Cisco Nexus 1000v Roundup

This post is merely an index for the 6 post series I did on the Cisco Nexus 1000v.  I hope that beyond being a good learning experience for myself that it will benefit others. 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Cisco Nexus 1000v - Adding Physical Ports (Part 6)

The previous posts have established a fully configured, but unused Nexus 1000v.  At this point it's like having a physical switch in the rack, powered up and configured, but with no network cables attached.  In VMWare, the "cables" are attached using the vSphere Client.


Attaching Physical Ports to the Nexus 1000v

1. Connect to vCenter using the vSphere Client
2. Go to Networking Inventory and select the Nexus distributed virtual switch (dVS).
3. Right click on the Nexus and choose add host.
4. Select the host and vmnic(s) to use and change their DVUplink port group to system-uplink (or what you named the system uplinks in your port group on the Nexus) for the system uplink ports and vm-uplink for the VM networking ports.
5. Click next and choose not to migrate the vmk0 or VMs. (I prefer to verify the Nexus 1000v's operation before migrating anything.)
6. Click Finish.
7. Repeat for all hosts in the cluster.

Migrating vmk0 Interfaces to Nexus

Once you have added a few test VMs to the Nexus and are certain that the Nexus 1000v is working properly, it's time to migrate the last physical NIC from the vSwitch to the Nexus 1000v and with it the vmk0 interface used for vMotion and VMWare host management.  Keep in mind that if you don't need this NIC for bandwidth reasons, it is not mandatory to move these services to the Nexus 1000v.

1. Connect to vCenter using the vSphere Client.
2. Go to Networking Inventory and select the Nexus dVS.
3. Right click on the Nexus and choose manage host.
4. Select the hosts and click next twice.
5. Click on the destination port group for the vmnic used by vmk0 and choose the Nexus port group.
6. Click next and then finish without migrating VMs.

You will need to repeat this for each host in the cluster.  Leave the host with the active VSM for last and make sure to migrate it's NICs to the Nexus before disconnecting the vSwitch from the vmnic.  

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.