Deploy the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller VM to the Management Network in your vSphere IaaS control plane environment.
Prerequisites
- Verify that you have a Management Network on which to deploy the NSX Advanced Load Balancer. This can be a vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS) or a vSphere Standard Switch (vSS).
- Verify that you have created a vDS switch and portgroup for the Data Network. See Create a vSphere Distributed Switch for a Supervisor for Use with NSX Advanced Load Balancer.
- Verify that you have completed the prerequisites. See Requirements for a Three-Zone Supervisor with NSX Advanced Load Balancer and Requirements for Enabling a Single Cluster Supervisor with NSX Advanced Load Balancer in vSphere IaaS Control Plane Concepts and Planning.
Procedure
- Log in to the vCenter Server by using the vSphere Client.
- Select the vSphere cluster that is designated for management components.
- Create a resource pool named AVI-LB.
- Right-click the resource pool and select Deploy OVF Template.
- Select Local File and click Upload Files.
- Browse to and select the
controller-VERSION.ova
file you downloaded as a prerequisite. - Enter a name and select a folder for the Controller.
Option Description Virtual machine name avi-controller-1 Location for the virtual machine Datacenter - Select the AVI-LB resource pool as a compute resource.
- Review the configuration details and click Next.
- Select a VM Storage Policy, such as vsanDatastore.
- Select the Management Network, such as network-1.
- Customize the configuration as follows and click Next when you are done.
Option Description Management Interface IP Address Enter the IP address for the Controller VM, such as 10.199.17.51. Management Interface Subnet Mask Enter the subnet mask, such as 255.255.255.0. Default Gateway Enter the default gateway for the Management Network, such as 10.199.17.235. Sysadmin login authentication key Optionally, paste the contents of a public key. You can leave the key blank. Hostname of Avi Contoller Enter the FQDN or the IP address of the Controller. - Review the deployment settings.
- Click Finish to complete the configuration.
- Use vSphere Client to monitor the provisioning of the Controller VM in the Tasks panel.
- Use the vSphere Client to power on the Controller VM after it is deployed.
Deploy a Controller Cluster
Optionally, you can deploy a cluster of three controller nodes. Configuring a cluster is recommended in production environments for HA and disaster recovery. If you are running a single node NSX Advanced Load Balancer Contoller you must use the Backup and Restore feature.
To run a three node cluster, after you deploy the first Controller VM, deploy and power on two more Controller VMs. You must not run the initial configuration wizard or change the admin password for these controllers. The configuration of the first controller VM is assigned to the two new Controller VMs.
Procedure
Power On the Controller
After you deploy the Controller VM, you can power it on. During the boot up process, the IP address specified during the deployment gets assigned to the VM.
After power on, the first boot process of the Controller VM can take up to 10 minutes.
Prerequisites
Deploy the Controller.
Procedure
Configure the Controller
Configure the Controller VM for your vSphere IaaS control plane environment and set up a cloud.
To connect the load balancer control plane with the vCenter Server environment, the Controller requires several post-deployment configuration parameters. During the initial configuration of the Controller, a Default-cloud cloud is created where the first Controller is deployed. To allow the load balancer to service multiple vCenter servers or multiple data centers, you can create custom clouds of type VMware vCenter for each vCenter and data center combination. For more information, see NSX Advanced Load Balancer Components.
Prerequisites
- Verify that your environment meets the system requirements for configuring the NSX Advanced Load Balancer. See Requirements for a Three-Zone Supervisor with NSX Advanced Load Balancer and Requirements for Enabling a Single Cluster Supervisor with NSX Advanced Load Balancer in vSphere IaaS Control Plane Concepts and Planning.
- Deploy the Controller.
Procedure
Results
Once you complete the configuration, you see the Controller Dashboard. Select the and verify that the status of the Controller for Custom-Cloud is green. Sometimes the status can be yellow for some time till the Controller discovers all the port groups in the vCenter Server environment, before it turns green.
Add a License
Once you configure the NSX Advanced Load Balancer, you must add a license to it. The Controller boots in evaluation mode that has all the features equivalent to an Enterprise edition license available. You must assign a valid Enterprise Tier license to the Controller before the evaluation period expires.
Prerequisites
Procedure
Assign a Certificate to the Controller
The Controller must send a certificate to clients to establish secure communication. This certificate must have a Subject Alternative Name (SAN) that matches the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller cluster hostname or IP address.
The Controller has a default self-signed certificate. But this certificate does not have the correct SAN. You must replace it with a valid or self-signed certificate that has the correct SAN. You create a self-signed certificate or upload an external certificate.
For more information about certificates, see the Avi documentation.