In this video, you and I get to chat about VMs
and where we're going to place them.
So let's start off with some of the VMs we're going to use in our lab
environment.
We need a VM that we can use for name resolution that we can control.
So in my lab environment,
I'm using a simple little copy of Windows Server,
and that is providing my DNS services in my lab environment.
So every time I'm going to deploy an Edge node or
transport node or something else in the world of vSphere and or NSX,
I'm going to go ahead and create a records for each of them.
As far as this Windows Server, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
As far as this Windows Server,
I'm running it as a VM on one of my physical ESXi hosts.
So let me show you what that looks like.
So here in my vSphere client,
if we expand my folder here for Core VMs,
there's my Windows Server right there.
So we opened up a remote console to that and took a look.
While that's coming up, you'll notice here that it's on my management network
at .100.
So anytime I need to tell one of my VMs,
which DNS server to use, I'm going to point to the IP address here of my
Windows Server.
So here is the remote console for my little Windows Server, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So here is the remote console for my little Windows Server,
and we go to the server manager and go to tools and go to DNS,
we can confirm our DNS configuration.
So here in the DNS server, if we expand,
I've got three different domains,
ogat.local and .lab and .com.
So whatever you plan on using for names,
go ahead and create those zones and then populate them with the A records.
So if we expand ogat.lab right here,
I've got entries for every possible system I've ever deployed here as part of
NSX. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
NSX.
So as a quick dec, we have a little record here for edge one,
that'd be edge one .ogat.lab and I should be able to resolve that from my
management computer
if I'm also pointing to this DNS server for name resolution.
So if we bring in a command prompt like that and we do an NS lookup for edge
one .ogat.lab
and then press enter,
they'll confirm that we're using that DNS server here for my management
computer.
It also confirms that our name resolution is working correctly.
So again, this is a critical component for making sure everything works inside WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So again, this is a critical component for making sure everything works inside
of an NSX lab.
So they move that out of the way and I'll move the Windows Server out of the
way.
So that's one of the critical VMs for the lab.
Another critical VM besides vCenter,
which is also running right here on one of my hosts.
Another critical VM is a little Vios router that I have is a tiny little image.
It doesn't take very long to deploy and I have this configured as a routing and
NAT device.
So if I want to connect, for example, a tier zero gateway to the external world
,
I can use any of the VLANs that this little external router is connected to. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
I can use any of the VLANs that this little external router is connected to.
So for this little router right here, if we scroll down and look at this config
,
I have poor groups that it's connected to including my prod 192,
that's just my management network.
I've got one for an ISCSI network.
I also have one for VLAN 21, VLAN 23 and VLAN 24.
And if we want to just verify that and take a quick peek at that VM, we can do
so as well.
So here's that little Vios router.
Then we do a show configuration and I'll just type in commands.
There'll be a little more concise that way.
It's going to show us all the configuration commands associated with it. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
It's going to show us all the configuration commands associated with it.
So here's the command that is just issued,
it's showing us the IP addresses that have configured.
So in VMware, it plays to each of its interfaces into the correct port group,
which leads to the correct VLAN.
And in addition to having basic connectivity to each of those networks,
this is also configured with address translation.
So traffic coming in on the 2312 or 2412 or the 104 or the 1021 networks,
all of that can be translated as it goes out towards the internet.
It's also running OSPF, which is super handy.
It also supports BGP, which is going to be super handy. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
It also supports BGP, which is going to be super handy.
And it also supports DHPP services,
should you need them as well,
all of which I have configured right here.
And currently I'm connected to this little router on this IP address right here
,
which is connected to my management network.
And again, the footprint for a little BIOS machine is super teeny.
So right here it's got one CPU, one gig of RAM.
And if we take a look at how much space it's actually using within provisioning
,
here's that little machine right there, and it's using 1.6 gigs.
So once again, a very tiny footprint, lots of functionality, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So once again, a very tiny footprint, lots of functionality,
and lots of great documentation out on the internet,
regarding exactly how to configure it.
So I've got the Windows server for DNS services.
I got my little BIOS machine that we just looked at,
which is providing routing and also network services,
including network address translation and DHCP.
And if you've been with me through these sets of videos as part of this course
ware,
it's that little BIOS VM right there,
that's that default external router at 23.1.2.1, or 24.1.2.1. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
that's that default external router at 23.1.2.1, or 24.1.2.1.
And those are on two respective VLANs of VLAN 23 and VLAN 24.
So although we could use a physical router for the purposes of our external
gateway,
it's a lot easier to use a VM.
And that's what I'm using right here in the lab.
So the little BIOS VM is also running on one of my physical ESXi hosts,
along with the Windows server, and also my vCenter server appliance
is also running on one of my physical hosts.
And in my lab environment, I'm using .111 on my management network for that.
My Windows server, as we looked at earlier, is at .100.
And that reminds me of another important step is besides just setting up DNS WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And that reminds me of another important step is besides just setting up DNS
entries
for what needs DNS, we'd also want to make sure that we have a good plan in
place
and good documentation of exactly which devices and which VMs are going to get
which IP addresses.
We're going to have three ESXi VMs that are also running here in the physical
environment.
So we call them ESXi, A and ESXi, B and ESXi management.
So these first two are going to be acting as host transport nodes.
And on this third one right here, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And on this third one right here,
this we can put the nested vCenter server and also our edge nodes when we
deploy them.
So those will be nested VMs inside of this VM, the ESXi management VM.
And these three VMs are going to be running in the physical hosts.
And when we deploy those VMs, we also want to go into the details under CPU
and enable the little checkbox that says we want to be able to do virtual
ization
inside of those VMs.
So let me show you these three ESXi hosts running as VMs.
So here in the vSphere client, and this domain is OGIT.prod, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So here in the vSphere client, and this domain is OGIT.prod,
that's my single sign on domain.
I have a folder called nested NSX Blue and there is ESXi, A running as a VM.
And I gave that 48 gigs of RAM and eight CPUs.
There's ESXi, B, which I also gave 48 gigs of RAM and eight CPUs.
And there's my third VM ESXi management,
which I gave more CPUs and more memory to.
So in my vSphere environment, with the vCenter for this managing my physical
hosts,
I'm also using DRS so it can move VMs around as needed WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
I'm also using DRS so it can move VMs around as needed
between any of my available ESXi hosts.
Also, while we're here, let me also chat with you about the NSX manager.
Notice here that I'm running the NSX manager as a VM on the physical hosts.
I'm not running the NSX manager nested.
Now it is possible and I did it for a while.
We can run if we want to the actual NSX manager on one of our virtualized ESXi
hosts.
However, as I took a look at a few different versions,
it wasn't always completely reliable if it was running as a nested VM. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
it wasn't always completely reliable if it was running as a nested VM.
So in addition to these three ESXi hosts that I'm running in my VMware
environment with vSphere,
I'm also when we deploy the NSX manager, I'm also going to deploy that
on a physical host and not nested inside of one of the other ESXi hosts.
Also regarding these ESXi hosts, if we look at one of them and right click on
the VM and say edit settings, here with the virtual hardware tab selected,
we want to expand the CPU section here and make sure that we're allowing the WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
we want to expand the CPU section here and make sure that we're allowing the
hardware
virtualization. So I deployed these VMs, these ESXi hosts as VMs.
I made sure to check that checkbox so that we could further run VMs inside of
those VMs.
So that's one more thing we'd want to do on those ESXi hosts that are running
as VMs.
All right, let me go ahead and close that.
So now that we've identified these three ESXi VMs that we're running inside of
our parent
environment here, let me also give you a peek into what's running on these VMs.
Now in my virtualized environment, I also deployed vCenter, which is separate WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Now in my virtualized environment, I also deployed vCenter, which is separate
from my
ogit.prod. I wanted a separate instance of vCenter just for my nested
environment.
That way when I snapshot things, I have to roll things back, I can bring it all
back,
including vCenter and not leave any trails of previous configurations.
So let me swap over with light mode into the vSphere environment that these
three ESXi hosts
are currently part of. So here in the vSphere client in my nested environment,
notice that the single sign-on domain is changed as ogit.lab. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
notice that the single sign-on domain is changed as ogit.lab.
And here in host and clusters view with the VM tab selected, notice that we
have the vCenter
server for my nested environment and the two edge nodes courtesy of the NSX
manager who deployed
those all running on this host. So ESXi-management.ogit.lab, that's my nested
VM
called ESXi-management. So if you go back to the parent environment here in
dark mode,
that's this VM right there that is currently running those three VMs. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
that's this VM right there that is currently running those three VMs.
Again, the two edge nodes and the vCenter that I have set up just for my nested
environment.
Another thing I chose to do was to create a couple different clusters, one for
ESXi-a and b,
and then one just for my management ESXi host. I also chose to go ahead and use
the life cycle
manager to update the versions of the ESXi host to the latest and greatest.
I also took the option of upgrading vCenter. So everything is super current
before I started
deploying NSX on top of this virtualized nested lab environment. So again, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
deploying NSX on top of this virtualized nested lab environment. So again,
going forward for the
demonstration here in dark mode, that's my production environment or my parent
physical environment
called ogit.prod. And here in light mode is my nested environment. And the next
thing I'd love to
think a closer look at you with is the networking inside of my nested
environment, which we'll do
in the next video. So I'll see you there in just a moment.