Installing NSX Advanced Load Balancer in a Linux Server Cloud

This section explains the process to install NSX Advanced Load Balancer in a Linux server cloud.

The following are the steps to install NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller on a bare metal Linux host:

Prerequisites

Note:

You need to install libselinux-python if the host is using selinux for security.

While installing NSX Advanced Load Balancer, the post-installation wizard for Controller must be run on the Linux server that will host it. If deploying a 3-host cluster of Controllers, run the wizard only on the host that will be the cluster leader (The cluster can be configured at any time after installation is complete).

Procedure

1. Install the Docker platform, if you have not installed it yet.
2. Install NTP server on the host operating system.
3. Install the Controller image onto a Linux server.
   1. Use SCP to copy the .tgz package onto the Linux server that will host NSX Advanced Load Balancer using scp docker_install.tar.gz root@Host-IP:/tmp/ command.
   2. Use SSH to log into the host using ssh root@Host-IP command.
   3. Change to the /tmp directory:cd /tmp/ using cd /tmp/ command.
   4. Unzip the .tgz package using sudo tar -xvf docker_install.tar.gz.
   5. Run the setup.py script. It can be run in interactive mode or as a single command string.

      • If you run the script as a command string, then the script sets the options that are included in the command string to the specified values, and leaves the other values set to their defaults. Next go to Step f.

      • If you run the script as interactive mode, the script displays a prompt for configuring each option. Next go to Step g.

      Note:

      To ensure proper operation of the avi_baremetal_setup.py script in either steps 'f' or 'g', the locale must be set to English. You can use the LANG=en_US.UTF-8command.

   6. Run the setup script as a single command using ./avi_baremetal_setup.py -c -cc 8 -cm 24 -i 10.120.0.39 command string. The CLI command is as follows:

      avi_baremetal_setup.py [-h] [-d] [-s] [-sc SE_CORES] [-sm SE_MEMORY_MB] [-c] [-cc CON_CORES] [-cm CON_MEMORY_GB] -i CONTROLLER_IP -m MASTER_CTL_IP-h, --help show this help message and exit
      -d, --dpdk_mode Run SE in DPDK Mode. Default is False
      -s, --run_se Run SE locally. Default is False
      -sc SE_CORES, --se_cores SE_CORES
      Cores to be used for AVI SE. Default is 1
      -sm SE_MEMORY_MB, --se_memory_mb SE_MEMORY_MB
      Memory to be used for AVI SE. Default is 2048
      -c, --run_controller Run Controller locally. Default is No
      -cc CON_CORES, --con_cores CON_CORES
      Cores to be used for AVI Controller. Default is 4
      -cm CON_MEMORY_GB, --con_memory_gb CON_MEMORY_GB
      Memory to be used for AVI Controller. Default is 12
      -i CONTROLLER_IP, --controller_ip CONTROLLER_IP
      Controller IP Address
      -m MASTER_CTL_IP, --master_ctl_ip MASTER_CTL_IP
      Master controller IP Address

   7. To run in an interactive mode, specify avi_baremetal_setup.py

      ./avi_baremetal_setup.pyWelcome to AVI Initialization ScriptDPDK Mode:
      Pre-requisites(DPDK): This script assumes the below utilities are installed:
      docker (yum -y install docker)
      Supported Nics(DPDK): Intel 82599/82598 Series of Ethernet Controllers
      Supported Vers(DPDK): OEL/CentOS/RHEL - 7.0,7.1,7.2Non-DPDK Mode:
      Pre-requisites: This script assumes the below utilities are installed:
      docker (yum -y install docker)
      Supported Vers: OEL/CentOS/RHEL - 7.0,7.1,7.2Caution : This script deletes existing AVI docker containers & images.Do you want to proceed in DPDK Mode [y/n] y
      Do you want to run AVI Controller on this Host [y/n] y
      Do you want to run AVI SE on this Host [n] n
      Enter The Number Of Cores For AVI Controller. Range [4, 39] 8
      Please Enter Memory (in GB) for AVI Controller. Range [12, 125] 24
      Please Enter directory path for Avi Controller Config (Default [/opt/avi/controller/data/])
      Please Enter disk (in GB) for Avi Controller config (Default [30G])
      Do you have separate partition for Avi Controller Metrics? If yes, please enter directory path, else leave it blank
      Do you have separate partition for Avi Controller Client Log? If yes, please enter directory path, else leave it blank
      Please Enter Controller IP 10.120.0.39
      Run SE : No
      Run Controller : Yes
      Controller Cores : 8
      Memory(mb) : 24
      Controller IP : 10.120.0.39Disabling AVI Services...
      Loading AVI CONTROLLER Image. Please Wait..
      kernel.core_pattern = /var/crash/%e.%p.%t.coreInstallation Successful. Starting Services...

   8. Start NSX Advanced Load Balancer on the host to complete installation using sudo systemctl start avicontroller command.
   9. If you are deploying a 3-host cluster, repeat the steps above on the hosts for each of the other 2 Controllers.