VMware NSX-T Data Center is our next generation product that provides a scalable network virtualization and micro-segmentation platform for multi-hypervisor environments, container deployments, and native workloads running in public cloud environments.

In this post, we will share the prerequisites and procedures to deploy the NSX Manager on the vSphere 7.0 Platform.

About Our Testing Environment

We are running vSphere 7.0 with vSAN 7.0 nested environment to deploy NSX-T 3.0

Supported Hosts for NSX Managers

NSX Manager VM Resource Requirements

Thin virtual disk size is 3.8 GB and thick virtual disk size is 300 GB.

NSX Manager Browser Support

The following browsers are recommended for working with NSX Manager.

Network Latency Requirements

• The maximum network latency between NSX Managers in a NSX Manager cluster is 10ms.
• The maximum network latency between NSX Managers and Transport Nodes is 150ms.

Storage Requirements

• The maximum disk access latency is under 10ms.
• It is recommended that NSX Managers be placed on shared storage.
• Storage should be highly available to avoid a storage outage causing all NSX Manager file systems to be placed into read-only mode upon the event of a storage failure.

IP & DNS

Required Static IP address and FQDN to deploy NSX Manager

NSX Manager Installation

NSX Manager provides a graphical user interface (GUI) and REST APIs for creating, configuring, and monitoring NSX-T Data Center components such as logical switches, logical routers, and firewalls.NSX Manager provides a system view and is the management component of the NSX-T Data Center. For high availability, the NSX-T Data Center supports a management cluster of three NSX Managers.

In a vSphere environment, the following functions are supported by NSX Manager:

• vCenter Server can use the vMotion function to live migrate NSX Manager across hosts and clusters.
• vCenter Server can use the Storage vMotion function to live migrate NSX Manager across hosts and clusters.
• vCenter Server can use the Distributed Resource Scheduler function to rebalance NSX Manager across hosts and clusters.
• vCenter Server can use the Anti-affinity function to manage NSX Manager across hosts and clusters.

Procedure

• Download the NSX-T Data Center OVA file from VMware download portal

• From vSphere Client, select the host or host cluster on which to install the NSX-T Data Center.
• Right-click and select Deploy OVF template to start the installation wizard
• Browse the OVA file and click Next.

• Enter a name and a location for the NSX Manager VM, and click Next

• Select a compute resource for the NSX Manager appliance, and click Next

• Review and verify the OVF template details, and click Next.

• Specify the deployment configuration size, and click Next

• Specify storage for the configuration and disk files

• Select a destination network for each source network and Configure IP Allocation settings as Static and Click Next.

• Fill the required fields on the Customize Template section of the Deploy OVF Template wizard
• Note:- You must comply with requirements of customization, example password requirements for the admin user

• Note:- In case any doubt, please follow the instruction on the VMware Docs
• Don’t fill Internal Properties option, leave it as default and Click Next
• Verify that all your custom OVF template specification is accurate and click Finish to initiate the installation

• The installation might take 7-8 minutes, you can monitor the progress on the Recent Tasks

• Once the installation is completed, From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-address>

• Read and accept the EULA terms

• Select whether to join the VMware’s Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) and Click Save

• Now installation is and initialization is completed