Every provider VDC that is backed by NSX includes a Geneve network pool.

Geneve is the network virtualization standard that provides the overlay capability in NSX.

When you create a provider VDC that is backed by NSX, you can associate that provider VDC with an existing Geneve network pool, or you can create a Geneve network pool for the provider VDC.

VMware Cloud Director Geneve networks provide a number of benefits.

  • Logical networks spanning layer 3 boundaries
  • Logical networks spanning multiple racks on a single layer 2
  • Broadcast containment
  • Higher performance
  • Greater scale (up to 16 million network addresses)

Create a Network Pool Backed by an NSX Transport Zone

To register an NSX transport zone for VMware Cloud Director to use, create a Geneve-backed network pool.

Prerequisites

Create an NSX transport zone that is overlay backed. For more information on the transport zone creation and the Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation, called Geneve overlay, see the NSX product documentation.

Procedure

  1. From the top navigation bar, select Resources and click Cloud Resources.
  2. In the left panel, select Network Pools and click New.
  3. Enter a name and, optionally, a description for the new network pool, and click Next.
  4. Select Geneve-backed and click Next.
  5. Select an NSX Manager instance to provide the transport zone for this network pool, and click Next.
  6. Select an NSX transport zone and click Next.
  7. Review the network pool settings and click Finish.

What to do next

Create an organization VDC network that is backed by the network pool or associate the network pool with an organization VDC and create vApp networks.