Nexus 1000v Setup and Configuration

My environment:  Nexus1000v.4.0.4.SV1.3b, VMWare ESXi 4.1, vCenter 4.1

Nexus 1000v consists of VSM (control plane) and VEM (data plane).  VSM can run as a VM or in a standalone appliance.  In my setup I run it as a VM on one of my ESXi hosts.  The Nexus1000v software comes with both VSM and VEM within a zip file.

1. To install the VSM, locate the .ova file in the VSM folder.  In your vSphere client, click File > “Deploy OVF template”

2. During the deployment, you need to provide the following information:

• Control VLAN ID
• Packet VLAN ID
• Domain ID
• Management IP address

3. You can use the same vlan for control, packet and management, and do not place data traffic on this VLAN.  The wizard is quite straight forward so the details will not be covered here.

4. Next step is to create Nexus 1000v plug-in.  Browse the page http://vsm-ip-address and download the cisco_nexus1000v_extension.xml file

5. In vSphere Client, Plug-Ins menu, choose “Manage Plug-Ins”.  Click “Register Plug-In” and import the XML file downloaded from the VSM page.

6. Then connect your VSM to the vCenter

conf t

svs connection VC

protocol vmware-vim

remote ip address 1.2.3.4

vmware dvs datacenter-name panda-DC

connect

7. Then you can create system port-profile and data port-profile. 

port-profile type ethernet system-uplink
  vmware port-group
  switchport mode trunk
  switchport trunk allowed vlan all
  no shutdown
  system vlan 2010
  state enabled

port-profile type vethernet cciev-server
  vmware port-group
  switchport mode access
  switchport access vlan 100
  no shutdown
  state enabled

8. Next step is to install VEM, the easiest way is to do it via VMWare Update Manager.  In vSphere client > Update Manager > Patch Repository, click “Import Patch”, then choose the VEM module in the Nexus 1000v VEM folder.

9. Then create a new baseline.  Under Baseline and Groups, click create baselines.  Choose VEM under extensions. 

10.  You can now apply the baseline to the host.  In vSphere Client > Hosts and Clusters, choose the host you want to install VEM.  Click the Update Manager tab which is usually the last tab.  Click “Attach” to attach the baseline you’ve just created, then click Remediate to apply.

11.  Now the final step is to add the host to the Nexus 1000v switch.  Under Inventory > Networking, choose the Nexus 1000v switch and right click, click “Add host”.  Apply the system port-profile to the vmnic and apply appropriate data port profile to the VMs.

12.  After adding, you can type the command “show interface virtual” and “show module” on VSM to verify your work.