VCAP6-NV Deploy - Objective 1.3 - Configure and Manage Transport Zones



VMware NSX-V VCAP6-NV VCIX6-NV HOWTO

Published on 30 July 2017 by Christopher Lewis. Words: 682. Reading Time: 4 mins.

Skills and Abilities

Objective 1.3 - Configure and Manage Transport Zones

  • Create Transport Zones according to a deployment plan
  • Configure the control plane mode for a Transport Zone
  • Add clusters to Transport Zones
  • Remove clusters from Transport Zones

Objective Prerequisites

The following prerequisites are assumed for this Objective:

  • A working VMware vSphere 6.x environment.
  • The VMware NSX Manager has been deployed.
  • At least one VMware NSX Controller has been deployed (if required).

Objective Breakdown

Create Transport Zones according to a deployment plan

A Transport Zone defines which hosts a Logical Switch can reach. A Transport Zone can span multiple host clusters.

An NSX environment can contain one or more transport zones based on your requirements. A host cluster can belong to multiple transport zones. A logical switch can belong to only one Transport Zone.

For more information on Transport Zones, check out the official VMware Docs .

Note: These steps assume you are not even logged into vCenter Server. Skip the first few steps if you are!

Using your favourite web browser, navigate to the vCenter Server login page (https://vcenter.fqdn).

Enter appropriate User name and Password and click Login.

Click Network and Security.

Click Installation tab.

Select the Logical Network Preparation tab and select Transport Zones.

Click Add (+).

Enter the Name of the new Transport Zone, select the Replication mode and check the checkboxes next to the clusters to be added to the new Transport Zone.

Note: The default replication mode is:

Click OK.

Configure the Control Plane mode for a Transport Zone

The Control Plane mode is configured during the creation of a Transport Zone, this can be one of the following:

  • Multicast: Multicast IP addresses in the physical network are used for the control plane. This mode is recommended only when you are upgrading from older VXLAN deployments. Requires PIM/IGMP in the physical network.
  • Unicast: The control plane is handled by an NSX controller. All unicast traffic leverages optimized headend replication. No multicast IP addresses or special network configuration is required.
  • Hybrid: Offloads local traffic replication to the physical network (L2 multicast). This requires IGMP snooping on the first-hop switch and access to an IGMP querier in each VTEP subnet, but does not require PIM. The first-hop switch handles traffic replication for the subnet.

To change a Control Plane once the Transport Zone has been created, complete the following steps:

Note: These steps assume you are not even logged into vCenter Server. Skip the first few steps if you are!

Using your favourite web browser, navigate to the vCenter Server login page (https://vcenter.fqdn).

Enter appropriate User name and Password and click Login.

Click Network and Security.

Click Installation tab.

Select the Logical Network Preparation tab and select Transport Zones.

Double-click on the Transport Zone to be changed.

Click the Manage tab.

Click Edit.

Select a new Replication mode option.

(optionally) Check the Migrate existing Logical Switches to the new control plane mode checkbox and click OK.

Add new vSphere Clusters to Transport Zones

Note: These steps assume you are not even logged into vCenter Server. Skip the first few steps if you are!

Using your favourite web browser, navigate to the vCenter Server login page (https://vcenter.fqdn).

Enter appropriate User name and Password and click Login.

Click Network and Security.

Click Installation tab.

Select the Logical Network Preparation tab and select Transport Zones.

Click Connect Clusters.

Check the checkbox next to the clusters to add to the Transport Zone and click OK.

Note: I only have a single cluster so I cannot do this.

Remove vSphere clusters from Transport Zones

Note: These steps assume you are not even logged into vCenter Server. Skip the first few steps if you are!

Using your favourite web browser, navigate to the vCenter Server login page (https://vcenter.fqdn).

Enter appropriate User name and Password and click Login.

Click Network and Security.

Click Installation tab.

Select the Logical Network Preparation tab and select Transport Zones.

Click Disconnect Clusters.

Uncheck the checkbox next to the clusters to remove from the Transport Zone and click OK.

Note: I only have a single cluster so I cannot do this.

Published on 30 July 2017 by Christopher Lewis. Words: 682. Reading Time: 4 mins.