vCloud Availability for vCloud Director: Part 6: Install and Configure RabbitMQ Cluster

By | 09/09/2018
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In last post of this series we deployed cassandra node and configured ssl security for cassandra. In this post we will be installing RabbitMQ for vCD.

If you are not following along this series, then I recommend reading earlier posts of this series from below links:

1: vCloud Availability Introduction

2: vCloud Availability Architecture & Components

3: VCAV Deployment

4: Install Cloud Proxy for vCD

5: Deploy Cassandra Cluster

What is RabbitMQ (RMQ)?

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

vCloud Availability for vCloud Director: Part 5: Deploy and Configure Cassandra Cluster

By | 09/09/2018
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In second post of this series we looked at the components which are needed to form a VCAV solution stack and we saw cassandra is an integral part of this solution.

To know about cassandra in detail, you can refer an old blogpost written by me.

If you are not following along this series, then I recommend reading earlier posts of this series from below links:

1: vCloud Availability Introduction

2: vCloud Availability Architecture & Components

3: VCAV Deployment

4: Install Cloud Proxy for vCD

In this post we will deploy a Cassandra Cluster. Before installing cassandra software we need to meet following requirements: read more

vCloud Availability for vCloud Director: Part 4: Installing Cloud Proxy for vCD

By | 09/09/2018
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In last post of this series we deployed the VCAV appliance and discussed that it will be configured later once we are done with deployment of all the other needed components.

In this post we will add a vCloud proxy cell to an existing vCloud Director environment.

If you are not following along this series, then I recommend reading earlier posts of this series from below links:

1: vCloud Availability Introduction

2: vCloud Availability Architecture & Components

3: VCAV Deployment

What is Cloud Proxy ? read more

vCloud Availability for vCloud Director: Part 3-VCAV Deployment

By | 09/09/2018
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In last post of this series we discussed about logical architecture of VCAV and we discussed about the various components involved which makes the VCAV stack.

In this post we will be deploying VCAV appliance. Current version of VCAV is 2.0.1 and it can be downloaded from here. vCloud Availability appliance deployment is straight forward task and is pretty much like any other standard ova deployment. 

Connect to your management vCenter Web Client  and choose to Deploy OVF Template and browse to location where VCAV ova file is stored on your system. read more

vCloud Availability for vCloud Director-Part-2-Architecture & Components

By | 09/09/2018
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In first post of this series we discussed about what is vCloud Availability solution and what problem are we solving by using this product. In this post we will discuss about the architecture of VCAV and what are the components needed to create a full-fledged DRaaS solution using VCAV.

vCloud Availability Logical Architecture

Basically the architecture relies solely on service provider environment. There can be a slight differences in components that different service provider uses. Typical components can include what is visible in below diagram. read more

vCloud Availability for vCloud Director-Part-1-Introduction

By | 09/09/2018
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What is vCloud Availability for vCloud Director (VCAV) ?

vCloud Availability for vCloud Director is a Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) solution that provides simple and secure asynchronous replication and failover for vSphere managed workloads.

VMware released vCloud Availability for vCloud Director keeping in mind to provide cloud innovations to vCloud Air Network partners so that they can implement this software solution to provide Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) to customers.

Customer’s who are using vCloud Air, knows that vCloud Air uses vSphere Replication to provide the DRaaS service to their customers. This is a very similar solution which vCAN partners will now be using for DRaaS.  read more

Learning NSX-T-Part 10: Logical Routing

By | 04/08/2018
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In last post of this series we created logical switches and established communication between the App and Web VM which were on same subnet and connected to same logical switch. In this post we will learn about logical routing.

If you are not following along this series, then I recommend reading earlier posts of this series from below links:

1: Introduction to NSX-T

2: NSX-T Architecture

3: NSX Manager Deployment

4: NSX Controllers Automated Deployment

5: NSX Controllers Manual Deployment

6: Prepare Esxi host to form NSX-T Fabric read more

Learning NSX-T-Part 9:Creating Logical Switches and Testing Connectivity

By | 03/08/2018
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In last post of this series we configured transport zones and transport nodes. We discussed about the modes of transport zone and also touch based on N-VDS. In this post we will learn how to create logical switches in NSX-T and we will test connectivity between vm’s attached to same logical switch.

If you are not following along this series, then I recommend reading earlier posts of this series from below links:

1: Introduction to NSX-T

2: NSX-T Architecture

3: NSX Manager Deployment

4: NSX Controllers Automated Deployment read more

Learning NSX-T-Part 8:Configuring Transport Zone and Transport Nodes

By | 03/08/2018
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In last post of this series we discussed about Uplink profiles. In this post we will learning about transport zones and its types.

If you are not following along this series, then I recommend reading earlier posts of this series from below links:

1: Introduction to NSX-T

2: NSX-T Architecture

3: NSX Manager Deployment

4: NSX Controllers Automated Deployment

5: NSX Controllers Manual Deployment

6: Prepare Esxi host to form NSX-T Fabric

7: Configuring Uplink Profile

What is transport zone in NSX-T?

As per vmware documentation read more

Learning NSX-T-Part 7:Configuring Uplink Profile

By | 02/08/2018
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In last post of this series we prepared the Esxi host for NSX-T and we ensured that host connection to NSX manager was up and all necessary vib’s have been pushed on hosts. In this post we will learn about uplink profile.

If you are not following along this series, then I recommend reading earlier posts of this series from below links:

1: Introduction to NSX-T

2: NSX-T Architecture

3: NSX Manager Deployment

4: NSX Controllers Automated Deployment

5: NSX Controllers Manual Deployment

6: Prepare Esxi host to form NSX-T Fabric read more

Learning NSX-T-Part 6: Host Preparation and forming NSX-T Fabric

By | 02/08/2018
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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:

1: Introduction to NSX-T

2: NSX-T Architecture

3: NSX Manager Deployment

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. read more

Learning NSX-T-Part 5: NSX Controllers Manual Deployment & Clustering

By | 30/07/2018
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In last post of this series, we learnt how to deploy NSX-T controllers automatically via NSX manager and we saw its pretty much same as deploying controllers in a NSX-V environment. 

In this post we will learn how to deploy the NSX controllers manually. 

If you are not following along this series, then I recommend reading earlier posts of this series from below links:

1: Introduction to NSX-T

2: NSX-T Architecture

3: NSX Manager Deployment

4: NSX Controllers Automated Deployment

Manual steps are a bit lengthy and complex so we have to be careful with the sequence of commands which we will be running to form controllers cluster. Before deploying the controller nodes, make sure following prerequisites are met: read more

Learning NSX-T-Part 4: NSX Controllers Automated Deployment & Clustering

By | 29/07/2018
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In last post of this series we deployed the NSX manager appliance. In this post we will learn how to deploy the NSX-T controller nodes.

If you are not following along this series, then I recommend reading earlier posts of this series from below links:

1: Introduction to NSX-T

2: NSX-T Architecture

3: NSX Manager Deployment

There are 2 methods of deploying NSX controllers for vSphere integration with NSX-T:

  • Automated Installation of Controller from NSX Manager
  • Manual Installation of NSX Controller on ESXi via GUI or OVF tool

In this post we will not talk about controller deployment for non-vSphere infrastructure.

Also in this post we will be discussing only about Automated method for controllers. Manual installation will be covered in Next post of this series. read more

Learning NSX-T-Part 3: NSX Manager Deployment

By | 28/07/2018
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In last post of this series we discussed about NSX-T architecture. In this post we will be deploying the NSX-T components in lab. 

Lets start with deploying NSX manager first to form the management plane. NSX manager is deployed via ova file which can be downloaded from VMware website.

The current version of NSX-T is 2.2.0 and it can be downloaded from here

Please refer NSX-T 2.2 Installation Guide before going ahead with deployment.

NSX-T 2.2.0 supports following hypervisor versions:

  • vSphere 6.5/6.5 U1/6.5 U2
  • RHEL KVM 7.3
  • Ubuntu KVM 16.04 

NSX manager deployment is pretty straight forward like any standard virtual appliance deployment. Steps are shown in screenshot below.  read more

Learning NSX-T-Part 2: NSX-T Architecture

By | 27/07/2018
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As we discussed in first post of this series that NSX-T was born to meet the demands of the containerized workload, multi-hypervisor and multi-cloud.

The best use case that you can think of NSX-T is that it provides seamless connectivity and security services for all types of endpoints including virtual machines, containers and bare metal. It doesn’t really matter where these endpoints are. It could be in your on-prem datacenter, a remote office or in the cloud.

In this post we will look how NSX-T architecture looks like.  read more