• vRealize Automation 7.2 Deployment Part 3 – Configuring Endpoints – vCenter, orchestrator and NSX

    March 24, 2017 by: Sean Whitney in: vRealize Automation 1 Comment

      The next step for configuring vRA is to configure the endpoints. I will be going through the integration for Orchestrator, vCenter and NSX. Note: If you configure the orchestrator endpoint, then the vCenter endpoint, the NSX endpoint will be configured automatically. I didn’t realize this at first, but found this information out from Michael Rudloff’s blog. Step 1. Log into the vRA appliance via SSH and run the following command to start the vco-configurator.   vra:~ # /etc/init.d/vco-configurator start Starting tcServer Using CATALINA_BASE:   /var/lib/vco/configuration Using CATALINA_HOME:   /opt/pivotal/pivotal-tc-server-standard/tomcat-8.5.4.B.RELEASE Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /var/lib/vco/configuration/temp Using JRE_HOME:        /usr/java/jre-vmware Using […]

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  • vRealize Automation 7.2 Deployment Part 2 – Configuring Tenants and Users

    March 23, 2017 by: Sean Whitney in: vRealize Automation 1 Comment

    After the initial installation of vRealize Automation, you will need to configure the Tenants. Log into the vRA portal with the administrator account, and navigate to Administration -> Tenants. The default tenant is vSphere.local, which I will be using for my configuration. However, if you want to create a new tenant, click the New button.     Provide a Name, Description, URL name, and contact email (optional). Click Submit and Next when complete.     Search for your user, and add to both Tenant and IaaS administrators. Click Finish.     Finally, log out of vRA, and log in with […]

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  • vRealize Automation 7.2 Deployment Part 1 – Installing the components

    March 23, 2017 by: Sean Whitney in: vRealize Automation 3 Comments

      vRealize Automation has great integration with NSX to help automate the deployment of networking and security services for applications. Imagine being able to drag and drop NSX virtual networks, routed networks, security groups, security tags, load balancers and more onto a Design canvas to provide a consistent, automated, self provisioned portal for your users or customers. This is now a reality when using both of the solutions together! Here is a teaser screenshot of the drag and drop canvas.     If you want to read more on the integration, please see the vRA and NSX Solution Overview.   […]

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  • NSX Application Rule Manager

    March 20, 2017 by: Sean Whitney in: NSX No Comment

    Application Rule Manager is a new feature in NSX 6.3 that allows you to quickly microsegment out application workloads with the distributed firewall. Through the tool you can quickly create both Security Groups and DFW rules after viewing the live flow analysis.   To get started, navigate to the Flow Monitoring section in the web client, and then click on the Application Rule Manager tab.     Click on Start New Session. Provide a Session Name, and then select the Virtual Machines (and their vNICs) that you would like to monitor for flows. You can select up to 30 vNICs […]

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  • Endpoint Monitoring in NSX 6.3

    March 18, 2017 by: Sean Whitney in: NSX 10 Comments

      As of NSX 6.3, Activity monitoring is no long supported and has been deprecated. When navigating to the Activity Monitoring section, the following warning will be displayed.     Activity Monitoring has been replaced by Endpoint monitoring which is a lot more powerful and allows you to map specific processes inside the guest OS to the network connections the processes are using. This allows you to be able to operationalize NSX much faster!   There are a few prerequisites before you can use Endpoint monitoring: Install Guest Introspection and ensure VMware tools is running and up to date. Note: […]

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  • vRealize Network Insight introduction and Installation

    March 14, 2017 by: Sean Whitney in: NSX, vRealize Network Insight No Comment

      Quick Intro to vRNI   In June of 2016 VMware acquired a company called Arkin Net and named the product vRealize Network Insight. It didn’t take long for a nickname to emerge from the acronym in the form of “vernie.” This nickname has got some great rebranding from customers and employees ranging from “Weekend at vernies” to the picture below.     There are a couple of version of vRNI, an assessment which can be performed by your local SE or partner reseller and a full version which is an add on to NSX licensing. You can also play […]

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  • Upgrading NSX 6.2.2 to NSX 6.3 – Part 3

    February 19, 2017 by: Sean Whitney in: NSX 3 Comments

      This is the third and final part of the upgrade series. If you haven’t completed the first two parts, please refer to the following links.   Part 1 – Upgrading NSX Manager Part 2 – Upgrading Controllers and Host Clusters   The final few steps that need to be completed during the upgrade are below.   Change VXLAN port (Optional) Upgrade NSX Edges and DLRs Upgrade Guest Introspection Check with Partner Vender if using third party service insertion Complete Post-Upgrade Checklist   Let’s start with changing the VXLAN port. This is an optional step that doesn’t have to be […]

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  • Upgrading NSX 6.2.2 to NSX 6.3 – Part 2

    February 19, 2017 by: Sean Whitney in: NSX No Comment

      After completing the upgrade of the NSX Manager, you will need to upgrade the NSX Controller Cluster and Host Clusters. As mentioned previously, I would recommend all steps be completed during a maintenance window.   To upgrade the controller cluster, log into the vSphere Client and navigate to Installation -> Management. You will see my cluster has an “Upgrade Available” link on the right hand side of the pane, and the Upgrade Status says “Not Started”     When you are ready to upgrade, click on the link, and select Yes.     Before you start the upgrade, there […]

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  • Upgrading NSX 6.2.2 to NSX 6.3 – Part 1

    February 18, 2017 by: Sean Whitney in: NSX 1 Comment

      With the recent release of vSphere 6.5, I needed to upgrade my lab environment and figured I would write a post to help others who may need step by step guidance on the upgrade process. I am currently running NSX 6.2.2 with vCenter Server 6.0 and will be upgrading to NSX 6.3 with vSphere 6.5. Since NSX 6.3 is the only release that currently supports vCenter Server 6.5, I will need to ensure that I upgrade NSX to 6.3 before vSphere, otherwise I will be in an unsupported state (Can’t run NSX 6.2.2 on vSphere 6.5). If there are […]

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  • Using vRealize Log Insight to manage and review NSX Distributed Firewall rules

    August 14, 2016 by: Sean Whitney in: NSX, vRealize Log Insight No Comment

      The Distributed Firewall dashboards are definitely my favorite feature of vRLI. You can see the total number of firewall actions triggered, the top rule that is hit, audit events, top sources, top destinations, ports allowed or denied, and more. With all of this data, it’s possible to use vRLI to start creating your DFW rules because you will be able to see what VMs are communicating over specific ports. Near the end of this post, I will write a brief tutorial on how you can use the filter logic to determine DFW rules that need to be put in […]

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