Search icon CANCEL
Subscription
0
Cart icon
Your Cart (0 item)
Close icon
You have no products in your basket yet
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
Learning VMware NSX, Second Edition
Learning VMware NSX, Second Edition

Learning VMware NSX, Second Edition: Next-generation network administration skills revealed , Second Edition

Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Ranjit Singh Thakurratan
Arrow right icon
€8.99 €26.99
Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2.5 (6 Ratings)
eBook Aug 2017 254 pages 2nd Edition
eBook
€8.99 €26.99
Paperback
€32.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at €18.99p/m
Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Ranjit Singh Thakurratan
Arrow right icon
€8.99 €26.99
Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2.5 (6 Ratings)
eBook Aug 2017 254 pages 2nd Edition
eBook
€8.99 €26.99
Paperback
€32.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at €18.99p/m
eBook
€8.99 €26.99
Paperback
€32.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at €18.99p/m

What do you get with eBook?

Product feature icon Instant access to your Digital eBook purchase
Product feature icon Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
OR
Modal Close icon
Payment Processing...
tick Completed

Billing Address

Table of content icon View table of contents Preview book icon Preview Book

Learning VMware NSX, Second Edition

NSX Core Components

This chapter begins with a brief introduction to NSX core components followed by a detailed discussion of these core components. We will go over the three different control planes and how each of these NSX core components fits into that architecture. Next we go over the VXLAN architecture and transport zones that allow us to create and extend overlay networks across multiple clusters. We will also look at NSX Edge and the distributed firewall in greater detail and take a look at the newest NSX feature: multi-vCenter or cross-vCenter NSX deployment. By the end of this chapter, you will have a thorough understanding of NSX core components and also their functional inter-dependencies.

In this chapter, we will cover:

  • Introduction to NSX core components
  • NSX manager
  • NSX controller clusters
  • VXLAN architecture overview
  • Transport zones
  • NSX Edge
  • Distributed firewall...

Introduction to NSX core components

The foundational core components of NSX are divided across three different planes. The core components of a NSX deployment consist of an NSX manager, controller clusters, and hypervisor kernel modules. Each of these is crucial for your NSX deployment; however, they are decoupled to a certain extent allowing for resiliency during failure of multiple components. For example, if your controller clusters fail, your virtual machines will still be able to communicate with each other without any network disruption. You have to always ensure that NSX components are always deployed in a clustered environment so they are protected by vSphere HA.

The high-level architecture of NSX primarily describes three different planes wherein each of these core components fits in. They are the Management Plane, the Control Plane, and the Data Plane. The following...

NSX manager

The NSX manager allows us to create, configure, and manage NSX components in an environment. The NSX manager provides a graphical user interface and also the REST APIs that allow you to interact with various NSX components. NSX manager is a virtual machine that you can download as an OVA and deploy it on any ESX host managed by vCenter.

The NSX version at the time of writing is 6.3 and only supports 1:1 vCenter connectivity.

NSX manager, once deployed and configured, can then deploy controller clusters and prepare the ESXi host, which involves installing various vSphere installation bundles (VIB) that allow for network virtualization features such as VXLAN, logical switching, and logical routing. The NSX manager can also deploy and configure Edge gateway appliances and its services.

Because NSX manager is deployed as a single virtual machine, it relies on VMware&apos...

NSX controller clusters

NSX controller provides a control plane functionality to distribute logical routing and VXLAN network information to the underlying hypervisor. Controllers are deployed as virtual appliances and should be deployed in the same vCenter NSX manager is connected to. In a production environment it is recommended to deploy a minimum of three controllers. For better availability and scalability we need to ensure DRS ant-affinity rules are configured to deploy controllers on a separate ESXI host. Control plane to management and data plane traffic is secured by certificate-based authentication.

It is important to note that controller nodes employ a scale-out mechanism where by each controller node uses a slicing mechanism that divides the workload equally across all the nodes. This renders all controller nodes active at all times. If one controller node fails...

VXLAN architecture overview

One of the most important functions of NSX is enabling virtual networks. These virtual networks or overlay networks have become very popular due to that fact that they can leverage an existing network infrastructure without the need to modify it in any way. The decoupling of logical networks from the physical infrastructure allows users to scale rapidly. Overlay networks or VXLANs were developed by a host of vendors that include Arista, Cisco, Citrix, Red Hat, and Broadcom. This allows the VXLAN standard to be implemented by multiple vendors due to this joint effort in developing its architecture.

VXLAN is a layer 2 over layer 3 tunneling protocol that allows for logical network segments to extend on routable networks. This is achieved by encapsulating the Ethernet frame with additional UPD, IP, and VXLAN headers. Consequently, this increases the...

Transport zones

A group of ESXi hosts that are able to communicate with one another over the physical network by means of VTEPs is said to be in the same transport zone. A transport zone defines the extension of a logical switch across multiple ESXi clusters that span across multiple virtual distributed switches.

A typical environment has more than one virtual distributed switch that spans across multiple hosts. A transport zone enables a logical switch to extend across multiple virtual distributed switches and any ESXi hosts that are part of this transport zone can have virtual machines as part of that logical network. A logical switch is always created as part of a transport zone and ESXi hosts can participate in them.

The following figure shows a transport zone that defines the extension of a logical switch across multiple virtual distributed switches:

A universal transport...

NSX Edge Services Gateway

The NSX Edge Services Gateway (ESG) offers a feature-rich set of services that include NAT, routing, firewall, load balancing, L2/L3 VPN, and DHCP/DNS relay. NSX API allows each of these services to be deployed, configured, and consumed on-demand. You can install the NSX Edge as an ESG or as a DLR.

The number of Edge appliances including ESGs and DLRs is limited to 250 on a host.

The Edge Services Gateway is deployed as a virtual machine from the NSX manager, which is accessed using the vSphere web client. Four different form factors are offered for different-sized environments. It is important that you factor in enough resources for the appropriate Edge Services Gateway when building your environment.

Edge Services Gateway can be deployed in different sizes. The following are the available size options for Edge Services Gateway appliances:

  • X-Large:...

Distributed firewalls

NSX provides L2-L4 stateful firewall services by means of a distributed firewall that runs in the ESXi hypervisor kernel. Because the firewall is a function of the ESXi kernel it provides massive throughput and performs at near line rate. When the ESXi host is initially prepared by NSX, the distributed firewall service is installed in the kernel by deploying the kernel VIB—VMware internetworking service insertion platform (VSIP). VSIP is responsible for monitoring and enforcing security policies on all the traffic flowing through the data plane. The distributed firewall (DFW) throughput and performance scales horizontally as more ESXi hosts are added.

DFW instances are associated to each vNIC and every vNIC requires one DFW instance. A virtual machine with 2 vNICs has two DFW instances associated with it, each monitoring its own vNIC and applying security...

Cross-vCenter NSX

Beginning from NSX 6.2, you can manage multiple vCenter NSX environments using the cross-vCenter functionality. This allows you to manage multiple vCenter NSX environments from a single primary NSX manager. This allows ease of management and also enables many new functions that include extending networks and other features such as distributed logical routing. Cross-vCenter NSX deployment also allows for centralized management and also eases disaster recovery architectures.

In a cross-vCenter deployment, multiple vCenters are all paired with their own NSX manager per vCenter. One NSX manager is assigned the primary while other NSX managers become secondary. This primary NSX manager can now deploy a universal controller cluster that provides the control plane. Unlike a standalone vCenter-NSX deployment, secondary NSX managers do not deploy their own controller...

Summary

We began this chapter with a brief introduction to NSX core components and looked at management, control, and the data plane. Next we discussed the NSX manager and NSX controller clusters. This was followed by a VXLAN architecture overview discussion where we looked at the VXLAN packet. We then discussed transport zones and NSX Edge gateway services. The chapter ended with NSX Distributed firewall services and also an overview of Cross-vCenter NSX deployment.

In the Chapter 3, NSX Installation and Configuration, we will start deploying our NSX environment and deploy all of its components starting with the NSX manager. We will configure the NSX manager using its user interface and build our control plane by deploying controller clusters.

Left arrow icon Right arrow icon

Key benefits

  • Install, manage, monitor and configure your NSX deployment.
  • Understand VMware NSX's components and discover best practices to help you manage VMware NSX
  • A step by step guide that will help you elevate your skills in deploying NSX to your environment

Description

VMware NSX is a platform for the software-defined data center. It allows complex networking topologies to be deployed programmatically in seconds. SDNs allow ease of deployment, management, and automation in deploying and maintaining new networks while reducing and in some cases completely eliminating the need to deploy traditional networks. The book allows you a thorough understanding of implementing Software defined networks using VMware’s NSX. You will come across the best practices for installing and configuring NSX to setup your environment. Then you will get a brief overview of the NSX Core Components NSX’s basic architecture. Once you are familiar with everything, you will get to know how to deploy various NSX features. Furthermore, you will understand how to manage and monitor NSX and its associated services and features. In addition to this, you will also explore the best practices for NSX deployments. By the end of the book, you will be able to deploy Vmware NSX in your own environment with ease. This book can come handy if you are preparing for VMware NSX certification.

Who is this book for?

The book is intended for network and system administrators that have hands on experience with VMware vSphere suite of products and would like to learn more about software defined networking and implementation of NSX. The readers are also expected to have basic networking knowledge and aware of basic switching and routing fundamentals.

What you will learn

  • Understand software-defined networks
  • Deploy and configure VXLAN-enabled logical switches
  • Secure your environment using Distributed Firewall and Data Security
  • Configure third-party services in NSX
  • Manage, configure, and deploy edge gateway services
  • Perform various Edge operations including configuring CA certificates
  • Explore the different monitoring options to check their traffic flow

Product Details

Country selected
Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Aug 24, 2017
Length: 254 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781788393492
Vendor :
VMware
Concepts :
Tools :

What do you get with eBook?

Product feature icon Instant access to your Digital eBook purchase
Product feature icon Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
OR
Modal Close icon
Payment Processing...
tick Completed

Billing Address

Product Details

Publication date : Aug 24, 2017
Length: 254 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781788393492
Vendor :
VMware
Concepts :
Tools :

Packt Subscriptions

See our plans and pricing
Modal Close icon
€18.99 billed monthly
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Simple pricing, no contract
€189.99 billed annually
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just €5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts
€264.99 billed in 18 months
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just €5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts

Frequently bought together


Stars icon
Total 111.97
Mastering VMware vSphere 6.5
€41.99
VMware NSX Network Essentials
€36.99
Learning VMware NSX, Second Edition
€32.99
Total 111.97 Stars icon
Banner background image

Table of Contents

9 Chapters
Introduction to Network Virtualization Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
NSX Core Components Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
NSX Installation and Configuration Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
NSX Functional Services Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Edge Services Gateway Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Service Composer Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Monitoring Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Managing NSX Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Conclusion Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Top Reviews
Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2.5
(6 Ratings)
5 star 33.3%
4 star 0%
3 star 0%
2 star 16.7%
1 star 50%
Filter icon Filter
Top Reviews

Filter reviews by




J tut May 08, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Passed my VCP6-NV last week. Along with other study material, this book was a big help.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Suraj p. Apr 13, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Good Book buy it from Amazon website
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Nagi Reddy Aug 04, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
For begginers
Amazon Verified review Amazon
jaunetom Dec 10, 2017
Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 1
One of the worst technical books ever written. Unclear, verbose, repetitive, poorly organized rehash of the VMware tech manuals. Returned for refund.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Dino Monde Dec 11, 2017
Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 1
A waste of money and time, even as a beginner you will not learn anything. This book is no more than a collection of screenshots associated with vague explanations. I wish I could get a refund, I am willing to forget the few useless screenshots I saw :-).
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Get free access to Packt library with over 7500+ books and video courses for 7 days!
Start Free Trial

FAQs

How do I buy and download an eBook? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Where there is an eBook version of a title available, you can buy it from the book details for that title. Add either the standalone eBook or the eBook and print book bundle to your shopping cart. Your eBook will show in your cart as a product on its own. After completing checkout and payment in the normal way, you will receive your receipt on the screen containing a link to a personalised PDF download file. This link will remain active for 30 days. You can download backup copies of the file by logging in to your account at any time.

If you already have Adobe reader installed, then clicking on the link will download and open the PDF file directly. If you don't, then save the PDF file on your machine and download the Reader to view it.

Please Note: Packt eBooks are non-returnable and non-refundable.

Packt eBook and Licensing When you buy an eBook from Packt Publishing, completing your purchase means you accept the terms of our licence agreement. Please read the full text of the agreement. In it we have tried to balance the need for the ebook to be usable for you the reader with our needs to protect the rights of us as Publishers and of our authors. In summary, the agreement says:

  • You may make copies of your eBook for your own use onto any machine
  • You may not pass copies of the eBook on to anyone else
How can I make a purchase on your website? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

If you want to purchase a video course, eBook or Bundle (Print+eBook) please follow below steps:

  1. Register on our website using your email address and the password.
  2. Search for the title by name or ISBN using the search option.
  3. Select the title you want to purchase.
  4. Choose the format you wish to purchase the title in; if you order the Print Book, you get a free eBook copy of the same title. 
  5. Proceed with the checkout process (payment to be made using Credit Card, Debit Cart, or PayPal)
Where can I access support around an eBook? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
  • If you experience a problem with using or installing Adobe Reader, the contact Adobe directly.
  • To view the errata for the book, see www.packtpub.com/support and view the pages for the title you have.
  • To view your account details or to download a new copy of the book go to www.packtpub.com/account
  • To contact us directly if a problem is not resolved, use www.packtpub.com/contact-us
What eBook formats do Packt support? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Our eBooks are currently available in a variety of formats such as PDF and ePubs. In the future, this may well change with trends and development in technology, but please note that our PDFs are not Adobe eBook Reader format, which has greater restrictions on security.

You will need to use Adobe Reader v9 or later in order to read Packt's PDF eBooks.

What are the benefits of eBooks? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
  • You can get the information you need immediately
  • You can easily take them with you on a laptop
  • You can download them an unlimited number of times
  • You can print them out
  • They are copy-paste enabled
  • They are searchable
  • There is no password protection
  • They are lower price than print
  • They save resources and space
What is an eBook? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Packt eBooks are a complete electronic version of the print edition, available in PDF and ePub formats. Every piece of content down to the page numbering is the same. Because we save the costs of printing and shipping the book to you, we are able to offer eBooks at a lower cost than print editions.

When you have purchased an eBook, simply login to your account and click on the link in Your Download Area. We recommend you saving the file to your hard drive before opening it.

For optimal viewing of our eBooks, we recommend you download and install the free Adobe Reader version 9.