Managing NSX Manager Network Settings via Rest API

Manish Jha

In this post we will learn how can we configure some of the network settings like DNS/Syslog and NTP configurations in NSX manager via Rest API.

We can do all this from NSX manager GUI also but if you are thinking about automating NSX manager deployment, then these Rest API knowledge can be pretty handy for configuring the appliance post its deployment.

Lets get started.

Query Network Settings

Below API query will give you an overview of NSX Manager IP settings, Hostname, DNS settings and domain name

# curl -k -u “admin:adminpwd” -X GET https://nsxmgr.alex.local/api/1.0/appliance-management/system/network/ | xmllint –format –

… Read More

NSX Certificate Management Using Rest API

Manish Jha

In this post We will learn how to view generate self-signed certificate for NSX and replace the certificates after getting them signed from CA. We will be doing this via Rest API.

I wrote a post in past on how to replace SSL certs for NSX from GUI. In this post I am trying to achieve the same via Rest API

Following are the API queries which you need to execute in order to generate and replace certs.

Generate CSR Certificate

# curl -k -u “admin:passwd” -d @csr.xml -X PUT https://nsxmgr.alex.local/api/1.0/appliance-management/certificatemanager/csr/nsx

… Read More

Enable Disable HA on Edge GW via NSX Rest API

Manish Jha

In this post I will be demonstrating how to enable and disable high availability on NSX edge gateway using Rest API.

If you are new to NSX and do not know what edge gateway high availability means then I would recommend to read this Blog by Gabe Rosas.

We can enable disable high availability on edge gateway from vSphere Web Client by navigating to Home  > Networking & Security > NSX Edges > Selecting Edge > Manage > HA Configuration

Enabling HA on edge gateway will create a new vse vm in vCenter and both VM start exchanging heartbeat and exchanging other configuration etc.

Now we will see how to achieve this via NSX Rest API.

Step 1: Query HA Status

# curl -k -u “admin:passwd” -X GET https://nsxmgr.alex.local/api/4.0/edges/edge-2/highavailability/config | xmllint –format –

… Read More

Redeploy NSX Edge Gateway Using Rest API

Manish Jha

In this post I will demonstrate how to redeploy edge gateway in vCloud Director using Rest API

Disclaimer: This is not any fancy post and I am going to perform very simple task here. Most of you may be already aware of this. This post is for those who are new to API and also a reference post for me for future.

Lets get started.

We have to follow below steps for redeploying an edge gateway using API calls

Step 1: Generate Auth Token

# curl -sik -H “Accept:application/*+xml;version=5.6” -u “admin@system” -X POST https://vcd-b.alex.local/api/sessions | grep auth
Enter host password for user ‘admin@system’:

x-vcloud-authorization: 3fc8a5425f804c9d94eeff04e0272ed7

Step 2: Get Org UUID

# curl -sik -H “Accept:application/*+xml;version=5.6” -H “x-vcloud-authorization:3fc8a5425f804c9d94eeff04e0272ed7” -X GET https://vcd-a.alex.local/api/org/

Step 3: Get vDC UUID

# curl -sik -H “Accept:application/*+xml;version=5.6” -H “x-vcloud-authorization:3fc8a5425f804c9d94eeff04e0272ed7” -X GET https://vcd-a.alex.local/api/org/58d92de4-4aa5-4a14-9b39-28e1de5e9809… Read More

Detaching and Deleting Independent Disks in vCloud Director via REST API

Manish Jha

Yesterday while working on one of the production issue where we had to deprovision a tenant environment in vCloud Air, I noticed that independent disks were preventing automated deprovision of the environment and the error messages were loud and clear in the log files.

It was a new issue for me so I started reading about independent disks in vCloud Director and want to share few things about this.

First of all independent Disk feature in vCD is completely different from an Independent Disk in vSphere. Independent disks can be shared across multiple vApps/VM’s in vCloud Director. This feature was first introduced in vCD v5.1.

Following quote from vCloud Architecture Toolkit document rightly explains about independent disks

The use of independent disks with vCloud Director allows updates of virtual machines without impacting the underlying data.

The feature is designed to enable users to create virtual disks which can be attached to and detached from virtual machines.… Read More

Replacing vCD SSL Certificates in a Multi Cell Environment

Manish Jha

After a long wait I finally got chance to work on vCloud Director ssl certificates. This was the only component in my lab which was still using self-signed certs and that encouraged me to do something new in lab.

A note on vCD SSL certificates

vCloud Director like any other VMware product needs a certificate to be installed on the device that it uses for communication with the other products. By default vCD uses a self-signed certificate. If you have a certificate authority in your environment then you can get the certs created in advance before installing vCloud director and save your self from pain of messing with certificates at later stages.

vCD has 2 IP address which allows support for 2 different SSL endpoints (http and consoleproxy). Each endpoint requires its own SSL certificate. vCloud Director uses a java keystore to read its SSL certificates from.  In a Multi-cell environment you need to create 2 certificates for each cell and import the certificates into vcd java keystore.… Read More

Troubleshooting Failed Org Network Creation in vCloud Director

Manish Jha

Today while working in my lab, I observed that while creating a new VDC in vCD was failing because org network failed to create.

On navigating to Org VDC list and clicking on error, it read the error load and clear that org vdc network can’t be created.

vcd-1

On navigating to Org VDC Networks section and clicking on error, I was able to identify what has caused the network creation failure.

vcd-2

The error stack was reading as below:

… Read More

Troubleshooting Mysterious Catalog Item in vCloud Director

Manish Jha

Few days back while working on one of the customer ticket, I came across an incident where customer was reporting that he is not able to see one of his template in his catalog. He sent the VM via ODT to vCloud Air to be imported in his catalog.

I verified that VM was missing from catalog but was present in vCenter. I tried to import the VM again in Catalog by selecting the option “Import from vSphere” but to my surprise the VM was showing up in the list for selection.

corpsql01 not listing

I have never seen such behaviour in VCD. Even if import of template is failed midway, the item is listed in catalog with a question mark against it and status of item reads as “failed to create“

After scratching my head for 15-20 minutes and checking with my peer if he had seen any such issue in past, I decided to employ API calls for catalog query (GUI is a big fat lier sometimes) and to my surprise I was seeing 2 entries for catalog items.… Read More

RabbitMQ Clustering

Manish Jha

In the last post of this series, we learned how to install/configure RMQ for vCloud Director. This post is an extension of my last post where I will be adding one more node to my RMQ setup to form a cluster for high availability.

What data is replicated in an RMQ Cluster?

All data/state required for the operation of a RabbitMQ broker is replicated across all nodes. An exception to this is message queues, which by default reside on one node, though they are visible and reachable from all nodes. To replicate queues across nodes in a cluster, see the documentation on high-availability

Note: Before proceeding with cluster formation, please ensure the following:

1: Use the same version of Erlang and RMQ server rpm which is installed on the master node.

2: RMQ nodes address each other using domain names, either short or FQDNs. Therefore hostnames of all cluster members must be resolvable from all cluster nodes, as well as machines on which command line tools such as rabbitmqctl might be used.… Read More

Installing RabbitMQ for vCloud Director

Manish Jha

In this post, I will demonstrate how to install RMQ for vCloud Director. Before jumping into any lab activity, let’s learn first what is RabbitMQ and why we need it.

What is RabbitMQ?

RabbitMQ is an open-source message-queuing software that helps facilitate message exchange between 2 or more applications. The exchange of messages is done via a queue which is defined by the administrator. An application can publish a message to the queue which can be retrieved or consumed by a different application.

A message can include any kind of information for example, it could have information about a process/task that should start on another application may be on another server or it could be just a simple text message.

The queue-manager software stores the messages until a receiving application connects and takes a message off the queue. The receiving application then appropriately processes the message.

How does it work?

RabbitMQ works by offering an interface, that connects message senders (Publishers) with receivers (Consumers) through an exchange (Broker) which distributes the data to relevant lists (Message Queues).… Read More