NSX-V

In a typical NSX-V deployment we can have 3 vSphere Cluster tipologies:

• Management Cluster
• Compute Cluster(s)
• Edge Cluster

On the Management Cluster we have the infrastructure VMs/Appliances like vCenter, NSX Manager, NSX Control Cluster, vRealize Log Insight, AD, DNS….
The Compute Cluster(s) hosts generic VM workloads.
In the Edge Clusters generally we have  the Edge Service Gateway VMs, DLR Control VMs…

 

 

NSX-T

In NSX-T deployment we have also 3 vSphere Cluster tipologies similar to NSX-V but with some differences:

• Management Cluster
• Compute Cluster(s)
• Edge Cluster

The Edge Cluster have the same functionality as “V” but the term “Edge Cluster” refers to one or more Edge Cluster VMs/Bare Metal.

Edge Cluster Deployment

Add a VLAN Transport Zone

Under System | Fabric | Transport Zones clicck +ADD

 

Type a TZ name, N-VDS name, select Host Membership Criteria and select Traffic Type (VLAN)

The new TZ is ready

 

Add a new Edge VTEP IP POOL

We need another VTEP Pool as the Edges participate in the overlay network, under Networking | IP Address Management | IP Address Pools click on ADD IP ADDRESS POOL

 

Type a name and click on Set button on the right

 

Add an IP Ranges

Set a IP range, network/mask in CIDR format and specify a default GW ( I set 4 IPs in order to deploy 2 Edge with dual VTEP each)

 

The new VTEP Pool is created

 

Deploy a new ESG

Under System | Fabric | Nodes | Edge Transport Nodes click on +ADD EDGE VM

Set a display name, specify the Edge FQDN for the management interface and select the form factor.

Set admin and root passwords

Select Compute Manager (vCenter), ESXi Edge Cluster and Datastore

Set network parameters for the management interface

Add the NVDS Overlay

• Select Edge Switch –> NVSD-Overlay (TZone will be automatically selected)
• Select the uplink profile –> nsx-edge-multiple-uplink-profile
• Select IP assignement method –> Use IP Pool
• Select right IP Pool –> ESG_VTEP_IP_POOL
• For uplink-1 & uplink-2 select Overlay DPort Group –> DPortGroup-FE-Edge-OL (in my case with VLAN 113)

Add a new N-VDS for VLAN

• Edge Switch Name –> NVDS-VLAN-EXT
• Uplink Profile –> nsx-edge-single-uplink-profile
• For uplink-1 select a DPG for “External” communication –> DPortGroup-FE-Edge-EXT130 (in my case with VLAN 130)
• Click Finish

The ESG will be deployed

 

After some minutes on NSX UI something is wrong on ESG deployment…AMD Ryzen is not supported and I get the following error…

 

 

Debug

After some debugging actions I found a workaround…

Login into ESG as root user and edit /opt/vmware/nsx-edge/bin/config.py file

Search “AMD” word (on vi type /AMD) and comment the following 2 lines and save (:wq! or CTRL+ZZ)

Change user and launche following command

• su – admin
• start service dataplane

The ESG will be rebooted

After reboot the ESG is ready!

Please note that using NSX-T in a nested environment is NOT supported…run an ESG on a AMD processor and modify it is double unsupported!!

 

Repeat all previous steps and deploy a second ESG

 

Edge Cluster

Now we are ready to add an Edge Cluster, under System | Fabric | Nodes | Edge Clusters select +ADD

 

Type ESG Cluster name a select ESG as needed

Setup done!