VMware Cloud Foundation : NSX-T uplink profile configuration to reduce NICs
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VMware Cloud Foundation : NSX-T uplink profile configuration to reduce NICs

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Article ID: 313339

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Updated On:

Products

VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

If cluster configuration is done by providing Advanced nicprofile with following scenario :

  1. Single VDS for System and Overlay traffic

  2. Multi-System VDS and using one of the VDS for Overlay traffic then all NICs passed with System VDS (with isUsedByNsxt=true) are getting configured for Overlay traffic.Traffic separation is not happening for NSX-T profile.



Environment

Vmware Cloud Foundation 4.5

Cause

VCF 4.5 WLD and VCF 5.0 MGMT design does not support the traffic separation within the VDSs for NSXT. Public API is not extended to support that. So by default NSXT is configured with all the uplinks mapped to System VDS.

Resolution

Currently there is no resolution to the issue. This will be fixed in the future releases.


Workaround:

Note : Workaround steps need to be performed immediately after cluster configuration, before doing any day to day operations or stretching the cluster.

To workaround the issue, please follow the below mentioned steps to change NSX-T uplink profile config to reduce NICs from NSX-T manager:

For VCF 4.x:

  1. Login to NSX-T manager.

  2. Go to “System” -> expand “Fabric” click “Profiles” -> “Uplink Profiles”.

  3. Select cluster specific uplink profile(which is in format <vCenter name-cluster name-vds name>) and check “Active Uplinks” column.

  4. Click “Edit”.

  5. Wizard opens for edit uplink profile. In “Teamings” grid, select uplinks and specific uplinks failover order which are not required for carrying overlay traffic and click DELETE. (eg. vmnic to uplink mapping is : vmnic0-uplink-1, vmnic2-uplink-3, vmnic1-uplink-2, vmnic3-uplink-4. vmnic0/vmnic2 are used for Management traffic and vmnic1/vmnic3 are used for vSAN/vMotion traffic. System is using all uplinks for overlay traffic but customer wants to use only vmnic0/vmnic2(uplink-1, uplink-3) for overlay traffic then they need to delete other 2 uplinks and it’s failover order from NSX-T uplink profile).

  6. In “Teamings” grid, change Standby Uplinks in failover uplink config (click Edit icon and remove unwanted uplinks).

  7. For [Default Teaming], change Active Uplinks config (click Edit icon and remove unwanted uplinks).

  8. Click SAVE.

  9. Click on “Transport Node Profiles”, select specific transport node profile(which is in format <vCenter name-cluster name>) and click “EDIT”.

  10. Wizard opens for edit transport node profiles. Review “Teaming Policy Uplink Mapping“ and “SAVE” it.

  11. Go to “System” -> “Fabric” -> click on “Nodes” -> “Host Transport Nodes”.

  12. Select vCenter for the specific cluster user wants to reconfigure NICs in “Managed By” dropdown.

  13. It lists all clusters in selected vCenter. Expand specific cluster so it will show all transport nodes of that cluster.

  14. Before continuing with other steps, check whether all the transport nodes for the selected cluster are in SUCCESS state. If any transport node is in degraded or failed state, that need to be addressed first before continuing further.

  15. Select the cluster and click on “CONFIGURE NSX”.

  16. In NSX installation wizard, select Transport Node Profile(which we modified in step-9/10) and “APPLY”.

  17. Refresh and Wait until NSX Configuration column is showing SUCCESS for all nodes of selected cluster.

  18. Check uplinks mapped to NICs for overlay VDS by clicking on any node of the cluster and “Switch Visualization” tab.

  19. Select the same cluster for which you attached TNP in step-14/15, click on “ACTIONS” and “Detach Transport Node Profile”.

  20. Detach Transport Node Profile wizard opens, click on “DETACH”.

  21. Refresh and check if it has detached TNP from cluster (NSX configuration column for cluster should not show the Applied Profile).

For VCF 5.0

  1. Login to NSX-T manager.

  2. Go to "System" -> "Fabric" -> "Hosts" -> click on "Transport Node Profile" tab, Check for specific transport node profile(which is in format <cluster name-uuid>) and click "EDIT".

  3. Click on the link from "Host Switch" column. It will open wizard for Host Switch.

  4. Click on "Edit"  From "Teaming Policy Uplink Mapping" grid, Remove unwanted uplinks from "VDS Uplinks" column and click on "ADD".

  5. Click "APPLY" and then "SAVE".

  6. Go to "System" -> "Fabric" ->"Hosts"-> click on "Clusters" tab.

  7. Select the specific cluster user wants to reconfigure NICs and Expand it so it will show all transport nodes of that cluster.

  8. Before continuing with other steps, check whether all the transport nodes for the selected cluster are in Success state. If any transport node is in degraded or failed state, that need to be addressed first before continuing further.

  9. Select the cluster and click on "CONFIGURE NSX".

  10. In NSX installation wizard, select Transport Node Profile (which we modified in steps 2-5) and "SAVE".

  11. Refresh and Wait until NSX Configuration column is showing SUCCESS for all nodes of selected cluster.

  12. Check uplinks mapped to NICs for overlay VDS by clicking on "View Details" for any node of the cluster and "Overview" tab.

  13. Select the same cluster for which you attached TNP, click on "ACTIONS" and "Detach Transport Node Profile".

  14. Detach Transport Node Profile wizard opens, click on "DETACH".

  15. Refresh and check if it has detached TNP from cluster (Applied Profile column for cluster should not show the TNP).

  16. Go to "System" -> "Fabric" -> "Profiles" -> "Uplink Profiles".

  17. Select cluster specific uplink profile(which is in format <vCenter name-cluster name-vds name>) and check "Active Uplinks" column.

  18. Click "Edit".

  19. Wizard opens for edit uplink profile. In "Teamings" grid, select uplinks and specific uplinks failover order which are not required for carrying overlay traffic and click DELETE. (eg. vmnic to uplink mapping is : vmnic0:uplink-1, vmnic1:uplink-2, vmnic2:uplink-3, vmnic3:uplink-4. vmnic0/vmnic1 are used for Management traffic and vmnic2/vmnic3 are used for vSAN/vMotion traffic. All uplinks are used for overlay traffic but customer wants to use only vmnic0/vmnic1(uplink-1, uplink-2) for overlay traffic then they need to delete other 2 uplinks and it’s failover order from NSX-T uplink profile teamings).

  20. In "Teamings" grid, change Standby Uplinks in failover uplink config (click "Edit" icon and remove unwanted uplinks).

  21. For [Default Teaming], change Active Uplinks config (click "Edit" icon and remove unwanted uplinks).

  22. Click "SAVE".



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