Use the automated installation of NSX-T Edge on the bare-metal servers. During the installation, you set the initial configuration of the management interface of the edge nodes. After the installation is complete, you configure the management interface of the nodes as out-of-band or as in-band and provide the final IP configuration of the management interface.

You can configure the management interface of the two NSX-T Edge nodes according to your network infrastructure, that is, set as out-of-band or in-band management interface, enable VLAN tagging, and assign IP address statically or over DHCP. See Install NSX Edge Automatically via ISO File.

Prerequisites

If the bare-metal servers for NSX-T Edge nodes have integrated SD card devices, disable the SD cards. See VMware Knowledge Base article 67363.

Procedure

  1. On the bare-metal server for the NSX-T Edge node, mount the ISO file of the NSX-T Edge software to CD/DVD-ROM drive.
  2. Set the BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD-ROM device and restart the server.
    See your hardware vendor documentation for information on changing the boot order.
  3. On the NSX-T Edge installer screen, select Automated Install and press Enter.
    This operation takes several seconds to start.
  4. Select the applicable primary network interface and press Enter.

    During power-on, the installer requests a network configuration over DHCP. If DHCP is not available in your environment, the installer prompts you for IP settings.

  5. If a DHCP server is not available in your environment, provide the management IP configuration of the edge.
    1. On the Network configuration failed screen, select Continue and press Enter.
    2. On the Configure the network screen, select Configure network manually and press Enter.
    3. On the Configure the network screen, set the gateway address and press Enter.
    4. On the Configure the network screen, set DNS server and press Enter.
  6. (Optional) While the server is restarting to complete the NSX-T Edge node installation, to track the boot process, open the console to the server.
  7. After the NSX-T Edge node starts, log in to the CLI by using admin user name and default password.
  8. Change the password of the admin user.
    The server restarts.
  9. After the second boot, log in to the console of the bare metal NSX-T Edge node by using the admin user name and the nsx-t-edge-admin-password password
  10. If you use the out-of-band management interface to connect to a management VLAN 1641, configure the management interface with VLAN information by running these commands in the NSX-T Edge console.
    NSX-T Edge Node Commands for VLAN Configuration
    sfo01wesg01 
    stop service dataplane
set interface eth0 vlan 1641 plane mgmt
set interface eth0.1641 ip 172.16.41.21/24 gateway 172.16.41.253 plane mgmt
start service dataplane
    sfo01wesg02 
    stop service dataplane
set interface eth0 vlan 1641 plane mgmt
set interface eth0.1641 ip 172.16.41.22/24 gateway 172.16.41.253 plane mgmt
start service dataplane
  11. If you use the in-band management interface, to connect to a management VLAN 1641, run these commands in the console of each NSX-T Edge node.
    1. Get the MAC address for each physical NIC with the data plane running. 
      get interfaces | find MAC
get interfaces | find Interface:
    2. Write down the MAC address of the fp-eth0 interface.
    3. Clear the management interface configuration that you entered during the ISO installation and get the MAC addresses of the physical NICs with the data plane stopped. 
      stop service dataplane
clear interface eth0 ip
clear interface eth0 plane
get interfaces | find MAC
get interfaces | find Interface:
    4. Find the ethX interface whose MAC address matches the fp-eth0 interface you wrote down earlier.
    5. Run these commands to configure the IP address and VLAN ID of the in-band management interface by using the ethX interface.
      For example, the MAC address of the eth2 interface matches the fp-eth0 interface MAC when the data plane was enabled. 
      set interface mac mac-address-eth2 vlan 1641 in-band plane mgmt
set interface eth2.1641 ip 172.16.41.21/24 gateway 172.16.41.253 plane mgmt
start service dataplane
  12. Repeat the procedure for the other NSX-T Edge node.