teruyam / snowmist

SnowMist

SnowMist is an internal tool to build nested NSX-T lab infrastructure running on NSX-T infrastructure. SnowMist is designed to bootstrap fundamental lab environment for testing purpose.

SnowMist will do:

1. Register a compute manager (vCenter)
2. Create IP Pools
3. Create Transport Zones with nested flag enabled
4. Prepare Transport Nodes
5. Create a edge cluster and Join NSX Edge(s)
6. Create Uplink segments (Uplink1 and Uplink2)
7. Create T0 Gateway and connect to uplink segments
8. Create T0 Gateway Default Route and HA VIP
9. Create DHCP Server
10. Create T1 Gateways (Tenant1 and Tenant2)
11. Create Overlay segments
    1. Red 192.168.101.0/24
    2. Blue 192.168.102.0/24
    3. Green 192.168.103.0/24
    4. Yellow 192.168.104.0/24

Network Topology

Based on VMware Validated Design (VVD), SnowMist requires following subnets for lab network infrastructure depending on given lab name.

Type of Subnet	Lab1	Lab2	Lab3
Management	10.6.11.0/24	10.6.21.0/24	10.6.31.0/24
Host (TEP subnet for hosts)	10.6.12.0/24	10.6.22.0/24	10.6.32.0/24
Edge (TEP subnet for Edges)	10.6.13.0/24	10.6.23.0/24	10.6.33.0/24
Uplink1	10.6.14.0/24	10.6.24.0/24	10.6.34.0/24
Uplink2	10.6.15.0/24	10.6.25.0/24	10.6.35.0/24

IP Addresses

provider_network.py

SnowMist always assumes first ip address is gateway. For example gateway ip address for lab1 management network is 10.6.11.1.

IP Pools for both Host and Edge TEP start at 11 and end at 240. Host TEP IP Pool is 10.6.12.11-10.6.12.240.

ip_pool.py

IP Addresses used by T0 Gateway Uplink start from 11. Uplink1 will have VIP with 10.

networking.py

NIC Connectivity

Edge	Network
eth0	Management
fp-eth0	Edge (TEP subnet for Edges)
fp-eth1	Uplink1
fp-eth2	Uplink2

ESXi Host	Network
vmnic0	Management
vmnic1	Host (TEP subnet for hosts)

Runtime Requirements

• Python 3.6+

Quick Start

• Install and Configure vSphere
• Install and Configure NSX-T
• Download NSX-T Python SDK from vmware.com
• Install Prerequisites
• Run

Install and Configure vSphere

1. Create a datacenter and cluster(s)
2. Add ESXi host(s) to the cluster(s)

Install and Configure NSX-T

1. Deploy NSX Manager(s) and NSX Edge(s)
2. Apply licenses
3. Join NSX Edge(s) to NSX Manager(s)

Install Prerequisites

From a bash, install NSX-T Python SDK with pip command.

# Install NSX-T Python SDK downloaded from vmware.com
pip install vapi_runtime-2.19.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl \
    vapi_common-2.19.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl \
    vapi_common_client-2.19.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl \
    nsx_python_sdk-3.1.1.0.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl \
    nsx_policy_python_sdk-3.1.1.0.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl \
    nsx_global_policy_python_sdk-3.1.1.0.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl

# Clone this repository
git clone https://github.com/teruyam/snowmist.git
cd snowmist

Run

python3 -m snowmist --lab-name lab2 \
    --lab-nsx-username admin \
    --lab-nsx-password VMware123!VMware123! \
    --lab-nsx-hostname nsxm1.lab2.vmware.com \
    --lab-vc-username  [email protected] \
    --lab-vc-password VMware123! \
    --lab-vc-hostname vc.lab2.vmware.com