Nexus 1000v Installation

Cisco has provided quite a few different methods to install the Nexus 1000v distributed switch.  I think the two best are deploying from a OVF and the other is using the Java installer.  The OVF method could be considered an old school way of deploying.  The Java method does much of the routine setup for you.


Some General Concepts

Before going into the installation process, it is useful to understand some basics.  These basics pertain to both of the methods in this post.

The 1000v can be installed to use either Layer 2 or Layer 3 control.  L3 is generally preferred for troubleshooting advantages and if you have VEMs that aren't L2 adjacent. This post is using the L2 control model.  I will post about the L3 installation at a later date.

The first part of the process installs the VSM (and standby VSM if you so choose). VCenter must be able to form a L3 connection with the VSM for a successful install.

A uplink for the VSM must then be created.  This is for connectivity upstream from the VSM and must be done before the VEM can be added.

The next part installs the VEM. Note that I prefer to use the VMWare Update Manager (VUM) to install the VEM software on the ESXi hosts.

Prerequisites for Either Method

  • Download and unzip the Nexus 1000v code from Cisco.
  • Install the VMWare Update Manager for the VEM installation. Pretty simple install using the VMWare

OVF method

Using this method forces you to understand the basics and how the install process works. I am only going to include some of the important screen shots because there are so many. 
  1. Login to vCenter and choose 'file' and 'deploy OVF template'.  Browse to the location of the 1000v code that you downloaded form Cisco.
  2. Click next and accept the license agreement.
  3. Give the VM guest for the VSM a name or leave it as the default.
  4. For the configuration, chose the 'Nexus 1000v Installer'
  5. Select the ESXI host that you want the VM deployed to.
  6. Select the datastore for the VM files.
  7. Choose the format for the virtual disks (I use thin provisioning).
  8. For the initial setup, I use the same VLAN for the 'control, 'management' and 'packet' destination networks.
  9. In the next screen, you'll need to enter the VSM Domain ID, the password, the management IP address, mask and Gateway.  The management address is used for SSH/Telnet access to the VSM.

 10. Click finish and power on the VM Guest.
 11. Now we need to register the VSM plug-in with vCenter.  The VSM maintains a connection to vCenter so that port profiles are propagated.  The plug-in is an XML file.  To get the XML file, http to the ip address of the VSM. Do a 'save link as' on the .xml file and save it to your desktop.


 12. From vCenter, go to 'plug-ins, 'manage plug-ins', and right click on a white area below 'available plug-ins. Select 'new plug-in' and browse to the xml file that you just downloaded to your desktop. 
 13. Now we need to configure the connection on the new 1000v VSM.  SSH to the management IP that you entered during the installation and login to the VSM..  Configure the following:

svs-domain
  domain id xx (should be the domain that you entered during the setup
  control vlan xx (also set during setup)
  packet vlan xx (also set during setup)

svs connection <name that has no other significance>. - I use vcenter
protocol vmware-vim
remote ip addreess <ip of vcenter>
data center name <name of DC in vCenter>

then enter 'connect' and you should see two things.
   1.  The DVS should show up in the vCenter networking inventory
   2.  A 'show svs connections' should show operational status as connected'


For the uplink, SSH into the VSM and create a ethernet type port profile.

port-profile type ethernet n1kv-uplink0
  vmware port-group
  switchport mode trunk
  switchport trunk allowed vlan 209,600,700
  switchport trunk native vlan 1
  no shutdown
  system vlan 209,700
  state enabled

You should see the uplink in the network inventory of vCenter


Now we need to install the VEM.  A VEM is needed on each of the ESXi hosts that form the DVS.
Right click on the VDS (in the above screen shot this is the gray N1000v icon and select 'add host'.  Select the vmnic to be used by the uplink and the uplink port group.


The next two screens do not need to be used at this point (don't assign adapters or migrate VM networking). When you click 'finish', VUM will install the VEM onto the ESXi host(s).

Verify that the VEM has been installed with a 'show module'.  This example shows a VEM in module 3 and 4.



Java Installer Method Using L3 Mode

  1. Ensure that you have Java installed on the computer that you are installing the 1000v from.
        Open the "Nexus1000V-launchPad.jar program.
  2. There should be a 'Nexus 1000V Installation Management Center' Java application running.       Select  'VSM Installation"
    Enter your vCenter IP and credentials.    
  3. Select the VSM host to use
  4. Choose the OVA image to use, the name of the VSM and the datastore to use. 
  5. At this point you should have two VSM VM's deployed on the ESXi host that you specified (-1  and -2)
  6. The next step is to configure networking on the 1000v. In this case, I'm creating a new VLAN for the Control Port Group (VLAN 10) and using an existing network for Management (VLAN 209).  It's important that the VSM can communicate with vCenter over the management VLAN.
  7. The next step is to enter all the relevant Nexus 1000v Information
  8. The Java installer will then power up and configure the VSM's including adding port profile for the uplinks. An SSH connection must be established from the VSM to vCenter. When aksed if you want to migrate this host to the dVS say no.
  9. It's important to verify that the VSM is operating properly before moving on.  You should be able to SSH to you VSM using the Mgmt IP from step 7. Ensure that the SVS connection is operational:
  10. N1000v# sh svs connections
    connection vcenter:
        ip address: 10.10.209.58
        remote port: 80
        protocol: vmware-vim https
        certificate: default
        datacenter name: Hella Network
        admin:
        max-ports: 8192
        DVS uuid: 11 c4 3a 50 1f 4d 88 72-d4 a0 a0 0c 97 b9 45 61
        config status: Enabled
        operational status: Connected
        sync status: Complete
        version: VMware vCenter Server 5.1.0 build-799731
        vc-uuid: 9E1C98D8-B167-4458-87EB-3C7FEDA7073D
  11. Now we need to get the VEM software installed on the ESXi hosts.  I've found that using VMware update Manager is by far the easiest method to do this. On vCenter, go to 'inventory', 'networking' and select the Nexus 1000v that you installed.  Right click and select 'add host'. Select the NIC's that you want to use as uplinks and then hit 'next'.
  12. On the network connectivity screen hit next. Also hit next on the next screen (not migrating anything now).  Click finish.
  13. In the 'tasks' bar of vCenter you should see that VUM has been involked to install the VEM's.








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