In this chapter, we will show you how to configure and prepare the vSphere cluster for VXLAN and create a logical switch network. Before getting into the recipes, here is background information on VXLAN and other VMware NSX objects that are related to it.

The VMware NSX logical switch is a layer 2 broadcast domain that is implemented using VXLAN (Virtual eXtensible LAN) overlay network. VXLAN is standardized in IETF RFC 7348 (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7348). VXLAN adds 50 bytes on top of the original Ethernet frame (with a standard of 1,500 bytes) and encapsulates the source Ethernet frame in a new UDP packet. The 50 bytes consist of:

• 8 bytes VXLAN header added on top...

The VXLAN VIB is installed as part of the NSX host preparation but it is not ready to use until we configure VXLAN networking. In this recipe, we will prepare a vSphere cluster for VXLAN:

To configure VXLAN networking, the following prerequisites need to be satisfied:

• The NSX Manager must be deployed.
• The NSX controllers must be deployed.
• The vSphere cluster should be prepared...

In this recipe, we will configure a VXLAN segment ID. In a physical network with VLAN, a ID or VLAN ID is required for each VLAN segment. Similar to VLAN, VXLAN requires an ID for each VXLAN segment that will be used by NSX logical switches. The VXLAN segments are identified by a 24-bit VXLAN network identifier (VNI) or segment ID in VMware NSX. In this example, we will configure a segment ID range of 10,000-15,000 with an optional multicast IP address range of 239.1.0.1-239.1.63.254.

VMware NSX VNIs (segment IDs) are between 5,000-167,772,15. As per vSphere maximum configurations, the maximum static/dynamic port groups per vCenter is 10,000; therefore, up to 10,000 VNIs per NSX...

An NSX transport zone container can be created before a logical switch. In this recipe, we will create a unicast transport zone called RegionA01_TZ and add the RegionA01-COMP cluster to be part of the transport zone:

By now, you should have a vSphere cluster with the VXLAN and segment ID range configured, as covered in previous recipes. When creating a transport zone, a replication mode must be chosen. See the Introduction section to understand the replication mode options and what to consider.

In this recipe, you will learn how to create a logical switch in NSX. In this example, four logical switches will be created on an existing transport zone, RegionA01_TZ:

To configure a logical switch, the following prerequisites need to be satisfied:

• The segment ID must be configured; the segment ID range 10,000–15,000 was configured in the previous recipe
• The transport zone should be created; we created the RegionA01_TZ transport zone in the previous recipe
• The vSphere cluster(s) should be added into the transport zone; we added the RegionA01-COMP cluster into the RegionA01_TZ transport zone during the transport zone creation in the previous recipe
• When using hybrid or...

In the previous recipes, we have prepared the VXLAN networking, starting with configuring VXLAN, configuring the segment ID, creating the transport zone, and creating logical switches. This recipe will show you how to connect two VMs, web-01a and web-02a, to a logical switch called Web-Tier:

For this recipe, you will need a VM and a logical switch that you want to connect to.

Follow these steps to connect a virtual machine to a logical switch:

1. Navigate to Networking & Security | Logical...

In the previous recipes, we demonstrated how to configure VXLAN, create a logical switch, and connect a VM to a logical switch. But we have not covered how to test the VXLAN logical switch connectivity. In this recipe, you will learn how to test and validate the NSX logical switch connectivity.

You will need to have at least an NSX logical switch created before we can test. VM is not mandatory; you can test a NSX logical switch even without a VM attached to it. The NSX plugin in the vSphere web client can perform a logical switch ping and the broadcast test.

As covered in the introduction, CDO mode provides additional control plane resiliency during controller connectivity and controller cluster unavailability. With CDO mode enabled, VMs can be moved between ESXi hosts without data plane disruption, even if the whole controller cluster is down. In this recipe, we will show you how to enable CDO mode on a transport zone in NSX.

CDO mode is disabled by default in NSX. To enable CDO mode, the following prerequisites need to be satisfied:

• NSX is running on Version 6.3.0 or later
• The vSphere cluster has been prepared for NSX with VXLAN configured
• The NSX transport zone has been created
• The vSphere...