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NSX

NSX-ALB Integration in VMware Cloud Director 10.3 with Terraform

In an earlier article, I've explained how to integrate VMware NSX-T Advanced Loadbalancer (formerly known as AVI) into VMware Cloud Director. Today, I want to show how to automate those steps with Terraform. Terraform is an open-source infrastructure as code software tool created by HashiCorp. The following steps are part of the automated configuration:

  • Create vCenter Content Library for SE Images
  • Create Service Engine Management Network with DHCP in NSX-T
  • Create NSX-T Cloud in NSX-ALB
  • Create Service Engine Group in NSX-ALB
  • Add NSX-ALB Controller to VMware Cloud Director
  • Import NSX-T Cloud to VMware Cloud Director
  • Import Service Engine Group to VMware Cloud Director

Read More »NSX-ALB Integration in VMware Cloud Director 10.3 with Terraform

Additional USB NIC for Intel NUCs running ESXi

Intel NUCs with ESXi are a proven standard for virtualization home labs. I'm currently running a homelab consisting of 3 Intel NUCs with a FreeNAS based All-Flash Storage. If you are generally interested in running ESXi on Intel NUCs, read this post first. One major drawback is that they only have a single Gigabit network adapter. This might be sufficient for a standalone ESXi with a few VMs, but when you want to use shared Storage or VMware NSX, you totally want to have additional NICs.

intel-nuc-usb-nic

A few month ago, this problem has been solved by an unofficial driver that has been made available by VMware engineer William Lam.

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NSX 6.2.3 with Free Log Insight Entitlement released

VMware has release an update for their network virtualization platform NSX. Together with some minor changes to the product itself, VMware announced that all users with a NSX 6.2.3 (and beyond) license are now entitled to vRealize Log Insight for NSX at no additional charge.

What's new in VMware NSX 6.2.3

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Deploy VMware NSX-V in Homelabs with Limited Resources

downsizing-nsxWhen deploying VMware NSX-V in a homelab, its huge resource requirement might be an issue. In the default configuration a small setup with NSX Manager, 3 NSX Controllers and 2 Edge gateways requires 30 GB Memory. Consumer VMs to connect to logical switches requiring additional resources.

This post explains how you can deploy VMware NSX in your homelab with less than 8GB Memory by downsizing each component including:

  • NSX Manager
  • NSX Controllers
  • NSX Edge Gateways
  • Consumer VMs

Read More »Deploy VMware NSX-V in Homelabs with Limited Resources

Send dvSwitch Port Statistics to Graphite

For network analysis I want to have Distributed Switch port statistics in my Graphite installation. I’ve created a script that pulls dvSwitch port statistics from a vCenter server, or directly from an ESXi host and sends them to a Carbon Relay. Ports connected to NSX Logical Switches, which are actually distributed Port Groups, are also included. This allows to create universal dashboards with Grafana for example.

dvswitch-port-statistics-graphite

This script is intended to run as cronjob every minute. Port Statistics are provided as counters which can be easily converted to per second values with Graphite functions.

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Send NSX Edge Gateway Statistics to Graphite

To monitor VMware NSX Edge Gateways I want to send interface statistics to my Graphite installation. NSX Manager comes with a REST API that allows to pull information in XML or JSON format. I've created a script that pulls Interface, Firewall and Load Balancer statistics from all ESGs and sends them to a Carbon Relay. This allows to create universal custom dashboards with Grafana for example.

nsx-edge-gateway-statistics-graphite

Read More »Send NSX Edge Gateway Statistics to Graphite