VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error

VMware NSX-T 3.0 is the newly released version of NSX-T on the block and contains many great new features and capabilities. Check out my post VMware NSX-T 3.0 Released with New Features to get an idea of the new features in detail. In this post we will take a look at VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager installation configuration and error to see how to deploy the NSX-T 3.0 solution into your environment. The OVA deployment is a straightforward process. There are some new things to look for in deploying the appliance. Let’s take a look.

VMware NSX-T 3.0 Installation Requirements

Let’s first take a look at the VMware NSX-T 3.0 installation requirements. The first thing you will probably be deploying is the NSX Manager unified appliance. The VM requirements are as follows:
Appliance SizeMemoryvCPUDisk SpaceVM Hardware Version
NSX Manager Extra Small8 GB2300 GB10 or later
NSX Manager Small VM16 GB4300 GB10 or later
NSX Manager Medium VM24 GB6300 GB10 or later
NSX Manager Large VM48 GB12300 GB10 or later
VM requirements for the NSX-T 3.0 unified appliance

Network Requirements

  • The maximum network latency between NSX Managers in a NSX Manager cluster is 10ms.
  • The maximum network latency between NSX Managers and Transport Nodes is 150ms.

Storage Requirements

  • The maximum disk access latency is under 10ms.
  • It is recommended that NSX Managers be placed on shared storage.

NSX-T Manager Role

Let’s briefly talk about the NSX-T Manager. The manager is the appliance that provides the graphical user interface to your NSX-T environment and also hosts the REST APIs that can be used for communicating programmatically with NSX-T.
VMware recommends an NSX Cluster made up of three NSX Managers for high-availability in production environments. In POC or lab environments is perfectly fine to deploy a single appliance.

Have Network Information Ahead of Time

A serious point to consider is the NSX Manager IP is statically assigned and it is not supported to change the IP after it is deployed. So it is burned in so to speak.
Make sure you have earmarked an IP address and thought through any management traffic considerations with the IP address you intend to assign.

NSX-T 3.0 Manager Appliance

The NSX-T 3.0 Manager appliance is based on the VMware PhotonOS image and is what the NSX-T platform will run on top of. The appliance comes preinstalled with VMware Tools. Do not remove or upgrade the VMware tools on your NSX-T 3.0 Manager.

VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error

Pretty standard OVA deployment to the NSX-T 3.0 appliance deployed. Choose the NSX-T 3.0 OVA file. File details are as follows:
  • nsx-unified-appliance-3.0.0.0.0.15946739.ova
  • Size – 11 GB
The file is certainly hefty in size.
Browse-to-the-NSX-T-3.0-Manager-OVA VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error
Browse to the NSX-T 3.0 Manager OVA
Choose your datacenter and pick an inventory name for the resulting NSX-T 3.0 Manager appliance.
Name-the-virtual-machine-in-vSphere-inventory-1 VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error
Name the virtual machine in vSphere inventory
Choose your compute cluster to house the NSX-T 3.0 Manager appliance.
Select-a-compute-resource-in-your-vSphere-environment-for-the-NSX-T-3.0-Manager-appliance-1 VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error
Select a compute resource in your vSphere environment for the NSX-T 3.0 Manager appliance
Review the details of the initial deployment.
Review-the-details-of-the-initial-NSX-T-Manager-OVA-deployment-1 VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error
Review the details of the initial NSX-T Manager OVA deployment
Next, choose the size for the deployed VM. Here I am choosing the ExtraSmall appliance since it is a lab environment. I would say this is for POC deployments only.
Choose-the-deployment-configuration-virtual-appliance-size-1 VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error
Choose your target datastore.
Select-storage-for-the-NSX-T-3.0-Manager-appliance VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error
Select storage for the NSX-T 3.0 Manager appliance
Select the network to connect your NSX-T 3.0 Manager to. This will be for management traffic.
Select-network-to-connect-the-NSX-T-3.0-manager VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error
Select network to connect the NSX-T 3.0 manager
Step 8 – Customize Template is the step to pay attention to. Here is where you configure many of the important settings of the resulting NSX-T 3.0 Manager appliance. This includes the hostname, IP address, gateway, NTP, as well as the rolename.
Customize-the-NSX-T-3.0-manager-template VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error
Customize the NSX-T 3.0 manager template
With the Rolename, you choose the particular role you want to configure with the NSX-T 3.0 appliance. Here we see the new role available – Global Manager.
The-new-Global-Manager-rolename-appears-in-the-rolename-selection-of-the-NSX-T-3.0-deployment VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error
The new Global Manager rolename appears in the rolename selection of the NSX-T 3.0 deployment
Finish out the customization of the resulting NSX-T 3.0 VM.
Fill-in-the-remaining-network-configuration-for-NSX-T-3.0-Manager-deployment VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error
Fill in the remaining network configuration for NSX-T 3.0 Manager deployment
Ready to complete the deployment wizard.
Ready-to-complete-the-NSX-T-3.0-Manager-deployment VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error
Ready to complete the NSX-T 3.0 Manager deployment

Error after logging in

You may receive this as well. When I initially logged into the NSX-T 3.0 appliance, I recevied the error – Some appliance components are not functioning properly…
The resolution? – Wait just a few minutes. Evidently this is caused by services not fully running as of yet.
Error-after-logging-into-the-NSX-T-3.0-Manager-appliance VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error
Error after logging into the NSX-T 3.0 Manager appliance
After a few minutes, the NSX-T 3.0 manager appliance came to life finished the login.
VMware-NSX-T-3.0-Manager-Installation-Configuration-and-Error VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error
VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error

Wrapping Up

Hopefully this walk through of VMware NSX-T 3.0 Manager Installation Configuration and Error will help to show a brief overview of the process and the new Global Manager configuration option under the roles.
Additionally the NSX-T 3.0 manager appliance error after logging in is just a sign you need to wait a bit longer while services are spun up. For me this took about 3-4 minutes.
Next, we will take a look at adding the compute manager, transport nodes, and setting up the configuration a bit further.

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