NSX Data Center for vSphere Interoperating with NSX-T Data Center in Existing vCloud NFV Deployments

This deployment model can serve CSPs who have existing vCloud NFV 2.1 deployments and are not in a position to upgrade their entire platform to vCloud NFV 3.0. Such CSPs can complement their vCloud NFV deployments with advanced networking capabilities available through NSX-T Data Center and features described in this reference architecture.

In this scenario, the CSP should upgrade only some of the platform components so that to enable the platform to support both networking stacks, the existing NSX Data Center for vSphere based networking as well as the enhanced NSX-T Data Center networking. The objective is to have a common vCloud Director instance in both existing and vCloud NFV 3.0 deployment stack (NSX-T based).

This deployment is also referred to as a brown field deployment model.

Table 1. Brown Field vCloud NFV 3.0 Deployment
Building Block	Design Objective
Management Pod	Dedicated vCenter Server instances for each NSX Data Center for vSphere and NSX-T Data Center stacks. Separate management and control planes for NSX Data Center for vSphere and NSX-T Data Center. Single vCloud Director instance for both NSX Data Center for vSphere and NSX-T Data Center networking and workload management.
Resource Pod	Dedicated Resource Pods for NSX Data Center for vSphere and NSX Data Center. Disparate vSphere version for each stack. Dedicated Provider VDC for the vSphere clusters of NSX Data Center for vSphere and NSX-T Data Center.
Edge Pod	Disparate NSX-V and NSX-T edge pods for North-South communications.

NSX-T and NSX for vSphere in brownfield deployments — Figure 1. NSX-T Data Center and NSX Data Center for vSphere in Brownfield Deployments

The CSP can start from existing vCloud NFV 2.1 components then upgrade only those components that are required to support the deployment of NSX-T Data Center alongside NSX Data Center for vSphere. Once the required components are updated, the functionality of the VIM becomes identical to the greenfield deployment described in NSX Data Center for vSphere Interoperating with NSX-T Data Center in Greenfield vCloud NFV 3.0 Deployments. Workloads continue to run on the vCloud NFV platform with minimal maintenance window. This is because only a subset of the components is upgraded as opposed to the entire suite.Refer to the vCloud NFV 2.0 Reference Architecture design guides for existing deployment of vCloud NFV 2.1.