Blueprint Part 1

These are the following objectives for Section 1.1 of the blueprint.

Section 1 - Install and Upgrade VMware NSX

Objective 1.1 – Deploy VMware NSX Components

Skills and Abilities

· Deploy the NSX Manager virtual appliance - Link to kb

· Integrate the NSX Manager with vCenter Server - Link to blog

· Implement and Configure NSX Controllers - Link to blog by Sean Whitney

· Prepare Host Clusters for Network Virtualization - Link to kb

· Implement NSX Edge Services Gateway devices - Link to blog by Sean Whitney

· Implement Logical Routers - Link to blog by Sean Whitney

· Deploy vShield Endpoints - Link to VMware pdf

· Implement Data Security - Link to blog by Sean Whitney

· Create IP Pools - Link to VMware kb


My goal for this evening/tomorrow, is to set up a lab  and run through some of the above topics. I also have access to Pluralsight so I will be going through the relevant videos of Jason Nash's series 

VMware NSX for vSphere: Network Services

I will update this post throughout the evening with my findings or any issues I come across. 

I will also create a separate post detailing the lab I will be using.

Completed 10/06

Overview of the blueprint section 1.1

Technical Deep Dive Part 1 from VMworld 2014

Pluralsight - What is VMware NSX

Completed 11/06

Pluralsight - The components of NSX

Chapter 8: vSphere Standard Switch - Networking for VMware Administrators - Chris Wahl/Steven Pantol

Chapter 9: vSphere Distributed Switch -  Networking for VMware Administrators - Chris Wahl/Steven Pantol

Completed 12/06

Overview and key components of VXLAN from VXLAN deployment guide

Example Deployment 1 from VXLAN deployment guide

Completed 15/06

Pluralsight - How NSX works with vSphere

Pluralsight - VMware NSX and the Physical World

Deploy the NSX Manager virtual appliance

*Ok so looks like I had an issue with deploying the template first time around. Deployment gets to 99% and then error message flashes up stating "The task was cancelled by a user"
Looking at the error message in alarms, I see the following - "OVF deployment failed: SHA1 digest of file VMware-NSX-Manager-6.1.4-2752137-disk1.vmdk does not match manifest" I will redownload the ova and try again.*

Completed 16/06

Integrate NSX Manager with vCenter

Create IP Pools

Implement and configure NSX controllers

* Receiving the following error message while deploying the controller on my management cluster -Operation failed on VC. For more details, refer to the rootCauseString or the VC logs*

So it looks like the error was related to a shortage of storage. I shut down my VSA appliance and added another disk for the controllers.
I was still unable to deploy controllers after sorting out the disk space issues. I was getting an error unable to deploy ovf template. When looking at the deployment process in vSphere I could see the deployment start, but it was deleted after a couple of seconds. I tailed the log to see what was happening and it turned out the NSX Manager was having issues communicating with any of the hosts. After a bit of searching around, I noticed I had forgotten to set a local DNS server, and both DNS servers were external. I set up a DNS server on my Win2k8 jump box and restarted the NSX Manager. The deployment completed successfully on the next attempt.

Prepare host clusters for network 

Implement NSX Edge Services Gateway devices

Deploy vShield Endpoints

No real errors here, failed the first time as I had selected the wrong Datastore and forgot to change the IP assignment to my address pools.

Implement Data Security

That is Part 1.1 of the blueprint completed. I ran into a few issues, but overall it was straightforward enough. I think I will run back through some of the pluralsight videos also, to see if Mr. Nash covers anything differently when deploying and configuring the components. Also I certainly still have some gaps that need filling in.

Michael Hogan