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NSX

How to troubleshoot NSX-T API errors when using PowerCLI?

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In the last few days, I have been ramping back up on NSX-T usage, especially as I take a closer look at VMware Pivotal Container Service (PKS) which hopefully I will be able to share more with an upcoming blog series (at least, thats the plan when I find some spare time). While working on some Automation using the NSX-T REST APIs and the new NSX-T PowerCLI cmdlets, I found it to be pretty challenging and frustrating to troubleshoot NSX-T error messages thrown from the  PowerCLI cmdlets.

For example, below is a PowerCLI snippet which I wrote to create a new T1 Logical Router in NSX-T.

However, when I ran the code, PowerCLI threw back a pretty generic and useless error which I am sure some of you have probably seen before "A server error occurred: 'com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.invalid.frequest': . Check $Error[0].Exception.ServerError". Even checking the error variable as stated in the error message did not yield any further details or specific to the issue I was running into.

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Quick Tip – NSX-T 2.1 upgrade gotcha, use NSX Manager IP Address vs Hostname

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NSX-T 2.1 was released right before the holiday break and one of the biggest enhancement is support for VMware's upcoming Pivotal Container Service (PKS) which you can read more about here. Right before I took some much needed time off with the family, I had attempted an upgrade of my existing NSX-T 2.0 environment and ran into an issue which turned out to be a known issue but apparently it is no where listed on the NSX-T 2.1 release notes.

I figure I would share the simple workaround as it drove me a bit insane trying to figure out what was going on. After successfully uploading the NSX-T 2.1 upgrade bundle and then starting the upgrade, which starts off by updating the Upgrade Coordinator component and shortly after, I am shown the following error message:

This page is only available on the NSX Manager where Upgrade Coordinator is running. To enable the service, run the command "set service install-upgrade enabled" on the NSX Manager. If the install-upgrade service is already enabled, try disabling it using "clear service install-upgrade enabled" and then enable it again.

Although the error seems to suggest the Upgrade Coordinator service may not be running (it was), even after performing the recommended operations, the error message continue to persists as seen in the screenshot below.


After reaching out to Engineering as I was out of ideas on how to further troubleshoot the issue, it turns out this was actually a known upgrade issue going from 2.0 to 2.1. Instead of connecting to the NSX-T Manager using its Hostname (FQDN), I needed to use the IP Address instead for the upgrade. Once I logged back in using the IP Address, I was no longer seeing the error message and could proceed with my NSX-T upgrade as shown in the screenshot below.

Deploying NSX-T VIBs and/or creating custom NSX-T Image Profile

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Similiar to its earlier predecessor, NSX-T also provides complete lifecycle management (LCM) of its underlying NSX components (Controllers, Edges and Managers) including the Fabric Nodes (e.g. ESXi and/or KVM hosts). Additionally, a new Upgrade Coordinator is now part of NSX-T which greatly simplifies the patching and updating of the network virtualization platform. However, for existing vSphere customers who already have a process for distributing VMware VIBs using vSphere Update Manager (VUM) and/or custom Image Profiles, being able to leverage their existing methods is quite important. This is especially true for customers or system integrators who wish to slipstream all necessary VIBs as part of their base ESXi image for initial deployment which may come in the form of an automated installation via Kickstart and/or even manual install using an ISO image.

The good news is that like NSX-V, NSX-T also supports the same set of deployment methods that customers are already familiar with. I had recently looked into this due to a few questions that I and a few other folks had during our NSX-T Bootcamp training a couple of weeks back. I also did not see anything in the existing NSX-T documentation and figure it would be useful to outline the specific steps for each of the installation methods, especially when creating a custom ESXi Image Profile using PowerCLI which requires a particular order.

Note: Auto Deploy is currently not supported with NSX-T.

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NSX-T PowerCLI community module

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During the development of my automated NSX-T 2.0 lab deployment script, I had created several PowerCLI functions using the new NSX-T cmdlets and NSX-T APIs to help me test and troubleshoot. I finally got a chance to clean up the code as well as package them all up into an NSXT.psm1 module which hopefully can benefit others. For those of you who are looking for a primer on how to get started with the new NSX-T PowerCLI cmdlets and the NSX-T APIs, check out this awesome post from Romain Decker.

The NSXT module contains the following 8 functions:

  • Get-NSXTComputeManager
  • Get-NSXTController
  • Get-NSXTFabricNode
  • Get-NSXTFirewallRule
  • Get-NSXTIPPool
  • Get-NSXTLogicalSwitch
  • Get-NSXTManager
  • Get-NSXTTransportZone

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vGhetto Automated NSX-T 2.0 Lab Deployment

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Last week, I had spent some time exploring and getting myself more familiar with NSX-T, which is the next generation release of the NSX platform from VMware. One of the first thing I do when learning about a new product is to setup a lab environment that I can using. Having gone through the deployment once by hand, I realized it would be quite painful if I needed to do this again, which I know I will and I did 🙂 I wanted to have a simliar experience to my vGhetto Automated vSphere Lab deployment script which also including setting up the entire vSphere infrastructure along with deploying and configuring NSX-V and extending it to support NSX-T.

Since my original script leverages PowerCLI to access both the vSphere and NSX APIs, I wanted to do the same with NSX-T. Funny enough, the PowerCLI team had just published an update release (6.5.3) which also added support for NSX-T and I thought this was perfect timing to try out the NSX-T APIs, which I had never used before.

UPDATE (01/01/2018) - I have verified the script also works with the latest NSX-T 2.1 which was just released before Christmas. The script has also been updated to create a new Edge Uplink Profile along with an Edge Cluster and automatically associate all Edge VMs to Edge Cluster.

I have created a new Github repository called vghetto-nsxt-automated-lab-deployment which contains detailed instructions along with the PowerCLI script.

Here is what the script is currently performing:

  1. Deploy and configure vCenter Server Appliance 6.5u1
  2. Deploy and configure 3 x Nested ESXi 6.5u1 Virtual Appliance VMs and attaching it to vCenter Server
  3. Deploy NSX-T Manager, 3 x Controllers & 1 x Edge and setup both the Management and Control Cluster Plane
  4. Configure NSX-T with IP Pool, Transport Zone, Add vCenter Server as Compute Manager, Create Logical Switch, Prepare ESXi hosts, Create Uplink Profile & Add configure ESXi hosts as a Transport Node

Similiar to the vSphere version of this script, all deployed VMs will be placed inside of a vCenter vApp construct as shown in the example screenshot below:


Here is an example output of a succesful deployment and you go from nothing to a fully functional NSX-T environment in just 50 minutes, which is pretty awesome if you ask me!?

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VPN Configuration to VMware Cloud on AWS using pfSense

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Provisioning a new SDDC on VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC) is not an operation that I perform on a regular basis. Usually, one of the first tasks after a new SDDC deployment is setting up a VPN connection between your on-premises datacenter and your VMC environment. Given this is not a frequent activity, I always forget the specific configurations required for my particular VPN solution and figure I would document this for myself in the future as well as anyone else who might also have a simliar setup.

Since the VMC Gateways are just NSX-v Edges, any VPN solution that supports the NSX-v configurations will also work with VMC. In my environment, I am using pfSense which is a popular and free security Virtual Appliance that many folks run in their VMware home lab. Before getting started, it is also important to note that there are two gateway endpoints that you can setup separate VPN connections to. The first is the Management Gateway which provides access to the management infrastructure such vCenter Server, NSX and ESXi hosts and the second is the Compute Gateway which provide access to the VM workloads running within VMC. Since the instructions are exactly the same for setting up the VPN for either gateways, I am just going over the Management Gateway configuration and where applicable, I will note the minor differences.

Step 1 - Login to the VMC Portal (vmc.vmware.com) and select one of your deployed SDDCs. Click on the Network tab and you should be taken to a page like the one shown in the screenshot below. Here is where you will be applying your VPN configuration from the VMC side. Start off by making a note of the public IP Address for the Management Gateway (highlighted in yellow), this will needed when configuring the VPN configuration on the on-prem side. It is probably a good idea to also note down the Compute Gateway IP Address if you plan on configuring that as well.


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