In last 2 post of this series, we discussed the automated and manual deployment of NSX controllers and how to form controller cluster. In this post we will learn how to do host preparation for NSX-T.
If you are not following along this series, then I recommend reading earlier posts of this series from below links:
4: NSX Controllers Automated Deployment
5: NSX Controllers Manual Deployment
When we do host preparation, NSX-T pushes few vibs on the Esxi host (just like NSX-v) and once the hosts are prepared they are known as fabric nodes. All Esxi host that are fabric nodes have NSX-T modules installed and are registered with the NSX-T management plane.
Before jumping into host preparation task, ensure that install-upgrade service status on NSX-T manager is reporting as running. If this service is down, NSX manager won’t be able to push the vibs onto the ESXi hosts when we add them in the fabric.
Login to NSX manager and fire command: get service install-upgrade
Once you have verified that service is enabled and running, login to NSX manager UI and navigate to Home > Fabric
Click on Add button.
Enter name of the Esxi host. This needs not to be hostname.
Enter the host IP address and root credentials to connect with host.
Click on Add button.
Accept the thumbprint presented by Esxi host.
As soon as host is added, NSX manager will start pushing the NSX-T VIB’s on host and you will see “NSX Install in progress” task on host.
Repeat the process for all Esxi hosts and ensure post vib installation, deployment status shows as ‘NSX Installed’ and manager connectivity reports as Up.
To check list of vib’s that are installed on Esxi host when they are prepared, ssh to any one of the host and run command: esxcli software vib list | grep -i nsx.
Unlike NSX-v, there are bunch of NSX-T modules that are installed on host.
And that’s it for this post. In next post of this series we will configure Uplink Profiles.
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