Kubernetes and VMware Enterprise PKS Networking & Security Operations with NSX-T Data Center

The focus of this blog is VMware Enterprise PKS and Kubernetes Operations with NSX-T Data Center. For the sake of completion, I will start with a high level NSX-T deployment steps without going too much into the details.

This blog does not focus on NSX-T Architecture and Deployment in Kubernetes or Enterprise PKS environments, but it highlights some of those points as needed.

Deploying NSX-T Data Center

There are multiple steps that are required to be configured in NSX-T before deploying Enterprise PKS. At a high level, here are the initial steps of installing NSX-T:

1. Download NSX-T Unified Appliance OVA.
2. Deploy NSX-T Manager (Starting from NSX-T 2.4, three managers could be deployed with a Virtual IP).
3. Add vCenter as a Compute Manager in NSX-T
4. Deploy NSX-T Controllers. (Starting from NSX-T 2.4 the controllers are merged with NSX-T manager in a single appliance)
5. Deploy one or more pairs of NSX-T Edges with a minimum of Large Size. (Large Size is required by Enterprise PKS, Bare-Metal Edges could be used too).
6. Install NSX Packages on ESXi Hosts
7. Create an Overlay and a VLAN Transport Zones.
8. Create a TEP IP Pool.
9. Add ESXi Hosts as a Transport nodes to the Continue reading