Hosts and Networks Worksheet

Management Domain Networks

This section covers the VLANs, gateways, MTU, and expected IP ranges and subnet mask for each network you have configured on the Top of Rack switches in your environment.


Network Type	VLAN	Portgroup Name	CIDR Notation	Gateway	MTU
Management Network	Enter the VLAN ID. The VLAN ID can be between 0 and 4094. Note: Enter 0 for the management VLAN if you imaged the servers with VIA. VLAN 0 means the management network is untagged. Note: The VLAN ID for Uplink 1 and Uplink 2 Networks must be unique and not used by any other network type.	Enter a portgroup name.	Enter the CIDR notation for the network.	Enter the gateway IP for network.	Enter MTU for management network. The MTU can be between 1500 and 9000.
vMotion Network
vSAN Network

System vSphere Distributed Switch Used for NSX-T Overlay Traffic

In VxRail Manager, you can choose to create one or two vSphere Distributed Switches (vDS) for system traffic and to map physical NICs (pNICs) to those vSphere Distributed Switches. The following fields are used to specify which system vDS and vmnics to use for overlay traffic (Host Overlay, Edge Overlay, and Uplink networks). You can also choose to create a new vDS to use for overlay traffic.

System vSphere Distributed Switch - Name	Enter the name of the vDS to use for overlay traffic.
System vSphere Distributed Switch - vmnics to be used for overlay traffic	Enter the vmnics to use for overlay traffic.

Create Separate vSphere Distributed Switch for NSX-T Overlay Traffic

If you want to use one of the system vSphere Distributed Switches that you created in VxRail Manager for overlay traffic (Host Overlay, Edge Overlay, and Uplink networks), choose No. Choose Yes to create a new vDS for overlay traffic.

Secondary vSphere Distributed Switch - Name	Enter a name for the secondary vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS).
Secondary vSphere Distributed Switch - vmnics	Enter the vmnics to assign to the secondary vDS. For example: `vmnic4, vmnic5`
Secondary vSphere Distributed Switch - MTU Size	Enter the MTU size for the secondary vDS. Default value is 9000.

Management Domain ESXi Hosts

Specify the IP addresses of the ESXi hosts for the management domain. In a standard deployment, only four hosts are required in the management domain. VMware Cloud Foundation can also be deployed with a consolidated architecture. In a consolidated deployment, all workloads are deployed in the management domain instead of to separate workload domains. As such, additional hosts may be required to provide the capacity needed. In this section, only enter values for the number of hosts desired in the management domain.


Host Name	IP Address
Enter host names for each of the four ESXi hosts.	Enter IP Address for each of the four ESXi hosts.

ESXi Host Security Thumbprints

If you want bring-up to validate the SSH fingerprints of the ESXi hosts and the SSH fingerprint and SSL thumbprint of the vCenter Server and VxRail Manager to reduce the chance of Man In The Middle (MiTM) attack, select Yes in the Validate Thumbprints field.

If you set Validate Thumbprints to Yes, follow the steps below.

In a web browser, log in to the ESXi host using the VMware Host Client.
In the navigation pane, click Manage and click the Services tab.
Select the TSM-SSH service and click Start if not started.
Connect to the VMware Cloud Builder appliance using an SSH client such as Putty.
Enter the admin credentials you provided when you deployed the VMware Cloud Builder appliance.
Retrieve the ESXi SSH fingerprints by entering the following command replacing hostname with the FQDN of the first ESXi host:
```
ssh-keygen -lf <(ssh-keyscan hostname 2>/dev/null)
```
In the VMware Host Client, select the TSM-SSH service for the ESXi host and click Stop.
Repeat for the remaining ESXi hosts.
Retrieve the vCenter Server SSH fingerprint by entering the following command replacing hostname with the FQDN of your vCenter Server:
```
ssh-keygen -lf <(ssh-keyscan hostname 2>/dev/null)
```
Retrieve the vCenter Server SSL thumbprint by entering the following command replacing hostname with the FQDN of your vCenter Server:
```
openssl s_client -connect hostname:443 < /dev/null 2> /dev/null | openssl x509 -sha256 -fingerprint -noout -in /dev/stdin
```
Retrieve the VxRail Manager SSH fingerprint by entering the following command replacing hostname with the FQDN of your VxRail Manager:
```
ssh-keygen -lf <(ssh-keyscan hostname 2>/dev/null)
```
Retrieve the VxRail Manager SSL thumbprint by entering the following command replacing hostname with the FQDN of your VxRail Manager:
```
openssl s_client -connect hostname:443 < /dev/null 2> /dev/null | openssl x509 -sha256 -fingerprint -noout -in /dev/stdin
```
Enter the information in the deployment parameter workbook.

NSX-T Host Overlay Network

By default, VMware Cloud Foundation uses DHCP for the management domain Host Overlay Network TEPs. For this option, a DHCP server must be configured on the NSX-T host overlay (Host TEP) VLAN of the management domain. When NSX creates TEPs for the VI workload domain, they are assigned IP addresses from the DHCP server.

Caution: For L3 aware or stretch clusters, DHCP is required for Host Overlay Network TEP IP assignment.

For the management domain and VI workload domains with uniform L2 clusters, you can choose to use static IP addresses instead. Make sure the IP range includes enough IP addresses for the number of hosts that will use the static IP Pool. The number of IP addresses required depends on the number of pNICs on the ESXi hosts that are used for the vSphere Distributed Switch that handles host overlay networking. For example, a host with four pNICs that uses two pNICs for host overlay traffic requires two IP addresses in the static IP pool..

Caution: If you use static IP addresses for the management domain Host Overlay Network TEPs, you cannot stretch clusters in the management domain or any VI workload domains.

Table 1. DHCP Settings
Parameter	Value
VLAN ID	Enter a VLAN ID for the NSX-T host overlay network. The VLAN ID can be between 0 and 4094.
Configure NSX-T Host Overlay Using a Static IP Pool	Select No to use DHCP.

Table 2. Static IP Pool Settings
Parameter	Value
VLAN ID	Enter a VLAN ID for the NSX-T host overlay network. The VLAN ID can be between 0 and 4094.
Configure NSX-T Host Overlay Using a Static IP Pool	Select Yes to use a static IP pool.
Pool Description	Enter a description for the static IP pool.
Pool Name	Enter a name for the static IP pool.
CIDR Notation	Enter CIDR notation for the NSX-T Host Overlay network.
Gateway	Enter the gateway IP address for the NSX-T Host Overlay network.
NSX-T Host Overlay Start IP	Enter the first IP address to include in the static IP pool.
NSX-T Host Overlay End IP	Enter the last IP address to include in the static IP pool.