Network & Security Insights for VMware Cloud on DELL EMC Solution

vRealize Network Insight 6.3 is out today, with this release, VMware Cloud on DELL EMC is fully supported.  It is a unique subscription-based OnPremises Cloud solution that is based on VMware Cloud Foundation in Dell EMC VxRail appliance.

VMware Cloud Foundation comes with vSphere, VSAN, and NSX-T in-built, so integration with other VMware products is seamless. We certified VMware Cloud on the DELL EMC with vRealize Network Insight and covered the below use cases.

• Application Awareness: Discover, Plan Migration (with VMware HCX) and Day 2 Operations
• Security: Flow Visibility, Planning, and Firewall Rule Recommendations
• Alerts and Analytics: Pro-active Alerting, Top-talkers, Outliers, Dynamic Thresholds, Flows (including Latency)
• Dashboards: NSX-T Policy Manager, vCenter, ESXi Hosts, VMs, Applications, and more
• Hybrid Network Troubleshooting:
  • Inter SDDC Path
  • SDDC to Internet
  • On-prem to SDDC over Policy-Based VPN via NSX
• VMware HCX: Stretched L2 VLAN stitched flows

Integrate VMC on DELL in vRealize Network Insight

Requirements:

• VMC on DELL subscription account with admin privileges
• vRNI Cloud subscription / OnPrem account with admin privileges

Deploying the Collector

Prerequisites:

Before deploying vRNI Collector, let’s make sure to review the VMC on the DELL environment and keep the resources handy

Login to VMC on DELL vCenter

Login to https://vmc.vmware.com and click on VMC on DELL

Login to vCenter and keep it open in a browser tab

vRNI Collector Deployment:

1. Log in to vRealize Network Insight / vRealize Network Insight Cloud.
2. Navigate to Settings > Install and Support > Add Collector VM.
3. Copy the contents of the shared secret. Note: You will require this during the deployment of vRealize Network Insight Collector OVA.
   For vRNI Cloud: Download the vRNI Collector OVA from the Add Collector VM wizard
   For vRN OnPrem: Download the vRNI Collector OVA from the my.vmware.com
4. Deploy the vRealize Network Insight Collector OVA in the Compute Resource Pool of the VMware Cloud on DELL vCenter. Use the shared secret that you have generated.
5. Start the collector VM and follow the wizard to pair the collector with the vRealize Network Insight platform. 
6. Validate that the collector pairs successfully with the platform / vRNI Cloud.

Add vCenter

After logging to vRealize Network Insight, go to settings –> Add Source –> Choose VMC-vCenter under VMware Cloud

Use the internal vCenter IP address and select the collector that’s deployed inside the SDDC. Make sure to create a separate user in vCenter for vRNI and that it has the cloud admin role

Add the NSX-T Policy Manager

Due to architecture design, NSX-T manager authentication can happen only via security token.

Generate a security auth token for NSX-T Manager

• Login to vmc.vmware.com
• Click on your user name → My Account

• Provide a name and choose Admin and Auditor role for NSX

Add NSX-T Policy Manager:

1. Add NSX-T Policy Manager
   • Click Settings > Accounts and Data Source > Add Source.
   • Under VMware Cloud(VMC), click VMC – NSX Manager.
2. In the Add a new VMC NSX Manager Account page, 
   • Select the corresponding vCenter. The collector is automatically selected based on the selection of the vCenter. VMware Cloud on AWS. You must add the NSX Manager to the same collector VM as that of the corresponding vCenter.
   • Provide the IP address and the API token that you have generated. Currently, there is no provision to get the NSX-T manager IP address from the VMC console, please contact VMC on DELL support to get the NSX-T manager IP address. It will be available in future releases
3. Click Validate. 
4. If you want to collect IPFIX flows for DFW, select Enable DFW IPFIX.

Exploring VMC on DELL entities in vRNI:

Conclusion:

vRealize Network Insight in VMware Cloud on DELL EMC makes a powerful combination to discover and manage applications, plan migration,  and finally secure it with micro-segmentation.