NSX-T | Tier0 and Tier 1 Router

You would see many articles\blog on the title but I am putting one simplified definition for my readers. Folks who worked on NSX-v might have heard about the DLR and Edges, right?

let's compare this DLR\Edge with Tier0\Tier1.

DLR - it is used to connect the logical switch with ESG to exit and connect with outer world, if configured so.
ESG - It act as the only mean for internal packet to get out and communicate with external\outer world.

It means, VM's traffic goes to DLR (if DLR is default gateway for that VM) and then DLR send the packet to ESG (If there is trunk port configured between DLR and ESG and packet is destined to go out). Below is the reference picture. Picture taken from blog.vmware.com
Now Let's see how Tier0 and Tier1 routers are similar or different than DLR and Edge.

In Short, Tier1 act as DLR that is it does east-west routing and Tier0 act as ESG that is it does North-South routing. Below picture will clear all doubts. Taken from docs.vmware.com


I will post more about components of NSX-T. Keep visiting the space.



Thank you,
Team vCloudNotes
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NSX | BUM Explained

In network, BUM (Broadcast, Unknown-Unicast and Multicast) is the method of sending and receiving layer 2 network traffic. Let's see what is that-

Broadcast Traffic - it is used to transmit a message to any reachable destination in the network without the need of knowing the receiver. When Broadcast traffic receives by switch, it send it to all the switch ports except the one it is coming from.

Unknown Unicast Traffic - It flooded in the network when a switch receives a frame intended for a destination which is not in its forwarding table. In this case, switch mark this frame for flooding and send it to all ports respective of that VLAN. Forwarding this type of traffic can cause unnecessary overload on network and cause poor performance.

Multicast Traffic - As its name, this traffic allowed a host to communicate with subset of hosts or a group. This caused a broadcast when there is no group mechanism is present in the underlay network or physical network. in NSX, selecting multicast replication mode require IGMP configuration in underlay network and it is totally dependent on physical\underlay network.

Hope above definitions were helpful for you.



Thank you,
Team vCloudNotes

VCD | How to find an Organization name of VM(s)

One of my ex-colleague requested to share the script so, I thought to create a post and then share it. It is an awesome place to keep an information and can be accessible from anywhere, anytime.

Finding Organization name of a VM in vCD is very easy in vCD GUI but when you have demand to extract a report against each and every VM or search a VM's Org quickly then vCD GUI is not helpful and can be a time taking process.

I am writing here a very simple and short script to search any VM's Org name in vCD. Here you go.....

#Start here

$vCD = Read-host "Enter vCD URL starting with https  " #It will connect the vCD
$VM = Read-host "Enter the VM name, you want to search "

Get-CIVM -Name $VM  | Select Org, OrgvDC #it will give you exact Org and OrgvDC name of any VM that you have given to it.

#End here


Above script is for one VM. If you need a script which can extract a csv\.xlsx file for all the VMs then feel free to let me know, I will do that for you guys.

Above script is too basic script but if anyone wants an intelligent search or action engine then you need to request for that because I can and will customize it as per your requirement. URL(
https://vcloudnotes.blogspot.com/2019/11/update-powershell.html) is an example for search engine I have created for vCenter Server and below image is an example of Search engine for vCD.

Feel free to contact me anytime by commenting on my any blog.





Thank you,
Team vCloudNotes

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PowerNSX | Create Logical Switches in bulk



Let's create multiple Logical switches in bulk with PowerNSX.

Simply copy below script and paste in your Powershell(I prefer Powershell ISE) console.

#Start here
$NSXManagerIP = "IP Address" #Mention NSX Manager IP address here in quote(")
$VCenterIP = "IP Address" #Mention vCenter Server IP address here in quote (")
$NSXManagerUser = "admin" #NSX manager admin username goes here
$NSXManagerPassword = "Password" #NSX manager admin password goes here
$VCenterUser = "administrator@vsphere.local" #Write down vCenter server admin username
$VCenterPassword = "VCenterPassword" #vCenter server admin password goes here

#Give the path of csv file containing name of all logical switches
$NSXLOGICALSWITCHFILE = import-csv C:\work\NSX_PowerNSX\Logical_Switch_Creation.csv

#Connect NSX Manager with below command
Connect-NsxServer -Server $NSXManagerIP -Username $NSXManagerUser -Password $NSXManagerPassword -ViUserName $VCenterUser -ViPassword $VCenterPassword

$LS = 0

#apply the loop here to create the number of logical switches equivalent to the number of LS names mentioned in above csv file
foreach ($LogicalSwitch in $NSXLOGICALSWITCHFILE)
{
## Creates Logical Switches for NSX. Possible Control Plane Modes are UNICAST_MODE,HYBRID_MODE,MULTICAST_MODE
Get-NsxTransportZone | New-NsxLogicalSwitch -Name $LogicalSwitch.LogicalSwitchName -ControlPlaneMode UNICAST_MODE

$LS++
Write-Progress -Activity "Creating Logical Switches" -status "Created: $LS of $($NSXLOGICALSWITCHFILE.Count)" -PercentComplete (($LS / $NSXLOGICALSWITCHFILE.Count) * 100)

}

Write-Host "!!!All Logical Switches Created Sucsessfully" -ForegroundColor Green

#End here