Work Load Migration from Non NSX to NSX Platform

[rajeevsrikant]

I am looking for best practices for migrating the work load from Non NSX platform to NSX platform.

I have VM*s in non NSX platform. I have setup new environment with NSX.

I want to move the work load from non NSX to NSX.

What is the best practice and how should i achieve this.....

[chuckbell]

The brownfield migration guide here in the forum is a great starting point. 

VMware® NSX-v Brownfield Design and Deployment Guide - ver 1.1

[rajeevsrikant]

Thanks. I read it & it was very useful.

I have few queries which i would like to clarify.

The physical NW has VLAN 100 which needs to be extended into the NSX which i would like to map it with VXLAN 5100

Question : 1 - My understanding is that i need to make the VLAN trunk as below.

            (Trunk VLAN 100)                      (Trunk VLAN 100)

Esxi Host --------------->        L2 Switch     ------------------------>     L3 Switch [Core Switch - Where the VLAN 100 exists]

Let me know if my above understanding is right.

Question :2 - In the briding configuration we need to define the logical switch & Distributed port group.

I understand that the logical switch will be for the VXLAN 5100 which the VMs will be part of when they migrate from non NSX to NSX environment.

What should be the distributed port group ? Which is this port group ?

Help me to understand this.

[hansroeder]

Your first question is about something which should already be in place. But your understanding is correct, but only if this is indeed the way you deployed this in the past.

Regarding question 2, this Distributed Port Group should be the one that's configured for VLAN 100.

[rajeevsrikant]

Thank you for your reply.

Question :1 - The VLAN 100 is currently not extended to my NSX . It is only available in my L3 core switch.

My environment is some thing like , NSX environment is green field & I need to migrate the VMs from the brown field.

So at present I don't have any of my brown field VLANs in my NSX.

So i need to add these VLANs into the trunk from ESXi hosts to the L3 core switch.

Question:2 -  What is the purpose of Distributed Port Group for VLAN 100. Once the VMs are migrated from the VLAN to VXLAN it will be part of the logical switch.

I am not able to understand the purpose of this distributed port group.

[hansroeder]

Your NSX environment will need to have access to the VMs on VLAN 100, so you need to create the Distributed Port Group for this VLAN. Otherwise, how will you be able to migrate the VM? Or do you have a Hardware VTEP that you're using?

[rajeevsrikant]

No i don't have any hardware VTEP. From the discussion below is my understanding of how to achieve this.

Correct if i have missed out any thing.

Step:1 - Configure all the trunk  ports from hosts -> L2 switch -> L3 Switch with the VLAN 100

Step:2 - Create the new logical switch for the VXLAN 5100

Step 3 - Create a distributed port group for the VLAN 100

Step 4 - Create the bridging instance between the logical switch & the distributed port group

Step 5 - Migrate the VMs

Let me know if my above understanding is right.

[hansroeder · Accepted solution]

Your understanding is correct. See also the following link: Working with NSX - Layer 2 Bridging - Wahl Network

Do keep in mind though that L2 Bridging is only active on the designated ESXi host (which is the host that runs the DLR Control VM). Should the host fail, you will lose the L2 Bridging functionality until a new designated ESXi host is chosen. You do get 10Gbps of throughput, so you can migrate your workloads pretty fast. You can also create multiple L2 Bridging instances, so you can also migrate multiple subnets simultaneously. Though I would advice against that.

Also keep in mind that the L2 Bridging functionality is not supported on UDLRs, so if you're working with a Cross-vCenter setup, you will need to use a DLR to do the migration and then do another migration from DLR to UDLR.

Have you also thought about migrating the gateway(s) from the physical environment to NSX? At some point, you will want to let the DLR do the routing for a particular subnet, which means you have to delete the gateway from your L3 switch and make it active on the DLR (as a LIF). Before you do that, you need to make sure that all the routing stuff is in place within NSX (ESGs, DLRs, BGP/OSPF, static routes, route redistribution, ECMP, etc.). Personally I would create a dummy subnet with a gateway on the L3 switch, configure all the routing stuff in NSX and create a couple of VMs in that dummy subnet to do a test migration from physical to virtual/NSX.

[rajeevsrikant]

Thanks