You can prepare NSX on vSphere Lifecycle Manager-enabled clusters.

The workflow to manage NSX clusters with vSphere Lifecycle Manager on ESXi clusters.

For vSphere Lifecycle Manager to get access to the NSX image, you must configure the cluster with a transport node profile. When you begin configuring the cluster, NSX local control plane bundle (in the format - nsx-lcp-bundle-<release_version.build_version>) is uploaded to the image repository in VMware vCenter.

During host preparation, vSphere Lifecycle Manager accesses the depot and sets NSX as a solution for that cluster. It applies the NSX solution to the cluster, which begins with the process of remediating hosts. Every host is remediated by vSphere Lifecycle Manager before the NSX switch is configured on the host. vSphere Lifecycle Manager remediation happens when a new ESXi host is added to a vSphere Lifecycle Manager cluster.

vSphere Lifecycle Manager remediates hosts so that the image on each host is the same as the ESXi version set for the cluster. Any drift must be resolved before host preparation can progress in NSX. During cluster preparation, if the cluster fails, NSX sets the cluster state to Failed. As an admin, you must retrigger host remediation by taking appropriate actions either from the NSX Manager user interface or from the vSphere Client.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure all hosts in a cluster are running at least ESXi 7.0 U1 version or higher.
  • Ensure Lockdown mode is not enabled on any of the hosts. vSphere Lifecycle Manager might fail to prepare hosts that are enabled to function in Lockdown mode.

  • Ensure there is not drift in images between hosts and cluster. Otherwise, you cannot enable vSphere Lifecycle Manager on the cluster. Remediate hosts in VMware vCenter to ensure base image matches on host and cluster.

  • Ensure vSphere Lifecycle Manager is enabled on the cluster. See VMware vSphere® documentation.

  • Register Compute Manager with the following settings:
    • Enable Trust and set access level to vSphere Lifecycle Manager. Trust is mandatory to establish communication between NSX and vSphere Lifecycle Manager.
    • Enable Create Service Account.

  • Create a transport node profile using a vSphere Distributed Switch host switch. N-VDS switch is not supported on a vSphere Lifecycle Manager-enabled.

  • If you configure a Web Proxy on a VMware vCenter Appliance, add all NSX Manager IP addresses to the NO_PROXY list, otherwise vLCM cannot connect to NSX Managers.

Procedure

  1. From a browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-address> or https://<nsx-manager-fqdn>.
  2. Go to System > Fabric > Hosts > Clusters.
  3. Select the cluster and click Configure NSX.
    Note: Identify vSphere Lifecycle Manager-enabled cluster when a cluster is accompanied with vLCM text.
  4. Select a transport node profile that uses vSphere Distributed Switch as the host switch.
  5. Click Apply TNP.
    Important: If vLCM Config Manager is enabled on this cluster, you will not be able to apply a TNP to this cluster. To remediate this issue, move the host to a cluster where vLCM Config Manager is not enabled.
    If this is the first cluster that is enabled for vSphere Lifecycle Manager, NSX uploads the NSX LCP bundle to the image repository in VMware vCenter. vSphere Lifecycle Manager sets NSX as a solution on the cluster. It sets the desired state to the NSX image uploaded to VMware vCenter. Then, vSphere Lifecycle Manager begins installation of NSX VIBs on each host, followed by configuration of NSX switch on each transport node.
    As part of host preparation, vSphere Lifecycle Manager remediates the host, registers the host with NSX Manager, configures NSX switch on the host and completes the configuration.
    Note: Installing NSX on a vSphere Lifecycle Manager-enabled cluster might take a little more time than when installing on a non-vSphere Lifecycle Manager-enabled cluster. This difference is due to the additional health checks that are included in this combination of products
  6. Troubleshooting issues:

    If vSphere Lifecycle Manager could not apply NSX as a solution to the cluster, the NSX cluster in NSX Manager goes into Failed state. To remediate the hosts in the cluster, do one of the following:

    1. Go to the VMware vCenter, verify the following conditions are met:

      • Hosts are compliant.

      • Hosts are not powered off or in maintenance mode.

    2. Verify cluster status through UI or API. Even if a host in the cluster is in Failed state, the cluster status remains in unrealized state.

      Run the following API to verify the cluster state, GET /<NSX-Manager-IP>/api/v1/transport-node-collections/<transport-node-collection-id>.

    3. If any one of the host fails, the remaining hosts in the cluster go into Install Skipped state. To remediate, read the error message and take any necessary action. Then, click Resolve to retry remediation of the host and NSX preparation. Note that remediation happens serially, one host at a time.
    4. If the cluster is still in Install Failed state, click Resolve for the cluster in UI or run the API to realize the transport node profile on the cluster. Along with remediating the cluster, the following API also tries to prepare those hosts that are in the Install Skipped state. It retries remediation on the entire cluster. It tries to prepare the hosts where installation is skipped.
      POST /api/v1/transport-node-collections/<transport-node-collection-id>?action=retry_profile_realization

Results

Sphere Lifecycle Manager prepares all hosts in the cluster as NSX transport nodes.