NSX Components

About tunnel endpoint and IP address pools. Each transport node has a tunnel endpoint. The tunnel endpoint enables transport nodes to participate in the NSX overlay.

Each step requires an IP address. You can create one or more IP address pool to assign addresses to TAP. One or more TAPs can be assigned to each transport node.

An IP pool is a container created for assigning IP addresses to tunnel endpoints. You can manually configure IP address pools. Each transport node has a TAP. Each TAP has an IP address. These IP addresses can be in the same subnet or in different subnets, depending on the IP pools or DHCP configured for the transport nodes.

About transport zones. A transport zone defines a span of a logical network over the physical infrastructure. Transport node can participate in the two types of transport zones.

First one is overlay. It used as the internal tunnel between NSX host and NSX edge transport nodes. It carries GENEVE encapsulated traffic.

Second one is VLAN. It used at NSX edge uplinks to establish northbound connectivity. It can carry the 82.1Q type traffic. Our transport zone defines a collection of transport nodes that can communicate with each other across a physical infrastructure over one or more interfaces.

A transport zone can accommodate either overlay or VLAN traffic. The VLAN transport zones are used to connect the NSX’s uplinks and the upstream physical routers to establish north-south connectivity. Transport nodes are ESXi hosts, NSX edge nodes, and bare metal nodes that participate in an NSX overlay.

About uplink profiles. The uplink profile is a template that defines how VDS connect to the physical network. The uplink profile specifies the following details. Format of the uplinks of VDS default teaming policy applied to those uplinks, active and standby uplinks, transport VLAN used for overlay traffic, MTU of the uplink.

An uplink profile is a container of properties or capabilities that you want your network adapters to have. It allows you to consistently configure identical capabilities for network adapters across multiple hosts or nodes. When an administrator modifies a parameter in the uplink profile, it is automatically updated in all the transport nodes following the uplink profile. If NSX edge is installed on baremetal, you can use the default uplink profile. The default uplink profile requires one active uplink and one passive standby uplink.

About transport node profiles. A transport node profile captures the configuration required to create a transport node. The transport node profile can be applied to an existing vSphere cluster to create transport nodes for the member host. A transport node profile defines transport zones, VDS switch configuration, uplink profile, IP assignment, mapping of physical NICs.

Transport node creation begins when a transport node profile is applied to a vSphere cluster. NSX Manager prepares the host in the cluster and installs the NSX components on them. Transport nodes are created based on the configuration specified in the transport node profile.

Under this section, we have covered high-level steps to implement NSX on ESXi hypervisors, gone through the NSX UI, explained the tunnel endpoint and transport zones, explained the uplink and transport node profiles. Thank you.