NSX-T | Tier0 and Tier 1 Router

You would see many articles\blog on the title but I am putting one simplified definition for my readers. Folks who worked on NSX-v might have heard about the DLR and Edges, right?

let's compare this DLR\Edge with Tier0\Tier1.

DLR - it is used to connect the logical switch with ESG to exit and connect with outer world, if configured so.
ESG - It act as the only mean for internal packet to get out and communicate with external\outer world.

It means, VM's traffic goes to DLR (if DLR is default gateway for that VM) and then DLR send the packet to ESG (If there is trunk port configured between DLR and ESG and packet is destined to go out). Below is the reference picture. Picture taken from blog.vmware.com
Now Let's see how Tier0 and Tier1 routers are similar or different than DLR and Edge.

In Short, Tier1 act as DLR that is it does east-west routing and Tier0 act as ESG that is it does North-South routing. Below picture will clear all doubts. Taken from docs.vmware.com


I will post more about components of NSX-T. Keep visiting the space.



Thank you,
Team vCloudNotes
,

NSX | BUM Explained

In network, BUM (Broadcast, Unknown-Unicast and Multicast) is the method of sending and receiving layer 2 network traffic. Let's see what is that-

Broadcast Traffic - it is used to transmit a message to any reachable destination in the network without the need of knowing the receiver. When Broadcast traffic receives by switch, it send it to all the switch ports except the one it is coming from.

Unknown Unicast Traffic - It flooded in the network when a switch receives a frame intended for a destination which is not in its forwarding table. In this case, switch mark this frame for flooding and send it to all ports respective of that VLAN. Forwarding this type of traffic can cause unnecessary overload on network and cause poor performance.

Multicast Traffic - As its name, this traffic allowed a host to communicate with subset of hosts or a group. This caused a broadcast when there is no group mechanism is present in the underlay network or physical network. in NSX, selecting multicast replication mode require IGMP configuration in underlay network and it is totally dependent on physical\underlay network.

Hope above definitions were helpful for you.



Thank you,
Team vCloudNotes

VCD | How to find an Organization name of VM(s)

One of my ex-colleague requested to share the script so, I thought to create a post and then share it. It is an awesome place to keep an information and can be accessible from anywhere, anytime.

Finding Organization name of a VM in vCD is very easy in vCD GUI but when you have demand to extract a report against each and every VM or search a VM's Org quickly then vCD GUI is not helpful and can be a time taking process.

I am writing here a very simple and short script to search any VM's Org name in vCD. Here you go.....

#Start here

$vCD = Read-host "Enter vCD URL starting with https  " #It will connect the vCD
$VM = Read-host "Enter the VM name, you want to search "

Get-CIVM -Name $VM  | Select Org, OrgvDC #it will give you exact Org and OrgvDC name of any VM that you have given to it.

#End here


Above script is for one VM. If you need a script which can extract a csv\.xlsx file for all the VMs then feel free to let me know, I will do that for you guys.

Above script is too basic script but if anyone wants an intelligent search or action engine then you need to request for that because I can and will customize it as per your requirement. URL(
https://vcloudnotes.blogspot.com/2019/11/update-powershell.html) is an example for search engine I have created for vCenter Server and below image is an example of Search engine for vCD.

Feel free to contact me anytime by commenting on my any blog.





Thank you,
Team vCloudNotes

,

PowerNSX | Create Logical Switches in bulk



Let's create multiple Logical switches in bulk with PowerNSX.

Simply copy below script and paste in your Powershell(I prefer Powershell ISE) console.

#Start here
$NSXManagerIP = "IP Address" #Mention NSX Manager IP address here in quote(")
$VCenterIP = "IP Address" #Mention vCenter Server IP address here in quote (")
$NSXManagerUser = "admin" #NSX manager admin username goes here
$NSXManagerPassword = "Password" #NSX manager admin password goes here
$VCenterUser = "administrator@vsphere.local" #Write down vCenter server admin username
$VCenterPassword = "VCenterPassword" #vCenter server admin password goes here

#Give the path of csv file containing name of all logical switches
$NSXLOGICALSWITCHFILE = import-csv C:\work\NSX_PowerNSX\Logical_Switch_Creation.csv

#Connect NSX Manager with below command
Connect-NsxServer -Server $NSXManagerIP -Username $NSXManagerUser -Password $NSXManagerPassword -ViUserName $VCenterUser -ViPassword $VCenterPassword

$LS = 0

#apply the loop here to create the number of logical switches equivalent to the number of LS names mentioned in above csv file
foreach ($LogicalSwitch in $NSXLOGICALSWITCHFILE)
{
## Creates Logical Switches for NSX. Possible Control Plane Modes are UNICAST_MODE,HYBRID_MODE,MULTICAST_MODE
Get-NsxTransportZone | New-NsxLogicalSwitch -Name $LogicalSwitch.LogicalSwitchName -ControlPlaneMode UNICAST_MODE

$LS++
Write-Progress -Activity "Creating Logical Switches" -status "Created: $LS of $($NSXLOGICALSWITCHFILE.Count)" -PercentComplete (($LS / $NSXLOGICALSWITCHFILE.Count) * 100)

}

Write-Host "!!!All Logical Switches Created Sucsessfully" -ForegroundColor Green

#End here

All about NSX-T

I got very very awesome way to learn NSX-T so I just wanted to share with you guys.

I erased all the content of my previous postbecause duplicating the text is not smart way and specially if it is already written in better way and by VMware.

Just browse below link, login with your VMware account credentials (if you have already sign-up otherwise you need to sign-up first) and start exploring NSX-T because future is T.

https://labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/catalogs/enrollments/lab/NEE-049991_40988847_

Keep up the pace guys..




Thank you,
Team vCloudNotes

NSX | Deny vs Reject

In NSX, while configuring firewall rules in Edge or in DFW, you might have noticed that there are three option while choosing any action for any incoming or outgoing packet.

In DFW - it is Allow, Block and Reject
In ESG - it is Accept, Deny and Reject

Reject action sends following responses-

  • RST packet for TCP Connection
  • ICMP unreachable with network administratively prohibited code

Deny action silently drops packet from or to the specified source and destination. For example, RTO.

Feel free to ask any question folks.





Thank you,
Team vCloudNotes

NSX | What happens when.....

Since last few days, I was getting lots of questions like what happens when host down, control VM down or a controller down etc.

Then I thought to list down all the cases but fortunately I found below VMware article which explain well about it.

I hope you too will like it.





Thank you,
Team vCloudNotes

vROPS | How to get list of VMs with connected ISO files

Below vROPS view will help you to get a report having name of all those VMs which have connected CD-ROM and .iso file attached.

This solution was given to one of the team who was struggling to find some way to have this kind of report. 

Step 0: Login vROPS
Step 1: Browse vROPS to create a view
Step 2: Give it Name --> Presentation as "List" --> Subject as "Virtual machine" --> You can select Data as "Parent vCenter, Name and vcenter etc."
Step 3: Now go to Filter button as shown in below image and configure as shown


Now simply save the View and use it as you want.

False: Means this view will show all VM which has connected CD-ROM drive
True: Means VM where CD-ROM drive is disconnected

One issue can be there that you might not see snipped option\metric for "Configuration|Security|Disconnected CD-ROM" because in some cases, it is not default activated and need to enable manually from vROPS policy.

That's the topic for another post "How to enable any metric in vROPS".

Let me know if you need any clarification\further suggestion or if you face any issue during the view creation. I will surly help you out.




Thank you,
Team vCloudNotes

vCenter | Change Power Management Policy on all ESXi hosts

Hi Guys,

To know in detail about Host Power Management Policy, click here. In short, in production environment, it should be "High Performance" otherwise many issue may arise like latency while backing up a VM or VM was not responding between interval of time etc. So, if it is "Balanced" then it could be one of the reason. Right now, login your vCenter and check the power management policy and change it if it is not the appropriate one.

Now, if you are changing this policy on hundreds of host then doing it manually can be a headache. Let use Powershell to get it done in a minute.

#Start here

Connect-VIServer vc1.mylab.net #of course to connect VC
$view = (Get-VMHost | Get-View)
(Get-View $view.ConfigManager.PowerSystem).ConfigurePowerPolicy(x)

#End here

in above commad ".ConfigurePowerPolicy(x)" is as below

x= 1 ; for High Performance
x=2  ; for Balance
x=3  ; for Low Power
x=4  ; Custom 

Please note : 

1. There is no downtime for this change
2. Above command will change the current policy for all esxi host. In case, you need to change the power policy for single host then follow below command 

#Start here

$view = (Get-VMHost -Name esxi01.mylab.net | Get-View)
(Get-View $view.ConfigManager.PowerSystem).ConfigurePowerPolicy(x) 

#End here

We just mentioned the host name in above command. You can use below command to cross check the current setting in all esxi hosts.

#Start here

Get-VMHost | Select Name, @{N='Current Policy';E={$_.ExtensionData.Hardware.CpuPowerManagementInfo.CurrentPolicy}} 

#End here

 

Thank you,

vCloudNotes

 

 

 

ESXi | Error while backing up Configuration of ESXi host

This time I got a problem with ESXi host where team was getting and "Internal Server Error" while taking the backup of configuration of ESXi host.

I checked and found that on that host folder "Downloads" was not there in Scratch partition. I simply SSH the host and created the folder with command "mkdir downloads" in scratch partition and taken the backup with below Powershell command successfully.

#Start here
Connect-VIServer vC1.mylab.net

$folder = New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path "D:\Host configuration\$((Get-Date).ToString('yyyy-MM-dd'))" -Force

Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostFirmware -BackupConfiguration -DestinationPath $folder

#End here




Thank you,
Team vCloudNotes
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