Book Image

VMware NSX Network Essentials

By : sreejith c
Book Image

VMware NSX Network Essentials

By: sreejith c

Overview of this book

VMware NSX is at the forefront of the software-defined networking revolution. It makes it even easier for organizations to unlock the full benefits of a software-defined data center – scalability, flexibility – while adding in vital security and automation features to keep any sysadmin happy. Software alone won’t power your business – with NSX you can use it more effectively than ever before, optimizing your resources and reducing costs. Getting started should be easy – this guide makes sure it is. It takes you through the core components of NSX, demonstrating how to set it up, customize it within your current network architecture. You’ll learn the principles of effective design, as well as some things you may need to take into consideration when you’re creating your virtual networks. We’ll also show you how to construct and maintain virtual networks, and how to deal with any tricky situations and failures. By the end, you’ll be confident you can deliver, scale and secure an exemplary virtualized network with NSX.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
VMware NSX Network Essentials
Credits
Foreword
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface

NSX logical switches


Using VMware NSX virtual networks, we can create a logical network on top of any IP network. We have already discussed VXLAN fundamentals and the host installation process in the previous chapters. Now that we have a good understanding of the basics, it's time to move on with virtual network creation. Before we begin exploring, it is important to understand that each logical network is a separate broadcast domain.

Logical network prerequisites

Firstly, let's have a look at the prerequisites for logical network creation:

  • Host preparation

  • Segment ID (VNI) pool

  • Global transport zone

Host preparation

We have already discussed in detail how the underlying ESXi host is prepared from NSX Manager in Chapter 3 , NSX Manager Installation and Configuration. Here, it is time to recollect that knowledge.

The hypervisor kernel modules enable ESXi hosts to support VXLAN, the logical switch, the distributed router, and the distributed firewall.

Segment ID (VNI) pool

As we know, the VXLAN network...