H 'Content-Type:application/json' -d

@port2.json https://nsxmgr/api/v1/logical-ports

curl -X POST -k -u '<username>:<password>' -H 'Content-Type:application/json' -d

@port3.json https://nsxmgr/api/v1/logical-ports

An example of API execution to create a logical port.

root@nsx-mgr-147:/var/CollapsedCluster# curl -X POST -k -u

'<username>:<password>' -H 'Content-Type:application/json' -d @port1.json https://
localhost/api/v1/logical-ports
{
"logical_switch_id" : "c3fd8e1b-5b89-478e-abb5-d55603f04452",
"attachment" : {
"attachment_type" : "VIF",
"id" : "nsxmgr-port-147"
},
"admin_state" : "UP",
"address_bindings" : [ ],
"switching_profile_ids" : [ {
"key" : "SwitchSecuritySwitchingProfile",
"value" : "fbc4fb17-83d9-4b53-a286-ccdf04301888"
}, {
"key" : "SpoofGuardSwitchingProfile",
"value" : "fad98876-d7ff-11e4-b9d6-1681e6b88ec1"
}, {
"key" : "IpDiscoverySwitchingProfile",
"value" : "0c403bc9-7773-4680-a5cc-847ed0f9f52e"
}, {
"key" : "MacManagementSwitchingProfile",
"value" : "1e7101c8-cfef-415a-9c8c-ce3d8dd078fb"
}, {
"key" : "PortMirroringSwitchingProfile",
"value" : "93b4b7e8-f116-415d-a50c-3364611b5d09"
}, {
"key" : "QosSwitchingProfile",
"value" : "f313290b-eba8-4262-bd93-fab5026e9495"
} ],
"init_state" : "UNBLOCKED_VLAN",
"ignore_address_bindings" : [ ],
"resource_type" : "LogicalPort",
"id" : "02e0d76f-83fa-4839-a525-855b47ecb647",
"display_name" : "NSX Manager Node 147 Port",
"_create_user" : "admin",
"_create_time" : 1574716624192,
"_last_modified_user" : "admin",

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"_last_modified_time" : 1574716624192,
"_system_owned" : false,
"_protection" : "NOT_PROTECTED",
"_revision" : 0

d Verify that the logical port is created.

e Find out the VM instance ID for each of the NSX Manager. You can retrieve the instance
ID from the Inventory → Virtual Machines, select the NSX Manager VM, select the
Overview tab and copy the instance ID. Alternatively, search the instance ID from the
managed object browser (MOB) of vCenter Server. Add :4000 to the ID to get the VNIC
hardware index of an NSX Manager VM.

For example, if the instance UUID of the VM is 503c9e2b-0abf-a91c-319c-1d2487245c08, then

its vnic index is 503c9e2b-0abf-a91c-319c-1d2487245c08:4000. The three NSX Manager vnic
indices are:

mgr1 vnic: 503c9e2b-0abf-a91c-319c-1d2487245c08:4000

mgr2 vnic: 503c76d4-3f7f-ed5e-2878-cffc24df5a88:4000

mgr3 vnic: 503cafd5-692e-d054-6463-230662590758:4000

f Find out the transport node ID that hosts NSX Managers. If you have three NSX Manager ,
each hosted on a different transport node, note down the tranport node IDs. For
example, the three transport node IDs are:

tn1: 12d19875-90ed-4c78-a6bb-a3b1dfe0d5ea

tn2: 4b6e182e-0ee3-403f-926a-fb7c8408a9b7

tn3: d7cec2c9-b776-4829-beea-1258d8b8d59b

g Retrieve the transport node configuration that is to be used as payloads when migrating
the NSX Manager to the newly created port.

For example,
curl -k -u '<user>:<password' https://nsxmgr/api/v1/transport-nodes/
12d19875-90ed-4c78-a6bb-a3b1dfe0d5ea > tn1.json

curl -k -u '<user>:<password' https://nsxmgr/api/v1/transport-nodes/

4b6e182e-0ee3-403f-926a-fb7c8408a9b7 > tn2.json

curl -k -u '<user>:<password' https://nsxmgr/api/v1/transport-nodes/d7cec2c9-

b776-4829-beea-1258d8b8d59b > tn3.json

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h Migrate the NSX Manager from the previous port to the newly created unblocked logical
port on the Edge Management Segment. The VIF-ID value is the attachment ID of the
port created previously for the NSX Manager.

The following parameters are needed to migrate NSX Manager:

n Transport node ID

n Transport node configuration

n NSX Manager VNIC hardware index

n NSX Manager VIF ID

The API command to migrate NSX Manager to the newly created unblocked port is:
/api/v1/transport-nodes/<TN-ID>?vnic=<VNIC-ID>&vnic_migration_dest=<VIF-ID>

For example,
root@nsx-mgr-147:/var/CollapsedCluster# curl -k -X PUT -u 'admin:VMware1!
VMware1!' -H 'Content-Type:application/json' -d @<tn1>.json 'https://
localhost/api/v1/transport-nodes/11161331-11f8-45c7-8747-34e7218b687f?
vnic=5028d756-d36f-719e-3db5-7ae24aa1d6f3:4000&vnic_migration_dest=nsxmgr-
port-147'

i Ensure that the statically created logical port is Up.

j Repeat the preceding steps on every NSX Manager in the cluster.

VLAN Micro-Segmentation
VLAN micro-segmentation walks you through selecting clusters, assigning uplinks, and migrating
VMkernal (VMK) ports.

The simplified VLAN micro-segmentation workflow includes:

n A transport node profile is created and assigned to the selected cluster. The profile name can
be edited after deployment.

n Users select the uplink to physical NICs (pNICs) mapping for each cluster. Both vSphere 7,
and the NSX-T Virtual Distributed Switch (N-VDS) are supported.

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n Optional - NSX-T migrates selected VMkernal (VMK) ports to the N-VDS that is automatically
created. The user specifies a VLAN segment for each of the VMK interfaces. Power off all
virtual machines before migration.

n For ESXi hosts that are version 6.7 and earlier, NVDS is created and the uplink to physical
NICs mapping is displayed.

n If you have both version 7.0 ESXi hosts and version 7.0 VDS, the uplink mapping is displayed.
These uplinks are then mapped onto the VDS.

n VMkernal migration is not supported with VDS.

Before going through the wizard for VLAN backed micro-segmentation, you must have a
compute manager.

1 Navigate to System > Get Started. To prepare clusters for micro-segmentation using VLAN,
click Get Started - Prepare Clusters for VLAN Micro-segmentation.

2 Select the cluster you want to prepare from the list of available clusters. Only clusters which
do not have a transport node profile applied are listed. Expand each cluster to view the hosts
it contains. No stand-alone hosts are listed.

3 To filter the cluster by cluster name, host IP address, host name, or host version, click the
filter icon on the right of the screen.

4 Click Next.

5 Select the physical NICs (pNICs) that are assigned as uplinks for the N-VDS, or VDS on each
cluster. pNICs that are common across the cluster are listed. Both vSphere 7 and VDS are
supported.

6 Click Next.

7 (Optional) To configure the interfaces for VMkernal migration, where virtual NICs are
migrated to VLAN segments, click Select. Power off all virtual machines before migration.

8 (Optional) Select an existing segment, or create a segment by entering a segment name and
the VLAN ID.

9 (Optional) Click Apply. The segment is automatically mapped to the VMkernal.

10 Click Finish.

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T 11
Integrate host profiles extracted from an ESXi host with NSX-T to deploy ESXi and NSX-T VIBs on
stateful and stateless servers.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Auto Deploy Stateless Cluster

n Stateful Servers

Auto Deploy Stateless Cluster

Stateless hosts do not persist configuration, so they need an auto-deploy server to provide the
required start files when hosts power on.

This section helps you to set up a stateless cluster using vSphere Auto Deploy and NSX-T
Transport Node Profile to reprovision a host with a new image profile that contains a different
version of ESXi and NSX-T. Hosts that are set up for vSphere Auto Deploy use an auto-deploy
server and vSphere host profiles to customize hosts. These hosts can also be set up for NSX-T
Transport Node Profile to configure NSX-T on the hosts.

So, a stateless host can be set up for vSphere Auto Deploy and NSX-T Transport Node Profile to
reprovision a host with a custom ESXi and NSX-T version.

High-Level Tasks to Auto Deploy Stateless Cluster

High-level tasks to auto deploy a stateless cluster.

The high-level tasks to set up an auto deploy stateless cluster are:

1 Prerequisites and Supported Versions. See Prerequisites and Supported Versions.

2 (Reference host) Create a Custom Image Profile. See Create a Custom Image Profile for
Stateless Hosts.

3 (Reference and Target hosts) Associate the Custom Image Profile. See Associate the Custom
Image with the Reference and Target Hosts.

4 (Reference host) Set up Network Configuration in ESXi. See Set Up Network Configuration on
the Reference Host.

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5 (Reference host) Configure as a Transport Node in NSX. See Configure the Reference Host as
a Transport Node in NSX-T.

6 (Reference host) Extract and Verify Host Profile. See Extract and Verify the Host Profile.

7 (Reference and Target hosts) Verify the Host Profile Association with Stateless Cluster. See
Verify the Host Profile Association with Stateless Cluster.

8 (Reference host) Update Host Customization. See Update Host Customization.

9 (Target hosts) Trigger Auto Deployment. See Trigger Auto Deployment on Target Hosts.

a Before applying Transport Node Profile. See Reboot Hosts Before Applying TNP.

b Apply Transport Node Profile. See Apply TNP on Stateless Cluster.

c After applying Transport Node Profile. See Reboot Hosts After Applying TNP.

10 Troubleshoot Host Profile and Transport Node Profile. See Troubleshoot Host Profile and
Transport Node Profile.

Prerequisites and Supported Versions

Prerequisites and supported ESXi and NSX-T versions.

Supported Workflows
n With Image Profile and HostProfile

Prerequisites
n Only homogeneous clusters (all hosts within a cluster must be either stateless or stateful) are
supported.

n Image builder service must be enabled.

n Auto deploy service must be enabled.

Supported NSX and ESXi Versions

ESXi
Supported EXSi Version ESXi 67ep6 ESXi 67u2 ESXi 67u3 ESXi 67ep7 67ep15 ESXi 7.0.0.1

NSX-T Data Center 2.4 Yes Yes No No No No

NSX-T Data Center 2.4.1 Yes Yes No No No No

NSX-T Data Center 2.4.2 Yes Yes No No No No

NSX-T Data Center 2.4.3 Yes Yes No No No No

NSX-T Data Center 2.5 Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

NSX-T Data Center 2.5.1 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No

NSX-T Data Center3.0 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

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Create a Custom Image Profile for Stateless Hosts

In your data center, identify a host to be prepared as the reference host.

The first time the reference host starts up, ESXi associates the default rule with the reference
host. In this procedure, we are adding a custom image profile ( ESXi and NSX VIBs) and
associate the reference host with the new custom image. An image profile with the NSX-T image
significantly reduces the installation time. The same custom image is associated with the target
hosts in the stateless cluster.

Note Alternatively, you can add only an ESXi image profile to the reference and target stateless
cluster. The NSX-T VIBs are downloaded when you apply the transport node profile on the
stateless cluster. See Add a Software Depot.

Prerequisites

Ensure that the auto-deploy service and image builder service are enabled. See Using vSphere
Auto Deploy to Reprovision Hosts.

Procedure

1 To import NSX-T packages, create a software depot.

2 Download the nsx-lcp packages.

a Log in to https://my.vmware.com.

b On the Download VMware NSX-T Data Center page, select the NSX-T version.

c In the Product Downloads page, search NSX-T Kernel Modules for a specific VMware ESXi
version.

d Click Download Now to begin downloading the nsx-lcp package.

e Import nsx-lcp packages into the software depot.

3 Create another software depot to import ESXi packages.

The vSphere Web Client displays two depots created on the reference host.

4 Create a custom software depot to clone previously imported ESXi image and nsx-lcp
packages.

a Select the ESXi Image profile from the ESXi software depot created in the earlier step.

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b Click Clone.

c In the Clone Image Profile wizard, enter a name for the custom image to be created.

d Select the custom software depot where the cloned image ( ESXi) must be available.

e In the Select software packages window, select the Acceptance level to VMware
Certified. The ESXi VIBs are preselected.

f Identify and select the NSX-T packages manually from the list of packages and click Next.

g In the Ready to complete screen, verify the details and click Finish to create the cloned
image containing ESXi and NSX-T packages into the custom software depot.

What to do next

Associate the custom image with the reference and target hosts. See Associate the Custom
Image with the Reference and Target Hosts.

Associate the Custom Image with the Reference and Target Hosts
To start the reference host and target hosts with the new custom image containing ESXi and NSX
packages, associate the custom image profile.

At this point in the procedure, the custom image is only being associated to the reference and
target hosts but NSX installation does not happen.

Important Perform this custom image association procedure on both reference and target
hosts.

Prerequisites

Procedure

1 On the ESXi host, navigate to Menu > Auto Deploy > Deployed Hosts.

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2 To associate the custom image profile with a host, select the custom image.

3 Click Edit Image Profile Association.

4 In the Edit Image Profile Association wizard, click Browse and select the custom depot and
select the custom image profile.

5 Enable Skip image profile signature check.

6 Click Ok.

Results

What to do next

Set up Network Configuration on the Reference Host. See Set Up Network Configuration on the
Reference Host.

Set Up Network Configuration on the Reference Host

On the reference host, a standard switch with a VMkernel adapter is created to set up the
network configuration on ESXi.

This network configuration is captured in the host profile which is extracted from the reference
host. During a stateless deployment, the host profile replicates this network configuration setting
on each target host.

Procedure

1 On the ESXi host, configure a vSphere Standard Switch (VSS) or Distributed Virtual switch
(DVS) by adding a VMkernel adapter.

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2 Verify that the newly added VSS/DVS switch is displayed in the VMkernel adapters page.

What to do next

Configure the Reference Host as a Transport Node in NSX-T. See Configure the Reference Host
as a Transport Node in NSX-T.

Configure the Reference Host as a Transport Node in NSX-T

After the reference host is associated with the custom image profile and configured with a VSS
switch, set up the reference host as a transport node in NSX-T.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in to NSX-T at https://<NSXManager_IPaddress>.

2 To locate the reference host, navigate to System -> Nodes -> Host Transport Node.

3 Create a VLAN transport zone to define the span of the virtual network. The span is defined
by attaching N-VDS switches to the transport zone. Based on this attachment, N-VDS can
access segments defined within the transport zone. See Create a Transport Zone.

4 Create a VLAN segment on the transport zone. The created segment is displayed as a logical
switch.

a Navigate to Networking -> Segments.

b Select the transport zone to attach the segment.

c Enter VLAN ID.

d Click Save.

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5 Create an uplink profile for the reference host that defines how an N-VDS or VDS switch
connects to the physical network. See, Create an Uplink Profile.

6 Configure the reference host as a transport node. See Configure a Managed Host Transport
Node.

a In the Host Transport Node page, select the reference host.

b (On a N-VDS switch) Click Configure NSX and select the previously created transport
zone, N-VDS, uplink profile.

c (On a VDS switch) Click Configure NSX and select the previously created transport zone,
VDS, uplink profile.

7 In the Network Mappings to Install section, click Add Mapping to add the VMkernel to
Segment/Logical switch mapping.

Note On a VDS switch, VMkernel adapter migration is not supported.

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8 Click Finish to begin installation of NSX-T on the reference host.

(On a VDS switch) After installation, configuration status of the reference host is displayed as
Success. In the vCenter Server, the VDS switch is displayed as NSX switch.

(On an N-VDS switch) During installation, VMkernel adapters and physical NICs are migrated
from a VSS or DVS switch to an N-VDS switch. After installation, configuration status of the
reference host is displayed as Success.

Note The reference host is listed under Other Hosts.

9 In vCenter Server, verify that the PNICs and VMkernels adapters on the VSS switch are
migrated and connected to the N-VDS switch.

Note On a VDS switch, VMkernel adapter and physical NIC migration is not supported.
Attaching a VMkernel adapter to an NSX Distributed Virtual port group is not supported.

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What to do next

Extract and Verify the Host Profile. See Extract and Verify the Host Profile.

Extract and Verify the Host Profile

After you extract the host profile from the reference host, verify the NSX-T configuration
extracted in the host profile. It consists of ESXi and NSX-T configuration that is applied to target
hosts.

Procedure

1 To extract the host profile, Extract and Configure Host Profile from the Reference Host.

2 Verify the NSX configuration in the extracted host profile.

Results

The host profile contains configuration related to ESXi and NSX as the host was prepared for
both environments.

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What to do next

Verify the Host Profile Association with Stateless Cluster. See Verify the Host Profile Association
with Stateless Cluster.

Verify the Host Profile Association with Stateless Cluster

To prepare the target stateless cluster with ESXi and NSX configuration, associate the host
profile extracted from the reference host to the target stateless cluster.

Without the host profile associated to the stateless cluster, new nodes joining the cluster cannot
be auto deployed with ESXi and NSX VIBs.

Procedure

1 Attach or Detach Host Profile to Stateless Cluster. See Attach or Detach Entities from a Host
Profile.

2 In the Deployed Hosts tab, verify that the existing stateless host is associated with the
correct image and associated with the host profile.

3 If the host profile association is missing, select the target host and click Remediate Host
Associations to force update the image and host profile to the target host.

What to do next

Update Host Customization. See Update Host Customization.

Update Host Customization

After the attaching the host profile to the target cluster, additional custom entries might be
required on the host to successfully auto deploy the ESXi and NSX-T packages on it.

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Procedure

1 After attaching the host profile to the target cluster, if the hosts are not updated with custom
values, the system displays the following message.

2 To update host customizations, navigate to the host profile, click Actions -> Edit Host
Customizations.

3 For ESXi versions 67ep6, 67ep7, 67u2, enter the MUX user password.

4 Verify that all the required fields are updated with appropriate values.

What to do next

Trigger Auto Deployment on Target Hosts. See Trigger Auto Deployment on Target Hosts.

Trigger Auto Deployment on Target Hosts

When a new node is added to the cluster, it needs to be manually rebooted for the ESXi and
NSX-T VIBs to be configured.

Note Only applies to stateless hosts.

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There are two ways to prepare hosts to trigger auto-deployment of ESXi and NSX-T VIBs to be
configured.

n Reboot hosts before applying TNP to the stateless cluster.

n Reboot hosts after applying TNP to the stateless cluster.

If you want to migrate VMkernel adapters when installing NSX-T on the hosts, see:

n Scenarios When the Stateless Host Is in the Target Cluster

n Scenarios When the Stateless Host Is Outside of the Target Cluster

What to do next

Reboot hosts before applying TNP to the stateless cluster. See Reboot Hosts Before Applying
TNP.

Reboot Hosts Before Applying TNP

Only applies to stateless hosts. In this scenario, the transport node profile is not applied to the
stateless cluster, which means that NSX-T is not installed and configured on the target host.

Procedure

1 Reboot hosts.

The target host starts with the ESXi image. After starting, the target host remains in
maintenance mode until the TNP profile is applied to the target host and NSX-T installation is
complete. Profiles are applied on hosts in the following order:

Profiles are applied on hosts in the following order.

n Image profile is applied to the host.

n Host profile configuration is applied to the host.

n NSX-T configuration is applied to the host.

2 On the ESXi host, the VMkernel adapter is attached to a temporary segment named <N-
LogicalSegment> because the host is not yet a transport node. After NSX-T is installed the
temporary switch is replaced with the actual N-VDS switch and logical segment.

ESXi VIBs are applied to all the rebooted hosts. A temporary NSX switch in an ESXi host.
When TNP is applied to the hosts, the temporary switch is replaced by the actual NSX-T
switch.

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What to do next

Apply TNP to the stateless cluster. See Apply TNP on Stateless Cluster.

Apply TNP on Stateless Cluster

NSX-T configuration and installation only happens on the target hosts when TNP is applied to the
cluster.

Procedure

1 Note down the settings extracted in the Host Profile from the reference host. The
corresponding entities in the TNP profile must have the same value. For example, the N-VDS
name used in the Host Profile and TNP must be the same.

For more information on extracted host profile settings, see Extract and Verify the Host
Profile.

2 Add a TNP. See Add a Transport Node Profile.

3 Add a TNP by entering all required field. See Add a Transport Node Profile.

Ensure that values of the following parameters are the same on both the new TNP profile and
the existing Host Profile.

Note On a VDS switch, migration of VMkernel adapters and physical NIC migration is not
supported.

n Transport Zone: Ensure transport zone referenced in Host Profile and TNP is the same.

n N-VDS Name: Ensure N-VDS name referenced in Host Profile and TNP is the same.

n Uplink Profile: Ensure uplink profile referenced in Host Profile and TNP is the same.

n Teaming Policy:

n (On a VDS switch) In vCenter Server, when creating VDS uplinks, verify the NIC
used in the Host Profile and map that physical NIC to the VDS uplink. In NSX-T, you
map NSX-T uplinks to VDS uplinks. So, verify the configuration on the VDS switch in
vCenter Server.

n (On an N-VDS switch) When mapping a physical NIC to an uplink profile, first verify
the NIC used in the Host Profile and map that physical NIC to the uplink profile.

n Network mapping for install: When mapping network during installation, first verify the
VMkernel to logical switch mapping on the Host Profile and add the same mapping in
TNP.

n Network mapping for uninstall: When mapping network during uninstallation, first verify
the VMkernel to VSS/DVS switch mapping on the Host Profile and add the same mapping
in TNP.

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After applying TNP on target nodes, if the TNP configuration does not match Host Profile
configuration, the node might not come up because of compliance errors.

4 Verify that the TNP profile is successfully created.

5 Apply TNP profile to the target cluster and click Save.

6 Verify that the TNP profile is successfully applied to the target cluster. It means that NSX is
successfully configured on all nodes of the cluster.

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7 In vSphere, verify that the physical NICs or VMkernel adapters are attached to the N-VDS
switch.

Note On a VDS switch, VMkernel adapter migration is not supported.

8 In NSX, verify that the ESXi host is configured successfully as a transport node.

What to do next

Alternatively, you can reboot a target host after applying TNP to the cluster. See Reboot Hosts
After Applying TNP.

Reboot Hosts After Applying TNP

Only applies to stateless hosts. When a new node is added to the cluster, manually reboot the
node for the ESXi and NSX-T packages to be configured on it.

Procedure

1 Apply TNP to the stateless cluster that is already prepared with host profile. See Create and
Apply TNP on Stateless Cluster.

2 Reboot hosts.

After applying TNP profile to the stateless cluster, when you reboot any new node joining the
cluster that node is automatically configured with NSX-T on the host.

What to do next

Ensure that you reboot any new node joining the cluster to automatically deploy and configure
ESXi and NSX-T on the rebooted node.

To troubleshoot issues related to host profile and transport node profile when configuring auto-
deployment, see Troubleshoot Host Profile and Transport Node Profile.

Scenarios When the Stateless Host Is in the Target Cluster

This section discusses use cases when a stateless host exists in the target cluster.

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Important On a stateless target host:

n (On an N-VDS switch) Migration of vmk0 adapter from VSS/DVS to N-VDS is not supported
on NSX-T 2.4 and NSX-T 2.4.1.

n (On an N-VDS switch) Migration of vmk0 adapter from VSS/DVS to N-VDS is supported on
NSX-T 2.5.

n (On a VDS switch) Migration of VMkernel adapters is not supported.

Target Host Reference Host Configuration Steps To Auto Deploy Target Hosts

Target host has vmk0 adapter The host profile extracted from the 1 Attach the host profile to the target host.
configured. reference host has vmk0 configured
The vmk0 adapter is attached to a vSwitch.
on an N-VDS switch.
2 Update host customizations, if required.
In NSX-T, TNP has only vmk0
3 Reboot the host. The host profile is applied
migration mapping configured.
to the host. vmk0 is attached to a temporary
switch.
4 Apply TNP.

The vmk0 adapter migrates to N-VDS.

The target host is successfully deployed with
ESXi and NSX-T VIBs.

Target host has vmk0 adapter The host profile extracted from 1 Attach the host profile to the target host.
configured. the reference host has vmk0 on
The vmk0 adapter is attached to a vSwitch,
vSwitch and vmk1 is on an N-VDS
but vmk1 is not realized on any switch.
switch.
2 Update host customizations, if required.
In NSX-T, TNP has only vmk1
3 Reboot the host.
migration mapping configured.
vmk0 is attached to a vSwitch and vmk1 is
attached to a temporary NSX switch.
4 Apply TNP.

The vmk1 adapter migrates to N-VDS.

5 (optional) If the host remains non-compliant
with the host profile, reboot the host to
make the host compliant.
The target host is successfully deployed with
ESXi and NSX-T VIBs.

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Target Host Reference Host Configuration Steps To Auto Deploy Target Hosts

Target host has vmk0 adapter The host profile extracted from 1 Attach the host profile to the target host.
configured. the reference host has vmk0 is
The vmk0 adapter is attached to a vSwitch,
configured on a vSwitch and vmk1
but vmk1 is not realized on any switch.
is configured on an N-VDS switch.
2 Update host customizations, if required.
In NSX-T, TNP has vmk0 and vmk1
3 Reboot the host.
migration mappings configured.
The vmk0 adapter is attached to a vSwitch
and vmk1 is attached to a temporary NSX
switch.
4 Apply TNP.
5 (optional) If the host remains non-compliant
with the host profile, reboot the host to
make the host compliant.
The target host is successfully deployed with
ESXi and NSX-T VIBs.

Target host has vmk0 and The host profile extracted from 1 Attach the host profile to the target host.
vmk1 adapters configured. the reference host has vmk0 on
The vmk0 and vmk1 adapters are attached
vSwitch and vmk1 configured on an
to a vSwitch.
N-VDS switch.
2 Update host customizations, if required.
In NSX-T, TNP has a vmk1 migration
3 Reboot the host.
mapping configured.
4 Apply TNP.

The vmk0 adapter is attached to a vSwitch

and vmk1 is attached to an N-VDS switch.
5 (optional) If the host remains non-compliant
with the host profile, reboot the host to
make the host compliant.
The target host is successfully deployed with
ESXi and NSX-T VIBs.

Target host has vmk0 and The host profile extracted from the 1 Attach the host profile to the target host.
vmk1 adapters configured. reference host has vmk0 and vmk1
The vmk0 and vmk1 adapters are attached
configured on an N-VDS switch.
to a vSwitch.
In NSX-T, TNP has vmk0 and vmk1
2 Update host customizations, if required.
migration mappings configured.
3 Reboot the host.
4 Apply TNP.

The vmk0 and vmk1 are migrated to an N-

VDS switch.
The target host is successfully deployed with
ESXi and NSX-T VIBs.

Scenarios When the Stateless Host Is Outside of the Target Cluster

This section discusses use cases when a stateless host exists outside of the target cluster.

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Important On stateless hosts:

n (On an N-VDS switch) Migration of vmk0 adapter from VSS/DVS to N-VDS is not supported
on NSX-T 2.4 and NSX-T 2.4.1.

n (On an N-VDS switch) Migration of vmk0 adapter from VSS/DVS to N-VDS is supported on
NSX-T 2.5.

n (On a VDS switch) Migration of VMkernel adapters is not supported.

Target Host State Reference Host Configuration Steps To Auto Deploy Target Hosts

Host is in powered-off state The host profile extracted from 1 Power on the host.
(first-time start). It is later the reference host has VMkernel
After the host is powered on.
added to the cluster. adapter 0 (vmk0) on vSwitch
n The host gets added to cluster.
The default auto-deploy rule and VMkernel adapter 1 (vmk1)
configured on an N-VDS switch. n The host profile is applied on the target
is configured for the target
host.
cluster and associated with the In NSX-T, TNP has only vmk1
host profile. migration mapping configured. n The vmk0 adapter is on vSwitch and
vmk1 adapter is on a temporary switch.
The TNP is applied on the
cluster. n TNP is triggered.
n After TNP is applied to cluster, the
vmk0 adapter is on vSwitch and vmk1 is
migrated to the N-VDS switch.
2 (Optional) If the host remains non-compliant
with the host profile, reboot the host to
make the host compliant.

The host is successfully deployed with ESXi

and NSX-T VIBs.

Host is in powered-off state The host profile extracted from 1 Power on the host.
(first-time start). It is later the reference host has VMkernel
After the host is powered on.
added to the cluster. adapter 0 (vmk0) and VMkernel
n The host gets added to cluster.
The default auto-deploy rule adapter 1 (vmk1) configured on an
N-VDS switch. n The host profile is applied on the target
is configured for the target
host.
cluster and associated to the In NSX-T, TNP has vmk0 and vmk1
host profile. migration configured. n The vmk0 and vmk1 adapters are on a
temporary switch.
The TNP is applied on the
cluster. n TNP is triggered.
n After TNP is applied to cluster, the vmk0
and vmk1 are migrated to the N-VDS
switch.
The host is successfully deployed with ESXi and
NSX-T VIBs.

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Target Host State Reference Host Configuration Steps To Auto Deploy Target Hosts

Host is in powered-on state. It The host profile extracted from 1 Move the host to be part of the cluster.
is later added to the cluster. the reference host has VMkernel 2 Reboot the host.
The default auto-deploy rule adapter 0 (vmk0) on vSwitch
and VMkernel adapter 1 (vmk1) After the host is rebooted the host profile is
is configured for the target
applied on the target host.
cluster and associated to the configured on an N-VDS switch.
host profile. In NSX-T, TNP has a vmk1 migration n The vmk0 adapter is attached to a
Target host only has a vmk0 mapping configured. vSwitch, whereas the vmk1 adapter is
adapter configured on it. attached to a temporary NSX switch.
n TNP is triggered.
n vmk1 is migrated to the N-VDS switch.
3 (Optional) If the host remains non-compliant
with the host profile, reboot the host to
make the host compliant.
The host is successfully deployed with ESXi and
NSX-T VIBs.

Host is in powered-on state. It The host profile extracted from 1 Move the host to be part of the cluster.
is later added to the cluster. the reference host has VMkernel 2 Reboot the host.
The default auto-deploy rule adapter 0 (vmk0) and VMkernel
After the rebooting the host, the host profile
is configured for the target adapter 1 (vmk1) configured on N-
is applied to the target host.
cluster and associated to the VDS.
host profile. In NSX-T, TNP has vmk0 and vmk1 n The vmk0 and vmk1 adapters are
Target host only has a vmk0 migration configured. attached to a temporary NSX switch.
adapter configured on it. n TNP is triggered.

n vmk0 and vmk1 are attached to an N-

VDS switch.
The host is successfully deployed with ESXi and
NSX-T VIBs.

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Target Host State Reference Host Configuration Steps To Auto Deploy Target Hosts

Host is in powered-on state. It The host profile extracted from 1 Move the host to be part of the cluster.
is later added to the cluster. the reference host has VMkernel 2 Reboot the host.
The default auto-deploy rule adapter 0 (vmk0) on vSwitch
and VMkernel adapter 1 (vmk1) After the host is rebooted the host profile is
is configured for the target
applied on the target host.
cluster and associated to the configured on an N-VDS switch.
host profile. In NSX-T, TNP has a vmk1 migration n The vmk0 adapter is attached to a
Target host has vmk0 configured. vSwitch, whereas the vmk1 adapter is
and vmk1 network mapping attached to a temporary NSX switch.
configured. n TNP is triggered.
n vmk1 is migrated to the N-VDS switch.
3 (Optional) If the host remains non-compliant
with the host profile, reboot the host to
make the host compliant.
The host is successfully deployed with ESXi and
NSX-T VIBs.

Host is in powered-on state. It In the reference host, the host 1 Move the host to be part of the cluster.
is later added to the cluster. profile has VMkernel adapter 0 2 Reboot the host.
The default auto-deploy rule (vmk0) and VMkernel adapter 1
After the host is rebooted the host profile is
is configured for the target (vmk1) configured on an N-VDS
applied on the target host.
cluster and associated to the switch.
host profile. In NSX-T, TNP has vmk0 and vmk1 n The vmk0 and vmk1 adapters are
Host has vmk0 and vmk1 migration configured. attached to a temporary NSX switch.
network mapping configured. n TNP is triggered.
n The vmk0 and vmk1 adapters are
migrated to the N-VDS switch.
The host is successfully deployed with ESXi and
NSX-T VIBs.

Troubleshoot Host Profile and Transport Node Profile

Troubleshoot issues with host profiles and TNPs when they are used to auto deploy stateless
clusters.

Scenario Description

When multiple VMkernel adapters enabled to For example, before migration, vmk0 is enabled to support
support Management, vMotion and other traffic Management traffic and vmk1 is enabled for vMotion traffic.
are migrated to the same logical switch, VMkernel After host reboot, vmk0 supports vMotion traffic and vmk1
adapters get migrated to logical switch after supports Management traffic. This results in non-compliant error
reboot. But the service on one VMkernel adapter after reboot.
is enabled on a different adapter. Workaround: None. There is no impact as both VMkernel
adapters are on the same logical switch.

Host preparation progress is stuck at 60% while the Issue: When a TNP is applied on a cluster, NSX-T is successfully
node status displays UP. installed on the host and node status displays UP, but GUI still
shows 60% progress.
Workaround: Reapply the TNP or TN configuration without any
change in the config. This will fix the status to 100% on the GUI.

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Scenario Description

Even though VMkernel migration is successful there Issue: When you migrate vmk0 the management interface from
was a validation error on the TN before host vSwitch to a logical switch, NSX-T is successfully installed on
switches are removed. the host. VMkernel migration is successful, but TN status shows
Partial Success with error.
Validation before host switches removal failed: [error:
No management vmk will have PNIC after ['vmk1'] in
['9a bb eb c1 04 81 40 e2-bc 3f 3e aa bd 14 62 1e']
lose all PNICs.]; LogicalSwitch full-sync: LogicalSwitch
full-sync realization query skipped.
Workaround: None. Ignore the error message as VMkernel
migration is successful.

Reapplying a TNP where the Network Mapping for Issue: When a TNP configuration consists of vmk0 in the
Install lists vmk0 results in host losing connectivity. Networking Mapping for Install, the hosts loses connectivity.
Workaround: Instead of reapplying the TNP, reboot the host
with necessary configurations in TNP.

Cannot apply the host profile because MUX user Issue: Only on hosts running versions earlier than vSphere 6.7
password policy and password were not reset. U3. Host remediation and host profile application on hosts might
fail unless the mux_user password is reset.
Workaround: Under Policies & Profiles, edit the host profile to
modify the mux_user password policy and reset the mux_user
password.

Host Profile is not portable. Issue: None of the vCenter servers can use the host profile
containing NSX-T configuration.
Workaround: None.

Auto Deploy Rule Engine Issue: Host profile cannot be used in auto deploy rules to
deploy new clusters. If new clusters are deployed, the hosts
get deployed with basic networking and remain in maintenance
mode.
Workaround: Prepare each cluster from NSX-T GUI. See Apply
TNP on Stateless Cluster.

Check compliance errors. Issue: Host profile remediation cannot fix the compliance errors
related to the NSX-T configuration.
n Physical NICs configured on Host Profile and TNP are
different.
n Mapping between vNIC to LS mapping. Host Profile finds a
mismatch in the logical switch to vNIC mapping with the TNP
profile.
n VMkernel connected to N-VDS mismatch on Host Profile and
TNP.
n Opaque switch mismatch on Host Profile and TNP.
Workaround: Ensure the NSX-T configuration matches on Host
Profile and TNP. Reboot the host to realize the configuration
changes. The host comes up.

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Scenario Description

Remediation Issue: If there are any NSX-T specific compliance errors, host
profile remediation on that cluster is blocked.
Incorrect configuration:
n Mapping between vNIC to LS mapping
n Mapping of physical NICs
Workaround: Ensure that the NSX-T configuration matches
on Host Profile and TNP. Reboot the host to realize the
configuration changes. The host comes up.

Attach Issue: In a cluster configured with NSX-T, host profile cannot be

attached at the host-level.
Workaround: None.

Detach Issue: Detaching and attaching a new host profile in a

cluster configured with NSX-T does not remove the NSX-T
configuration. Even though the cluster is compliant with newly
attach the host profile, it still has the NSX-T configuration from a
previous profile.
Workaround: None.

Update Issue: If the user has changed NSX-T configuration in the cluster,
then extract a new host profile. Update the host profile manually
for all the settings that were lost.
Workaround: None.

Host-level transport node configuration Issue: After anportsport node was auto-deployed, it acts as
individual entity. Any update to that transport node might not
match with the TNP.
Workaround: Update the cluster. Any update in a standalone
transport node cannot persist its migration specification. The
migration might fail to post the reboot.

PeerDNS configuration is not supported on the Issue: If a VMkernel adapter selected for migration to NVDS is
VMkernel adapter selected for migration to the peer-DNS enabled, then host profile application fails.
NVDS switch. Workaround: Edit the extracted host profile by disabling peer-
DNS setting on the VMkernel adapter that must be migrated to
an NVDS switch. Alternatively, ensure that you do not migrate
peer-DNS enabled VMkernel adapters to an NVDS switch.

DHCP address of the VMkernel NIC address not Issue: If the reference host is stateful, then any stateless hosts
retained using profile extracted from the stateful reference host cannot
retain their VMkernel management MAC address derived from
PXE started MAC. It results in DHCP addressing issues.
Workaround: Edit extracted host profile of stateful host and
modify the 'Determine how MAC address for vmknic should be
decided' to 'Use the MAC address from which the system was
PXE started'.

Host Profile application failure in vCenter can lead Issue: If host profile application fails in vCenter, NSX
to NSX configuration errors on the host. configuration might also fail.
Workaround: In vCenter, verify that host profile was successfully
applied. Fix the errors and try again.

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Scenario Description

LAGS are not supported on stateless ESXi hosts. Issue: The uplink profile configured as LAGs in NSX is not
supported in a stateless ESXi host managed by a vCenter Server
or in NSX.
Workaround: None.

A stateless host does not boot up with MAC Issue: If a stateless host is attached with a host profile extracted
address of PXE NIC when it is applied with a host from a statelful host, then the VMkernel adapter (vmknic) of the
profile extracted from a stateful host. stateless host does not boot up with the MAC address of PXE
NIC of the host because a stateful host does not boot up as a
PXE-enabled system.
Workaround: When you are setting up autodeployment of
stateless hosts, ensure that the host profile extracted is from
a from a host that boots up as a PXE-enabled system.

Stateful Servers
Integrate host profiles of an ESXi host with NSX-T on stateful servers.

A stateful host is a host that retains all configurations and the installed VIBs even after it is
rebooted. While an auto-deploy server is needed for stateless hosts because the boot up files
required to bring up a stateless hosts are stored on the auto-deploy server, a stateful host does
not need a similar infrastructure. Because the boot up files required to bring up a stateful host is
stored on its hard drive.

In this procedure, the reference host is outside of the stateful cluster and the target hosts in the
cluster. A target host can be within a cluster or a standalone host outside of the cluster. Prepare
a cluster by applying host profile and transport node profile (TN profile) , so that any new target
hosts joining the cluster is automatically prepared with NSX-T VIBs. Configure the target host as
a transport node. Similarly, for a standalone host, apply the host profile and configure NSX-T to
install NSX-T VIBs and when NSX-T configuration is complete, it becomes a transport node.

Note NSX-T VIBs are installed from TN profile and ESXi host configurations are applied by the
Host Profiles.

During the configuration of a target host into a transport node, VMkernel adapters and vmnics or
physical network interfaces that are attached to the VSS or VDS switch can be migrated and get
connected to the NSX-T virtual distributed switch, N-VDS switch.

Supported NSX-T and ESXi versions

Supported NSX-T and ESXi versions on stateful servers.

Version Name 67ep6 67U2 67U3 67ep7 67U2C 6.5U3 6.5p03 7.0.0.1

NSX-T 2.4 Yes No No No No No Yes No

NSX-T 2.4.1 Yes Yes No No No No Yes No

NSX-T 2.4.2 Yes Yes No No No No Yes No

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Version Name 67ep6 67U2 67U3 67ep7 67U2C 6.5U3 6.5p03 7.0.0.1

NSX-T 2.4.3 Yes Yes No No No No Yes No

NSX-T 2.5 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No

NSX-T 2.5.1 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No

NSX-T 3.0 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Prepare a Target Stateful Cluster

Prepare a target stateful cluster so that any new host joining the cluster is automatically
deployed with ESXi and NSX-T VIBs.

You can select a host either within the cluster or outside of the cluster to be the reference
host. You need to create a reference host because the host profile from the reference host is
extracted and applied to a target host. Both N-VDS and VDS switch types support migration of
VMkernel adapters.

In this procedure, as an example the instructions are to migrate vmk0 (management traffic) and
vmk1 (vMotion traffic) to an N-VDS switch.

Prerequisites

Procedure

1 On the Reference host, deploy a supported ESXi build.

a In vSphere, add vmk1 adapter. vmk0 is already present to serve management traffic.

2 Configure the reference node as a transport node.

a Using vSphere Web Client, before migrating vmk0 and vmk1, ensure a logical switch is
created in NSX-T.

b (Optional) Using NSX-T Manager UI, configure NSX such that after installation of NSX-T,
vmk1 adapter mapped to a logical switch is migrated to the N-VDS switch.

c (Optional) Using NSX-T Manager UI, configure NSX-T such that after installation of NSX-T,
vmk0 adapter mapped to a logical switch is migrated to the N-VDS switch.

Note vmk0 and vmk1 can be on different VSS or DVS switches.

d Using vSphere Web Client, ensure that vmk0 and vmk1 are connected to a logical switch
on N-VDS switch.

3 Extract the host profile from the reference host.

4 In your environment, there might be a number of vmkernel adapter that need to be migrated
to the N-VDS switch. However, before migrating vmk adapters from VSS/DVS to an N-VDS
switch, ensure that the configuration parameters on the target host match those on the
reference host.

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5 On a target host that is a standalone host:

a Attach the host profile to the target host.

b Manually configure NSX-T on the host. When configuring the host as a transport node
because the host profile on the ESXi, ensure the following conditions are met.

c Host must belong to the same transport zone.

d vmk1 adapter must be connected to the same logical switch that is used by the reference
host.

e Target host must use the same IP pool that is used by the reference host.

f Uplink profile, LLDP, NIOC, network mapping for install, N-VDS configured on the target
host must be the same as configured on the reference host.

g Manually add VMkernel adapter, vmk1 and vmnic1 so that it is migrated from the VSS/DVS
switch to the N-VDS switch. See vmk1 migration scenarios.

h Manually add management adapter, vmk0 and or vmnic0.

6 On a target host that is part of a cluster:

a Attach the host profile to the stateful target cluster.

b Create and apply the TN profile on the cluster.

c To configure vmk1 and vmnic1 to be migrated, see vmk1 migration scenarios.

d To configure vmk0 and vmnic0 to be migrated, see vmk0 migration scenarios.

e To apply TN profile on the cluster.

What to do next

Scenarios when VMkernel adapters are migrated with and without host profiles applied to NSX-T.

VMkernel Migration with Host Profile Applied

Migration of VMkernel adapters is supported on transport nodes using an N-VDS or VDS host
switch. In the scenario illustrated in this section, VMkernel-1 (vmk1) adapter is migrated to an
N-VDS switch on a host where host profile is applied. The vmk1 adapter supports infrastructure
traffic for vMotion, Fault Tolerance, and other infrastructure services.

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Scenario Error Workaround

vmk1 migration on a The target host is not configured as a transport node. 1 Before applying the
standalone target host by As the target host does not know about any NSX-T reference host profile to
applying reference host objects, host profile application fails. Remediation of migrate vmk1 to the logical
profile. host profile on the target host fails. switch on the target host,
configure the target host as a
Error: Received SOAP response fault : transport node, which installs
generate HostConfigTask Spec.. NSX-T VIBs, creates an N-
VDS switch and migrates
vmk1 adapter from the VSS
switch to N-VDS switch.
When configuring the host as a
transport node because the host
profile on the ESXi, ensure the
following conditions are met:
n Host must belong to the
same transport zone.
n vmk1 adapter must be
connected to the same
logical switch that is used by
the reference host.
n Target host must use the
same IP pool that is used by
the reference host.
n Uplink profile, LLDP, NIOC,
network mapping for install,
N-VDS configured on the
target host must be the
same as configured on the
reference host.

Host profile remediation is

successful when the target
host is configured with the
same logical switch name
that is present in the host
profile.

vmk1 migration on target Before applying the host profile to the target host, 1 Apply the reference host
hosts in a stateful cluster. if you prepare the cluster by applying TN profile profile to the target host that
configured with vmk1 mapped to the logical switch, joined the cluster.
then vmk1 migration fails. 2 Remediate the host profile
Error: vmk1 missing on the host. on the target host to create
vmk1 adapter on the target
host.
3 Re-apply the TN profile to the
cluster to migrate vmk1 to the
target cluster.

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Scenario Error Workaround

vmk0 and vmk1 migration on When configuring NSX-T on the standalone host, if When configuring NSX-T on the
a standalone host. the Network Mapping for Install field does not specify target host, ensure that the
vmk0 or vmk1 mappings, then migration fails. Network Mapping for Install field
is specified with vmk0 and vmk1
mapped to the same logical
switch on the N-VDS.

vmk0 and vmk1 migration on When applying TN profile to a cluster, if the Network Apply TN profile to the cluster.
a cluster host. Mapping for Install field does not specify vmk0 or When configuring TN profile to
vmk1 mappings, then migration fails. the cluster, ensure that Network
Mapping for Install field is
specified with vmk0 and vmk1
mapped to a logical switch on
the N-VDS.

VMkernel Migration without Host Profile Applied

Migration of VMkernel adapters is supported on transport nodes using an N-VDS or VDS host
switch. In the scenario illustrated in this section, the VMkernel 0 (vmk0) adapter is migrated to an
N-VDS or a VDS switch on a host where host profile is not applied. The vmk0 adapter supports
management traffic for NSX-T.

You do not need to apply a host profile to the target host as vmk0 already exists on it. vmk0
adapter supports management traffic on an ESXi host.

Scenario Procedure Result

vmk0 migration on a When configuring NSX-T on the target host, ensure vmk0 is migrated to the logical
standalone host. that the Network Mapping for Install field is specified switch on the target host.
with vmk0 mapped to a logical switch on the N-VDS.

vmk0 migration on a cluster Apply TN profile to the cluster. When configuring vmk0 is migrated to the logical
host. TN profile on the cluster, ensure that the Network switch on the target host.
Mapping for Install field is specified with vmk0
mapped to a logical switch on the N-VDS.

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Getting Started with NSX Cloud
12
NSX Cloud provides a single pane of glass for managing your public cloud networks.

NSX Cloud is agnostic of provider-specific networking that does not require hypervisor access in
a public cloud.

It offers several benefits:

n You can develop and test applications using the same network and security profiles used in
the production environment.

n Developers can manage their applications until they are ready for deployment.

n With disaster recovery, you can recover from an unplanned outage or a security threat to
your public cloud.

n If you migrate your workloads between public clouds, NSX Cloud ensures that similar security
policies are applied to workload VMs regardless of their new location.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n NSX Cloud Architecture and Components

n Overview of Deploying NSX Cloud

n Deploy NSX-T Data Center On-Prem Components

n Add your Public Cloud Account

n Deploy the NSX Public Cloud Gateway

n (Optional) Install NSX Tools on your Workload VMs

n Undeploy or Unlink PCG

NSX Cloud Architecture and Components

NSX Cloud integrates the NSX-T Data Center core components with your public cloud to provide
network and security across your implementations.

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Figure 12-1. NSX Cloud Architecture

Internet

Private Cloud

Infra
NSX Manager Cluster Management
NSX CSM
Subnet

on-prem

Firewall
(optional) Hypervisors Hypervisors

Express Route/Direct Connect or Site to

Site VPN over internet or over Internet
Gateway (IGW)
<150 ms RT
latency

Azure Region AWS Region

Internet Internet

Optional Optional

Subnet 1 Subnet 2 Subnet 1 Subnet 2

APP APP APP APP

WEB WEB WEB WEB
OS OS OS OS
Availability Set AZ1 AZ2
Transit VNet Transit VPC

Peer link Peer link Peer link Peer link

Compute VNet 1 Compute VNet 2 Compute VPC 1 Compute VPC 2

Subnet 1 Subnet 2 Subnet 1 Subnet 2 Subnet 1 Subnet 2 Subnet 1 Subnet 2

APP APP APP APP APP APP APP APP

WEB WEB WEB WEB WEB WEB WEB WEB
OS OS OS OS OS OS OS OS

Core Components
The core NSX Cloud components are:

n NSX Manager for the management plane with policy-based routing, role-based access
control (RBAC), control plane and runtime states defined.

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n Cloud Service Manager (CSM) for integration with NSX Manager to provide public cloud-
specific information to the management plane.

n Public Cloud Gateway (PCG) for connectivity to the NSX management and control planes,
NSX Edge gateway services, and for API-based communications with the public cloud
entities.

n NSX Tools functionality that provides NSX-managed datapath for workload VMs.

Overview of Deploying NSX Cloud

Refer to this overview to understand the overall process of installing and configuring NSX Cloud
components to enable NSX-T Data Center to manage your public cloud workload VMs.

Onboard
Workload Create
Deploy NSX-T
VMs in NSX- NSX-T
Data Center Add Public Deploy Public
enforced or Data Center
On-prem Cloud Accounts Cloud Gateway
Native Cloud- Firewall
Components
enforced Policies
Mode

Note While planning your deployment, ensure that the on-prem NSX-T Data Center appliances
have good connectivity with the PCG deployed in the public cloud and Transit VPCs/VNets are in
the same region as the Compute VPCs/VNets.

Table 12-1. Workflow for deploying NSX Cloud

Task Instructions

See Deploy NSX-T Data Center On-Prem Components.

Install CSM and connect with NSX Manager.

See Add your Public Cloud Account.

Add one or more of your public cloud accounts in
CSM.

See Deploy the NSX Public Cloud Gateway .

Deploy PCG in your Transit VPCs or VNets and link to
your Compute VPCs or VNets.

What to do next? Follow instructions at "Using NSX Cloud" in the NSX-T

Data Center Administration Guide.

Deploy NSX-T Data Center On-Prem Components

You must have already installed NSX Manager to proceed with installing CSM.

Install CSM
The Cloud Service Manager (CSM) is a core component of NSX Cloud.

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After installing NSX Manager, install CSM by following the same steps as for installing NSX
Manager and selecting nsx-cloud-service-manager as the VM role. See Install NSX Manager and
Available Appliances for instructions.

You can deploy CSM in the Extra Small VM size or higher, as required. See NSX Manager VM and
Host Transport Node System Requirements for details.

Join CSM with NSX Manager

You must connect the CSM appliance with NSX Manager to allow these components to
communicate with each other.

Prerequisites

n NSX Manager must be installed and you must have the username and password for the
admin account to log in to NSX Manager

n CSM must be installed and you must have the Enterprise Administrator role assigned in CSM.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in to CSM.

2 When prompted in the setup wizard, click Begin Setup.

3 Enter the following details in the NSX Manager Credentials screen:

Option Description

NSX Manager Host Name Enter the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the NSX Manager, if
available. You may also enter the IP address of NSX Manager.

Admin Credentials Enter an Enterprise Administrator username and password for NSX
Manager.

Manager Thumbprint Optionally, enter the NSX Manager's thumbrpint value. If you leave this field
blank, the system identifies the thumbprint and displays it in the next screen.

4 (Optional) If you did not provide a thumbprint value for NSX Manager, or if the value
was incorrect, the Verify Thumbprint screen appears. Select the checkbox to accept the
thumbprint discovered by the system.

5 Click Connect.

Note If you missed this setting in the setup wizard or if you want to change the associated
NSX Manager, log in to CSM, click System > Settings, and click Configure on the panel titled
Associated NSX Node.

CSM verifies the NSX Manager thumbprint and establishes connection.

6 (Optional) Set up the Proxy server. See instructions in (Optional) Configure Proxy Servers.

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Enable Access to Ports and Protocols

No inbound ports are required to be open in your on-prem deployment of NSX-T Data Center to
enable public cloud connectivity.

The following outbound ports are required:

Table 12-2. Ports and Protocols Required for Public Cloud Connectivity with NSX-T Data Center
Required
From To Port Protocol for:

CSM PCG 80 TCP CSM

configuration
Note If you are
, such as
using NSX-T Data
upgrade
Center version 2.5.0,
workflow,
you need to open the
over HTTPS.
non-standard port 7442
instead, and ensure
your firewall allows SSL
traffic over it.

NSX Manager PCG 443 TCP NSX RPC

channel(s).

CSM NSX Manager 443 TCP CSM to

access NSX
Manager.
See Ports
and
Protocols for
details on
the on-prem
deployment.

On-Prem NSX-T IGW

Data-Center Public Cloud

1 Transit/
Self-Managed
CSM REST API calls to PCG (over HTTPS).
VPC/VNet
(Port 80 from NSX-T Data Center 2.5.1 onwards
and Port 7442 for NSX-T Data Center 2.5.0 and earlier.)

Cloud Service
Manager
NSX Manager initiated NSX-RPC channel(s) to PCG G
W
(Port 443)
PCG

NSX Manager Cluster

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(Optional) Configure Proxy Servers

If you want to route and monitor all internet-bound HTTP/HTTPS traffic through a reliable HTTP
Proxy, you can configure up to five proxy servers in CSM.

All public cloud communication from PCG and CSM is routed through the selected proxy server.

Proxy settings for PCG are independent of proxy settings for CSM. You can choose to have none
or a different proxy server for PCG.

You can choose the following levels of authentication:

n Credentials-based authentication.

n Certificate-based authentication for HTTPS interception.

n No authentication.

Procedure

1 Click System > Settings. Then click Configure on the panel titled Proxy Servers.

Note You can also provide these details when using the CSM Setup Wizard that is available
when you first install CSM.

2 In the Configure Proxy Servers screen, enter the following details:

Option Description

Default Use this radio button to indicate the default proxy server.

Profile Name Provide a proxy server profile name. This is mandatory.

Proxy Server Enter the proxy server’s IP address. This is mandatory.

Port Enter the proxy server’s port. This is mandatory.

Authentication Optional. If you want to set up additional authentication, select this check
box and provide valid username and password.

Username This is required if you select the Authentication checkbox.

Password This is required if you select the Authentication checkbox.

Certificate Optional. If you want to provide an authentication certificate for HTTPS

interception, select this checkbox and copy-paste the certificate in the text
box that appears.

No Proxy Select this option if you do not want to use any of the proxy servers
configured.

(Optional) Set Up vIDM for Cloud Service Manager

If you use VMware Identity Manager, you can set it up to access CSM from within NSX Manager.

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Procedure

1 Configure vIDM for NSX Manager and CSM. See instructions at Configure VMware Identity
Manager Integration in the NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide.

2 Assign the same role to the vIDM user for NSX Manager and CSM, for example, Enterprise
Admin role assigned to the user named vIDM_admin. You must log in to NSX Manager and
CSM each and assign the same role to the same username. See Add a Role Assignment or
Principal Identity in the NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide for detailed instructions.

3 Log in to NSX Manager. You are redirected to the vIDM login.

4 Enter the vIDM user's credentials. Once you log in, you can switch between NSX Manager and
CSM by clicking the Applications icon.

Add your Public Cloud Account

To add your public cloud inventory, you need to connect your public cloud account with the
on-prem deployment of NSX-T Data Center and create roles in your public cloud to allow access
to NSX Cloud.

These steps are in no specific order and can be completed independently.

Note
n Connect VPCs/VNets with on-prem using suitable methods, such as Direct Connect for AWS
or Express Route for Microsoft Azure or site-to-site VPN with any VPN endpoint on-premises
and PCG acting as the VPN endpoint in your public cloud.

n If you choose to have a Transit/Compute topology, make sure there are peering connections
established between the Transit and Compute VPCs/VNets. You can have a single PCG
manage multiple compute VPCs/VNets. You may also choose to have a flat compute VPC/
VNet architecture with a PCG pair installed in each VPC/VNet. See Deploy the NSX Public
Cloud Gateway for details on PCG deployment options.

Adding your Microsoft Azure Subscription

For NSX Cloud to operate in your subscription, create a Service Principal to grant the required
permissions, and roles for CSM and PCG based on the Microsoft Azure feature for managing
identities for Azure Resources.

Overview:

n NSX Cloud provides a PowerShell script to generate the Service Principal and roles that use
the managed identity feature of Microsoft Azure to manage authentication while keeping
your Microsoft Azure credentials secure. You can also include multiple subscriptions under
one Service Principal using this script.

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n You have the option of reusing the Service Principal for all your subscriptions, or to create
new Service Principals as required. There is an additional script if you want to create separate
Service Principals for additional subscriptions.

n For multiple subscriptions, whether you are using a single Service Principal for all, or multiple
Service Principals, you must update the JSON files for the CSM and PCG roles to add each
additional subscription name under the section AssignableScopes.

n If you already have an NSX Cloud Service Principal in your VNet, you can update it by running
the scripts again and leaving out the Service Principal name from the parameters.

n The Service Principal name must be unique for your Microsoft Azure Active Directory. You
may use the same Service Principal in different subscriptions under the same Active Directory
domain, or different Service Principals per subscription. But you cannot create two Service
Principals with the same name.

n You must either be the owner of or have permissions to create and assign roles in all the
Microsoft Azure subscriptions.

n The following scenarios are supported:

n Scenario 1: You have a single Microsoft Azure Subscription that you want to enable with
NSX Cloud.

n Scenario 2: You have multiple Microsoft Azure Subscriptions under the same Microsoft
Azure Directory, that you want to enable with NSX Cloud, but want to use one NSX Cloud
Service Principal across all your subscriptions.

n Scenario 3: You have multiple Microsoft Azure Subscriptions under the same Microsoft
Azure Directory, that you want to enable with NSX Cloud, but want to use different NSX
Cloud Service Principal names for different subscriptions.

Here is an outline of the process:

1 Use the NSX Cloud PowerShell script to:

n Create a Service Principal account for NSX Cloud.

n Create a role for CSM.

n Create a role for PCG.

2 (Optional) Create Service Principals for other subscriptions you want to link.

3 Add the Microsoft Azure subscription in CSM.

Note If using multiple subscriptions, whether using the same or different Service Principals,
you must add each subscription separately in CSM.

Generate the Service Principal and Roles

NSX Cloud provides PowerShell scripts that help you generate the required service principal and
roles for one or multiple subscriptions.

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Prerequisites

n You must have PowerShell 5.0+ with the AzureRM Module installed.

n You must either be the owner of or have permissions to create and assign roles in all the
Microsoft Azure subscriptions.

Note The response time from Microsoft Azure can cause the script to fail when you run it the
first time. If the script fails, try running it again.

Procedure

1 On a Windows desktop or server, download the ZIP file named

CreateNSXCloudCredentials.zip from the NSX-T Data Center Download page > Drivers &
Tools > NSX Cloud Scripts > Microsoft Azure.

2 Extract the following contents of the ZIP file in your Windows system:

Script/File Description

CreateNSXRoles.ps1 The PowerShell script to generate the NSX Cloud Service Principal and
managed identity roles for CSM and PCG. This script takes the following
parameters:
n -subscriptionId <the Transit_VNet's_Azure_subscription_ID>
n (optional) -servicePrincipalName <Service_Principal_Name>
n (optional) -useOneServicePrincipal

AddServicePrincipal.ps1 An optional script required if you want to add multiple subscriptions and
assign different Service Principals to each subscription. See Scenario 3 in the
following steps. This script takes the following parameters:
n -computeSubscriptionId
<the_Compute_VNet's_Azure_subscription_ID>
n -transitSubscriptionId <the
Transit_VNet's_Azure_Subscription_ID>
n -csmRoleName <CSM_Role_Name>
n -servicePrincipalName <Service_Principal_Name>

nsx_csm_role.json A JSON template for the CSM role name and permissions. This file is
required as an input to the PowerShell script and must be in the same folder
as the script.

nsx_pcg_role.json A JSON template for the PCG role name and permissions. This file is required
as an input to the PowerShell script and must be in the same folder as the
script.

Note The default PCG (Gateway) Role Name is nsx-pcg-role. You need to
provide this value when adding your subscription in CSM.

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3 Scenario 1: You have a single Microsoft Azure Subscription that you want to enable with NSX
Cloud.

a From a PowerShell instance, go to the directory where you downloaded the Microsoft
Azure scripts and JSON files.

b Run the script named CreateNSXRoles.ps1 with the parameter -SubscriptionId, as follows:

.\CreateNSXRoles.ps1 -subscriptionId <the_single_Azure_subscription_ID>

Note If you want to override the default Service Principal name of nsx-service-admin,
you can also use the parameter -servicePrincipalName. The Service Principal name must
be unique in your Microsoft Azure Active Directory.

4 Scenario 2: You have multiple Microsoft Azure Subscriptions under the same Microsoft Azure
Directory, that you want to enable with NSX Cloud, but want to use one NSX Cloud Service
Principal across all your subscriptions.

a From a PowerShell instance, go to the directory where you downloaded the Microsoft
Azure scripts and JSON files.

b Edit each of the JSON files to add a list of other subscription IDs under the section titled
"AssignableScopes", for example:

"AssignableScopes": [

"/subscriptions/aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeeee",

"/subscriptions/aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-ffffffffffff",

"/subscriptions/aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-000000000000"

Note You must use the format shown in the example to add subscription IDs: "/
subscriptions/<Subscription_ID>"

c Run the script named CreateNSXRoles.ps1 with the parameters -subscriptionID and
-useOneServicePrincipal:

.\CreateNSXRoles.ps1 -subscriptionId <the_Transit_VNet's_Azure_subscription_ID>

-useOneServicePrincipal

Note Omit the Service Principal name here if you want to use the default name:
nsx-service-admin. If that Service Principal name already exists in your Microsoft Azure
Active Directory, running this script without a Service Principal name updates that Service
Principal.

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5 Scenario 3: You have multiple Microsoft Azure Subscriptions under the same Microsoft Azure
Directory, that you want to enable with NSX Cloud, but want to use different NSX Cloud
Service Principal names for different subscriptions.

a From a PowerShell instance, go to the directory where you downloaded the Microsoft
Azure scripts and JSON files.

b Follow steps b and c from the second scenario to add multiple subscriptions to the
AssignableScopes section in each of the JSON files.

c Run the script named CreateNSXRoles.ps1 with the parameters -subscriptionID:

.\CreateNSXRoles.ps1 -subscriptionId <One of the subscription_IDs>

Note Omit the Service Principal name here if you want to use the default name:
nsx-service-admin. If that Service Principal name exists in your Microsoft Azure Active
Directory, running this script without a Service Principal name updates that Service
Principal.

d Run the script named AddServicePrincipal.ps1 with the following parameters:

Parameter Value

-computeSubscriptionId The Compute_VNet's Azure Subscription ID

-transitSubscriptionId The Transit VNet's Azure Subscription ID

-csmRoleName Get this value from the file nsx_csm_role.JSON

-servicePrincipalName New Service Principal name

./AddServicePrincipal.ps1 -computeSubscriptionId <the_Compute_VNet's_Azure_subscription_ID>

-transitSubscriptionId <the_Tranist_VNet's_Azure_Subscription_ID>
-csmRoleName <CSM_Role_Name>
-servicePrincipalName <new_Service_Principal_Name>”

6 Look for a file in the same directory where you ran the PowerShell script. It is named like:
NSXCloud_ServicePrincipal_<your_subscription_ID>_<NSX_Cloud_Service_Principal_nam
e>. This file contains the information required to add your Microsoft Azure subscription in
CSM.

n Client ID

n Client Key

n Tenant ID

n Subscription ID

Results

The following constructs are created:

n an Azure AD application for NSX Cloud.

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n an Azure Resource Manager Service Principal for the NSX Cloud application.

n a role for CSM attached to the Service Principal account.

n a role for PCG to enable it to work on your public cloud inventory.

n a file named like

NSXCloud_ServicePrincipal_<your_subscription_ID>_<NSX_Cloud_Service_Principal_nam
e> is created in the same directory where you ran the PowerShell script. This file contains the
information required to add your Microsoft Azure subscription in CSM.

Note Refer to the JSON files that are used to create the CSM and PCG roles for a list of
permissions available to them after the roles are created.

What to do next

Add your Microsoft Azure Subscription in CSM

Note When enabling NSX Cloud for multiple subscriptions, you must add each separate
subscription to CSM individually, for example, if you have five total subscriptions you must add
five Microsoft Azure accounts in CSM with all other values the same but different subscription IDs.

Add your Microsoft Azure Subscription in CSM

Once you have the details of the NSX Cloud Service Principal and the CSM and PCG roles, you
are ready to add your Microsoft Azure subscription in CSM.

Prerequisites

n You must have the Enterprise Administrator role in NSX-T Data Center.

n You must have the output of the PowerShell script with details of the NSX Cloud Service
Principal.

n You must have the value of the PCG role you provided when running the PowerShell script to
create the roles and the Service Principal. The default value is nsx-pcg-role.

Procedure

1 Log in to CSM using an account with the Enterprise Administrator role.

2 Go to CSM > Clouds > Azure.

3 Click +Add and enter the following details:

Option Description

Name Provide a suitable name to identify this account in CSM. You may have
multiple Microsoft Azure subscriptions that are associated with the same
Microsoft Azure tenant ID. Name your account account and you can name
them appropriately in CSM, for example, Azure-DevOps-Account, Azure-
Finance-Account, etc.

Client ID Copy paste this value from the output of the PowerShell script.

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Option Description

Key Copy paste this value from the output of the PowerShell script.

Subscription ID Copy paste this value from the output of the PowerShell script.

Tenant ID Copy paste this value from the output of the PowerShell script.

Gateway Role Name The default value is nsx-pcg-role. This value is available from the
nsx_pcg_role.json file if you changed the default.

Cloud Tags By default this option is enabled and allows your Microsoft Azure tags to be
visible in NSX Manager

4 Click Save.

CSM adds the account and you can see it in the Accounts section within three minutes.

5 Whitelist all the VMs in the VNet where you want VMs managed. This is not required, but
highly recommended for brownfield deployments because of Quarantine Policy impact when
changed from disabled to enabled.

What to do next

Deploy PCG in a VNet

Adding your AWS Account

You might have one or more AWS accounts with VPCs and workload VMs that you want to bring
under NSX-T Data Center management.

Overview:

n NSX Cloud provides a shell script that you can run from the AWS CLI of your AWS account to
create the IAM profile and role, and create a trust relationship for Transit and Compute VPCs .

n The following scenarios are supported:

n Scenario 1: You want to use a single AWS account with NSX Cloud.

n Scenario 2: You want to use multiple sub-accounts in AWS that are managed by a master
AWS account.

n Scenario 3: You want to use multiple AWS accounts with NSX Cloud, designating one
account where you will install the PCG, that is a Transit VPC, and other accounts that will
link to this PCG, that is, Compute VPCs. See Deploy the NSX Public Cloud Gateway for
details on PCG deployment options.

Here is an outline of the process:

1 Use the NSX Cloud shell script to do the following. This step requires AWS CLI configured
with the account you want to add.

n Create an IAM profile.

n Create a role for PCG.

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n (Optional) Create a trust relationship between the AWS account hosting the Transit VPC
and the AWS account hosting the Compute VPC.

2 Add the AWS account in CSM.

Generate the IAM Profile and PCG Role

NSX Cloud provides a SHELL script to help set up one or more of your AWS accounts by
generating an IAM profile and a role for PCG attached to the profile that provides necessary
permissions to your AWS account.

If you plan to host a Transit VPC linked to multiple Compute VPCs in two different AWS accounts,
you can use the script to create a trust relationship between these accounts.

Note The PCG (Gateway) role name is nsx_pcg_service by default. If you want a different
value for the Gateway Role Name, you can change it in the script, but make a note of this value
because it is required for adding the AWS account in CSM.

Prerequisites

You must have the following installed and configured on your Linux or compatible system before
you run the script:

n AWS CLI configured for the account and the default region.

n jq (a JSON parser).

n openssl (network security requirement).

Note If using AWS GovCloud (US) accounts, ensure that your AWS CLI is configured for the
GovCloud (US) account and the default region is specified in the AWS CLI configuration file.

Procedure

u On a Linux or compatible desktop or server, download the SHELL script named

nsx_csm_iam_script.sh from the NSX-T Data Center Download page > Drivers & Tools >
NSX Cloud Scripts > AWS.

u Scenario 1: You want to use a single AWS account with NSX Cloud.

a Run the script, for example:

bash nsx_csm_iam_script.sh

b Enter yes when prompted with the question Do you want to create an IAM user for CSM
and an IAM role for PCG? [yes/no]

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c Enter a name for the IAM user when asked What do you want to name the IAM User?

Note The IAM user name must be unique in your AWS account.

d Enter no when asked Do you want to add trust relationship for any Transit VPC account?
[yes/no]

When the script runs successfully, the IAM profile and a role for PCG is created in your
AWS account. The values are saved in the output file named aws_details.txt in the same
directory where you ran the script. Next, follow instructions at Add your AWS Account
in CSM and then Deploy PCG in a VPC to finish the process of setting up a Transit or
Self-Managed VPC.

u Scenario 2: You want to use multiple sub-accounts in AWS that are managed by one master
AWS account.

a Run the script from your AWS master account.

bash nsx_csm_iam_script.sh

b Enter yes when prompted with the question Do you want to create an IAM user for CSM
and an IAM role for PCG? [yes/no]

c Enter a name for the IAM user when asked What do you want to name the IAM User?

Note The IAM user name must be unique in your AWS account.

d Enter no when asked Do you want to add trust relationship for any Transit VPC account?
[yes/no]

Note With a master AWS account, if your Transit VPC has permission to view Compute
VPCs in the sub-accounts, you do not need to establish a trust relationship with your
sub-accounts. If not, follow the steps for Scenario 3 to set up multiple accounts.

When the script runs successfully, the IAM profile and a role for PCG is created in your AWS
master account. The values are saved in the output file in the same directory where you
ran the script. The filename is aws_details.txt. Next, follow instructions at Add your AWS
Account in CSM and then Deploy PCG in a VPC to finish the process of setting up a Transit or
Self-Managed VPC.

u Scenario 3: You want to use multiple AWS accounts with NSX Cloud, designating one
account for Transit VPC and other accounts for Compute VPCs. See Deploy the NSX Public
Cloud Gateway for details on PCG deployment options.

a Make a note of the 12-digit AWS account number where you want to host the Transit
VPC.

b Set up the Transit VPC in the AWS account by following steps a through d for Scenario 1
and finish the process of adding the account in CSM.

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c Download and run the NSX Cloud script from a Linux or compatible system in your other
AWS account where you want to host the Compute VPCs. Alternatively, you can use
AWS profiles with different account credentials to use the same system to run the script
again for your other AWS account.

d The script poses the question: Do you want to create an IAM user for CSM and an IAM role
for PCG? [yes/no]. Use the following guidance for the appropriate response:

This AWS account was already Enter no in response to Do you want to create an IAM user for CSM and an
added to CSM. IAM role for PCG? [yes/no]

This account has not been Enter yes in response to Do you want to create an IAM user for CSM and
added to CSM before. an IAM role for PCG? [yes/no]

e (Optional) If you answered yes to creating an IAM user for CSM and PCG in the previous
question, enter a name for the IAM user when asked What do you want to name the IAM
User?. The IAM user name must be unique in your AWS account.

f Enter yes when asked Do you want to add trust relationship for any Transit VPC
account? [yes/no]

g Enter or copy-paste the 12-digit AWS account number that you noted in step 1 when
asked What is the Transit VPC account number?

An IAM Trust Relationship is established between the two AWS accounts and an
ExternalID is generated by the script.

When the script runs successfully, the IAM profile and a role for PCG is created in your AWS
master account. The values are saved in the output file in the same directory where you ran
the script. The filename is aws_details.txt. Next, follow instructions at Add your AWS Account
in CSM and then Link to a Transit VPC or VNet to finish the process of linking to a Transit
VPC.

Add your AWS Account in CSM

Add your AWS account using values generated by the script.

Procedure

1 Log in to CSM using the Enterprise Administrator role.

2 Go to CSM > Clouds > AWS.

3 Click +Add and enter the following details using the output file aws_details.txt generated
from the NSX Cloud script:

Option Description

Name Enter a descriptive name for this AWS Account

Access Key Enter your account's Access Key

Secret Key Enter your account's Secret Key

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Option Description

Discover Cloud Tags By default this option is enabled and allows your AWS tags to be visible in
NSX Manager

Gateway Role Name The default value is nsx_pcg_service. You can find this value in the output
of the script in the file aws_details.txt.

The AWS account gets added in CSM.

In the VPCs tab of CSM, you can view all the VPCs in your AWS account.

In the Instances tab of CSM, you can view the EC2 Instances in this VPC.

4 Whitelist all the VMs in the VPC where you want VMs managed. This is not required, but
highly recommended for brownfield deployments because of Quarantine Policy impact when
changed from disabled to enabled.

What to do next

Deploy PCG in a VPC

Deploy the NSX Public Cloud Gateway

The NSX Public Cloud Gateway (PCG) provides north-south connectivity between the public
cloud and the on-prem management components of NSX-T Data Center.

Familiarize yourself with the following terminology explaining the PCG's architecture and
deployment modes for workload VM-management.

Note The PCG is deployed in a single default size for each supported public cloud:

Public Cloud PCG instance type

AWS c5.xlarge.
Some regions might not support this instance type. Refer to AWS documentation for
details.

Microsoft Azure Standard DS3 v.2

Architecture
The PCG can either be a standalone gateway appliance or shared between your public cloud
VPCs or VNets to achieve a hub and spoke topology.

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Figure 12-2. NSX Public Cloud Gateway Architecture

Internet Internet

Express Route/
Optional
Direct Connect
Private Cloud or Site to Site VPN Transit VPC/VNet
over internet or
over Internet Web1 Web2
Gateway (IGW)

NSX Manager Cluster NSX NSX

NSX CSM
Infra Management Uplink Subnet
Subnet Firewall
(optional)

PCG Management
Firewall Subnet
(optional)
Downlink Subnet

on-prem <150 ms RT NSX NSX

latency App DB

Hypervisors Hypervisors

Customer Data-Center Public Cloud Region

Modes of Deployment
Self-managed VPC/VNet: When you deploy the PCG in a VPC or VNet, it qualifies the VPC
or VNet as self-managed, that is, you can bring VMs hosted in this VPC or VNet under NSX
management.

Transit VPC/VNet: A self-managed VPC/VNet becomes a Transit VPC/VNet when you link
Compute VPCs/VNets to it.

Compute VPC/VNet: VPCs/VNets that do not have the PCG deployed on them but link to a
Transit VPC/VNet are called Compute VPCs/VNets.

Subnets Required in Your VPC/VNet to deploy PCG

The PCG uses the following subnets that you set up in your VPC/VNet. See Connect Microsoft
Azure with On-prem NSX-T Data Center or Connect AWS with On-prem NSX-T Data Center .

n Management subnet: This subnet is used for management traffic between on-prem NSX-T
Data Center and PCG. Example range: /28.

n Uplink subnet: This subnet is used for north-south internet traffic. Example range: /24.

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n Downlink subnet: This subnet encompasses the workload VM's IP address range. Size this
subnet bearing in mind that you might need additional interfaces on the workload VMs for
debugging.

PCG deployment aligns with your network addressing plan with FQDNs for the NSX-T Data
Center components and a DNS server that can resolve these FQDNs.

Note It is not recommended to use IP addresses for connecting the public cloud with NSX-T
Data Center using PCG, but if you do, you must not change your IP addresses.

Modes of VM-Management
NSX Enforced Mode: In this mode, workload VMs are brought under NSX management by
installing NSX Tools on each workload VM to which you apply the tag nsx.network=default
in your public cloud.

Native Cloud Enforced Mode: In this mode, your workload VMs can be brought under NSX
management without the use of NSX Tools.

Quarantine Policy
Quarantine Policy: NSX Cloud's threat detection feature that works with your public cloud
security groups.

n In the NSX Enforced Mode, you can enable or disable Quarantine Policy. As a best practice,
disable Quarantine Policy and whitelist all your VMs when onboarding workload VMs.

n In the Native Cloud Enforced Mode Quarantine Policy is always enabled and cannot be
disabled.

Possible Design Options

Regardless of the mode you deploy the PCG in, you can link a Compute VPC/VNet to it in either
mode.

Table 12-3. Possible Design Options with PCG Deployment Modes

Possible Modes when linking a Compute VPCs/VNets to
PCG Deployment Mode in Transit VPC/VNet this Transit VPC/VNet

NSX Enforced Mode n NSX Enforced Mode

n Native Cloud Enforced Mode

Native Cloud Enforced Mode n NSX Enforced Mode

n Native Cloud Enforced Mode

Note Once a mode is selected for a Transit or Compute VPC/VNet, you cannot change the
mode. If you want to switch modes, you must undeploy the PCG and redeploy it in the desired
mode.

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Deploying PCG in a VNet

Ensure the VNet is connected with your on-prem NSX-T Data Center before deploying PCG.

Connect Microsoft Azure with On-prem NSX-T Data Center

A connection must be established between your Microsoft Azure network and your on-prem
NSX-T Data Center appliances.

Note You must have already installed and connected NSX Manager with CSM in your on-prem
deployment.

Overview
n Connect your Microsoft Azure subscription with on-prem NSX-T Data Center.

n Configure your VNets with the necessary CIDR blocks and subnets required by NSX Cloud.

n Synchronize time on the CSM appliance with the Microsoft Azure Storage server or NTP.

Connect your Microsoft Azure subscription with on-prem NSX-T Data Center

Every public cloud provides options to connect with an on-premises deployment. You can
choose any of the available connectivity options that suit your requirements. Refer to Microsoft
Azure Reference documentation for details.

Note You must review and implement the applicable security considerations and best practices
by Microsoft Azure, for example, all privileged user accounts accessing the Microsoft Azure
portal or API should have Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) enabled. MFA ensures only a
legitimate user can access the portal and reduces the likelihood of access even if credentials are
stolen or leaked. For more information and recommendations, refer to Microsoft Azure Security
Center Documentation.

Configure your VNet

In Microsoft Azure, create routable CIDR blocks and set up the required subnets.

n One management subnet with a recommended range of at least /28, to handle:

n control traffic to on-prem appliances

n API traffic to cloud-provider API endpoints

n One downlink subnet with a recommended range of /24, for the workload VMs.

n One, or two for HA, uplink subnets with a recommended range of /24, for routing of north-
south traffic leaving from or entering the VNet.

See Deploy the NSX Public Cloud Gateway for details on how these subnets are used.

Deploy PCG in a VNet

Follow these instructions to deploy PCG in your Microsoft Azure VNet.

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The VNet in which you deploy a PCG can act as a Transit VNet to which other VNets can connect
(known as Compute VNets). This VNet can also manage VMs and act as a self-managed VNet.

Follow these instructions to deploy a PCG. If you want to link to an existing Transit VNet, see Link
to a Transit VPC or VNet .

Prerequisites

n Your public cloud accounts must be already added into CSM.

n The VNet on which you are deploying PCG must have the required subnets appropriately
adjusted for High Availability: uplink, downlink, and management.

Procedure

1 Log in to CSM using an account with the Enterprise Administrator role.

2 Click Clouds > Azure and go to the VNets tab.

3 Click a VNet where you want to deploy the PCG.

4 Click Deploy Gateways. The Deploy Gateway wizard opens.

5 For General Properties, use the following guidelines:

Option Description

SSH Public Key Provide an SSH public key that can be validated while deploying PCG. This is
required for each PCG deployment.

Quarantine Policy on the Associated You can only change the Quarantine Policy setting if you choose to manage
VNet workload VMs using NSX Tools (NSX Enforced Mode). Quarantine Policy is
always enabled in the Native Cloud Enforced Mode.
Leave this in the default disabled mode when you first deploy PCG. You can
change this value after onboarding VMs. See Manage Quarantine Policy in
the NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide for details.

Manage with NSX Tools Leave in the default disabled state to onboard workload VMs in the Native
Cloud Enforced Mode. If you want to install NSX Tools on your workload
VMs to use the NSX Enforced Mode, enable this option.

Auto-install NSX Tools This is only available when you enable Manage with NSX Tools. If selected,
NSX Tools are auto-installed on all workload VMs in the Transit/Self-
managed/linked Compute VNet if the tag nsx.network=default is applied
to them.

Local Storage Account When you add a Microsoft Azure subscription to CSM, a list of your
Microsoft Azure Storage Accounts is available to CSM. Select the Storage
Account from the drop-down menu. When proceeding with deploying PCG,
CSM copies the publicly available VHD of the PCG into this Storage Account
of the selected region.

Note If the VHD image has been copied to this storage account in the
region already for a previous PCG deployment, then the image is used from
this location for subsequent deployments to reduce the overall deployment
time.

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Option Description

VHD URL If you want to use a different PCG image that is not available from the public
VMware repository, you can enter the URL of the PCG’s VHD here. The VHD
must be present in the same account and region where this VNet is created.

Note The VHD must be in the correct URL format. We recommend that you
use the Click to copy option in Microsoft Azure.

Proxy Server Select a proxy server to use for internet-bound traffic from this PCG. The
proxy servers are configured in CSM. You can select the same proxy server
as CSM if one, or select a different proxy server from CSM, or select No
Proxy Server.
See (Optional) Configure Proxy Servers for details on how to configure
proxy servers in CSM.

Advanced The advanced DNS settings provide flexibility in selecting DNS servers for
resolving NSX-T Data Center management components.

Obtain via Public Cloud Provider's Select this option if you want to use Microsoft Azure DNS settings. This is
DHCP the default DNS setting if you do not pick either of the options to override it.

Override Public Cloud Provider's Select this option if you want to manually provide the IP address of one or
DNS Server more DNS servers to resolve NSX-T Data Center appliances as well as the
workload VMs in this VNet.

Use Public Cloud Provider's DNS Select this option if you want to use the Microsoft Azure DNS server
server only for NSX-T Data Center for resolving the NSX-T Data Center management components. With this
Appliances setting, you can use two DNS servers: one for PCG that resolves NSX-T Data
Center appliances; the other for the VNet that resolves your workload VMs
in this VNet.

6 Click Next.

7 For Subnets, use the following guidelines:

Option Description

Enable HA for NSX Cloud Gateway Select this option to enable High Availability.

Subnets Select this option to enable High Availability.

Public IP on Mgmt NIC Select Allocate New IP address to provide a public IP address to the
management NIC. You can manually provide the public IP address if you
want to reuse a free public IP address.

Public IP on Uplink NIC Select Allocate New IP address to provide a public IP address to the uplink
NIC. You can manually provide the public IP address if you want to reuse a
free public IP address.

What to do next

Follow instructions at "Using NSX Cloud" in the NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide.

Deploying PCG in a VPC

Ensure the VPC is connected with your on-prem NSX-T Data Center before deploying PCG.

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Connect AWS with On-prem NSX-T Data Center

A connection must be established between your Amazon Web Services (AWS) network and your
on-prem NSX-T Data Center appliances.

Note You must have already installed and connected NSX Manager with CSM in your on-prem
deployment.

Overview

n Connect your AWS account with on-prem NSX Manager appliances using any of the available
options that best suit your requirements.

n Configure your VPC with subnets and other requirements for NSX Cloud.

Connect your AWS account with your on-prem NSX-T Data Center deployment

Every public cloud provides options to connect with an on-premises deployment. You can
choose any of the available connectivity options that suit your requirements. Refer to AWS
Reference Documentation for details.

Note You must review and implement the applicable security considerations and best practices
by AWS; refer to AWS Security Best Practices for details.

Configure your VPC

You need the following configurations:

n six subnets for supporting PCG with High Availability

n an Internet gateway (IGW)

n a private and a public route table

n subnet association with route tables

n DNS resolution and DNS hostnames enabled

Follow these guidelines to configure your VPC:

1 Assuming your VPC uses a /16 network, for each gateway that needs to be deployed, set up
three subnets.

Important If using High Availability, set up three additional subnets in a different Availability
Zone.

n Management subnet: This subnet is used for management traffic between on-prem NSX-
T Data Center and PCG. The recommended range is /28.

n Uplink subnet: This subnet is used for north-south internet traffic. The recommended
range is /24.

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n Downlink subnet: This subnet encompasses the workload VM's IP address range, and
should be sized accordingly. Bear in mind that you may need to incorporate additional
interfaces on the workload VMs for debugging purposes.

Note Label the subnets appropriately, for example, management-subnet, uplink-subnet,

downlink-subnet,because you will need to select the subnets when deploying PCG on this
VPC.

See Deploy the NSX Public Cloud Gateway for details.

2 Ensure you have an Internet gateway (IGW) that is attached to this VPC.

3 Ensure the routing table for the VPC has the Destination set to 0.0.0.0/0 and the Target is
the IGW attached to the VPC.

4 Ensure you have DNS resolution and DNS hostnames enabled for this VPC.

Deploy PCG in a VPC

Follow these instructions to deploy PCG in your AWS VPC.

The VPC in which you deploy a PCG can act as a Transit VPC to which other VPCs can connect
(known as Compute VPCs). This VPC can also manage VMs and act as a self-managed VPC.

Follow these instructions to deploy a PCG. If you want to link to an existing Transit VPC, see Link
to a Transit VPC or VNet .

Prerequisites

n Your public cloud accounts must be already added into CSM.

n The VPC on which you are deploying PCG must have the required subnets appropriately
adjusted for High Availability: uplink, downlink, and management.

n The configuration for your VPC's network ACL must include an ALLOW inbound rule.

Procedure

1 Log in to CSM using an account with the Enterprise Administrator role.

2 Click Clouds > AWS > <AWS_account_name> and go to the VPCs tab.

3 In the VPCs tab, select an AWS region name, for example, us-west. The AWS region must be
the same where you created the compute VPC.

4 Select a VPC configured for NSX Cloud.

5 Click Deploy Gateways.

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6 Complete the general gateway details:

Option Description

PEM File Select one of your PEM files from the drop-down menu. This file must be
in the same region where NSX Cloud was deployed and where you created
your compute VPC.
This uniquely identifies your AWS account.

Quarantine Policy on the Associated You can only change the Quarantine Policy setting if you choose to manage
VPC workload VMs using NSX Tools (NSX Enforced Mode). Quarantine Policy is
always enabled in the Native Cloud Enforced Mode
Leave this in the default disabled mode when you first deploy PCG. You can
change this value after onboarding VMs. See Manage Quarantine Policy in
the NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide for details.

Manage with NSX Tools Leave in the default disabled state to onboard workload VMs in the Native
Cloud Enforced Mode. If you want to install NSX Tools on your workload
VMs to use the NSX Enforced Mode, enable this option.

Proxy Server Select a proxy server to use for internet-bound traffic from this PCG. The
proxy servers are configured in CSM. You can select the same proxy server
as CSM if one, or select a different proxy server from CSM, or select No
Proxy Server.
See (Optional) Configure Proxy Servers for details on how to configure
proxy servers in CSM.

Advanced The advanced settings provide extra options if required.

Override AMI ID Use this advanced feature to provide a different AMI ID for the PCG from the
one that is available in your AWS account.

Obtain via Public Cloud Provider's Select this option if you want to use AWS settings. This is the default DNS
DHCP setting if you do not pick either of the options to override it.

Override Public Cloud Provider's Select this option if you want to manually provide the IP address of one or
DNS Server more DNS servers to resolve NSX-T Data Center appliances as well as the
workload VMs in this VPC.

Use Public Cloud Provider's DNS Select this option if you want to use the AWS DNS server for resolving the
server only for NSX-T Data Center NSX-T Data Center management components. With this setting, you can use
Appliances two DNS servers: one for PCG that resolves NSX-T Data Center appliances;
the other for the VPC that resolves your workload VMs in this VPC.

7 Click Next.

8 Complete the Subnet details.

Option Description

Enable HA for Public Cloud Gateway The recommended setting is Enable, that sets up a High Availability Active/
Standby pair to avoid an unscheduled downtime.

Primary gateway settings Select an Availability Zone such as us-west-1a, from the drop-down menu
as the primary gateway for HA.
Assign the uplink, downlink, and management subnets from the drop-down
menu.

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Option Description

Secondary gateway settings Select another Availability Zone such as us-west-1b, from the drop-down
menu as the secondary gateway for HA.
The secondary gateway is used when the primary gateway fails.
Assign the uplink, downlink, and management subnets from the drop-down
menu.

Public IP on Mgmt NIC Select Allocate New IP address to provide a public IP address to the
management NIC. You can manually provide the public IP address if you
want to reuse a free public IP address.

Public IP on Uplink NIC Select Allocate New IP address to provide a public IP address to the uplink
NIC. You can manually provide the public IP address if you want to reuse a
free public IP address.

Click Deploy.

9 Monitor the status of the primary (and secondary, if you selected it) PCG deployment. This
process can take 10-12 minutes.

10 Click Finish when PCG is successfully deployed.

What to do next

Follow instructions at "Using NSX Cloud" in the NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide.

Link to a Transit VPC or VNet

You can link one or more compute VPCs or VNets to a Transit VPC or VNet.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you have a Transit VPC or VNet with a PCG.

n Verify that the VPC/VNet you want to link is connected to the Transit VPC or VNet through
VPN or peering.

n Verify that the Compute VPC/VNet is in the same region as the Transit VPC/VNet.

Note In route-based IPSec VPN configuration, you must specify the IP address for the virtual
tunnel interface (VTI) port. This IP must be in a different subnet than workload VMs. This prevents
workload VM inbound traffic from being directed to the VTI port, from which it will be dropped.

Note In the public cloud, a default limit exists for the number of inbound/outbound rules per
security group and NSX Cloud creates default security groups. This affects how many Compute
VPCs/VNets can be linked to a Transit VPC/VNet. Assuming 1 CIDR block per VPC/VNet, NSX
Cloud supports 10 Compute VPCs/VNets per Transit VPC/VNet. If you have more than 1 CIDR in
any Compute VPC/VNet, the number of supported Compute VPCs/VNets per Transit VPC/VNet
reduces. You can adjust the default limits by reaching out to your public cloud provider.

Procedure

1 Log in to CSM using an account with the Enterprise Administrator role.

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2 Click Clouds > AWS / Azure > <public cloud_account_name> and go to the VPCs / VNets
tab.

3 In the VPCs or VNets tab, select a region name where you are hosting one or more compute
VPCs or VNets.

4 Select a compute VPC/VNet configured for NSX Cloud.

5 Click LINK TO TRANSIT VPC or LINK TO TRANSIT VNET

6 Complete the options in the Link Transit VPC or VNet window:

Option Description

Transit VPC or VNet Select a Transit VPC or VNet from the dropdown menu. The Transit VPC
or VNet you select must be already linked with this VPC by way of VPN or
peering.

Note If connecting to a Transit VNet, you must have a DNS forwarder

configured in that VNet and the tag nsx.dnsserver=<IP address of
the DNS forwarder> applied to the Transit VNet. See Microsoft Azure
documentation for information on setting up the DNS forwarder.

Default Quarantine Policy Leave this in the default disabled mode when you first deploy PCG. You can
change this value after onboarding VMs. See Manage Quarantine Policy in
the NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide for details.

Manage with NSX Tools Leave in the default disabled state to onboard workload VMs in the Native
Cloud Enforced Mode. If you want to install NSX Tools on your workload
VMs to use the NSX Enforced Mode, enable this option.

Auto-install NSX Tools This is only available when you choose to manage with NSX Tools and only
for Microsoft Azure VNets. If selected, NSX Tools are auto-installed on all
workload VMs in the Transit/Self-managed/linked Compute VNet if the tag
nsx.network=default is applied to them.

What to do next

Follow instructions at Using NSX Cloud in the NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide.

Auto-Configurations after PCG Deployment or Linking

The deployment of PCG in a Transit VPC/VNet and linking a compute VPC/VNet to it triggers
necessary configurations in NSX-T Data Center and the public cloud.

Auto-created NSX-T Logical Entities

A set of logical entities are auto-created in NSX Manager.

Log in to NSX Manager to view the auto-created logical entities.

Important Do not delete any of these auto-created entities except if you are manually
undeploying PCG. See Troubleshooting PCG Undeployment for details.

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System Entities
You can see the following entities under the System tab:

Table 12-4. Auto-Created System Entities

Logical System Entity How many are created? Nomenclature Scope

Transport Zones Two Transport Zones are n TZ-<VPC/VNet-ID>- Scope: Global

created for each Transit OVERLAY
VPC/VNet n TZ-<VPC/VNet-ID>-
VLAN

Edge Transport Nodes One Edge Transport n PublicCloudGateway Scope: Global

Node is created for TN-<VPC/VNET-ID>
each deployed PCG, n PublicCloudGateway
two if deployed in high TN-<VPC/VNET-ID>-
availability mode. preferred

Edge Cluster One Edge Cluster is PCG-cluster-<VPC/VNet- Scope: Global

created per deployed ID>
PCG, whether one or in a
high availability pair.

Inventory Entities
The following entities are available under the Inventory tab:

Table 12-5. Groups

Groups Scope

Two Groups named: Scope: Shared across all PCGs

n cloud-default-route
n cloud-metadata services

One Group created at the Transit VPC/VNet level as Scope: shared across all Compute VPCs/VNets
a parent Group for individual segments created at the
Compute VPC/VNet level. cloud-<Transit VPC/VNet
ID>-all-segments

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Table 12-5. Groups (continued)

Groups Scope

Two Groups for each Compute VPC/VNet: Scope: shared across all Compute VPC/VNets
n Network CIDR Group for all CIDRs of the Compute
VPC/VNet: cloud-<Compute VPC/VNet ID>-cidr
n Local Segment Group for all managed segments
within the Compute VPC/VNet:cloud-<Compute VPC/
VNet ID>-local-segments

The following Groups are created for the currently Scope: Shared across all PCGs
supported public cloud services:
n aws-dynamo-db-service-endpoint
n aws-elb-service-endpoint
n aws-rds-service-endpoint
n aws-s3-service-endpoint
n azure-cosmos-db-service-endpoint
n azure-load-balancer-service-endpoint
n azure-sql-service-endpoint
n azure-storage-service-endpoint

Note For PCGs deployed or linked to in the Native Cloud Enforced Mode, all the workload VMs
in the VPC/VNet become available under Virtual Machines in NSX Manager.

Security Entities
The following entities are available under the Security tab:

Table 12-6. Auto-Created Security Entities

Logical Security Entity How many are created? Nomenclature Scope

Distributed Firewall (East- Two per Transit VPC/VNet: n cloud-stateless-<VPC/ n Stateful rule to allow
West) n Stateless VNet ID> traffic within local
n cloud-stateful-<VPC/ managed segments
n Stateful
VNet ID> n Stateful rule to reject
traffic from unmanaged
VMs

Gateway Firewall (North- One per Transit VPC/VNet cloud-<Transit VPC/VNet

South) ID>

Networking Entities
The following entities are created at different stages of onboarding and can be found under the
Networking tab:

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Figure 12-3. Auto-created NSX-T Data Center Networking Entities After PCG is Deployed

NSX-T Data Center Public Cloud

One Tier 0 Gateway

created when PCG Transit
is deployed in the VPC/VNet
Transit VPC/VNet

One Tier 1 Gateway

created for a
self-managedTransit Transit Transit
VPC/VNet and for each VPC/VNet VPC/VNet
compute VPC/VNet
linked to Transit
One Segment created
for the subnet in the
VPC/VNet in which
a workload VM Subnet 1 Subnet 2 Subnet 1 Subnet 2
is tagged with
nsx.network=default

One Segment Port

created each time a
workload VM is VM1 VM2 VM3 VM1 VM2 VM3
onboarded in the same
subnet in the VPC/VNet

Table 12-7. Auto-Created Networking Entities

Logical Entities Created in
Onboarding Task NSX-T Data Center

PCG deployed on Transit VPC/VNet n Tier-0 Gateway

n Infra Segment (Default
VLAN switch)
n Tier-1 router

Compute VPC or VNet linked to the Transit VPC/VNet n Tier-1 router

A workload VM with the NSX agent installed on it is tagged with the n A Segment is created for
"nsx.network:default" key:value in a subnet of a compute or self-managed VPC/VNet this specific subnet of the
compute or self-managed
VPC or VNet
n Hybrid ports are created
for each tagged workload
VM that has the NSX
agent installed on it

More workload VMs are tagged in the same subnet of the Compute or self-managed n Hybrid ports are created
VPC/VNet for each tagged workload
VM that has the NSX
agent installed on it

Forwarding Policies

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The following three forwarding rules are set up for a Compute VPC/VNet, including Self-managed
Transit VPC/VNet:

n Access any CIDR of the same Compute VPC over the public cloud's network (underlay)

n Route traffic pertaining to public cloud metadata services over the public cloud's network
(underlay)

n Route everything not in the Compute VPC/VNet's CIDR block, or a known service, through
the NSX-T Data Center network (overlay)

Auto-created Public Cloud Configurations

In your public clouds, some configurations are set up automatically after you deploy PCG.

Some auto configurations are common to all public clouds and both NSX management modes.
Other configurations are specific to either the public cloud or the NSX management mode.

Specific to AWS
The following are specific to AWS:

n In the AWS VPC, a new Type A Record Set gets added with the name nsx-gw.vmware.local
into a private hosted zone in Amazon Route 53. The IP address mapped to this record
matches the Management IP address of the PCG which is assigned by AWS using DHCP and
will differ for each VPC. This DNS entry in the private hosted zone in Amazon Route 53 is
used by NSX Cloud to resolve the PCG's IP address.

Note When you use custom DNS domain names defined in a private hosted zone in Amazon
Route 53, the DNS Resolution and DNS Hostnames attributes must be set to Yes for your
VPC settings in AWS.

n A secondary IP for the uplink interface for PCG is created. An AWS Elastic IP is associated
with this secondary IP address. This configuration is for SNAT.

Specific to Microsoft Azure

The following are specific to Microsoft Azure:

n A common Resource Group is created per region, per subscription. It is named like: nsx-
default-<region-name>-rg, for example: nsx-default-westus-rg. All VNets in this region
share this Resource Group. This Resource Group and all the NSX-created security groups
named like default-<vnet-ID>-sg are not deleted from the Microsoft Azure region after you
off-board a VNet in this region from NSX Cloud.

Common to both modes and all public clouds

The following are created in all public clouds and for both NSX-management modes: NSX
Enforced Mode and Native Cloud Enforced Mode:

n The gw security groups are applied to the respective PCG interfaces in VPCs or VNets.

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Table 12-8. Public Cloud Security Groups created by NSX Cloud for PCG interfaces

Security Group name Description

gw-mgmt-sg Gateway Management Security Group

gw-uplink-sg Gateway Uplink Security Group

gw-vtep-sg Gateway Downlink Security Group

Specific to Native Cloud Enforced Mode

The following security groups are created when the PCG is deployed in the Native Cloud
Enforced Mode.

After workload VMs are matched with groups and corresponding security policies in NSX
Manager, security groups named like nsx-<GUID> are created in the public cloud for each
matching security policy.

Note In AWS, Security Groups are created. In Microsoft Azure, Application Security Groups
are created corresponding to Groups in NSX Manager and Network Security Groups are created
corresponding to Security Policies in NSX Manager.

Security Group
name Available in Microsoft Azure? Available in AWS? Description

default-vnet-<vnet- Yes No NSX Cloud-created security

id>-sg group in the common
Microsoft Azure Resource
Group for assigning to VMs
that are not matched with a
security policy in NSX-T Data
Center.

default No Yes An existing security group in

AWS used by NSX Cloud for
assigning to VMs that are
not matched with a security
policy in NSX-T Data Center.

vm-overlay-sg Yes Yes VM overlay security group

(this is not used in the current
release)

Specific to NSX Enforced Mode

The following security groups are created for workload VMs when you deploy PCG in the NSX
Enforced Mode.

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Table 12-9. Public Cloud Security Groups created by NSX Cloud for Workload VMs in the NSX
Enforced Mode
Security Group
name Available in Microsoft Azure? Available in AWS? Description

default-vnet-<vnet- Yes No NSX Cloud-created security

id>-sg group in Microsoft Azure for
threat-detection workflows in
the NSX Enforced Mode

default No Yes An existing security group in

AWS used by NSX Cloud for
threat-detection workflows in
the NSX Enforced Mode

vm-underlay-sg Yes Yes VM underlay security group

vm-overlay-sg Yes Yes VM overlay security group

(this is not used in the current
release)

(Optional) Install NSX Tools on your Workload VMs

If you are using the NSX Enforced Mode, proceed to installing NSX Tools in your workload VMs.

See instructions and further details at "Onboarding VMs in the NSX Enforced Mode" in the NSX-T
Data Center Administration Guide.

Undeploy or Unlink PCG

You can undeploy or unlink PCG after you have removed some NSX Cloud configurations.

In the NSX Enforced Mode

n Remove the nsx.network=default tag from NSX-managed workload VMs.

n Disable the Quarantine Policy if it is enabled.

n Delete all user-created logical entities associated with the PCG.

In the Native Cloud Enforced Mode

n Delete all user-created logical entities associated with the PCG.

Follow the steps relevant to the NSX management mode your PCG is deployed in.

Procedure

1 Remove the nsx.network tag in the Public Cloud

Before you can undeploy PCG, all VMs must be unmanaged.

2 Disable Quarantine Policy in the NSX Enforced Mode

If using the NSX Enforced Mode you must disable Quarantine Policy if previously enabled. .

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3 Delete User-created Logical Entities

All user-created logical entities associated with the PCG must be deleted.

4 Undeploy or Unlink from CSM

Follow these instructions to undeploy or unlink PCG after completing the prerequisites.

5 Troubleshooting PCG Undeployment

If PCG undeployment fails, you have to manually delete all the NSX Cloud-created entities in
NSX Manager as well as in the public cloud.

Remove the nsx.network tag in the Public Cloud

Before you can undeploy PCG, all VMs must be unmanaged.

Note This is only applicable in the NSX Enforced Mode.

Go to the VPC or VNet in your public cloud and remove the nsx.network=default tag from the
managed VMs.

Disable Quarantine Policy in the NSX Enforced Mode

If using the NSX Enforced Mode you must disable Quarantine Policy if previously enabled. .

This step is only applicable to the NSX Enforced Mode.

With Quarantine Policy enabled, your VMs are assigned security groups in your public cloud that
are defined by NSX Cloud.

When you undeploy PCG, you must disable Quarantine Policy. Follow these steps: :

1 Go to the VPC or VNet in CSM.

2 From Actions > Edit Configurations >, turn off the setting for Default Quarantine .

3 All VMs that are unmanaged or quarantined in this VPC or VNet will be assigned to the
default security group in AWS and the default-vnet-<vnet-id>-sg security group in
Microsoft Azure.

4 If there are managed VMs while disabling Quarantine Policy, they retain their NSX Cloud-
assigned security groups. The first time you remove the nsx.network=default tag from such
VMs to take them out from NSX management, they are also assigned to the default security
group in AWS and the default-vnet-<vnet-id>-sg security group in Microsoft Azure.

Note The common Resource Group created in Microsoft Azure, that is named like: nsx-
default-<region-name>-rg, for example: nsx-default-westus-rg, is not removed when you
undeploy PCG. This Resource Group and all the NSX-created security groups named like
default-<vnet-ID>-sg are not deleted from the Microsoft Azure region. You can remove the
NSX Cloud-specific security group any time after the VNet is off-boarded.

See Auto-Configurations after PCG Deployment or Linking for a list of NSX Cloud security groups.

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Delete User-created Logical Entities

All user-created logical entities associated with the PCG must be deleted.

Identify entities which are associated with the PCG and delete them.

Note Do not delete the auto-created logical entities. These are deleted automatically after you
click Undeploy or Unlink from Transit VPC/VNet from CSM. See Auto-Configurations after PCG
Deployment or Linking for details.

Undeploy or Unlink from CSM

Follow these instructions to undeploy or unlink PCG after completing the prerequisites.

1 Log in to CSM and go to your public cloud:

n If using AWS, go to Clouds > AWS > VPCs. Click on the VPC on which one or a pair of
PCGs is deployed and running.

n If using Microsoft Azure, go to Clouds > Azure > VNets. Click on the VNet on which one
or a pair of PCGs is deployed and running.

2 Click Undeploy or Unlink from Transit VPC/VNet.

The default entities created by NSX Cloud are removed automatically when the PCG is
undeployed or unlinked.

Troubleshooting PCG Undeployment

If PCG undeployment fails, you have to manually delete all the NSX Cloud-created entities in NSX
Manager as well as in the public cloud.

n In your public cloud:

n Terminate all PCGs in the Transit VPC/VNet.

n Move all your workload VMs to a security group not created by NSX Cloud.

n Delete the NSX Cloud-created security groups in the public cloud as listed here: Auto-
created Public Cloud Configurations .

n For Microsoft Azure, also delete the NSX Cloud-created Resource Group named like nsx-
gw-<vnet ID>-rg.

n Resync your public cloud inventory in CSM.

n Delete the auto-created entities with the VPC/VNet ID in NSX Manager as listed here: Auto-
created NSX-T Logical Entities.

Note Do not delete the global entities that are auto-created. Only delete the ones that have
the VPC/VNet ID in their name.

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Getting Started with Federation
13
To get started with Federation, you install the Global Manager, configure the Global Manager as
active, and add locations.

Task Details

Check the requirements for Federation. See Federation Requirements.

Install the Global Manager. See Install the Global Manager.

Make the Global Manager cluster active. See Make the Global Manager Active.

Add Locations to the active Global Manager. See Add a Location .

For further configuration tasks, such as preparing Edge clusters for stretched networking,
and creating objects from the Global Manager, see Federation in the NSX-T Data Center
Administration Guide.

Procedure

1 Federation Requirements
To support Federation, your environment must meet various requirements, including round-
trip time, software versions, and ports.

2 Install the Global Manager

To use Federation, you must install the Global Manager.

3 Configuring the Global Manager and Local Managers

A Federation environment contains a Global Manager and one or more Local Manager
clusters.

Federation Requirements
To support Federation, your environment must meet various requirements, including round-trip
time, software versions, and ports.

n There must be a maximum round-trip time of 150 ms between the following nodes:

n Global Manager and Local Manager.

n Local Manager and remote Local Manager.

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n The Global Manager and Local Manager appliances must all have NSX-T Data Center 3.0.0
or 3.0.1 installed. All appliances in a Federation environment must have the same version
installed.

n The required ports must be open to allow communication between the Global Manager and
Local Managers. See VMware Ports and Protocols at https://ports.vmware.com/home/NSX-T-
Data-Center.

n There must be connectivity without NAT between the following nodes:

n Global Manager and Local Manager.

n Local Manager and remote Local Manager.

n Edge node RTEP and remote Edge node RTEP.

n Global Manager supports only Policy Mode. Federation does not support Manager Mode. See
NSX Manager for more information.

A Federation environment has the following configuration maximums:

n For most configurations, the Local Manager cluster has the same configuration maximums as
an NSX Manager cluster. Go to VMware Configuration Maximums tool and select NSX-T Data
Center.

Select the Federation category for NSX-T Data Center in the VMware Configuration
Maximums tool for exceptions and other Federation-specific values.

n For a given location, the following configurations contribute to the configuration maximum:

n Objects that were created on the Local Manager.

n Objects that were created on the Global Manager and include the location in its span.

You can view the capacity and usage on each Local Manager. See View the Usage and
Capacity of Categories of Objects in the NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide.

Install the Global Manager

To use Federation, you must install the Global Manager.

Installing a Global Manager appliance is similar to installing an NSX Manager appliance. The only
difference is that when you deploy the appliance, you select NSX Global Manager for the role.

If you are installing NSX-T Data Center 3.0.0, install one Global Manager appliance.

If you are installing NSX-T Data Center 3.0.1, install three Global Manager appliances and form a
cluster.

Important If you are deploying an NSX-T Data Center 3.0.0 appliance, do not configure the
Global Manager node to publish its FQDN. In NSX-T Data Center 3.0.0, you can restore a Global
Manager only from an IP address and not from an FQDN.

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Prerequisites

n Verify that your environment meets the requirements for NSX Manager. See NSX Manager
VM and Host Transport Node System Requirements.

n Decide which location will contain the Global Manager.

n Verify that you are installing the Global Manager appliance with NSX-T Data Center 3.0.0 or
later.

Important All Global Manager and Local Manager appliances in a Federation environment
must have the same version of NSX-T Data Center installed.

Procedure

1 Install the first Global Manager appliance.

n On vSphere: Install NSX Manager and Available Appliances.

n Select Medium or Large for the deployment configuration size. Do not use Small.

n Select NSX Global Manager for the Rolename.

n On KVM: Install NSX Manager on KVM.

n Deploy a medium appliance. For example: virt-install --import --ram 16000--vcpus

6.

n Select NSX Global Manager for the nsx_role.

2 Log in to the NSX Manager appliance.

See Log In to the Newly Created NSX Manager .

3 (Optional) If you are installing Global Manager on vSphere, configure a compute manager.

See Add a Compute Manager.

4 Create a Global Manager cluster if you are installing NSX-T Data Center 3.0.1.

n On vSphere with a compute manager configured: See Deploy NSX Manager Nodes to
Form a Cluster from the UI.

n On vSphere without a compute manager configured: Repeat the NSX Manager install
on vSphere steps to install three appliances, then form the cluster. See Form an NSX
Manager Cluster Using the CLI .

n On KVM: Repeat the NSX Manager install on KVM steps to install three appliances, then
form the cluster. See Form an NSX Manager Cluster Using the CLI .

5 If you installed Global Manager on vSphere, disable snapshots.

See Disable Snapshots on an NSX Appliance.

6 Configure a VIP for the Global Manager cluster.

See Configure a Virtual IP Address for a Cluster.

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Configuring the Global Manager and Local Managers

A Federation environment contains a Global Manager and one or more Local Manager clusters.

In NSX-T Data Center 3.0.0, you install a single Global Manager appliance.

In NSX-T Data Center 3.0.1 and later, you install a cluster of three Global Manager appliances.

Make the Global Manager Active

After you have deployed a Global Manager appliance, you can make the Global Manager active.

Procedure

1 Log in to the Global Manager appliance at https://global-manager-ip-or-fqdn/.

2 Select System > Location Manager. In the Global Manager tile, click Make Active. Provide a
descriptive name for the active Global Manager and click Save.

Add a Location
After you add a location to Global Manager, you can create objects from Global Manager that
span that location.

You can add up to three locations to a Global Manager.

Only use the admin account credentials to register the Local Manager with the Global Manager.

After you add a location to the Global Manager, the NSX Manager is called a Local Manager.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you have an NSX-T Data Center environment installed in the location you want to
add.

You can add a new NSX-T Data Center environment or an NSX-T Data Center environment
with an existing configuration.

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n The NSX-T Data Center environment in the new location must have three NSX Manager
nodes deployed and a cluster VIP configured. See Configure a Virtual IP Address for a
Cluster.

For a proof-of-concept environment, you can add a location that has only one NSX Manager
node, but you must still configure a cluster VIP.

n Verify that the latency between the Global Manager and the location is 150 ms or less.

n Verify that the environment you are adding has NSX-T Data Center 3.0 installed.

n If you are using VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition (formerly VMware
Enterprise PKS), you have to install the same certificate on all your NSX Manager nodes.
Currently you cannot change the certificates on NSX Manager nodes after you add the NSX
Manager to the Global Manager. Therefore, update the certificates on your NSX Manager
nodes before adding this location to the Global Manager, to ensure that you can use VMware
Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition with your NSX-T Data Center deployment, while
also using Federation. See "Certificates" in the NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide for
more information on certificates used in NSX-T Data Center and how to replace them.

Procedure

1 Log in to the Global Manager at https://global-manager-ip-or-fqdn/.

2 Select System > Location Manager and click Add On-Prem Location.

3 In the Add New Location dialog box, enter the Location details.

Option Description

Location Name Provide a name for the location.

FQDN/IP Enter the FQDN or IP address of the NSX Manager cluster VIP. Do not enter
an individual NSX Manager FQDN or IP.

Username and Password Provide the admin user's credentials for the NSX Manager at the location.
Do not use any other account to register the Local Manager with the Global
Manager.

SHA-256 Thumbprint Log in to any NSX Manager node in the cluster and run this command:

get certificate cluster thumbprint

The result is the cluster VIP certificate:

bfae1a0a...

Check Compatibility Click Check Compatibility to ensure that the location can be added. This
checks that the NSX-T Data Center version is compatible.

Importing Configurations from Local Manager

After you successfully add a location to the Global Manager, you can import your configurations
from that location's Local Manager appliance into the Global Manager.

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You can import your Local Manager configurations into the Global Manager at any time after
you have successfully added the Local Manager to the Global Manager. You can only import the
configurations once.

Local Manager Configurations supported for importing into Global Manager

n T0 Gateway

n T1 Gateway

n Firewall Security Policies

n Services

n Security Profiles

n Context Profiles

n Groups

n NAT

n DHCP

n DNS

n Gateway Profiles

Local Manager Configurations not supported for importing into Global Manager

The following features are not supported for Federation. Import of configurations into the
Global Manager is blocked if you have any of these configurations in your Local Manager.
You must remove unsupported configurations to proceed with importing. After your supported
Local Manager configurations are successfully imported into Global Manager, you can add the
configurations for any of the unsupported features back into your Local Manager.

n VPN

n IDS

n WAF

n VHC

n Service Insertion

n Guest Introspection

n Identity Firewall

n Forwarding Policies

n L2 Bridge

n Metadata Proxy

n T0 VRF

n Multicast

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n EVPN

n Timed-based Firewall

n Load Balancer

Note If you use a load balancer in the Local Manager, you cannot import the load balancer,
but you can still import other configurations if you meet certain conditions as described in
the section titled Importing Configurations if you have a Load Balancer service on the Local
Manager.

Importing Configurations if you have a Load Balancer service on the Local Manager

If your Local Manager has a load balancer service, you can import configurations except the load
balancer, if you meet the following conditions:

n The load balancer service must be in one-arm mode on a standalone tier-1 gateway.

n The standalone tier-1 gateway that the one-arm load balancer is attached to:

n must have only the load balancer service and no other services

n must not have any downlink segments

n must not share Gateway Firewall rules with any other tier-0 or tier-1 gateways.

n Groups used in load balancer service must not be used in any firewall rules. If you have
groups common to both load balancer and firewall rules, you must either remove the group
from the firewall rule or create an identical group to use with the load balancer.

Configurations created by a Principal Identity user in Local Manager

If you have configurations in the Local Manager that are created by the Principal Identity user
and the same Principal Identity user is not present in the Global Manager, import is blocked.

You have the following options for importing these entities:

n The system displays a list of Principal Identity usernames that are being used on the Local
Manager to create configurations. Create each of these Principal Identity users in the Global
Manager before proceeding to import.

n If you do not want to create Principal Identity usernames in Global Manager, remove all
configurations in the Local Manager that are created using the Principal Identity username.
You can then proceed with importing other configurations from the Local Manager.

Prerequisites

n The Local Manager appliance must be registered with the Global Manager.

n The Local Manager appliance must have a backup that you can restore in case the importing
procedure fails.

n You must remove configurations for unsupported features from your Local Manager
appliance. You are provided guidance in the UI on how to resolve importing conflicts.

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Procedure

1 Log in to the Global Manager and navigate to System > Location Manager .

2 A system message appears for each location that has been successfully added into the
Global Manager and has objects that can be imported.

3 Click Import Now from the system message. You can also import objects by clicking Actions
> Import from the location tile.

4 You see a list of objects that can be imported into the Global Manager.

a If there are naming conflicts, you can provide a prefix or suffix for configurations. The
total length of the object including the prefix and suffix must not exceed 256 characters.

The prefix or suffix is applied to the following objects being imported:

n Tier-0 gateway

n Tier-1 gateway

n Segments

n DNS Zones

n DHCP Profiles

n Switching Profiles: IPv6, VNI Pool, Gateway QoS, BFD, IPFIX

n Security Profiles: IPFIX, Flood-Protection, DNS Security, Session Timer, Context

Profiles

n L4-L7 Services (all services listed under Inventory > Services).

The prefix or suffix is not applied to inventory and firewall objects, that is: groups, firewall
policies and firewall rules, and to system-created profiles and services.

b For other conflicts, follow the guidance provided in the UI.

Results

Local Manager objects imported into the Global Manager are owned by the Global Manager and

appear in the Local Manager with this icon: . You can only modify these objects from the
Global Manager now.

Remove a Location
Removing a location from the Global Manager removes all objects created from the Global
Manager that have a Global scope and are not specific to this location.

Removing a location is disruptive.

All configurations created by the Global Manager that are not specific to this location, such as
groups and firewall sections with a Global scope, will be removed from the NSX Manager at this
location.

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Prerequisites

Before you remove a location, you must delete all objects created from the Global Manager that
are specific to this location, such as tier-0 gateway, or firewall policies.

Procedure

1 Log in to the Global Manager at https://global-manager-ip-or-fqdn/.

2 Navigate to System > Location Manager.

3 From the location that you want to remove, click Actions > Remove.

You see a message describing the effect of removing a location. If you have not previously
removed objects created from the Global Manager that are specific to this location,
such as tier-0 gateways or firewall policies, you cannot remove the location. The system
automatically removes all other configurations from the NSX Manager at this location, that
have a Global scope in your Federation deployment.

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from a Host Transport Node 14
The steps to uninstall NSX-T Data Center from a host transport node vary depending on the host
type and how it is configured.

n Verify Host Network Mappings for Uninstall

Before you uninstall NSX-T Data Center from an ESXi host, verify that you have appropriate
network mappings for uninstall configured. The mappings are required if the ESXi host has
VMkernel interfaces connected to N-VDS.

n Uninstall NSX-T Data Center from a vSphere Cluster

If you have installed NSX-T Data Center on a vSphere Cluster using transport node profiles,
you can follow these instructions to uninstall NSX-T Data Center from all hosts in the cluster.

n Uninstall NSX-T Data Center from a Host in a vSphere Cluster

You can uninstall NSX-T Data Center from a single host that is managed by vCenter Server.
The other hosts in the cluster are not affected.

n Uninstall NSX-T Data Center from a Standalone Host

You can uninstall NSX-T Data Center from a standalone host. Standalone hosts can be ESXi
or KVM.

n Triggering Uninstallation from the vSphere Web Client

In the vSphere Web Client. if you move a host from a cluster prepared with a transport node
profile to either another cluster, outside of the cluster as a standalone host, or outside of
the data center, then NSX-T Data Center is uninstalled on the host that is moved. Such an
uninstallation is not triggered when a host that is individually prepared with a transport node
configuration is moved.

Verify Host Network Mappings for Uninstall

Before you uninstall NSX-T Data Center from an ESXi host, verify that you have appropriate
network mappings for uninstall configured. The mappings are required if the ESXi host has
VMkernel interfaces connected to N-VDS.

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The uninstall mapping determines where the interfaces are connected after the uninstall. There
are uninstall mappings for physical interfaces (vmnicX) and VMkernel interfaces (vmkX). When
you uninstall, VMkernel interfaces are moved from their current connections to the port groups
specified in the uninstall mapping. If a physical interface is included in the uninstall mapping,
the physical interface is connected to the appropriate vSphere Distributed Switch or vSphere
Standard Switch based on the destination port group of the VMkernel interfaces.

Caution Uninstalling NSX-T Data Center from an ESXi host is disruptive if the physical interfaces
or VMkernel interfaces are connected to N-VDS. If the host or cluster is participating in other
applications such as vSAN, those applications might be affected by the uninstall.

There are two places that you can configure network mappings for uninstall.

n In the transport node configuration, which applies to that host.

n In a transport node profile configuration, which can then be applied to a cluster.

Note You must have a compute manager configured to apply a transport node profile to a
cluster.

If a compute manager is configured, a host can have both a transport node configuration and a
transport node profile configuration. The most recently applied configuration is active. Verify that
the network mappings for uninstall are correctly configured on the active configuration.

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.

In this example, the cluster cluster-1 has transport node profile TNP-1 applied to it. The host
tn-1 is displaying Configuration Mismatch. This mismatch message indicates that a different
configuration has been applied to tn-1 after the transport node profile was applied. Transport
node tn-2 uses the network mappings from the transport node profile, and transport node tn-1
uses its own configuration.

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Prerequisites

n Verify that you have appropriate port groups configured to use in the uninstall mapping.
You must use vSphere Distributed Switch ephemeral port groups or vSphere Standard Switch
port groups.

n Configure a compute manager if you want to use a vSphere Distributed Switch port group in
the uninstall mappings for a standalone ESXi host. See Add a Compute Manager. If there is no
compute manager configured, you must use a vSphere Standard Switch port group.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Nodes > Host Transport Nodes.

3 For each host (on N-VDS Switch) you want to uninstall, verify that the network mapping for
uninstall includes a port group for each VMkernel interface that is on N-VDS. Add any missing
mappings.

Important
n The port group in the network mapping for uninstall must be a vSphere Distributed Switch
ephemeral port group or a vSphere Standard Switch port group.

a To view VMkernel interfaces, log in vCenter Server, select the host, and click Configure >
VMkernel Adapters.

b If the transport node configuration is the active configuration, select the host and click
Edit (for standalone hosts) or Configure NSX (for managed hosts). Click Next, then
click Network Mappings for Uninstall. View the mappings in the VMKNic Mappings and
Physical NIC Mappings tabs.

c If the transport node profile is the active configuration, click the name of the transport
node profile for the cluster in the NSX Configuration column and click Edit. On the Host
Switch tab, click Network Mappings for Uninstall. View the mappings in the VMKNic
Mappings and Physical NIC Mappings tabs.

4 For each host (on a VDS Switch) you want to uninstall:

a As the NSX Manager UI does not allow you to configure network mapping for install or
uninstall when the host switch is vSphere Distributed Switch, ensure that you migrate
back any VMkernel adapters connected to NSX port groups to either a Distributed Virtual
port group or a VSS port group from vCenter Server. Uninstallation fails if there are any
VMkernel adapters attached to an NSX port groups on VDS.

Uninstall NSX-T Data Center from a vSphere Cluster

If you have installed NSX-T Data Center on a vSphere Cluster using transport node profiles, you
can follow these instructions to uninstall NSX-T Data Center from all hosts in the cluster.

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For more information on transport node profiles, see Add a Transport Node Profile.

Caution Uninstalling NSX-T Data Center from an ESXi host is disruptive if the physical interfaces
or VMkernel interfaces are connected to N-VDS. If the host or cluster is participating in other
applications such as vSAN, those applications might be affected by the uninstall.

If you have not used a transport node profile to install NSX-T Data Center, or if you want to
remove NSX-T Data Center from a subset of the hosts in the cluster, see Uninstall NSX-T Data
Center from a Host in a vSphere Cluster.

Note Follow these instructions to uninstall NSX-T Data Center from a host in a cluster: Uninstall
NSX-T Data Center from a Host in a vSphere Cluster.

Prerequisites

n If there are VMkernel adapters on the host that must be migrated to another switch during
uninstallation, ensure that the network uninstall mapping is configured. See Verify Host
Network Mappings for Uninstall.

n In vCenter Server, put the hosts in maintenance mode and power off VMs running on the
hosts if you want to migrate VMkernel adapters during uninstallation.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Nodes > Host Transport Nodes.

3 From the Managed by drop-down menu, select the vCenter Server.

4 Select the cluster you want to uninstall, and select Remove NSX.

Note If NSX Intelligence is also deployed on the host, uninstallation of NSX-T Data Center
will fail because all transport nodes become part of a default network security group. To
successfully uninstall NSX-T Data Center, you also need to select the Force Delete option
before proceeding with uninstallation.

5 Verify that the NSX-T Data Center software is removed from the host.

a Log into the host's command-line interface as root.

b Run this command to check for NSX-T Data Center VIBs

esxcli software vib list | grep -E 'nsx|vsipfwlib'

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6 (Host on an N-VDS switch) If the host goes into a failed state and NSX-T Data Center VIBs
cannot be removed, then run the del nsx command to remove NSX-T Data Center from the
host.

a Before running the del nsx command, put the ESXi host in maintenance mode. The
vCenter Server does not allow the host to be put in maintenance mode unless all running
VMs on the host are in powered off state or moved to a different host.

b Log in to the ESXi CLI terminal, run nsxcli -c del nsx.

c Read the warning message. Enter Yes if you want to go ahead with NSX-T Data Center
uninstallation.

Carefully read the requirements and limitations of this command:

1.Read NSX-T documentation for 'Remove a Host from NSX-T Data Center or
Uninstall NSX-T Data Center Completely'.
2.Deletion of this Transport Node from the NSX-T UI or API failed, and this
is the last resort.
3.If this is an ESXi host:
a.The host must be in maintenance mode.
b. All resources attached to NSXPGs must be moved out.
If the above conditions for ESXi hosts are not met, the command WILL fail.
4. For command progress check /scratch/log/nsxcli.log on ESXi host
or /var/log/nsxcli.log on non-ESXi host.
Are you sure you want to remove NSX-T on this host? (yes/no)

Important After running the del nsx command, do not use the Resolve functionality in
the NSX Manager UI to reprepare the host that is in Disconnected state. If you use the
Resolve functionality, the host might go into Degraded state.

d Verify that the existing VMkernel and physical NICs on the N-VDS switch are migrated
to a new vSwitch. If there are more than one N-VDS switches on the host, each N-VDS
switch is migrated to a separate vSwitch. For example, if there are N-VDS1, and N-VDS2
switches on the host, the VMkernel adapters and physical NICs are migrated to vSwitch1
and vSwitch 2.

e In NSX Manager, if a transport node profile (TNP) is attached to the cluster, detach the
profile.

f Select each host and click Remove NSX.

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g In the popup window, select Force Delete and begin uninstallation.

h On the ESXi host, verify that system message displayed is Terminated. This message
indicates that NSX-T Data Center is completely removed from the host.

After running del nsx, all existing host switches are removed, VMkernels and physical
NICs are migrated to newly created vSwitches, transport node is detached from NSX
Manager, and NSX-T Data Center VIBs are removed. If any NSX-T Data Center VIBs
remain on the host, contact VMware support.

7 (Host on a VDS 7.0 switch) If the host goes into failed state and NSX-T Data Center VIBs
cannot be removed, then run the del nsx command to remove NSX from the host.

a Before running the del nsx command, put the ESXi host in maintenance mode. The
vCenter Server does not allow the host to be put in maintenance mode unless all running
VMs on the host are in powered off state or moved to a different host.

b If there are VMkernel adapters on NSX port groups on the VDS switch, you must
manually migrate or remove vmks from NSX port group to DV port groups on the
VDS switch. If there are any vmks available on the NSX port groups, del nsx command
execution fails.

c Log in to the ESXi CLI terminal, run nsxcli -c del nsx.

d Read the warning message. Enter Yes if you want to go ahead with NSX-T Data Center
uninstallation.

Carefully read the requirements and limitations of this command:

1.Read NSX-T documentation for 'Remove a Host from NSX-T Data Center or
Uninstall NSX-T Data Center Completely'.
2.Deletion of this Transport Node from the NSX-T UI or API failed, and this
is the last resort.
3.If this is an ESXi host:
a.The host must be in maintenance mode.
b. All resources attached to NSXPGs must be moved out.
If the above conditions for ESXi hosts are not met, the command WILL fail.
4. For command progress check /scratch/log/nsxcli.log on ESXi host
or /var/log/nsxcli.log on non-ESXi host.
Are you sure you want to remove NSX-T on this host? (yes/no)

Important After running the del nsx command, do not use the Resolve functionality in
the NSX Manager UI to reprepare the host that is in Disconnected state . If you use the
Resolve functionality, the host might go into Degraded state.

e In the NSX Manager UI, if a TNP is attached to the cluster, detach the profile.

f Select each host and click Remove NSX.

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g In the popup window, select Force Delete and begin uninstallation.

h On the ESXi host, verify that system message displayed is Terminated. This message
indicates that NSX-T Data Center is completely removed from the host.

All existing host switches are removed, transport node is detached from NSX Manager,
and NSX-T Data Center VIBs are removed. If any NSX-T Data Center VIBs remain on the
host, contact VMware support.

Uninstall NSX-T Data Center from a Host in a vSphere

Cluster
You can uninstall NSX-T Data Center from a single host that is managed by vCenter Server. The
other hosts in the cluster are not affected.

Caution Uninstalling NSX-T Data Center from an ESXi host is disruptive if the physical interfaces
or VMkernel interfaces are connected to N-VDS. If the host or cluster is participating in other
applications such as vSAN, those applications might be affected by the uninstall.

Prerequisites

n If there are VMkernel adapters on the host that must be migrated to another switch during
uninstallation, ensure that the network uninstall mapping is configured. See Verify Host
Network Mappings for Uninstall.

n In vCenter Server, put the hosts in maintenance mode and power off VMs running on the
hosts if you want to migrate VMkernel adapters during uninstallation.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Nodes > Host Transport Nodes.

3 From the Managed by drop-down menu, select the vCenter Server.

4 If the cluster has a transport node profile applied, select the cluster, and click Actions >
Detach TN Profile.

If the cluster has a transport node profile applied, the NSX Configuration column for the
cluster displays the profile name.

5 Select the host and click Remove NSX.

6 Verify that the NSX-T Data Center software is removed from the host.

a Log into the host's command-line interface as root.

b Run this command to check for NSX-T Data Center VIBs

esxcli software vib list | grep -E 'nsx|vsipfwlib'

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7 If a Transport Node Profile is applied to the cluster, and you want to reapply it, select
the cluster, click Configure NSX, and select the profile from the Select Deployment Profile
drop-down menu.

8 (Host on an N-VDS switch) If the host goes into a failed state and NSX-T Data Center VIBs
cannot be removed, then run the del nsx command to remove NSX-T Data Center from the
host.

a Before running the del nsx command, put the ESXi host in maintenance mode. The
vCenter Server does not allow the host to be put in maintenance mode unless all running
VMs on the host are in powered off state or moved to a different host.

b Log in to the ESXi CLI terminal, run nsxcli -c del nsx.

c Read the warning message. Enter Yes if you want to go ahead with NSX-T Data Center
uninstallation.

Carefully read the requirements and limitations of this command:

1.Read NSX-T documentation for 'Remove a Host from NSX-T Data Center or
Uninstall NSX-T Data Center Completely'.
2.Deletion of this Transport Node from the NSX-T UI or API failed, and this
is the last resort.
3.If this is an ESXi host:
a.The host must be in maintenance mode.
b. All resources attached to NSXPGs must be moved out.
If the above conditions for ESXi hosts are not met, the command WILL fail.
4. For command progress check /scratch/log/nsxcli.log on ESXi host
or /var/log/nsxcli.log on non-ESXi host.
Are you sure you want to remove NSX-T on this host? (yes/no)

Important After running the del nsx command, do not use the Resolve functionality in
the NSX Manager UI to reprepare the host that is in Disconnected state . If you use the
Resolve functionality, the host might go into Degraded state.

d Verify that the existing VMkernel and physical NICs on the N-VDS switch are migrated
to a new vSwitch. If there are more than one N-VDS switches on the host, each N-VDS
switch is migrated to a separate vSwitch. For example, If there are N-VDS1, and N-VDS2
switches on the host, the VMkernel adapters and physical NICs are migrated to vSwitch1
and vSwitch 2.

e Select each host and click Remove NSX.

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f In the popup window, select Force Delete and begin uninstallation.

g On the ESXi host, verify that system message displayed is Terminated. This message
indicates that NSX-T Data Center is completely removed from the host.

After running del nsx, all existing host switches are removed, VMkernels and physical
NICs are migrated to newly created vSwitches, transport node is detached from NSX
Manager, and NSX-T Data Center VIBs are removed. If any NSX-T Data Center VIBs
remain on the host, contact VMware support.

9 (Host on a VDS 7.0 switch) If the host goes into failed state and NSX-T Data Center VIBs
cannot be removed, then run the del nsx command to remove NSX from the host.

a Before running the del nsx command, put the ESXi host in maintenance mode. The
vCenter Server does not allow the host to be put in maintenance mode unless all running
VMs on the host are in powered off state or moved to a different host.

b If there are VMkernel adapters on NSX port groups on the VDS switch, you must
manually migrate or remove vmks from NSX port group to DV port groups on the
VDS switch. If there are any vmks available on the NSX port groups, del nsx command
execution fails.

c Log in to the ESXi CLI terminal, run nsxcli -c del nsx.

d Read the warning message. Enter Yes if you want to go ahead with NSX-T Data Center
uninstallation.

Carefully read the requirements and limitations of this command:

1.Read NSX-T documentation for 'Remove a Host from NSX-T Data Center or
Uninstall NSX-T Data Center Completely'.
2.Deletion of this Transport Node from the NSX-T UI or API failed, and this
is the last resort.
3.If this is an ESXi host:
a.The host must be in maintenance mode.
b. All resources attached to NSXPGs must be moved out.
If the above conditions for ESXi hosts are not met, the command WILL fail.
4. For command progress check /scratch/log/nsxcli.log on ESXi host
or /var/log/nsxcli.log on non-ESXi host.
Are you sure you want to remove NSX-T on this host? (yes/no)

Important After running the del nsx command, do not use the Resolve functionality in
the NSX Manager UI to reprepare the host that is in Disconnected state . If you use the
Resolve functionality, the host might go into Degraded state.

e Select each host and click Remove NSX.

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f In the popup window, select Force Delete and begin uninstallation.

g On the ESXi host, verify that system message displayed is Terminated. This message
indicates that NSX-T Data Center is completely removed from the host.

All existing host switches are removed, transport node is detached from NSX Manager,
and NSX-T Data Center VIBs are removed. If any NSX-T Data Center VIBs remain on the
host, contact VMware support.

Uninstall NSX-T Data Center from a Standalone Host

You can uninstall NSX-T Data Center from a standalone host. Standalone hosts can be ESXi or
KVM.

Caution Uninstalling NSX-T Data Center from an ESXi host is disruptive if the physical interfaces
or VMkernel interfaces are connected to N-VDS. If the host or cluster is participating in other
applications such as vSAN, those applications might be affected by the uninstall.

Prerequisites

If you are uninstalling NSX-T Data Center from a standalone ESXi host, verify the following
settings:

n If there are VMkernel adapters on the host that must be migrated to another switch during
uninstallation, ensure that the network uninstall mapping is configured. See Verify Host
Network Mappings for Uninstall.

n In vCenter Server, put the hosts in maintenance mode and power off VMs running on the
hosts if you want to migrate VMkernel adapters during uninstallation.

Procedure

1 From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-

address>.

2 Select System > Fabric > Nodes > Host Transport Nodes.

3 From the Managed by drop-down menu, select None: Standalone Hosts.

4 Select the host and click Delete. In the confirmation dialog box, by default Uninstall NSX
Components is selected. Uncheck Force Delete and click Delete.

The NSX-T Data Center software is removed from the host. It might take up to 5 minutes for
all NSX-T Data Center software to be removed.

5 If the uninstall fails, select the host and click Delete again. In the confirmation dialog box,
check Force Delete and click Delete.

The host transport node is deleted from the management plane, but the host might still have
NSX-T Data Center software installed.

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6 Verify that the NSX-T Data Center software is removed from the host.

a Log into the host's command-line interface as root.

b Run the appropriate command to check for NSX-T Data Center software packages.

Table 14-1. Package List Commands

Host Operating System Command

ESXi esxcli software vib list | grep -E 'nsx|

vsipfwlib'

Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS Linux rpm -qa | grep -E 'nsx|vsipfwlib'

Ubuntu dpkg -l | grep -E 'nsx|vsipfwlib'

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server zypper packages --installed-only | grep -E

'nsx|vsipfwlib'

7 (Host on an N-VDS switch) If the host goes into a failed state and NSX-T Data Center VIBs
cannot be removed, then run the del nsx command to remove NSX-T Data Center from the
host.

Important The del nsx command is not supported on a KVM host. Do not execute this
command on a KVM host.

a Before running the del nsx command, put the ESXi host in maintenance mode. The
vCenter Server does not allow the host to be put in maintenance mode unless all running
VMs on the host are in powered off state or moved to a different host.

b Log in to the ESXi CLI terminal, run nsxcli -c del nsx.

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c Read the warning message. Enter Yes if you want to go ahead with NSX-T Data Center
uninstallation.

Carefully read the requirements and limitations of this command:

1.Read NSX-T documentation for 'Remove a Host from NSX-T Data Center or
Uninstall NSX-T Data Center Completely'.
2.Deletion of this Transport Node from the NSX-T UI or API failed, and this
is the last resort.
3.If this is an ESXi host:
a.The host must be in maintenance mode.
b. All resources attached to NSXPGs must be moved out.
If the above conditions for ESXi hosts are not met, the command WILL fail.
4. For command progress check /scratch/log/nsxcli.log on ESXi host
or /var/log/nsxcli.log on non-ESXi host.
Are you sure you want to remove NSX-T on this host? (yes/no)

Important After running the del nsx command, do not use the Resolve functionality in
the NSX Manager UI to reprepare the host that is in Disconnected state . If you use the
Resolve functionality, the host might go into Degraded state.

d Verify that the existing VMkernel and physical NICs on the N-VDS switch are migrated
to a new vSwitch. If there are more than one N-VDS switches on the host, each N-VDS
switch is migrated to a separate vSwitch. For example, If there are N-VDS1, and N-VDS2
switches on the host, the VMkernel adapters and physical NICs are migrated to vSwitch1
and vSwitch 2.

e Select each host and click Remove NSX.

f In the popup window, select Force Delete and begin uninstallation.

g On the ESXi host, verify that system message displayed is Terminated. This message
indicates that NSX-T Data Center is completely removed from the host.

After running del nsx, all existing host switches are removed, VMkernels and physical
NICs are migrated to newly created vSwitches, transport node is detached from NSX
Manager, and NSX-T Data Center VIBs are removed.

Results

If the NSX-T Data Center software is successfully removed, no packages are listed. If any NSX
software packages remain on the host, contact VMware support.

Triggering Uninstallation from the vSphere Web Client

In the vSphere Web Client. if you move a host from a cluster prepared with a transport node
profile to either another cluster, outside of the cluster as a standalone host, or outside of the data
center, then NSX-T Data Center is uninstalled on the host that is moved. Such an uninstallation

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is not triggered when a host that is individually prepared with a transport node configuration is
moved.

NSX-T Data Center Uninstallation Scenarios from the vSphere Web

Client

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Action Steps/Description Result

In the vCenter Server, move an 1 From the vSphere Web Client, log in to The host is turned into a
ESXi host in cluster-1 (prepared by the vCenter Server. standalone managed host,
applying transport node profile) to 2 Move the host in maintenance mode. which is displayed under 'Other
the data center as a standalone host Hosts'. NSX-T Data Center is
3 Move the host from cluster-1 that
(not to another cluster). uninstalled on the host.
is prepared with a transport node
profile out of the cluster as a If the host is under
standalone managed host. NSX-T Data Configuration Mismatch state,
Center triggers uninstallation of the then the host remains in that
configuration and NSX-T VIBs. state after it is moved.

4 During uninstallation, the transport node

is deleted, NSX-T Data Center VIBs are
uninstalled.
5 In the NSX-T Data Center UI, the
uninstalled host is displayed under
Other Hosts on the same vCenter
Server.

In the vCenter Server, move a 1 From the vSphere Web Client, log in to The host is moved from
prepared host from cluster-1 with the vCenter Server. cluster-1 to cluster-2. A
transport node profile-1 to cluster-2 2 Move the host in maintenance mode. successfully configured host is
with transport node profile-2. applied with transport node
3 As cluster-1 is prepared with transport
profile-2.
node profile-1, when a host from
cluster-1 is moved to cluster-2, then If the host is in the failed
transport node profile-2 is applied to state, ensure that the host is
the host. Only the new transport node successfully configured in NSX-
profile-2 configuration is applied to the T Data Center.
host, whereas NSX-T Data Center VIBs
are not uninstalled from the host.
4 If the NSX-T Data Center host is in a
failed configuration state, then it is not
configured after it moves to cluster-2.
The host remains in the failed state.

In the vCenter Server, move a host 1 From the vSphere Web Client, log in to The host remains in
that is in the Configuration Mismatch the vCenter Server. Configuration Mismatch state.
state (NSX-T Data Center state) from 2 Move the host in maintenance mode.
cluster-1 with transport node profile-1 3 As the host is in the Configuration
to cluster-2 with transport node Mismatch state, even though it is moved
profile-2. to cluster-2, transport node profile-2 is
not applied to it.

In the vCenter Server, move a host 1 From the vSphere Web Client, log in to If the NSX-T Data Center
from cluster-1 with transport node the vCenter Server. host is successfully configured,
profile-1 to cluster-3 not applied with 2 Move the host in maintenance mode. then NSX-T Data Center
any transport node profile. uninstallation begins on the
3 Move the host from cluster-1 to
host.
cluster-3.
If the NSX-T Data Center host
is in the failed configuration
state, then after it moves to
cluster-3 the node remains in
the failed state.

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Action Steps/Description Result

In the vCenter Server, delete a host 1 From the vSphere Web Client, log in to Uninstallation of NSX-T Data
that is in the Configuration Mismatch the vCenter Server. Center does not begin because
state (NSX-T Data Center state) 2 Move the host in maintenance mode. the node configuration was
because the host has two different in the Configuration Mismatch
3 Remove the host from the vCenter
configurations applied to it - transport state.
Server inventory.
node configuration and transport To ensure that uninstallation
node profile configurations. begins, ensure that the
transport node is configured
with a single configuration,
either at the host-level or at
the cluster-level.
After uninstallation, go to the
NSX Manager UI and verify
that the managed host is
moved out of the cluster
to become a standalone
unmanaged host.

In the vCenter Server, move a 1 From the vSphere Web Client, log in to NSX-T is uninstalled from the
prepared host from cluster-1 with the vCenter Server. host.
transport node profile-1 applied to: 2 Move the host in maintenance mode.
n Another cluster without any 3 Perform one of the actions:
transport node profile applied n Move the host to another cluster
n Data center without any transport node profile
n Outside of the data center applied.
n Move the host as a standalone host
in the data center.
n Move the host to outside of the data
center

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15
A list of issues related to NSX-T Data Center installation and configuration

Issue Solution

vCenter Server and/or ESXi hosts are showing opaque https://ikb.vmware.com/s/article/75234

networks after removing NSX-T from host or cluster

Installation Fails Due to Insufficient Space in Bootbank on https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/74864

ESXi Host

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Installation Fails Due to Insufficient Space in Bootbank on ESXi Host

Installation Fails Due to Insufficient Space in Bootbank on

ESXi Host
NSX-T Data Center installation might fail if there is insufficient space in the bootbank or in the
alt-bootbank on an ESXi host.

Problem

On the ESXi host, you might see a similar log (esxupdate.log) message:

20**-**-**T13:37:50Z esxupdate: 5557508: BootBankInstaller.pyc:

ERROR: The pending transaction requires 245 MB free space,
however the maximum supported size is 239 MB.^@

Cause

Unused VIBs on the ESXi host can be relatively large in size. These unused VIBs can result in
insufficient space in the bootbank or in the alt-bootbank when installing the required VIBs.

Solution

n Uninstall the VIBs that are no longer required and free up additional disk space.

For more information on deleting the unused VIBs, see the VMware knowledge base article at
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/74864.

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