Friday, August 26, 2011

Cisco Nexus 1000v Software Installation (Part 5)

In this article I will run through installing the Virtual Ethernet Module (VEM) and creating the initial port groups on the Nexus 1000v.

Installing the Virtual Ethernet Module (VEM)

  1. Open the vSphere client and connect to vCenter.
  2. Right click on the host that you are going to install the VEM on and choose Maintenance Mode. (NOTE:  This will vMotion all guests from that host to other hosts if you have vMotion enabled, otherwise those guests will be shutdown.)
  3. Copy the VEM bundle from the Nexus 1000v install zip file to the vMA or to the computer that you are running vCLI on.
  4. Use the vCLI to install the VEM with the following command: vihostupdate -install -bundle <path to VEM Bundle> --server <host IP>
As you can see, installing the VEM software is fairly simple.

Creating the Port Groups on the Nexus 1000v

The Nexus 1000v uses port-profile configurations to define the configuration for each type of interface.  In this part of the install we need to setup profiles for the physical NICs that will uplink to the hardware switch infrastructure for both the system VLANs like VMK0 and the Nexus Control traffic as well as the VM uplinks for normal guest VLAN traffic.  On the Nexus 1000v, physical NICs are all of type Ethernet and virtual NICs are vEthernet.

  1. Connect to the switch management IP address using SSH.
  2. Type config t and enter to enter configuration mode.
  3. Configure a port profile to use for your system uplink ports (VMK0, Nexus Control, Nexus Packet, Nexus Management).  Below is an example:

    port-profile type ethernet vm-uplink
      vmware port-group
      switchport mode trunk
    ! In my lab, 255 is MGMT, 256 is Nexus Packet and Control and 101 is for VMK0
      switchport trunk allowed vlan 101, 255-256
      switchport trunk native vlan 255
    ! This command has Nexus create port-channels automatically
      channel-group auto mode on
      no shutdown
    ! System VLANs come up before the VSM is fully initialized
      system vlan 101,255-256
      description SYSTEM-UPLINK
      state enabled
    
  4. Configure a port profile to use for the VM Guest networks.

    port-profile type ethernet vm-uplink
      vmware port-group
      switchport mode trunk
      switchport trunk allowed vlan 2,102,104-105,259
      switchport trunk native vlan 102
    ! This command has Nexus create port-channels automatically
      channel-group auto mode on
      no shutdown
    ! System VLANs come up before the VSM is fully initialized.
      system vlan 102
      description VM-UPLINK
      state enabled 
  5. Configure port profiles for the guest networking to match the old vSwitch port-groups.

    port-profile type vethernet example-vlan
      vmware port-group example-vlan
      switchport access vlan 
      switchport mode access
      no shutdown
      state enabled
     
  6. Save the new configuration by doing copy running-config startup-config

Now that we have everything configured, the next post will be how to plug the network into the Nexus 1000v.

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