NSX-T 3.0 from Scratch (Pt. 8): Transport Node Prep

[@Humpadilly]

I dont usually comment, but I have to say thanks heaps for the videos... its thanks to your videos I wrapped my mind around NSXT.

[@NRDYTech]

thanks so much for the comment! I'm really glad you found them useful!

[@grimsrue]

For teaching reasons, it would have been interesting to see one host setup using the Coverged VDS method and the other host setup using the N-VDS method. My reasoning behind this is so people who are still running mostly 6.7, or older, environments can see what is required from both perspectives. Brownfield especially. I took NSX-Ninja training during the 2.4 release and I think you do a much better job of keeping the explanations of each part of NSX-T very simple, since it can get very very complicated.

[@NRDYTech]

Hey Erik! I agree completely. In my Udemy course I actually show both versions, but on KZbin, I do have a video on N-VDS vs. Converged VDS, and I *think* I cover this in my brownfield video as well. I will definitely keep this in mind when I do a refresh of this series though, as you're right - lots of people still navigating brownfield situations.

[@mohamedabo-elazm9475]

You are awesome man :) thanks ... i dont really comment on vids and content on you tube is not normally as good as yours , i am definitely joining your blog

[@Landiff]

There needs to be a way to thumbs up all your videos at once.

[@NRDYTech]

Haha! Thank you, and love the username

[@johngill1354]

Ok, I'm not sure why I missed this -- but when the transport host addressing is set for DHCP, the addresses handed out need to actually be reachable, especially if you're running a gateway tunnel to the host transport. I assumed NSX would handle DHCP by some kind of default magic, but that's not the case. The addressing falls back to APIPA range (169.254.0.0/16 ) and figured it was OK because it only needed to talk between transport nodes. It's gotta be IN VLAN 19, and I assume you had a DHCP server there in your lab, Mike. So, I created an IP pool/range that was in my "VLAN 19" and things suddenly started making so much more sense. Hopefully this tip helps someone else, I was not even aware that something was wrong. Make sure your transport host tunnels are up and your edge node tunnels are up, and not "Not available"!

[@errcoche]

Hey Mike. This may be obvious to you but I missed out the fact that if you pick DHCP as the way that the Host Transport Nodes get their IPs for TEPs, that means configuring DHCP on a router that is in that VLAN. Had me stumped for a little while, especially because with DISTRIBUTED routing, a VM on an overlay can ping its gateway without the packet leaving the physical host. I hadn't seen anybody suggesting a different VLAN for Host and Edge TEPs before and I had gotten it into my head the NSX-T could magically sort out its own DHCP server for address assignment. Clearly ( now ), if you are using different VLANs you need to route and that isn't taken care of. Cheers for the videos.

[@jinpingyang6015]

Elucidating. Thanks.

[@keosouza]

Hi Mike, does the Overlay traffic type require N-VDS? Does Overlay traffic type require an Edge node? The reason I ask is because you configure the Transport node with VDS (instead of N-VDS) and selected an Overlay Transport Zone. Also, when you created the VLAN TZ you didn't enter a name for the switch so I'm assuming it's because the N-VDS will automatically be created once you deploy/configure your Edge node. BUT, I'm confused because I thought the Edge was required for Overlay and not required for VLAN traffic type.

[@NRDYTech]

If you're doing overlay segments, yes, you must have an edge node (traffic routes through the edge). If you're doing VLAN-backed segments, you do NOT need the edge, as traffic is routed on the physical network (same as a regular vDS/VSS port group). That said, the Edge Node does deploy the N-VDS as part of the edge setup (that's when we selected Overlay and VLAN-backed TZ's). Does that help answer your question?

[@keosouza]

@@NRDYTech Yes it does help but now I've another question, lol. It sounds like the N-VDS is only a requirement on the Edge node then? But when you're configuring the Transport node it's ok to choose VDS (instead of N-VDS) and add it to an Overlay Transport Zone? In other words, the fact a Transport node is added to an Overlay TZ doesn't require it to be configured with the N-VDS switch? THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Your videos are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

[@NRDYTech]

@@keosouza Bingo! N-VDS is a must on the edge (you don't really have a choice there). On the Hosts, you can do N-VDS or VDS. And you're correct, just because it's on an overlay TZ, doesn't require N-VDS, regular VDS is fine - as long as your hosts are vSphere 7.0+..if they're older, you must use N-VDS.

[@keosouza]

@@NRDYTech ahh ok!!! Got it! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

[@SagittariusA111]

So basicly in NSX-T 2.5 you need 2 seperate pNICS for NSX, and on 3.0 u can use the pNICS from actually running VDS ?

[@NRDYTech]

Correct Marcin! You have to be on vSphere 7.0 to do this though. This is called "converged VDS" - if you do this, you do NOT need dedicated uplinks for NSX-T.

[@BacktoVMZone]

Can you please share me the link for Transport Zones video, To understand the concept, as you have mentioned at 5:38

[@NRDYTech]

Sure- here you go! m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/ambZk3V_ot6Wlc0

[@NRDYTech]

Thanks for the comment BTW, I updated the video so the link will now pop up around 5:30 :)

[@BacktoVMZone]

​@@NRDYTech could you please share me your email, i will glad to talk with you @ [e-mail]

[@ayaams6390]

Hi Thank you for your video its really helpful. I'm doing a home lab and I got an issue with tunneling it keep gives me down and I cant ping between VMs on same segment and it's not the issue because everything works good when migrate VMs to the same host. Will be really appreciated if you can help me with.

[@NRDYTech]

If things don't work between VMs on the same segment when they're on different hosts, your issue is almost certainly related to MTU! Check your TEP VLANs and make sure you have MTU over 1600 (ideally 1700+).