Welcome to Part 2 of the blog series on NSX GRE tunnels where we discuss about GRE tunnel failure detection. This is a continuation to the previous article where we implemented GRE tunnels and configured BGP over GRE, and I highly recommend checking out Part 1 before continuing. Part 1 – BGP over GRE: https://vxplanet.com/2024/07/19/nsx-gre-tunnels-part-1-bgp-over-gre/ GRE tunnels are stateless in nature. This means that the GRE tunnel endpoint doesn’t maintain any information about the state of the remote endpoint, unless any keepalive mechanisms are in place. Remember, when we did the GRE t ..read more

NSX introduced support for GRE tunnels on the T0 / VRF gateways in version 4.1.2. GRE tunnel is a logical point-to-point connection between two routing devices (or endpoints) where the traffic is encapsulated and transmitted over an IP network. With the support for GRE tunnels, we now have options for additional traffic paths into and outside of SDDC. GRE implementation in NSX comes with the below considerations: GRE tunnels are supported only on A/S or stateless A/A T0 / VRF gateways. Stateful A/A T0 gateways are not supported. Only static routes or BGP can be used on the GRE tunnel. OSPF i ..read more

Welcome to Part 5 of the blog series on NSX Application Platform Automation Appliance (NAPP-AA) where we demonstrate NAPP lifecycle management. When I completed Part 4 of this blog series last month, a minor update to NAPP (version 4.1.2.1) was released in order to address an issue while activating Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) with an Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) license. The patch dropped in at the right time, and that’s why this blog post. Please check out NAPP 4.1.2.1 release notes below to learn more: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-NSX/4.1.2.1/rn/vmware-nsx-application-platform-4 ..read more

Welcome to the final and Part 4 of the blog series on NSX Application Platform Automation Appliance (NAPP-AA) where we demonstrate NAPP Scale-Out. NAPP scale-out is supported only on advanced form factor and also requires the TKGS guest cluster to be scaled out with the appropriate number of worker nodes. As stated earlier, NSX Automation Appliance only deploys NAPP in the advanced form factor. NAPP automation appliance can scale out the TKGS guest cluster which it deployed, with additional worker nodes. However, NAPP scale out need to be performed from the NSX Application ..read more

Welcome to Part 3 of the blog series on NSX Application Platform Automation Appliance (NAPP-AA). In this article, we will deploy a second NAPP instance for the additional compute workload domain using the NAPP automation appliance. If you were not following along, please check out the previous articles of the blog series below: Part 1 : Topology and Appliance Deployment – https://vxplanet.com/2024/04/16/nsx-application-platform-automation-appliance-napp-aa-part-1-topology-and-appliance-deployment/ Part 2 : NAPP Instance Deployment – https://vxplanet.com/2024/04/18/nsx-application-platform-aut ..read more

Welcome back!!! We are at Part 2 of the blog series on NSX Application Platform Automation Appliance (NAPP-AA). In the previous article, we discussed about the NAPP topology deployed by the automation appliance and the deployment of automation appliance into the management vSphere cluster. If you missed it, please check it out below: Part 1 : Topology and Appliance Deployment – https://vxplanet.com/2024/04/16/nsx-application-platform-automation-appliance-napp-aa-part-1-topology-and-appliance-deployment/ In this blog post, we will deploy the first NAPP instance of the compute workload domain N ..read more

If you aren’t aware, NSX 4.1.1 introduced VLAN filtering capability on the VLAN Transport zones. This feature is important especially when you don’t want your NSX tenants to create segments on VLANs that are meant for infrastructure traffic. Please check out the release notes here: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-NSX/4.1.1/rn/vmware-nsx-411-release-notes/index.html VLAN filtering can also be done on the overlay transport zones to control the VLANs used for guest VLAN tagging (VGT) on the overlay segments, but I think this functionality already existed. In this article, we will discuss both ..read more

Welcome to the final part of the blog series on NSX multitenancy. In this article, we will discuss the  integration with NSX Advanced Load balancer to offer advanced load balancing as a service (ALBaaS) to the NSX tenants. Lets’ get started: If you were not following along, please check out the previous articles of this blog series below: Part 1 : Introduction & Multitenancy models : https://vxplanet.com/2023/10/24/nsx-multitenancy-part-1-introduction-multitenancy-models/ Part 2 : NSX Projects : https://vxplanet.com/2023/10/24/nsx-multitenancy-part-2-nsx-projects/ Part 3 : Virtual Pr ..read more

Welcome back!!! We are at Part 5 of the blog series on NSX multitenancy. In this article, we will discuss edge cluster considerations for NSX projects based on a few parameters like topologies, resource guarantees, traffic patterns and throughput. We will also discuss failure domains and their support in NSX projects. If you were not following along, please check out the previous articles of this series below: Part 1 – Introduction & Multitenancy models : https://vxplanet.com/2023/10/24/nsx-multitenancy-part-1-introduction-multitenancy-models/ Part 2 – NSX Projects : https://vxplanet.com ..read more

Welcome to Part 3 of the blog series on NSX Multitenancy. In this article, we will discuss NSX Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) that is an extension to NSX projects (discussed in Part 2) by offering an additional management plane isolation within the context of an NSX project. Using VPCs, we segment the management plane even further and we offer the consumers (who are mainly application owners or developers), a simplified self-service portal where they can consume the networking and security objects independently in their own private space. If you were not following along, please check out the p ..read more