StandingUpTheCiscoNexus1000vInLessThan10Minutes

WrittenbyKenny Saturday,12February201118:45

ViewComments Afewweeksagoatgeekweek,IwasassignedthetaskofgettingtheCiscoNexus1000vdistributedvirtualswitchsetup.Iprobablyspentagood4hoursonmyfirst clusterbecauseIhadnocluewhatwasgoingonandIendeduplosingmymanagementnetworkandspentlotsoftimerestoringmynetworktotheoriginalvSwitch.I followedTrainSignal's1000vInstallationtraininginProSeriesVol.1buttheNexus10000vsetuphaschangedabitsincethen.Ithasactuallygottenmucheasier.After findingafewwalkthroughsandtalkingtorockstarJasonNash,Iwasabletosetupmy2ndclusterinlessthan10minutes.I'llshowyoutheeasieststepbystepinstructions Icanpossiblydo. Thereareafewprerequisitestounderstandbeforewegetstarted. 1. VSM=VirtualSupervisorModulewhichisthe"brains"ortheengineonaCiscoswitch.Thisisan.ovfthatisdeployedasaVMintoourcluster.Wearegoingto setup2oftheseforHApurposes 2. VEM=VirtualEthernetModulewillbeinstalledontheESXihoststhroughUpdateManager. 3. PacketVLAN=UsedforcommunicationbetweentheVSMandtheVEMswithinaswitchdomainbyprotocolssuchasCDP,LACP,andIGMP.Cisco recommendskeepingthisonit'sownseparateVLAN,butIwouldputPacketandControlonthesameL2VLAN. 4. ControlVLAN=UsedtosendVSMconfigurationcommandstoeachVEM,VEMnotificationstotheVSM,andNetFlowexports.Ciscorecommendskeepingthis onit'sownseparateVLAN,butIwouldputPacketandControlonthesameL2VLAN. 5. ManagementVLAN=ThemanagementinterfaceisnotusedtoexchangedatabetweentheVSMandVEM,itisusedtoestablishandmaintaintheconnection betweentheVSMandVMwarevCenterServer.NeedstobeonaroutableVLANthatcancommunicatewiththevCenterServer. ThesetupI'mreplicatingisanESXihostwith210Gigabitethernetadapters.AsJasonNashfoundout,tomoveeverythingovertotheNexus1000vwiththeGUI,youmust startwithVirtualStandardSwitchesandnotwithDistributedVirtualSwitch.

TomaketheinstallationoftheVEMseamless,verifyVMwarevCenterUpdateManagerisupandrunningbecauseonceweaddthehoststotheNexus1000v,Update Managerwilltakecareoftherest.

AfterdownloadingtheNexus1000vpackage,it'stimetodeploythe.OVFtemplate.

 ItendtonamemyfirstonewithaVSM01becausewearegoingtodeploya2ndoneafterinitialsetup.

Letspoweritonandbegintheconfiguration.(Note:eventhoughmyconfigurationshowsaNestedESXienvironment,theVSMmustbeinstalledona64bitcapable hardware) Enterthepasswordfortheadmin Donotenteranythingforthemode EnterthedomainID.ThisIDcanbeanythingyouwant.It'sforclusteringpurposesoftheVSM.Let'schoose500 Enterbasicconfigurationmode:yes

 CreateanotherloginandSNMPcommunities,yourchoice,Ichooseno. EntertheSwitchName.Thisiswhatthe1000vnamewillbecalled.IchoseNexus1k ContinuewiththeoutofbandmanagementandtheIPaddressconfigurationfortheNexus1000vManagement.

Skiptheadvancedconfigurationparameters,disabletelnet,enablessh,settoRSA,enter1024,enterNTPifyouwant.

 EnterSVSDomainandenterL2andentertheVLANsforPacketandControl

Don'teditandsave.

NavigatetotheIPaddressweconfiguredforthemanagementnetworkandchoose"LaunchInstallerApplication".(Note:youmusthaveJavaInstalledtolaunchthe application.)

Enterthepasswordwesetupearlierandclicknext

 EnteryourvCenterinformationandclicknext.

SelecttheClusterwheretheVSMislocated.

 ChoosetheVSMVirtualMachinefromthedropdownandclickonadvancedtomakesureyourportgroupsaregoingtobeconfiguredcorrectly

ProvidesomeofthesameVSMconfigurationsandclicknext

 Clickfinishandlettheconfigurationdoitsthing.Itwilltakeabout12minutestoconfigureandreboottheVSM.

 ClickNotomigratehoststoVSMbecausewewilldothatmanuallyandfinish.

Wenowhavetochangethesystemredundancymode.Openuptheconsoleandtype: showsystemredundancystatus itwillsay"standalone",butweneeditprimarysotype: systemredundancyroleprimary

copyrunstart

NowthattheVSMhasbeeninstalled,let'sgetasecondaryVSMupandrunningandconfigureitassecondary.OncetheOVFisdeployed,typeinthesamepasswordand thedomainID,allowareboot,anditwillreconfigureitself.

gobacktoVSM01andtypeinshowsystemredundancystatusandwewillseeHAconfigurationinprocess.

 Nowit'stimetoconfigureourVSM.SSHintoourVSMandlet'sconfigurevlans.Beforeconfiguration,youmustknoweveryVLANthatyouwanttoallowtotraverse. LetssaywehaveVLANS1,4050,6070,100,and200.Beforethesecanbeaddedtoanuplink,theymustexistintheVLANtable.Let'saddthem. conft vlan1,4050,6070,100,200

nowverifyalltheVLANsexistinthedatabase exit shvlan

 Let'sconfiguretheportprofileforthephysicalethernetuplink: conft portprofiletypeethernetsystemuplink vmwareportgroup switchportmodetrunk switchporttrunkallowedvlanall channelgroupautomodeonmacpinning systemvlan1,4050,6070,100,200 noshutdown stateenabled end copyrunstart

Prettysimple.Ifinditmucheasiertocreatenewportprofileforeveryvlanthatavirtualmachinewillresideinsteadoftransferringoverportgroupsintheportmigration process.Let'screateaportprofileforVLAN70asanexample.

conft portprofiletypevethernet1KVVM_Network vmwareportgroup switchportmodeaccess switchportaccessvlan70 vmwaremaxports1024 noshutdown stateenabled end copyrunstart

NowthateverythingispreparedwecanstartmigratinghoststothenewNexus1000vvDS.RemoveanethernetadapterfromthevSSsoit'savailableforthemigrations.

GotoHome>NetworkingandwearereadytoAddaHosttoourNexus1000v

 SelecttheHostswiththefreeethernetadaptersandchoosethesystemuplinkfromthedropdownandclicknext.

DonotworryaboutmigratingportsorVMsyet

Clickfinish

 WatchtheprocessintherecenttasksofVUMupdatingthehostswithVEMmodules.

NowtheVEMhasbeeninstalledwecanstartmigratingportsbyeitherclickingonManagehostsorMigrateVirtualMachineNetworking.

 Granted,itmighthavetakenyoumorethan10minutesthefirsttimethrough,butnowthatyouknowtheprocess,itisactuallyaverysimpleprocedure.

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LastUpdatedonSaturday,12February201118:48