Today’s topic is on deploying a NSX-T Edge node, during this process I have to grow out my Edge nodes to NSX Edge Large so I can utilize IPS/IDS within the new release of NSX-T! The Edge Node specifications are:
NSX Edge VM Resource Requirements
| Appliance Size | Memory | vCPU | Disk Space | VM Hardware Version | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSX Edge Small | 4 GB | 2 | 200 GB | 11 or later (vSphere 6.0 or later) | Proof-of-concept deployments only.Note:L7 rules for firewall, load balancing and so on are not realized on a Tier-1 gateway if you deploy a small sized NSX Edge VM. |
| NSX Edge Medium | 8 GB | 4 | 200 GB | 11 or later (vSphere 6.0 or later) | Suitable when only L2 through L4 features such as NAT, routing, L4 firewall, L4 load balancer are required and the total throughput requirement is less than 2 Gbps. |
| NSX Edge Large | 32 GB | 8 | 200 GB | 11 or later (vSphere 6.0 or later) | Suitable when only L2 through L4 features such as NAT, routing, L4 firewall, L4 load balancer are required and the total throughput is 2 ~ 10 Gbps. It is also suitable when L7 load balancer, for example, SSL offload is required.See Scaling Load Balancer Resources in the NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide. For more information about what the different load balance sizes and NSX Edge form factors can support, see https://configmax.vmware.com. |
| NSX Edge Extra Large | 64 GB | 16 | 200 GB | 11 or later (vSphere 6.0 or later) | Suitable when the total throughput required is multiple Gbps for L7 load balancer and VPN.See Scaling Load Balancer Resources in the NSX-T Data Center Administration Guide. For more information about what the different load balance sizes and NSX Edge form factors can support, see https://configmax.vmware.com. |
Lets begin! You will need to login into your NSX-T manager, then go to the System Tab -> Fabric -> Nodes
Then, click on ADD EDGE NODE. You will need to prep a A record and a free static IP address to predefine the A record you will create within your Domain Controller or DNS server of choice. (The Extra Large – option is required for IPS/Malware threat prevention which I will try out later)
Create the administrative account that you desired and password.
Add the edge node to the correct Compute Manager, along with Cluster and Datastore. If you have resource pools then you can select them and preconfigure that.
Here you will input the IP address and Default Gateway, the IP address will be the one you preconfigured for the A record on the DNS server.
Select the Port Group you want the Management interface of the NSX Edge Node to live on.
Preconfigure the Search Domains, DNS Servers and NTP Servers.
This will vary on each deployment, since my NSX-T environment is backed on dual 10Gbit networks that peer up-to my Arista 7050QX via eBGP then I choose the vmnic uplink profile.
Below are the uplink trunks that the NSX-T will run on. Each interface of the Edge Node will need a trunk uplink
Click Finish!
Now you see the 2 new Edge Nodes in large size being deployed!
