NSX-T installation:

NSX-T installation comprises all of the following steps:

Deploying the NSX-T Manager
Deploying the NSX-T Controllers and configuring the Controller Cluster
Installing NSX-T software and preparing the ESX and KVM hosts as fabric node
Configuring ESX and KVM hosts as the Transport node
Installing and configuring NSX-T Edge nodes

So here in this blog post, we will look at how to deploy the NSX-T manager on the ESXi host. We will see what are the prerequisites for deploying the NSX-T manager on the ESXi host and how to configure the NSX-T Manager.

Prerequisites:

Before we divide in to the installation, lets see what are the prerequisites for installing the NSX-T Manager:

Make sure that you have the supported hypervisor compatibile with NSX-T 2.1
Ports opened for the NSX-T Manager communication
VM portgroup for the NSX-T Manager for the management connectivity
IP Addresses for the NSX-T Manager deployment

Documentation:

Please refer to the NSX-T installation guide here:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-NSX-T/2.0/nsxt_20_install.pdf

Supported Hypervisor versions:

Following are the list of hypervisor versions supported to run the NSX-T 2.1 Infrastructure:

Hypervisor	Version	CPU Cores	Memory
vSphere	6.5 GA and 6.5 U1	4	16 GB
RHEL KVM	7.3	4	16 GB
Ubuntu KVM	16.04.x	4	16 GB

Download NSX-T 2.1 Datacenter software:

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/networking_security/vmware_nsx_t_data_center/2_x

Deploying NSX-T Manager Step by Step:

Right Click on the cluster and Click Deploy OVF Template

Click on Local file radial button to Browse and locate the OVA file

The nsx-unified-appliance ova file is chosen to deploy the NSX-T manager role. The same “nsx-unified-appliance” OVA template can also be used to deploy the NSX-Policy Manager role. The NSX-Manager OVA file no longer available from VMware downloads portal. To deploy the nsx-manager role, download nsx-unified-appliance OVA file if you plan to install it on the ESX host, else download the qcow2 to deploy it on the KVM host.

Select the OVA file and click on Open

On the Select name and location, enter the name for the NSX-T Manager and select the datacenter and then click Next

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

On the Review details page validate the OVF page configuration and then click Next

On the Select configuration, you have three options to choose the NSX-T Manager configuration. The following table lists the NSX-T Manager configuration with the Memory and CPU requirements.

NSX Manager Configuration	Memory (GB)	vCPU Count
Small	8	2
Medium	16	4
Large	32	8

Select the configuration and then click Next

On the Select storage wizard, select the virtual disk formats, select the datastore and then click Next

On the Select networks wizard, select the network for the NSX-T Manager virtual machine and then click Next. This will be the management network for the NSX-T Manager.

On the Customize template wizard, set the password and confirm the password for the admin user accout If you want to change the username for the admin you can change it on this page, but the default admin username will be admin

On the Customize template wizard, set the password and confirm the password for the audit user accout If you want to change the username for the audit, you can change it on this page, but the default admin username will be admin.

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

Click DNS to expand and enter the DNS Server list and Domain Search list details and then click to expand the Network properties

Enter the following details and then click on the Role drop down menu to select the role.
- Default IPv4 gateway:
- Hostname:
- Management Network IPV4 address:
- Management Network Netmask:
- Role:

Select Rolename: nsx-manager or nsx-policy-manager
Click on Services Configuration to expand
- Click on Allow root SSH Logins checkbox, to enable root user to login to NSX manager via SSH
- Click on Enable SSH checkbox, to enable the SSH Service
- Enter the NTP Server List text box to enter the NTP Server details and then click Next