Create a Host Transport Node

A transport node is a node that participates in an NSX-T Data Center overlay or NSX-T Data Center VLAN networking.

For a KVM host, you can preconfigure the N-VDS, or you can have NSX Manager perform the configuration. For an ESXi host, NSX Manager always configures the N-VDS.

Note:

If you plan to create transport nodes from a template VM, make sure that there are no certificates on the host in /etc/vmware/nsx/. The netcpa agent does not create a certificate if a certificate already exists.

Bare metal server supports an overlay and VLAN transport zone. You can use the management interface to manage the bare metal server. The application interface allows you to access the applications on the bare metal server.

Single physical NICs provide an IP address for both the management and application IP interfaces.

Dual physical NICs provide a physical NIC and a unique IP address for the management interface. Dual physical NICs also provide a physical NIC and a unique IP address for the application interface.

Multiple physical NICs in a bonded configuration provide dual physical NICs and an unique IP address for the management interface. Multiple physical NICs in a bonded configuration also provide dual physical NICs and an unique IP address for the application interface.

Prerequisites

The host must be joined with the management plane, and MPA connectivity must be Up on the Fabric > Hosts page.
A transport zone must be configured.
An uplink profile must be configured, or you can use the default uplink profile.
An IP pool must be configured, or DHCP must be available in the network deployment.
At least one unused physical NIC must be available on the host node.

Procedure

From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-address>.
Select Fabric > Nodes > Transport Nodes > Add.
Enter a name for the transport node.
Select a node from the drop-down menu.
Required: Select the transport zones that this transport node belongs to.
Click the N-VDS tab.

Required: For a KVM node, select the N-VDS type.

Option	Description
Standard	NSX Manager creates the N-VDS. This option is selected by default.
Preconfigured	The N-VDS is already configured.

Option

Description

Standard

NSX Manager creates the N-VDS.

This option is selected by default.

Preconfigured

The N-VDS is already configured.

For a non-KVM node, the N-VDS type is always Standard or Enhanced Datapath.

For a standard N-VDS, provide the following details.

Option	Description
N-VDS Name	Must be the same as the N-VDS name of the transport zone that this node belongs to.
NIOC Profile	Select the NIOC profile from the drop-down menu.
Uplink Profile	Select the uplink profile from the drop-down menu.
IP Assignment	Select Use DHCP, Use IP Pool, or Use Static IP List. If you select Use Static IP List, you must specify a list of comma-separated IP addresses, a gateway, and a subnet mask.
IP Pool	If you selected Use IP Pool for IP assignment, specify the IP pool name.
Physical NICs	Make sure that the physical NIC is not already in use (for example, by a standard vSwitch or a vSphere distributed switch). Otherwise, the transport node state remains in partial success, and the fabric node LCP connectivity fails to establish. For bare metal server, select the physical NIC that can be configured as the uplink-1 port. The uplink-1 port is defined in the uplink profile. If you only have one network adapter in your bare metal server, select that physical NIC so that the uplink-1 port is assigned to both the management and application interface.

For an enhanced datapath N-VDS, provide the following details.

Option	Description
N-VDS Name	Must be the same as the N-VDS name of the transport zone that this node belongs to.
IP Assignment	Select Use DHCP, Use IP Pool, or Use Static IP List. If you select Use Static IP List, you must specify a list of comma-separated IP addresses, a gateway, and a subnet mask.
IP Pool	If you selected Use IP Pool for an IP assignment, specify the IP pool name.
Physical NICs	Select a physical NIC that is enhanced datapath capable. Make sure that the physical NIC is not already in use (for example, by a standard vSwitch or a vSphere distributed switch). Otherwise, the transport node state remains in partial success, and the fabric node LCP connectivity fails to establish.
Uplink	Select the uplink profile from the drop-down menu.
CPU Config	In the NUMA Node Index drop-down menu, select the NUMA node that you want to assign to an N-VDS switch. The first NUMA node present on the node is represented with the value 0. You can find out the number for NUMA nodes on your host by running the esxcli hardware memory get command. Note: If you want to change the number of NUMA nodes that have affinity with an N-VDS switch, you can update the NUMA Node Index value.
	In the Lcore per NUMA node drop-down menu, select the number of logical cores that must be used by enhanced datapath. You can find out the maximum number of logical cores that can be created on the NUMA node by running the esxcli network ens maxLcores get command. Note: If you exhaust the available NUMA nodes and logical cores, any new switch added to the transport node cannot be enabled for ENS traffic.

For a preconfigured N-VDS, provide the following details.

Option	Description
N-VDS External ID	Must be the same as the N-VDS name of the transport zone that this node belongs to.
VTEP	Virtual tunnel endpoint name.

After adding the host as a transport node, the host connection to NSX Controllers changes to the Up status.

View the connection status on the Transport Nodes page.

Alternatively, view the connection status using CLI commands.

For ESXi, type the esxcli network ip connection list | grep 1234 command.

# esxcli network ip connection list | grep 1234
tcp   0   0  192.168.210.53:20514  192.168.110.34:1234   ESTABLISHED  1000144459  newreno  netcpa

For KVM, type the command netstat -anp --tcp | grep 1234.

user@host:~$ netstat -anp --tcp | grep 1234
tcp  0   0 192.168.210.54:57794  192.168.110.34:1234   ESTABLISHED -

(Optional) View the transport node with the GET https://<nsx-mgr>/api/v1/transport-nodes/<node-id> API call.

{
  "resource_type": "TransportNode",
  "description": "",
  "id": "95c8ce77-f895-43de-adc4-03a3ae2565e2",
  "display_name": "node-comp-01b",
  "tags": [],
  "transport_zone_endpoints": [
    {
      "transport_zone_id": "efd7f38f-c5da-437d-af03-ac598f82a9ec",
      "transport_zone_profile_ids": [
        {
          "profile_id": "52035bb3-ab02-4a08-9884-18631312e50a",
          "resource_type": "BfdHealthMonitoringProfile"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "host_switches": [
    {
      "host_switch_profile_ids": [
        {
          "value": "8abdb6c0-db83-4e69-8b99-6cd85bfcc61d",
          "key": "UplinkHostSwitchProfile"
        },
        {
          "value": "9e0b4d2d-d155-4b4b-8947-fbfe5b79f7cb",
          "key": "LldpHostSwitchProfile"
        }
      ],
      "host_switch_name": "overlay-hostswitch",
      "pnics": [
        {
          "device_name": "vmnic1",
          "uplink_name": "uplink-1"
        }
      ],
      "static_ip_pool_id": "c78ac522-2a50-43fe-816a-c459a210127e"
    }
  ],
  "node_id": "c551290a-f682-11e5-ae84-9f8726e1de65",
  "_create_time": 1460051753373,
  "_last_modified_user": "admin",
  "_system_owned": false,
  "_last_modified_time": 1460051753373,
  "_create_user": "admin",
  "_revision": 0
}

Add the newly created transport node to a transport zone.
1. Select the transport node.
2. Select Actions > Add to Transport Zone.
3. Select the transport zone from the drop-down menu.
  
  All other fields are populated.

Results

Note:

For a standard N-VDS, after the transport node is created, if you want to change the configuration, such as IP assignment to the tunnel endpoint, you must do it through the NSX Manager GUI and not through the CLI on the host.

What to do next

Migrate network interfaces from a vSphere Standard Switch to an NSX-T Virtual Distributed Switch. See VMkernel Migration to an N-VDS Switch.