NSX-T Global Manager system page with controls to make the appliance active and add a standby manager.

Configuring Global Managers and Local Managers in VMware NSX-T Federation

In this article I will cover setting up your first two Global Managers and adding the local managers from your sites. Log into the newly deployed Global Manager System > Configuration > location Manager Make Active Provide the name of your Global Manager Confirm the GM is active SSH into the Global Manager Run the … Explore: Configuring Global Managers and Local Managers in VMware…

NSX-T Tier-1 Gateways page before a production Tier-1 gateway is created.

How to Deploy a VMware NSX-T 3.2 Tier-1 Gateway (T1 GW)

Tier-1 Gateway (also known as Tier-1 Logical Router): provides default gateway services for VMs attached to segments. It connects to one tier-0 gateway for northbound connectivity and one or more overlay networks for southbound connectivity. Both types of gateways can include a distributed router (DR) and a service router (SR). Distributed routers are instantiated on … Explore: How to Deploy a VMware NSX-T 3.2 Tier-1…

NSX-T Segments page showing existing application segments before the Tier-0 uplink VLAN segments are created.

How to Deploy a VMware NSX-T 3.2 Tier-0 Gateway (T0 GW)

Tier-0 Gateway (also known as Tier-0 Logical Router): interfaces with the physical network and exchange routing information with external routers via static routing or eBGP. In active-standby mode, the gateway can also provide stateful services. The Tier-0 router performs gateway services between overlay and non-overlay hosts (for example, a physical server or the Internet router). … Explore: How to Deploy a VMware NSX-T 3.2 Tier-0…

Welcome screen for the VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Installer with management-cluster deployment options.

Deploy VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid

Once you have reached the welcome page you will have options For this example we will be deploying Tanzu on a vCF environment so click deploy under vSphere Next enter in your vCenter server name Username/password for your admin account Then click connect to confirm you can connect Deploy TKG Management Cluster Select your Data … Explore: Deploy VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid

NSX-T Segments page before the first production overlay segment is added.

How to Create a Segment in VMware NSX-T 3.2

A segment performs the functions of a logical switch. A segment gives tenant network administrators the logical equivalent of a physical Layer 2 switch, allowing them to connect a set of VMs to a common broadcast domain. A segment is a logical entity independent of the physical hypervisor infrastructure and spans many hypervisors, connecting VMs … Explore: How to Create a Segment in VMware NSX-T…

NSX-T Edge Transport Nodes page with the control for adding a new edge node.

How to deploy VMware NSX-T 3.2 Edge Node & Edge Cluster

NSX-T Edge nodes provide routing services and connectivity to networks that are external to the NSX-T deployment. NSX-T Edges are required for establishing external connectivity from the NSX-T domain, through a Tier-0 router over BGP or static routing. Additionally, you must deploy an NSX-T Edge for stateful services at either the Tier-0 or Tier-1 logical … Explore: How to deploy VMware NSX-T 3.2 Edge Node…

NSX-T Global Manager Groups inventory before any global groups have been created.

Configure Global Policies in VMware NSX-T Federation

In this article I will cover creating Global Groups in NSX-T Federation.  Then we will create a policy and a rule to test web traffic in order to show that the new policy/rule applies at both site locations. Log into the Global Manager In the primary global manager go to Inventory > Groups Add Group … Explore: Configure Global Policies in VMware NSX-T Federation

NSX-T Users and Roles LDAP page where an Active Directory identity source can be added.

How to Add AD/LDAP to VMware NSX-T 3.2

NSX-T-T now allows LDAP/AD as an alternative to using the VMware identity manager solution.  This is perfect for environments that only need to control authentication of the NSX-T environment. When integrating with Active Directory, NSX Manager allows users to log in using their samAccountName, or userPrincipalName. If the @domain portion of the userPrincipalName does not match the … Explore: How to Add AD/LDAP to VMware NSX-T 3.2

NSX-T URL Analysis landing page explaining north-south URL visibility and the need to assign a profile to an edge cluster.

VMware NSX-T 3.2 Analyzing URL Traffic

FQDN Analysis allows administrators to gain insight into the type of websites accessed within the organization, and understand the reputation and risk of the accessed websites. How to configure: Security > North South Security > URL Analysis You need to enable the service which is disabled by default Highlight your edge and click enable Yes … Explore: VMware NSX-T 3.2 Analyzing URL Traffic

NSX-T Host Transport Nodes page used to select the vCenter-managed ESXi cluster for preparation.

Prepare ESXi Hosts to Join VMware NSX-T 3.2

A transport node is a node that is capable of participating in an NSX-T Data Center overlay or NSX-T Data Center VLAN networking. Any node can serve as a transport node if it contains an N-VDS. Such nodes include but are not limited to NSX Edges. How to Prepare ESXi Hosts System > Configuration > … Explore: Prepare ESXi Hosts to Join VMware NSX-T 3.2

NSX-T IP Address Pools page with the control for adding a TEP address pool.

How to Create TEP IP Pool VMware NSX-T 3.2

The Tunnel endpoint (TEP) enables Transport nodes to participate in an NSX-T overlay. The NSX-T overlay deploys a Layer 2 network on top of an existing Layer 3 network fabric by encapsulating frames inside packets and transferring the packets over an underlying transport network. The underlying transport network can be another Layer 2 network, or … Explore: How to Create TEP IP Pool VMware NSX-T…

NSX-T Transport Zones page with controls for adding overlay and VLAN transport zones.

How to Create Transport Zone in VMware NSX-T 3.2

Whether part of a fresh installation or continue growth and expansion of an existing environment, transport zones will need to be created. Transport zones dictate which hosts and, therefore, which VMs can participate in the use of a particular network. A transport zone does this by limiting the hosts that can “see” a segment—and, therefore, … Explore: How to Create Transport Zone in VMware NSX-T…

Amazon DynamoDB console landing page with options to create tables, add and query items, and monitor tables.

AWS DynamoDB Setup

As I work with more and more clients the use cases for DynamoDB continue to rise.  I wanted to put together a quick how to article. Why DynamoDB? Solid performance Can scale It is not a relational database It is a fully managed DB that is replicated across 3 x AZs providing HA Low cost … Explore: AWS DynamoDB Setup

AWS Lambda overview explaining serverless code execution with a simple function example.

Serverless w/ AWS Lambda Functions

If you are like me then you are always working in environments where everything wants to increase speed & efficiency while lowering cost.  Serverless compute functions or functions as a service unlock this ability for end users like developers.  No longer do developers have to manage servers but they just manage code.  Benefits of functions: … Explore: Serverless w/ AWS Lambda Functions

Auto Scaling group Automatic scaling tab before a scaling policy has been added.

Configuring AWS Scaling Policy inside an Auto Scaling Group

We’ve all been there where we need to setup an auto scaling policy for our auto scaling groups.  I find policies a great way to control the spin up and spin down of new resources based on workload requirements.  I high recommend you go skim over the dynamic scaling documentation on AWS for all your … Explore: Configuring AWS Scaling Policy inside an Auto Scaling…

EC2 Load Balancers page used to begin creating a Classic Load Balancer.

Create Classic Load Balancer in AWS

This is the first load balancer that AWS introduced which has it is missing some features like the latest load balancers provide. A Classic Load Balancer still has a purpose for EC2 Classic instances.   Per AWS, “Elastic Load Balancing automatically distributes your incoming traffic across multiple targets, such as EC2 instances, containers, and IP addresses, … Explore: Create Classic Load Balancer in AWS