NSX Component 1:

NSX Manager

3-1
© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
Network Planes
Network planes form a conceptual module that is used to classify
network functions.

Management Control
Plane Plane

Data Plane

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-2

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
NSX Manager: Management Component of VMware NSX

• Self-service portal
Consumption • Cloud management
Model • vRealize Automation

NSX Manager vCenter Server

Message Bus Agent
Management (vsfwd)
• Single point of configuration
Plane • REST API and UI interface

NSX Logical Router NSX Controller Cluster User World Agent

Control VM
• Manages logical network’s
(netcpa) run-time state
Control • Does not sit in the data path
Plane • Control plane protocol
NSX Edge
• VMware NSX logical switch
Distributed Services • NSX Edge gateway
• Routing and advanced
Data
services
Plane Distributed
Distributed Firewall
Switch VXLAN
Logical Router

ESXi Hypervisor Kernel Modules

Physical … • Physical network of your

Network choice
…

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-3

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
About NSX Manager
NSX Manager has several responsibilities:
• Provides the management UI and VMware NSX API™
• Installs user world agents, VXLAN, distributed routing, and distributed firewall
kernel modules
• Deploys the VMware NSX Controller cluster nodes
• Configures the VMware NSX Controller cluster nodes through internal REST
API
• Configures hosts through
a message bus
• Generates certificates to
secure control plane
communications
• Deploys logical networks and
services

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-4

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
VMware NSX Requirements
Software and infrastructure requirements for successful deployment and
working of VMware NSX should be set up:
• VMware vCenter Server™ 5.5 and higher
• Cluster or clusters with VMware ESXi™ 5.5 and higher
• Physical network supporting MTU of at least 1600 bytes for VXLAN traffic
• vSphere distributed switch
• VMware Tools™: Depending on the version of VMware NSX, some features,
such as distributed firewall, might require VMware Tools.
NSX Manager hardware configuration has the following features:
• NSX Manager is a preconfigured virtual appliance with 16 GB of memory,
4 vCPUs, and 60 GB of disk space.
• NSX Manager should have network connectivity to vCenter Server and
management network of ESXi hosts.

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-5

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
Preparing for Installation: Client and User Access
Other requirements exist for deploying VMware NSX to a vSphere
environment:
• Management system and browser requirements:
– VMware vSphere® Web Client
– Cookies enabled in the browser that is used for management
• Supported Web browsers:
– Internet Explorer 8, 9 (64-bit), and 10
– The two most recent versions of Mozilla Firefox
– The two most recent versions of Google Chrome
• Environment requirements:
– Correct DNS configuration for ESXi hosts added by name
– User permissions to add and power on virtual machines
– Permissions to add files to the virtual machine datastore
– Time synchronization between various components, such as vCenter Server, NSX
Manager, VMware Platform Services Controller™.

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-6

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
Preparing for Installation: Port Requirements
VMware NSX components require several ports for communications.
All the ports required for successful communication between VMware
NSX components are mentioned in VMware knowledge base article
2079386 at kb.vmware.com/kb/2079386.

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-7

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
NSX Manager Installation: Manager OVA
After ensuring the correct preparation steps, you install the Open
Virtualization Appliance (OVA) file:
1. Obtain the NSX Manager OVA file.
2. Deploy the NSX Manager OVA file.
3. Log in to NSX Manager.
4. Establish the NSX Manager and vCenter Server connection.
5. Configure backup options.

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-8

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NSX Manager Configuration: Management UI
You access the NSX Manager UI to configure the system settings.

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-9

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Summary Tab: Health Status of NSX Manager

The Summary tab shows the resource consumption and status of

NSX Manager services.

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-10

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NSX Manager Configuration: Time and Syslog Settings
You configure the time server and Syslog settings.
VMware NSX Manager must have its time in sync with the single sign-on
(SSO) server, vCenter Server, and ESXi hosts. VMware recommends
that you use the same NTP server for SSO.

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-11

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
NSX Manager Configuration: Network Settings
You verify the IP address and other IP settings for NSX Manager.

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-12

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SSL Certificate to Identify the NSX Manager Web Service

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-13

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
Registering NSX Manager with vCenter Server
You register NSX Manager with vCenter Server to begin using VMware NSX
capabilities. The account used to register NSX Manager with vCenter Server
should have administrative access to vCenter Server. The account used to
register NSX Manager with vCenter Server is automatically assigned the
Enterprise Administrator role.
When NSX Manager is registered with the Lookup Service, an administrator can
use SSO credentials when authenticating against VMware NSX API.

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-14

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
Verifying the vCenter Server Connection
After NSX Manager is connected to vCenter Server, log in to vSphere
Web Client to confirm that NSX Manager is listed as an inventory object.
If you are already logged in to vSphere Web Client, log out and log in
again. Login might take a few minutes while vSphere Web Client
deploys or loads VMware NSX UI bundles.

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-15

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
NSX Component 2:
VMware NSX Controller Cluster

3-16
© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
VMware Controller Cluster in VMware NSX

• Self-service portal
Consumption • Cloud management
Model • vRealize Automation

NSX Manager vCenter Server Message Bus Agent

Management (netcpa) • Single point of configuration
Plane • REST API and UI interface

NSX Logical Router NSX Controller Cluster

Control VM User World Agent • Manages logical network’s
(vsfwd) run-time state
Control • Does not sit in the data path
Plane • Control plane protocol
NSX Edge
• VMware NSX logical switch
Distributed Services • NSX Edge gateway
• Routing and advanced
Data
services
Plane Distributed
Distributed Firewall
Switch VXLAN
Logical Router

ESXi Hypervisor Kernel Modules

Physical … • Physical network of your

choice
Network
…

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-17

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
About VMware NSX Controller
VMware NSX Controller provides several benefits:
• VXLAN and logical routing network information distribution to ESXi hosts
• Clustering for scale-out and high availability
• Workload distribution among VMware NSX Controller cluster nodes
• Maintenance of tables for VXLAN and distributed logical routers:
– VXLAN: VTEP, MAC, ARP tables
– Distributed logical routers: For each instance: routes, logical interfaces, ARP, and
MACs for distributed logical router bridging
• Removal of VXLAN dependency on multicast routing and Protocol Independent
Multicast in the physical network
• Suppression of ARP broadcast traffic in VXLAN networks

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-18

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
Control Plane Interaction
NSX Manager deploys VMware
NSX Controller cluster nodes.
VMware NSX Controller clusters NSX Manager
provide scale-out and high
availability.
NSX Manager pushes the logical
switch and logical routing VMware NSX
Controller
information to the controller nodes, Cluster
which push these details to ESXi
hosts.
UWA VTEP UWA VTEP
The netcpa user world agent
collects network information such
as virtual machines connected to UWA VTEP UWA VTEP

logical switches, MAC and IP

addresses of virtual machines, and UWA VTEP UWA VTEP
reports to the VMware NSX
Controller instances.
vSphere Cluster B vSphere Cluster A

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-19

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
VMware NSX Controller Functions
When VMware NSX Controller Key responsibilities include:
nodes are deployed, the clustering • Communicates with hosts about
mechanism is activated distributed routers
VMware NSX Controller clusters • Communicates with hosts about
are responsible for the following logical switches
logical network components:
• Logical switches
• Distributed logical routers
Distributed Logical
Routing Switches

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-20

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
VMware NSX Controller Deployment (1)
The VMware NSX Controller virtual appliances are deployed by NSX
Manager:
• The VMware NSX Controller virtual machines use 4 vCPUs and 4 GB of RAM:
– Do not modify the virtual hardware configuration.
• The VMware NSX Controller clusters must be deployed in the same vCenter
Server system to which NSX Manager is connected.
VMware NSX Controller interaction is through the CLI. Configuration
operations are available through VMware NSX API. The APIs are open
only to NSX Manager to configure VMware NSX Controller and not for
consumption by another application or solution.

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-21

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
VMware NSX Controller Deployment (2)
When deploying VMware NSX Controller cluster nodes,
VMware NSX administrators configure the following options:
• NSX Manager
• vCenter Server data center
• vSphere cluster or resource pool
• Datastore
• Management network
• IP pool
• Password (first controller):
– Can be administratively configured
– Synchronized across all nodes

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-22

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
IP Pools
IP pools are used to assign IP addresses to VMware NSX components,
such as VMware NSX Controller cluster nodes.
To create a pool:
1. Assign a name to the IP pool.
2. Set the default gateway for the IP pool
segment.
3. Specify the subnet mask in CIDR format.
4. Specify an IP pool range.

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-23

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
Viewing VMware NSX Controller Cluster Nodes
The deployed VMware NSX Controller nodes appear in the Virtual
Machines Inventory view.
Do not modify the controller nodes in the Virtual Machines Inventory
view.

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-24

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
Deploying Additional VMware NSX Controller Cluster Nodes
When deploying additional VMware NSX Controller cluster nodes,
ensure that all deployed nodes have the Normal status.
You can monitor the progress of the VMware NSX Controller deployment
in the Recent Tasks pane.

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-25

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
VMware NSX Controller Cluster Node Placement
VMware NSX Controller high
availability requires anti-affinity
rules with a minimum of three
ESXi hosts:
• Horizontal striping of cluster nodes
across ESXi hosts ensures that top-
of-rack switch failure does not affect
the entire cluster.
• Anti-affinity rule must be manually
created in a vSphere DRS cluster to
ensure that the controller nodes are
on different ESXi hosts.
• Use vSphere HA for automated
restart of the controller node in case
of ESXi host failure.

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-26

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Deploying Base VMware NSX Components: Summary
The components of the VMware NSX platform are configured in a
specific order. Register with NSX Manager
2 vCenter Server Deploy NSX
vCenter
1 Manager
Server

Deploy VMware 3 5
NSX Controller Deploy VMware NSX
Prepare Cluster Network and Security
Hosts Services
4 VMware NSX Controller NSX Edge
Gateway

vSphere Cluster 1 vSphere Cluster 2 vSphere Cluster N

VMware NSX: Install, Configure, Manage 3-27

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.