Now, in general, as we take a look at building a nested NSX lab,
there are a lot of benefits in building a lab environment.
Things like getting hands-on practice or the ability to revert back to a
previous state
so you can try something again or a slightly different way
without having to rebuild the entire environment from scratch.
Initially, when I went to go ahead and deploy NSX in my lab environment
back here on my four Dell R630 rack servers behind me,
there was a teeny little hiccup
and the lifecycle manager completely would not cooperate WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
and the lifecycle manager completely would not cooperate
and I was dead in the water.
So I learned early on that I needed a simple and easy way
to go ahead and have a baseline for a lab environment all set up
and then I could revert to if I needed to.
So one of the benefits of building a nested NSX lab environment
is that we can revert as needed,
which is super important,
especially if there's dozens of hours involved in getting it up to a certain
baseline state.
And of course, another benefit of having a lab at your fingertips
is so you can get hands-on practice as needed.
And although it's true, you get a lot of hands-on practice WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And although it's true, you get a lot of hands-on practice
if you're building a whole lab from scratch.
Once you've installed vCenter like five or six times,
you've done it and you no longer need to do it over and over again.
So you want a base infrastructure or you can start building on that
infrastructure
and implement the NSX.
And also part of the revert as needed implies snapshots.
Now, by default, the NSX manager itself, when you deploy it,
does not allow snapshots.
However, with a couple of little hacks,
we can go ahead and modify that for our lab environment
so that snapshots will be allowed. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
so that snapshots will be allowed.
And that's going to be a key component in being able to roll back the entire
config
whenever we need to.
So some of the popular options for setting up a nested NSX lab environment
would include running it in VMware Workstation
or VMware Fusion on a Mac.
But I found that the problem with that is that many times
there's going to be resource requirements that are above and beyond
what a single machine can provide.
For example, if we're in VMware Workstation or VMware Fusion
and we have 32 gigs of RAM on our system, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
and we have 32 gigs of RAM on our system,
there may be times and there probably are going to be times
when we're going to need more RAM than that.
So all of that can be an option for building a VMware nested lab environment
on VMware Workstation.
I would recommend the option of building it on top of an ESXi environment.
Now, if we're using an ESXi host as the home for our nested environment,
we still may have some limitations regarding capacity.
So in addition to using ESXi,
I would also recommend using vSphere in combination with vCenter,
the vCenter server appliance. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
the vCenter server appliance.
And that way we can set up two or three ESXi hosts
and then run features like DRS, distributed resource scheduler
and use options like VMotion,
presuming we have shared storage that we're using.
And that way we can leverage the resources of two or three physical hosts
to support our nested environment.
So for the implementation of a nested lab that's based on vSphere
with a vCenter server,
that's going to presume that you have some basic knowledge of working with v
Center WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
and the vSphere client and are aware of features like vMotion and DRS
that we can leverage in a vSphere environment.
So also, let's talk about the physical host for ESXi.
What I have in my lab environment, I've got some R630s that I have had for a
long time.
And so the actual CPUs in those rack mounted servers,
even though they're not officially supported by VMware for a production
environment,
they run vSphere version eight like a champ.
And the only negative I've experienced is the fact that when I do the initial
install
of the ESXi host software on one of these servers, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
of the ESXi host software on one of these servers,
is that it gives me a little warning saying the CPU is not fully supported,
which I accept and continue on and away I go.
And a lot of these rack mounted servers can be acquired for like under $500.
And the biggest distraction with these rack servers is oftentimes the noise
and most of that noise comes from the fans.
So using the iDRAC feature on these Dell R630s and also other Dell rack mounted
servers,
we can use iDRAC and actually control the fan.
So what I do is I load my rack servers up, get them pretty busy, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So what I do is I load my rack servers up, get them pretty busy,
then I take a look at the temperatures,
courtesy of iDRAC that can tell me exactly the temperatures involved,
and then I just the fans low enough so it's not too noisy and at the same time,
I'm not destroying the hardware based on temperatures getting too hot.
So for a lab environment being able to acquire a blade server with quite a bit
of RAM
at a fairly low price is a great option for a nested lab environment.
Now another element going into this I'd like to make you aware of is some
important prep work
and resources that we'd want to have available.
So we'd want to have some hardware resources where we could actually build the WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So we'd want to have some hardware resources where we could actually build the
nested NSX lab.
And we'd also want to have some system where we can set up a records in DNS.
So in my lab environment, I'm using a Windows server, but you could use Linux
or something else as well.
But having DNS at your fingertips for your lab environment is an important
aspect.
We're also going to want to have time synchronization available using NTP.
So you could also take care of that in-house inside your lab environment
or you could reach out to an internet resource to one of the public NTP pools
to synchronize time.
But either way DNS services and time synchronization are going to be important WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
But either way DNS services and time synchronization are going to be important
for success in your lab environment.
Another important consideration is licensing.
So what are we going to need licensing for?
We're going to need licensing for ESXi hosts, for vCenter, for the NSX
components,
including NSX Manager and more.
And the best way, if you're building a home lab environment to get the
licensing that's needed
for that is a VMUG Advantage membership.
That's the VM user group.
That's the VMUG acronym.
So once you sign up for the VMUG Advantage membership, again, that's about $200 WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So once you sign up for the VMUG Advantage membership, again, that's about $200
US a year,
then they've got some steps you can follow where you can actually get the EVAL
licenses.
And again, those licenses are good for a year, which is more than enough time
for a lab environment.
The only negative there with the VMUG Advantage licensing is that the actual
software you have for NSX,
it's a non-export license, meaning that at the end of the day,
it's not going to support features like VPNs, Layer 2 VPNs or IPsec VPNs.
But most of the other features, including global manager functionality,
is going to be available as part of the licensing and software you get as part WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
is going to be available as part of the licensing and software you get as part
of the VMUG Advantage program.
Now, another important aspect regarding prep work is we need to have Internet
access,
which also implies network address translation.
So what I've got here in my office, I've got a management network that goes to
a default gateway at .1,
which does network address translation and then provides access out to the
Internet.
And then there's one last piece I want to chat about as far as prep work goes,
and that is we are going to need a top of rack switch.
And the primary function for that top of rack switch is going to be the feature WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And the primary function for that top of rack switch is going to be the feature
of doing trunking.
So if you have a top of rack switch that supports Layer 2 trunking
and can also support logical Layer 3 routing, that'd be fantastic.
So in my lab environment, I'm using an $80 switch.
You might say, "Well, Keith, what can we really get for $80?"
Well, check this out.
If you get a Cisco 3750, now these were manufactured, I don't know, over a
decade ago,
and they're now end of life, over like $80, you can get a 3750, which is a WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
and they're now end of life, over like $80, you can get a 3750, which is a
multi-layer switch,
which can do routing and switching.
And it's my primary tool that I use in my rack environment, and that was a
whopping $80.
And again, that's a Cisco Catalyst 3750 switch.
And that is a 48 port switch, and those are gigabit ports.
And there's also a module in the one I happen to get, which has two 10 gig
ports as well.
And the other thing I have in my lab environment is I have some shared storage.
So if you want to use V-SAN, you can.
I would recommend if you can do something else other than V-SAN for your lab WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
I would recommend if you can do something else other than V-SAN for your lab
environment, that's better.
I'll tell you why.
Once V-SAN is in place, you have three or four hosts supporting the V-SAN.
It's not really simple to remove or change your network topology too much
and move ESXi hosts in and out because they're relying on the hosts providing
that V-SAN functionality.
So what I did, I just got a Synology external network attached storage device,
which I'm using my shared storage for my ESXi host in my cluster.
So I wanted to mention a few of these elements right here up front. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So I wanted to mention a few of these elements right here up front.
And as we go through this together, I'm going to show you each and every part
of exactly what I'm using
to make this NSX lab environment work.
In fact, let's go ahead in the next video and take a closer look at my top-of-
rack switch environment
and how I have it configured as part of my infrastructure for my nested lab.
So I'll see you for that in the very next video.