The NSX-T Management Cluster comprises three NSX-T Manager nodes to provide high availability and scalability. To support a single access point for the NSX-T Manager user interface and API, you can assign a VIP Address for the NSX-T Management Cluster. Once the VIP is assigned, any UI and API requests to NSX-T are redirected to the virtual IP address of the cluster, which is owned by the leader node. Out of three NSX-T managers, one manager node is elected as the leader node. Assigned Cluster’s Virtual IP (VIP) is attached to the leader NSX-T manager node. The leader node then routes the request forward to the other components of the appliance.
If the leader NSX-T manager node fails, the two remaining managers elect a new leader and the new leader responds to the request sent to the virtual IP address of NSX Manager. You can always use the single IP address (virtual IP address) to access the NSX Management cluster. After the VIP is configured, you can still connect to any NSX-T manager using its own IP address, or use the VIP to connect to NSX-T Manager.
Using a VIP address for the NSX-T Management Cluster makes the NSX-T manager highly-available. If you need to scale, an alternative to the VIP is to provision a load balancer for the NSX-T Management Cluster. Provisioning a load balancer requires that NSX-T be fully installed and configured. It is recommended that you configure the VIP now, then install a load balancer after NSX-T is installed and configured, and only if needed. In this article, we will discuss how to configure the VIP address for the NSX-T Management Cluster along with the validation of the assigned VIP address.
How to Configure VIP Address for the NSX-T Management Cluster
To configure the VIP address for the NSX Management cluster, log in with admin privileges to NSX Manager at https://<nsxt-manager-hostname or ip-address>. Go to System > Overview.
Click “Edit” next to the Virtual IP.
Enter a VIP for the cluster. Ensure that the Virtual IP address is part of the same subnet as the other NSX Management nodes deployed. Click Save.
It takes a few minutes to assign the virtual address for the management cluster.
Click Refresh once the New virtual IP for the NSX Management cluster has been assigned.
In the Overview tab, you will see the virtual IP assigned and one of the NSX manager nodes will be associated with the assigned virtual IP. In my case, Virtual IP is 192.168.0.50 and the associated NSX manager is 192.168.0.53.
Assigned Cluster’s Virtual IP (VIP) is attached to the leader NSX-T manager node. The leader node then routes the request forward to the other components of the appliance.
Validate the VIP address of NSX Management Cluster
To verify the NSX-T Management VIP address, Open the web browser and type https://<nsx-manager-vip-address>. Validate that the NSX-T Manager UI login prompt is available with the VIP address. In my case, the assigned VIP address is “192.168.0.50”. I got the login prompt for the NSX Manager UI.
The second method to validate the API leader of the management cluster, enter the following command in the NSX Manager CLI. This command shows the API leader in the HTTPs group and the leader owns the VIP address. In my case API leader is “nsxt-mgr-03”
get cluster status verbose
That’s it. we are done with configuring and validating the VIP Address for the NSX-T Management Cluster. I hope this is informative for you. Thanks for Reading!!!. Be social and share it in social media, if you feel worth sharing it.