So in this video, let's talk about the infrastructure that we can use for our
nested lab environment.
Starting off with this top of rack switch. As I mentioned in the other video,
I'm using a Cisco Catalyst 3750 switch, which a decade ago, they were thousands
and thousands of
dollars to get a fully decked out 3750 switch. Now they're 80 bucks, but they
still do a fantastic
job. So this is going to represent the top of rack switch right here. And again
, this is a Cisco
Catalyst 3750 that I'm currently using. Now on the top of rack switch, the WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Catalyst 3750 that I'm currently using. Now on the top of rack switch, the
connections that are
going to go to your ESXi environment, we simply want them to be trunk ports. So
I'm going to
label those as trunk ports, meaning they use 802.1 Q tagging and can support
the VLANs that are
being supported by the switch. So as far as VLANs go, here is a really
important part to remember.
If you plan on using four or five or six or 10 VLANs, make sure that those VLAN
s are supported
here at your top of rack switch. So if you're using, for example, VLAN 23 and V WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
here at your top of rack switch. So if you're using, for example, VLAN 23 and V
LAN 24 or VLAN 101
or 102, et cetera, et cetera, make sure that those VLANs are supported on the
switch and make
sure the ports that are connected down to your physical ESXi environment are
set up as trunk ports.
And those trunk ports can be connected to our physical ESXi hosts. So here I'll
make a note,
this is our physical ESXi hosts here in pink. And although we may have two or
three or more
physical hosts as part of our lab environment leveraging DRS behind the scenes, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
physical hosts as part of our lab environment leveraging DRS behind the scenes,
what I want to
do right here is just represent that we want our connectivity from the physical
ESXi hosts
going up to the trunk ports on the top of rack switch. So let me go ahead and
draw a virtual
distributed switch right here. I'll just label that VDS on the physical ESXi
host. And associate
that VDS, we have one or more uplinks, also known as VMNix, that are physically
connected up to the
trunk ports on the top of rack switch, and that are logged at the associate
with our
virtual distributed switch here on the ESXi host. And then on this virtual WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
virtual distributed switch here on the ESXi host. And then on this virtual
distributed switch,
we're going to have six port groups that we're going to set up associated with
this virtual
distributed switch. So for this orange color, I'll label those as PGs for port
groups. So when we
configure these port groups, we'd want to set them up as trunks to support VLAN
zero through
four zero nine four, which is a fancy way of saying we're willing to support
all VLANs. Also,
since we're right here, let's also draw in the nested virtualized ESXi hosts. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
since we're right here, let's also draw in the nested virtualized ESXi hosts.
So I'll write that
here as nested. And on each of these nested ESXi hosts, we're going to give
them each six network
cards. And those are going to represent the VM Nix, including VM Nix zero and
VM Nix one and two
and three and four and five. And as we deploy each of these nested ESXi hosts,
we're going to go ahead
and associate their network interface cards with the port groups up here on the
physical ESXi host.
So this is the first network card we'll go to the first port group, and then
this one will go to the
next port group and so forth and so on until we have all six adapters. So this WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
next port group and so forth and so on until we have all six adapters. So this
would be VM Nix zero
through five, all connected effectively to trunks. And then the VDS that's
supporting that is also
connected to trunks. And also while we're here, let me also draw in the two VDS
s that we're going
to create in the virtualized environment. We're going to use one virtual
distributed switch. I'll
go ahead and label this VDS hosts and a second virtual distributed switch in
our nested environment.
We'll call that one VDS edge. And then for the uplinks associated, we'll
associate these four
right here, VM Nix zero, one, two, and three with our virtual distributed WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
right here, VM Nix zero, one, two, and three with our virtual distributed
switch called VDS hosts,
and we'll associate the other two uplinks with the virtual switch called VDS
edge.
So for the VLANs that we intend on using this nested ESXi host will believe and
feel like it
has full access to all the VLANs it needs because it's connected to trunks. And
this VDS on the
host switch is also connected to one or more trunks. And that leads us back to
the top of our
X switch. We need to make darn sure that whatever VLAN that we are using, all WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
X switch. We need to make darn sure that whatever VLAN that we are using, all
of those VLANs exist
in the top of our X switch, because if down here, we have a situation we're
trying to use VLAN
one zero one, for example, and the top of X switch doesn't have one zero one,
as we start spreading
out our work across multiple physical hosts, and they need to communicate with
each other,
including using a common VLAN like VLAN one zero one. If that VLAN doesn't
exist here at the top
of our X switch, this top of our X switch for most vendors is going to deny or
drop that traffic
with a frame that's tagged for a VLAN that is not supporting. All right, a WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
with a frame that's tagged for a VLAN that is not supporting. All right, a
couple other notes
about the infrastructure. One is MTU the maximum transmission unit that that to
9000 or if you
want to say 9k that works too. And that way we can support jumbo frames when
needed or if needed
across the entire topology. So make sure that on the top of our X switch that
we're going to set
the MTU to be 9000 to support a layer to 9000 byte frame also often referred to
as a jumbo frame.
And that also is going to be true here when we create this to switch on our WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And that also is going to be true here when we create this to switch on our
physical ESXi
host that they're going to use, make sure we also set the MTU to 9000. And the
same thing here,
when we create these distributed switches as well, we also want to set the MTU
to 9000.
So let me clean that up just a little bit. So the 9000, anytime we're working
with a top of
X switch or any of our virtual distributed switches, make sure at the switch
level,
we allow for a 9000 byte frame. Another item that's going to help us when
creating our virtual
distributed switches is to remember to go ahead and enable Mac learning on the WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
distributed switches is to remember to go ahead and enable Mac learning on the
virtual distributed
switches, also allow Mac address changes. And we also want to allow forage
transmits. So if we just
make that consistent on each of our VDSs, then we won't have to worry later
about something breaking
or not working because they're not enabled. So as NSX has evolved now, it's in
4.1X version as of
this recording, instead of NSX creating its own NSX virtual distributed switch,
we're now leveraging
our existing virtual distributed switches that are in the vSphere environment. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
our existing virtual distributed switches that are in the vSphere environment.
And as part of that
to make everything work, if we have these three settings enabled for all of our
virtual distributed
switches, including the 9000 byte MTU, we're going to avoid a lot of headaches
along the way.
So let's take a look at the top of rack switch, which again, I have a 3750 that
I'm using from
Cisco systems. And let's verify that I have ports set up for trunking and also
that I have all the
VLANs that I need for my topology. Also, while we're there, we can also confirm
that we have
routing in place, which will also be performed by the top of rack switch. Oh, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
routing in place, which will also be performed by the top of rack switch. Oh,
and you know what,
there's one other connection. I want to go ahead and add this topology here as
well. And that's
with one of these ports. It's connected out to my management network. So here's
my management
network in my home office here. It's the 192 168 one network address space. And
on that network,
I've got my management PC right here, which is at dot 151. I've also got my
logical vCenter
on that same address base of 192 168 one as well. So I'll call this VCS a prod.
And this is the WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And this is the
vCenter server right here that's managing all the physical hosts. And then once
we start deploying
our nested environment here, we're going to deploy yet another vCenter on one
of our nested ES6i hosts.
And I'll explain the benefit of why that's important to do as we proceed. Also
off of this network,
I have a router and that routers at dot one that router has internet access and
is performing
network address translation as well for traffic going out towards the internet.
If it's coming in
from the 192 168 one address space. So with that in mind, let's take a look at WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
from the 192 168 one address space. So with that in mind, let's take a look at
the top of rack switch
just to confirm that I have the MTU support for jumbo frames of at least 9000
bytes. Also that
I have all the VLANs that I need. And also for any ports that are connected to
my physical ES6i host
that they are set up for trunking. All right, so here is my top of rack switch.
With the show
version command showing it's a Cisco 3750E. And as far as the software is
currently running
is 15 dot X. And if we did a show system MTU on the Cisco switch here, it's WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
is 15 dot X. And if we did a show system MTU on the Cisco switch here, it's
showing us that we're
supporting our jumbo MTUs. And all I really need is 9000. But if your switch
supports a little more
than 9000, that'll work as well. I still want to have a bottleneck or a problem
at the top of rack
switch. In the event a jumbo frame is sent, I want to make sure the switch is
going to go ahead and
forward it. So now that we've confirmed we can support a larger than normal
frame size. Next,
let's take a look at the routing table to show IP route on the Cisco router
will press enter
at space bar a few times. There's quite a few routes, but I just want to
confirm and demonstrate
that this top of rack switch has not only the ability to layer two switching, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
that this top of rack switch has not only the ability to layer two switching,
but it also
has logical layer three interfaces. So if we scroll over here, I've got a local
interface of 11 11
11 dot one, which happens to be the default gateway for one of my transport
nodes. And that's
associated with VLAN 101. And then I also have a logical layer three address
associated with
VLAN 102, which is being used by another transport node. And then one with an
IP address of 3333.1,
that's being used in combination with VLAN 103. So this helps confirm that we WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
that's being used in combination with VLAN 103. So this helps confirm that we
are supporting
routing on this device. And if we did a show VLAN brief here on the Cisco
switch, and I call
a switch, but it's really a multi layer switch that does routing and switching
here, it's confirming
a list of all the VLANs that it currently has. So if we're using VLAN 23, we'd
want to make sure
VLAN 23 exists. If we're using VLAN 24, we'd want to make sure VLAN 24 exists
and so forth and so on.
So I have every single VLAN and more that we'll be using as part of my lab
environment, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
environment,
including all these VLANs, which I'm using as part of my transport network. I
've also got a
port on this switch that goes out to my physical network and that's off of its
interface VLAN 1.
So if we did a show IP interface for VLAN 1, press dinner, there's its IP
address right there,
and its default gateway from its routing table is at .1. So if we tried to ping
for example 192.168.1.1,
which is my default gateway going out towards the internet, we can reach that.
And if we tried
to ping for example out to 8 at 8 to 8 that's also going to work because the WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
to ping for example out to 8 at 8 to 8 that's also going to work because the
router at this IP
address on my local network here is also supporting network address translation
services for me.
The last thing I want to verify as well is my trunking. So here on the Cisco K
elle switch,
we'll do a show interface trunk press enter. And I currently have one trunk and
it's this one right
here. This is the 10 gig port and it's supporting all of these VLANs. So truth
be told behind the
scenes, I actually have a switch here and then I have another switch here. So
this is my Cisco 3750
and up here I think it's a trend net. And so this connection right here, this WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
and up here I think it's a trend net. And so this connection right here, this
trunk is from my 3750
going up to my trend net and then the trend here have the trunk ports that go
out to the physical
ESXI hosts. And because this connection right here is a trunk port between
these two physical
switches, these VLANs, which are really just layer two broadcast domains exist
across both
those switches. So in my topology as well, because I have two switches involved
here, I need to make
sure that any VLANs I plan on using exist not only here, but also on here. So WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
sure that any VLANs I plan on using exist not only here, but also on here. So
we can kind of think
of this logically as my top of rack switching environment. And once again, we
want to make
sure that any VLANs that we plan on using, make sure they're supported by your
top of rack switches.
All right. So now that we've taken a look at the top of rack switches, we
verified jumbo frame
support. We verified they have the right VLANs that are needed for our lab top
ology. We also
verified we have connectivity to my external network, the 192.1 state one
network with a router out
there that can lead us off towards the internet if we need to. Our next logical WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
there that can lead us off towards the internet if we need to. Our next logical
step then is to
take a look at the actual VMs that we're going to be using inside of our lab
environment, including
our nested ESXi host. So we'll continue this journey taking a closer look at
the VMs and the
nested VMs in the next video. I'll see you there in just a moment.