A closer look at vSphere with Tanzu networking with NSX-T

This post continues to build on some of the other work already done on vSphere with Tanzu and NSX-T. In previous posts, we’ve seen how to setup NSX-T so it can be used by vSphere with Tanzu. The steps to install NSX-T Manager and prepare ESXi hosts was looked at in part 1. We saw how to set up an NSX-T Edge in part 2. Then in part 3, the steps to create a tier-0 gateway with BGP for dynamic routing shown. Most recently, the various NSX-T objects and services that are configured when the Supervisor cluster is deployed were…

How to get SSH access to TKG nodes on vSphere with Tanzu and NSX-T

I have been spending a lot of time recently on vSphere with Tanzu and NSX-T. One of the tasks that I want to do is perform a network trace from a pod running on a TKG worker node. This will be for a future post. However, before running the trace, I need to secure shell (ssh) onto a TKG worker node in order to run the traceroute. This is more challenging with NSX-T compared to using vSphere networking. The reason why is because NSX-T provides “internal” network segments for the nodes which sit behind a tier-1 and tier-0 gateway. To…

NSX-T and vSphere with Tanzu – automatically created network objects and services

In my most recent posts, the steps to get NSX-T to a point where it is ready for vSphere with Tanzu are examined. A three-part blog series describes the NSX-T setup process for vSphere with Tanzu – see part 1, part 2, and part 3. In this post, we will take a look ‘under the covers’. I will look at the network objects and services that vSphere with Tanzu automatically builds in NSX-T. As per these previous configuration steps, a number of NSX-T system objects are setup, such as Compute Manager and Edge Cluster. Some network objects must also be…

NSX-T and vSphere with Tanzu revisited (part 3 of 3)

The steps to deploy NSX-T Manager, create a Compute Manager and configuring NSX on the ESXi hosts were described in part 1 of this series of posts. The steps  to create an NSX-T Edge cluster were outlined in part 2. In this part 3 post, we will look at the final step in preparing an NSX-T environment for vSphere with Tanzu, and that is the creation and configuring of a tier-0 gateway. Networks that are created for Kubernetes workloads in vSphere with Tanzu will connect to this tier-0 gateway and subsequently allow external connectivity to the TKG clusters, e.g. developers…

NSX-T and vSphere with Tanzu revisited (Part 2 of 3)

In part 1 of 3, the steps on how to add vCenter server as the NSX Compute Manager and how to configure the ESXi hosts as host transport nodes were completed. In this part 2 of the series, the creation of an NSX Edge cluster is described. Once again, the end goal of this post is to have an NSX-T configuration that can be leveraged by vSphere with Tanzu. When this part is complete, the overlay network should extend to include the Edge nodes for east-west traffic. The Edge nodes will also be configured to have uplinks to allow for…

NSX-T and vSphere with Tanzu revisited (Part 1 of 3)

It is quite some time since I looked at deploying NSX-T, VMware’s unified networking platform. The reason for this is that VCF, VMware Cloud Foundation, takes care of the deployment and configuration of NSX-T automatically through the SDDC Manager. However, I wanted to revisit it and do it the hard way, just to re-educate myself on the steps involved. The goal is to have an NSX-T configuration that can be leveraged by vSphere with Tanzu. Since this is rather a lengthy process, I will divide it up into 3 separate posts. The first will focus on the configuration ESXi hosts…

VCF 4.1.0.1 Update to VCF 4.2 – Step by Step

VMware recently announced the release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) version 4.2. I was particular interested in this release as it allows me to try out the new vSAN Data Persistence platform (DPp). My good pal Myles has an excellent introduction to DPp here  and I plan to create a number of posts on it going forward. My VCF 4.1.0.1 environment is what we call a Consolidated Architecture , meaning that both the management domain and workload domain run on the same infrastructure. The primary application that I run in this environment is VCF with Tanzu (vSphere with Tanzu on…