Deploying NSX-T Controllers:

In my previous post, we have seen how to deploy the NSX-T Manager on the ESXi hosts. In NSX-T, we can deploy a maximum of three controller nodes in a NSX-T Controller cluster. In this blog post, we will first see how to deploy the NSX-T Controllers from the OVF Template. In my next post, I will show you how to configure the Controller cluster. The controllers deployment is similar to how we have deployed the NSX-T Manager on the ESXi hosts. The NSX-T Controllers can be deployed on ESXi/KVM hosts.

Previous Posts:

• NSX-T 2.1 Complete video series:
  http://virtualbrigade.com/2018/04/04/nsx-t-2-1/
• VMware NSX-T 2.1 Part 01: Introduction to NSX-T
  http://virtualbrigade.com/2018/04/10/introduction-to-vmware-nsx-t-and-features/
• NSX-T 2.1: Part-02 NSX-T Architecture
  http://virtualbrigade.com/2018/04/14/vmware-nsx-t-2-1-part-02-nsx-t-architecture/
• Deploying NSX-T Manager Virtual Machine on ESXi host
  http://virtualbrigade.com/2018/06/07/deploying-nsx-t-manager/

Here are the steps to configure the NSX-T Control cluster:

1. Deploy the NSX-Controller-01 on ESXi/KVM hosts
2. Join the NSX-Controller-01 to the NSX Manager
3. Set the security key on the NSX-Controller-01  [shared-secret key must be same across all the 3 controller nodes]
4. Initialize the cluster on the NSX-Controller-01 [NSX-Controller-01 would be my master controller]
5. Deploy the NSX-Controller-02 on ESXi/KVM hosts
6. Join the NSX-Controller-02 to the NSX Manager via the CLI
7. Set the security key on the NSX-Controller-02 via the CLI [shared-secret key must be same on all the 3 controller nodes]
8. Get the cluster thumbrpint from the NSX-Controller-02
9. Login to the NSX-Controller-01 and add the NSX-Controller-02 to the control cluster with the NSX-Controller-02 cluster thumbrpint
10. Login to the NSX-Controller-02 and activate the control cluster. This step activates the cluster on NSX-Controller-02
11. Deploy the NSX-Controller-03 on ESXi/KVM hosts
12. Join the NSX-Controller-03 to the NSX Manager via the CLI
13. Set the security key on the NSX-Controller-03 via the CLI [shared-secret key must be same on all the 3 controller nodes]
14. Get the cluster thumbrpint from the NSX-Controller-03
15. Login to the NSX-Controller-01 and add the NSX-Controller-03 to the control cluster with the NSX-Controller-03 cluster thumbrpint
16. Login to the NSX-Controller-03 and activate the control cluster. This step activates the cluster on NSX-Controller-03

There were the high level steps to configure the NSX-T Controller cluster. Lets now proceed with the controller deployment on the ESXi hosts and with the OVF template.

Deploying NSX-T Controllers Step by Step:

Log in to the vCenter Server with the admin credentials to perform the Controller deployment using the OVF Template.

• Select and Right-click on the ESXi Cluster and click Deploy OVF Template

On the Select template, click on browse to locate the OVF Template and then click on Next.

You can also enter the URL of the ovf template in the URL field to deploy the Controllers. We will be using the offline copy of the OVF template to deploy the controllers.

On the Select name and location, enter the vSphere inventory name for the Controller VM and select the Resources and then click Next.

Here in this case the NSX-T Controller would be “NSX-Controller-01”

On the Select a resource, select the cluster or host and then click Next

On the Review details, check the configuration of the OVF template and then click Next

On the Select Storage, select the virtual machine disk format (Thick provision lazy zeroed, Thin provision, Thick provision eagerzeroed) and then click Next

On the Select Networks, select the management network through which we want to manage the Controller virtual machine.

Click Next

On the Customize template, set the password and confirm password for the admin user account.

On the Customize template, set the password and confirm password for the audit user account.

On the Customize template, set the password and confirm password for the root user account.

Expand DNS, and then enter the DNS Server list and domain search list

Expand Network Properties, enter the following details:

• Default IPV4 Gateway
• Hostname
• Management Network IPV4 Address
• Management Network Netmask

Expand Services Configuration to enable the SSH and to enable root user to login through SSH.

• Allow root SSH Logins
• Enable SSH
• Enter NTP Server list

Click Finish to deploy the first instance of the NSX-T Controller node.

Repeat the above mentioned steps to deploy the remaining two NSX-T Controller nodes.