NSX-v to NSX-T Migration Methodology

Data centers are at the core of organizations’ IT infrastructure today, and virtualization has revolutionized how these are built. Modern data centers have physical servers with a virtualization layer using hypervisors to run multiple virtual machines (VMs). This results in the maximum utilization of a server’s computing resources, supporting numerous operating systems and applications on a single server. It enhances the data center's scalability, flexibility, and cost efficiency. VMware’s vSphere is one of the leading server virtualization solutions used by data centers. Its two core components are the ESXi hypervisor and vCenter Server. While the former helps create and run VMs on servers, the latter manages them.

It is given that the network must also become just as agile to support virtual servers, and VMware’s software-defined networking solution NSX does just that. NXS abstracts the virtual instances of switches, routers, firewalls, and other network services from the underlying networking hardware without changing it. Virtual networks centralize and automate network management and control for organizations. NSX Manager is a core component of NSX to build and manage networks. It can be deployed as a VM on one of vSphere’s ESXi servers managed by vCenter.

VMware has two NSX software-defined networking solutions – NSX-v and NSX-T.

NSX-v vs. NSX-T

VMware released NSX for vSphere (NSX-v) in 2013. NSX-v’s NSX Manager can work with only one vCenter Server. In the case of a multi-cloud environment, which consists of multiple vCenter Servers, the organizations using NSX-v had to spin NSX Manager for each of them. It made virtual network management cumbersome and demanding, as a result, severely limiting its ability to support native cloud workloads, containers, and bare metal servers. VMware addressed these challenges with the launch of NSX-T (Transformers) in 2017.

NSX-T is a complete rejig of NSX-v. Its NSX Manager is not limited to the confines of one vCenter Server. It can be deployed as an ESXi VM or Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) VM and can work with multiple vCenter Servers simultaneously. Or it may not require vCenter Server at all, and use ESXi as the operating system to manage the virtual networks independently. As a result, one NSX manager can be used with multiple vCenter Servers and acts as a single pane of glass for controlling virtual networks. The solution brings network virtualization to bare-metal and containerized workloads and multi-cloud environments.

While it is evident that the shift from NSX-v to NSX-T is inevitable, VMware drew a finishing line by announcing January 16, 2022, as the NSX-v End of Support Life (EOS) date, and January 16, 2023, as the end of technical guidance date. Some of the other benefits of migrating to NSX-T include:

• Manages multiple vCenters at any given time
• Independent of vCenter and vSphere
• Centralized control for managing multiple vCenter instances
• Supports modern applications and containerized workloads
• Advanced network traffic monitoring tools
• NSX Advanced Load Balancer for virtual network optimization
• API-driven management

NSX-T 3.2 is the current major update of the solution and boosts multi-cloud security, networking and policy enhancements, and simplified network provisioning and operations.

Migration from NSX-v to NSX-T

NSX-v migration to NSX-T methodology should be decided considering infrastructure type, complexity, and business requirements. The migration can be complex if an organization has more than one site with different vCenter Server setups. On the contrary, executing migrations in a single-site network virtualization environment is simpler.

For an organization that wants to migrate from NSX-v to NSX-T powered data centers: In Parallel - Lift and Shift Migration and In Place - VMware Migration Coordinator Tool methodologies are the best options.

In Parallel - Lift and Shift migration methodology

In this methodology, NSX-T infrastructure is deployed in parallel to existing NSX-v infrastructure. Depending on the types of workloads, the organizations can adopt ‘disposable cattle or precious pets’ approaches where they can either age out in NSX-v and rebuild or migrate them as new workloads in NSX-T.

While management and other similar components of both the solutions could co-exist, NSX-v and NSX-T workloads would be running on their hardware. This is because NSX-v and NSX-T cannot run on the same hypervisor at the same time. The organizations can use new or unused NSX-v hardware to build a new cluster in their data center, a greenfield deployment, to migrate the workloads to NSX-T.

Advantages:

• Existing NSX-v keeps running on the old hardware, keeping operations live while the organizations lift and shift their workloads to NSX-T.
• Old NSX-v workloads can run in parallel with the new deployment and be phased out gradually.
• Serves as a backup which is invaluable since the transition between two systems is not a straightforward process.
• Allows for enough time to assess the new environment before committing fully. In case of an issue, organizations can always return to the old setup.
• The method provides the cleanest migration path with reduced operational risks.

Disadvantages:

• Need to manage two infrastructures till the migration is complete.
• The process setup comes at the cost of acquiring new equipment to support it.
• Need to recreate topology and policy as these are non-compatible for migration from NSX-v to NSX-T.

In Place - VMware Migration Coordinator Tool Methodology

This is a simpler method compared to In Parallel as it does not require dedicated hardware and the need to manage two infrastructures. This method uses the NSX-T Data Center’s built-in tool, the Migration Coordinator, available from the NSX-T 2.4 release onwards. It transforms existing NSX-v infrastructure into NSX-T on the same hardware using the GUI. This is done by allowing the NSX-T control cluster to be deployed on the same hardware as the NSX-v manager and control cluster. Also, the same ESXi hosts running NSX-v can be prepared by NSX-T as transport nodes. Moreover, the current configuration from NSX-v can be transferred to NSX-T.

Migration Coordinator provides an easy-to-follow UI to minimize the data plane outage on both ESXi and Edge levels. It has a built-in Migration Check tool to ensure successful migrations.

The only downside is that it increases the risk of impacting the existing NSX-v environment.

Mphasis is one of the leading network services providers and a strategic VMware partner with expertise in NSX solutions to help organizations successfully migrate from NSX-v to the NSX-T data center networking environment.

Join our team of networking experts who have sketched many NSX-v to NSX-T migration success stories. Apply now to stay ahead: https://bit.ly/3JWB0Fn