I’m really excited to see a new dot release for VMware NSX with version 6.2! Mainly due to the idea of stretching the logical configuration across multiple vCenter Servers (realistically, sites) using Cross vCenter NSX. This is where logical switches, distributed logical routers, and distributed firewalls can be deployed across multiple vCenters. Historically, my NSX designs were for multiple sites in which applications contained workloads that span multiple vCenters at multiple physical locations.
For example: Production and Stage might run at the primary site, while Test and Development lives in the secondary site. But I still need to allow Production to failover to the secondary site for a disaster – meaning all of the network and security features had to exist on both sides. This was do-able with scripting, but not ideal.
The largest road block was crafting a consistent firewall policy across multiple vCenters. Now that rules can be marked as Universal and get replicated across multiple NSX managers, the pain of duplicating policy is assuaged.
You might get a chuckle, but the other feature that I’m stoked about is having a Centralized CLI. It is zero fun having to hunt down logical details across NSX Controllers and Edge devices. The new CLI is centralized, which allows you to quickly access and compare information from multiple sources. The central CLI provides information about logical switches, logical routers, distributed firewall and edges.
The NSX 6.2 for vSphere release contains a hoard of other goodies – go check them out and get ready to noodle around in the Hands on Labs or, should you be lucky enough, your own lab. I’ll also want to take a peek under the hood and see how, if at all, the API has changed. Perhaps that will be the motivation to crank back up on my Working with NSX Series. 🙂
