Install the Active and Standby Global Manager

To use NSX Federation, you must install the Global Manager.

Installing a Global Manager appliance is similar to installing an NSX Manager appliance. The only difference is that when you deploy the appliance, you select NSX Global Manager for the role.

Install a standby Global Manager appliance for high availability and disaster recovery. The standby Global Manager appliance must be installed in a different location with a latency of 500ms or less.

Prerequisites

• Verify that your environment meets the requirements for NSX Manager. See NSX Manager VM and Host Transport Node System Requirements.

• Decide which locations will contain the active and standby Global Manager appliances.
• Verify that you are installing the Global Manager appliance with NSX-T Data Center 3.2.0 or later.
  Important: All Global Manager and Local Manager appliances in an NSX Federation environment must have the same version of NSX-T Data Center installed.

Procedure

1. Install the first Global Manager appliance.
   • On vSphere: Install NSX Manager and Available Appliances.
     • Select Medium or Large for the deployment configuration size. Do not use Small.
     • Select NSX Global Manager for the Rolename.
   • On KVM: Install NSX Manager on KVM.
     • Deploy a medium appliance. For example: virt-install --import --ram 16000--vcpus 6.
     • Select NSX Global Manager for the nsx_role.
2. Log in to the NSX Manager appliance.
   See Log In to the Newly Created NSX Manager.
3. (Optional) If you are installing Global Manager on vSphere, configure a compute manager.
   See Add a Compute Manager.

   Note: If you are at this step while installing the standby Global Manager, you must configure a separate compute manager. Do not use the same compute manager that you configured for the active Global Manager.
4. Create a Global Manager cluster. See Cluster Requirements for an Individual Site for design recommendations.
   • On vSphere with a compute manager configured: See Deploy NSX Manager Nodes to Form a Cluster from the UI.
   • On vSphere without a compute manager configured: Repeat the NSX Manager install on vSphere steps to install three appliances, then form the cluster. See Form an NSX Manager Cluster Using the CLI.
   • On KVM: Repeat the NSX Manager install on KVM steps to install three appliances, then form the cluster. See Form an NSX Manager Cluster Using the CLI.
5. Configure a VIP for the Global Manager cluster.
   See Configure a Virtual IP Address for a Cluster.
6. In a different location, install a standby Global Manager appliance and form a cluster by repeating these steps.

What to do next

Select the designated Global Manager appliance as active and connect it with the standby Global Manager.