On Wednesday 27th January 2021, VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.1.1 was released, offering various new features, all of which offer new functionalities for virtualized networking and security for private, public, and multi-cloud environments.
One of the highlighted features is the much-anticipated support for OSPF!
As the holiday season is almost upon us (just two days), why not finish with one final article in my vRNI series and an article that will likely finalise my blog posts for the year.
In my previous article (VMware vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) – Part 5 – Data Flow Analysis & Micro-Segmentation), we analysed collected data flows in vRNI to manually micro-segment an application utilising the VMware NSX-T Distributed Firewall (DFW). However, what if we want to automate this process? After all, applications that require a small number of firewall rules (such as the application used in the previous article) are rare.
This article looks at Martijn Smit‘s great script, which imports vRNI recommended firewall rules into VMware NSX-T Data Center via a Python script.
In the previous articles of this series, we covered the installation (VMware vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) – Part 1 – Installation) and configuration (VMware vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) – Part 2 – Configuration) of vRealize Network Insight, before integrating vRNI with Microsoft Active Directory via LDAP (VMware vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) – Part 3 – Identity & Access Management via LDAP).
In the most recent article (VMware vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) – Part 4 – Application Discovery), we delved into application discovery. We defined four applications via several options – manual creation of an application, as well as automated discovery based on vSphere Tags/Custom Attributes and VM naming conventions.
In this final article of the series, we will explore and analyse the collected data flows of one of the previously defined applications. The goal here is to identify all valid traffic flows required to secure the application utilising the NSX-T Distributed Firewall (DFW). My friends, today we look at micro-segmentation.
In the previous articles in this series, we covered the installation (VMware vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) – Part 1 – Installation) and configuration (VMware vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) – Part 2 – Configuration) of vRealize Network Insight, before integrating vRNI with Microsoft Active Directory via LDAP (VMware vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) – Part 3 – Identity & Access Management via LDAP).
In this article, we will dive a little deeper and begin looking at how we can define our applications and, in Part 5 (VMware vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) – Part 5 – Data Flow Analysis & Micro-Segmentation), begin analysing the collected data flows to implement micro-segmentation via the NSX-T Distributed Firewall.
Continue reading → VMware vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) – Part 4 – Application Discovery
Don’t miss out on the opportunity, be sure to apply before January 9th, 2021. The vExpert awards will be announced on February 19th, be a part of the announcement!
The vExpert Program is simply about giving back to the community beyond your day job. It isn’t a certification, and it isn’t focused on certifications, and neither does it relate to how much you know about VMware technology.
Continue reading → VMware vExpert 2021 Applications are Open!
Replacing the self-signed SSL certificate utilised by vRealize Log Insight (vRLI) requires a little extra touch than some appliances within the product stack; however, the process is simple enough and documented within this article.
Continue reading → Replace SSL Certificates on VMware vRealize Log Insight
There may be some scenarios where you will need to patch a vSphere Host manually. Maybe the host is air-gapped for security purposes, or maybe the host is simply a standalone ESXi Server and isn’t connected to a vCenter Server.
Patching the host is a simple enough exercise, and in this article, I detail both the implementation and validation steps.
I recently ran into a small issue applying a patch to one of my lab’s vCenter Servers. Specifically, attempts to patch the vCenter Server ran into the error, Exception occurred in install precheck phase.
With the recent announcement and general availability of VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.1 on Friday 30th October 2020, we have a number of enhancements, new features, and functionality. The new features and functionality can be seen in a previous post (VMware NSX-T 3.1.0 Release Announcement), however, I realise I’ve never discussed the upgrade procedure itself.
Upgrading NSX-T Data Center couldn’t be easier. Yes, there are some disruptive elements, however, if your NSX-T design has redundancy built-in, we aren’t talking much. Upgrading the edge and transport nodes is as simple as you can imagine, as is the process of upgrading the NSX Managers themselves and, in this article, I cover the process from start to finish.
Continue reading → Upgrading VMware NSX-T Data Center to 3.1
VMware confirmed general availability of NSX-T Data Center 3.1.0 on Friday 30th October and saw many great new features and functionality. Continue reading to review the details around the latest enhancements, etc., or jump over to the upgrade procedure available in a separate article – Upgrading NSX-T Data Center to 3.1.0.
