Module 3: NSX-T Data

Center Architecture and

Components

© 2020 VMware, Inc.

Importance
As a Data Center Solutions Architect, you must understand the VMware Virtual Cloud Network
framework and the solutions that it offers to address challenges in your data center.
You must also understand the NSX-T Data Center architecture and components to properly design,
deploy, and manage a data center that meets your business requirements.

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3-2

Module Lessons
1. NSX-T Data Center Introduction
2. NSX-T Data Center Architecture

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3-3

Lesson 1: NSX-T Data Center Introduction

© 2019 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

Learner Objectives
• Describe the purpose and framework of VMware Virtual Cloud Network
• Describe how NSX-T Data Center fits into the NSX product portfolio
• Recognize the main components of NSX-T Data Center
• Identify the use cases for NSX-T Data Center
• Describe the main features of NSX-T Data Center

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3-5

Virtual Cloud Network Framework
Virtual Cloud Network is the VMware framework
for connecting and protecting different types of
workloads running across various environments.
The Virtual Cloud Network framework is built on
NSX technology.
Virtual Cloud Network is a software layer. This
layer provides connectivity between data center,
cloud, and edge infrastructure with data visibility
and security.

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3-6

VMware NSX Portfolio
Virtual Cloud Network is based on a robust portfolio of products built on the foundations of the
concept of any infrastructure, any cloud, any application, any platform, and any device.
Virtual Cloud Network includes several key solutions that provide security, integration, extensibility,
automation, and elasticity.

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3-7

NSX-T Data Center Overview
NSX-T Data Center provides consistent networking and security for private cloud, public cloud, and
containers.

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Use Cases for NSX-T Data Center
NSX-T Data Center can be used in several ways.

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3-9

Real Customer Cases

Online Gaming Leader Banking and Financial Organization Community College

VMware NSX-T Data Center, with vSAN storage, An expansive VMware footprint, including emerging A small IT team, supporting campuses, and
enables gaming organization to build a software- solutions for containers and micro-segmentation, approximately 8,500 students, partnered with VMware
defined data center (SDDC). supports service delivery in hours, not weeks. and Dell to rebuild their entire domain.

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NSX-T Data Center Features (1)

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NSX-T Data Center Features (2)

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3 - 12

Review of Learner Objectives
• Describe the purpose and framework of VMware Virtual Cloud Network
• Describe how NSX-T Data Center fits into the NSX product portfolio
• Recognize the main components of NSX-T Data Center
• Identify the use cases for NSX-T Data Center
• Describe the main features of NSX-T Data Center

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3 - 13

Lesson 2: NSX-T Data Center Architecture

© 2019 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

Learner Objectives
• Recognize the main elements in the NSX-T Data Center architecture
• Describe the functions of NSX policy
• Describe the NSX management cluster and the management plane
• Identify the functions and components of the control plane
• Identify the functions and components of the data plane

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3 - 15

NSX-T Data Center Architecture
The management, control, and data planes are the main elements of the NSX-T Data Center
architecture. This architectural separation enables scalability without affecting workloads.

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About the Management and Control Planes
The management plane and control plane are part of a single NSX management cluster:
• The management plane provides the REST API and web-based UI interface for all user
configurations.
• The control plane is responsible for computing and distributing the network run time state.

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3 - 17

About the NSX Management Cluster
A group of three NSX Manager nodes form the
NSX management cluster for high availability and
scalability.
The NSX Manager appliance has the built-in
policy, manager, and controller roles:
• The management plane includes the policy and
manager roles.
• The central control plane (CCP) includes the
controller role.
The desired state is replicated in the distributed
persistent database, providing the same
configuration view to all nodes in the cluster.

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NSX Manager Resource Requirements
The NSX Manager virtual machine has the following component resource requirements.

Size Memory vCPU Disk Space VM Hardware Version

Extra Small 8 GB 2 300 GB 10 or later
Small 16 GB 4 300 GB 10 or later
Medium 24 GB 6 300 GB 10 or later
Large 48 GB 12 300 GB 10 or later

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Default NSX Management Cluster Deployment
Default deployment considerations:
• No L2 adjacent requirement.
• All three node IPs can be used for GUI and API
access. However, when that node fails, a
different IP has to be used.

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NSX Management Cluster with Virtual IP Address
Virtual IP address deployment considerations:
• Low cost
• Low complexity
• Single IP address can be used for API and UI
access
• Single subnet only
• No UI and API load distribution

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NSX Management Cluster with Load Balancer
External load balancer deployment
considerations:
• Single IP availability
• Multisubnet: No L2 across management racks
• More complex setup with LB configuration
required
• Complex life cycle management and
compatibility
• Costly: Requires external load-balancing
solution.

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NSX Policy Functions
The policy role performs several functions:
• Provides a centralized location for configuring
networking and security across the
environment
• Enables users to enter the intended
configuration in the NSX UI
• Enables users to specify the final desired state
of the system without being concerned about
the current state or underlying implementation

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NSX Manager Functions
NSX Manager performs several functions:
• Receives and validates the configuration from
NSX policy
• Publishes the configuration to the CCP
• Installs and prepares the data plane
components
• Retrieves the statistical data from data plane
components

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NSX Controller Functions
NSX Controller maintains the realized state of the
system and configures the data plane.
The main functions of NSX Controller include:
• Providing control plane functionality, such as
logical switching, routing, and distributed
firewall
• Computing all ephemeral runtime states based
on the configuration from the management
plane
• Disseminating topology information reported
by the data plane elements
• Pushing stateless configurations to forwarding
engines

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Control Plane Components (1)
In NSX-T Data Center, the control plane is
divided into the CCP and local control plane
(LCP).
The CCP exists as part of the NSX Manager nodes
and is offered by the NSX Controller role.
The LCP exists on host transport nodes or on
NSX Edge transport nodes.

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3 - 26

Control Plane Components (2)
The CCP and LCP perform different functions.
• The CCP:
– Computes the ephemeral runtime state
based on the configuration from the
management plane
– Disseminates information reported by the
data plane elements by using the LCP
• The LCP:
– Monitors local link status
– Computes most ephemeral runtime states
based on updates from the data plane and
the CCP
– Pushes stateless configurations to
forwarding engines

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3 - 27

About the Data Plane
The data plane has several components and functions:
• Includes multiple endpoints (ESXi hosts, KVM hosts, and NSX Edge)
• Contains various workloads, such as VMs, containers, and applications running on bare-metal
servers
• Forwards data plane traffic
• Uses a scale-out distributed forwarding model
• Implements logical switching, distributed and centralized routing, and firewall filtering

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Data Plane Functions
The data plane forwards packets based on configurations populated by the control plane and reports
topology information to the control plane.
The data plane has the following responsibilities:
• Maintains the status of and handles failover between multiple links or tunnels
• Performs stateless forwarding based on tables and rules populated by the control plane
• Maintains packet-level statistics

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3 - 29

Data Plane Components
Types of data plane components, called transport
nodes, include:
• Hypervisor transport nodes:
– Act as forwarding plane for the VM traffic
– Support ESXi and KVM hypervisors
• Bare-metal transport nodes:
– Include Linux-based and Windows
workloads running on bare-metal servers
– Include containers running on bare-metal
servers without a hypervisor
• NSX Edge cluster:
– Contains edge transport nodes (VM or bare-
metal form factors)
– Provides stateful and gateway services

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3 - 30

Review of Learner Objectives
• Recognize the main elements in the NSX-T Data Center architecture
• Describe the functions of NSX policy
• Describe the NSX management cluster and the management plane
• Identify the functions and components of the control plane
• Identify the functions and components of the data plane

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3 - 31

Key Points
• The VMware Virtual Cloud Network is a ubiquitous software layer that connects and protects any
workload across any environment.
• The NSX family is a portfolio of various offerings, including NSX-T Data Center, vRealize Network
Insight, NSX Cloud, NSX Intelligence, NSX Distributed IDS/IPS, NSX Advanced Load Balancer,
NSX Service Mesh, and VMware HCX.
• In an NSX management cluster, each node performs the management, control, and policy roles.
• NSX policy provides consistency in networking and security configuration across the NSX-T Data
Center environment.
• The data plane in NSX-T Data Center forwards packets, based on tables populated by the control
plane and reports topology information, to the control plane.
Questions?

© 2020 VMware, Inc. VMware NSX-T Data Center: Design | 3 - 32