Nexus 1000v -beginner question-Do I need vcenter to test it?

[cristip]

Hi all

I am trying to familiarize myself with Nexus 1000v. I am also new to vSphere and to the entire VMware infrastructure. Before to begin this "journey" the only product I had used so far was vmware workstation.

Here is what I would like to achieve: I currently run GNS3  (Internetwork Expert lab with real switches) on a Linux machine

(Ubuntu x64), Intel Core 2 Quad 8300 processor with 4G of RAM. The plan is to test ESXi 5 hypervisor (free) and to install a couple of servers there and to have them connected to the GNS3 lab via a Nexus 1000v switch.

The idea is to have ESXi 5 running within VMWare workstation 8 because I do not want to reinstall Linux and GNS3

So far I have managed to do the following:

-VMware Workstation up and running

-ESXi 5.0 successfuly installed although it is not running x64 nested machines only x32

-vSphere client installed on my Winx64 machine and able to access ESXi 5.0

-Nexus 1000v VSM installed

Now I suppose the next step will be to install VEMs and a coupleof other small componentes (at least one plugin)

My question:

Do I need vCenter in order to go farther? I tried to install that on my Windows machine but the installation programs exits saying that my machine does not satisfy the requirements.

My machine: Windows Vista x64, 6G RAM, processor Intel Core 2 Quad 8200 -does not support VT-x- I don't think it it needed.

Is there anyway to circumvent this issue? Is there any way to install VEMs and further to configure 1000v without having vCenter?

thanks a lot

Cristian

[abbharga]

Hi Cristian,

Yes you need the VC to use N1k, the VSM connects to the VC and the VEMs get their initial configuration from the VC plus we can only add the VEM to the N1K VSM via the operation on the VC.

Here is the URL to the deployment guide for your assistnace:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps9902/guide_c07-556626.html

Hope this helps!

./Abhinav

[cristip]

Hi Abhina

Can it be any version? Can I manage ESXi5 with vCenter 4 ?

This artice says the VEM can be loaded via command line

"

Installing the VEMs isn’t much more difficult.  You have the option of doing it manually on each ESX server or using Update Manager.  The choice is yours.  Manually is easy as it’s a single command once you get the package file on the server.  There is no manual configuration needed on each VEM.  Everything will come from the VSM or vCenter.  If you scp the .vib file to the ESX server all you need to type to install it is:

esxupdate -b *.vib update

Once that is done you can check the installation by using the “vem status” command, such as:

[root@labclt-esx01 ~]# vem status

"

The part that warries me is bolded below

VEM Agent (vemdpa) is running

That’s it.  Nothing else to do on each system.  Going forward I recommend updating the VEMs using Update Manager.  You can just add a repository in to Update Manager to get patches for the VEMs.  Makes it very easy.  The VSMs take a bit more work to update…but we’ll cover that in another post soon.

The final piece is some configuration in vCenter.  You have to install the Nexus 1000v plugin as well as perform some configuration on the VSM to connect it to vCenter.  This is easily done by opening a web browser and pointing it to the IP of the VSM you installed.  From there you can install the plugin, which is just a simple XML file to allow communication between the VSMs and vCenter.  When that happens your new distributed switch appears and the real fun begins….

Tks

Cristian

[cristip]

After more reading I am answering myself to one of my own questions: yes there is a vCenter virtual appliance wich apparently you can install within vSphere.... watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6DY7FHEr2M

Now my questions are: where do I get a demo copy from and what are the requirements...