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Automating NSX-V to NSX-T Migration with vRealize Automation 8.3

What’s New: vRealize Automation 8.3 supports NSX-V to NSX-T Migration

As announced today, we’re excited to launch vRealize Automation 8.3, delivering enhanced network automation capabilities, including the ability to support NSX-V to NSX-T migration. VMware vRealize Automation 8 customers, who are managing NSX-V endpoints, will be able to take advantage of this new feature to migrate NSX-V to NSX-T. This will allow vRealize Automation to recognize the old NSX-V endpoints as new NSX-T endpoints, enabling customers to continue to take advantage of VMware’s network automation use cases, but now with the advanced NSX-T capabilities to accelerate application delivery with networking and security services.

Attend the webinar on February 25th, to learn more.

Why Migrate from NSX-V to NSX-T?

So why is making the switch from NSX-V to NSX-T such a big deal? NSX-V was first introduced in 2012 built around the vSphere environment, supporting the development of traditional applications, such as VM-based 3 tier apps. However, fast forward 9 years, the way and speed at which modern applications are architected and deployed have completely changed.

Today, modern applications can run in multiple clouds, leveraging diverse compute platforms, including a mixture of containers, VMs, and even bare metal. To support modern use cases, NSX-V has been rearchitected to NSX-T. NSX-T is hypervisor agnostic and supports multiple end points (VMs, containers, bare metal, multi-cloud). It’s a complete L2-L7 platform with internal firewall, native IDS/IPS, and advanced threat detection.

With organizations releasing new and updated applications more frequently and rapidly, the underlying network also needs to be able to support new architectures on any compute environment with the same agility. By automating NSX-T with vRealize Automation, organizations can gain the ability to further accelerate application delivery with enhanced networking and security, while helping ensure standardized environments and avoid configuration drift. With a declarative policy model and a streamlined user experience, the VMware network automation solution, powered by vRealize Automation and NSX-T, can help to predictably and repeatably make changes and deliver a more reliable and scalable network across applications, environments, and clouds.

Making NSX-T-powered Network Automation Adoption Easier and Faster

If you are a VMware vRealize Automation 8 customer (entitled to licenses via VMware Cloud Foundation*, vRealize Cloud Universal, vCloud Suite Subscription, vRealize Suite, vCloud Suite, or vRealize Automation), upgrade to vRealize Automation 8.3 to take advantage of the NSX-V to NSX-T Migration feature.

The NSX-V to NSX-T migration process using vRealize Automation is straight forward. A source NSX-V cloud account is migrated to a target NSX-T cloud account. Existing NSX-V objects in vRealize Automation are mapped to new NSX-T objects in vRealize Automation.

NSX-V to NSX-T Migration Process with vRealize Automation 8.3

Automating NSX-V to NSX-T Migration with vRealize Automation 8.3

<Pre-work Phase>

Step 1 – Prepare for Migration [vRA]

First, the vRealize Automation Cloud Admin coordinates with the NSX Admin to prepare the migration. A NSX migration plan will be used concurrently with vRealize Automation and the NSX-T Migration Coordinator.

In addition, the vRealize Automation Cloud Admin adds target NSX-T cloud accounts to vRealize Automation, BUT not associate them with a vCenter Service cloud account. The association is configured by the migration plan.

Step 2 – Run vRA’s Migration Assessment for NSX Migration Readiness [vRA]

Next, the vRealize Automation Cloud Admin runs an assessment to determine NSX-V to NSX-T migration readiness.  This is to identify if there are any unsupported deployments or NSX objects that need to be addressed prior to migration.

Step 3 – Run NSX’s Migration Assessment and Resolve Conflicts on NSX [NSX]

The NSX Admin then runs a NSX-V to NSX-T assessment with the NSX-T Migration Coordinator to determine migration readiness. Subsequently, the NSX admin resolves any issues prior to migration.

<Maintenance Window>

Step 4 – Run vRA Migration Assessment [vRA]

The vRealize Automation Cloud Admin enters vRealize Automation into maintenance mode for the cloud accounts. During this time, data collection is suspended.  No Day 0 or Day 2 operations can be executed.  This is to prevent end users from using the NSX endpoints during the migration process.

The vRealize Automation Cloud Admin provides a newly generated deployment manifest to the NSX Admin. The deployment manifest contains vRealize Automation-specific deployments and topologies that NSX-T needs to be aware of when migrating the end point from NSX-V to NSX-T.

Step 5 – Run NSX Migration Coordinator [NSX]

Next, the NSX Admin feeds the new deployment manifest into the NSX-T Migration Coordinator and run the NSX-V to NSX-T migration. This process can expect to take several hours or more depending on the size and complexity of the environment. NSX-T Migration Coordinator will then output a mapping file that contains an ID map of old NSX-V objects to new NSX-T objects.

Step 6 – Run Migration Mapping on vRA [vRA]

Subsequently, the vRealize Automation Cloud Admin feeds the mapping file into vRealize Automation to update the vRealize Automation reference database with new IDs. The Cloud Admin then runs a data collection on the new endpoints.

Step 7 – Test and Confirm Migration Success [vRA]

Finally, after the migration completes, the vRealize Automation Cloud Admin should run several recommended tests (e.g. Day 0 operation, Day 2 operation) to confirm the migration was successful.
Upon completing testing, the vRealize Automation Cloud Admin exits the maintenance mode.

Should there happen to be any issues during the migration process, there is a rollback function (easy one button click) up until the very last step when the hosts are migrated. In this way, the vRealize Automation 8.3 helps facilitate the NSX-V to NSX-T Migration process, providing a safe, collaborative, and convenient approach.

*VMware Cloud Foundation Customers

Are you a VMware Cloud Foundation 3.x user, but haven’t been able to unleash the full power of NSX-T-powered network automation yet?

If you’re continuing to use vRealize Automation 7.x and NSX-V, now is the perfect opportunity.  Transition to vRealize Automation 8, adopting a modern infrastructure automation platform, and NSX-T, adopting a modern network platform. Modernize your IT delivery process by implementing and applying network automation enterprise-wide. We recommend you first migrate your vRealize Automation 7.x to vRealize Automation 8.3 or above once it is available as part of Cloud Foundation.  Then migrate NSX-V to NSX-T.

Contact your local VMware representative or Partner to consult on the best approach for your situation. Assess your infrastructure delivery process and network topologies; understand your infrastructure automation and network requirements; and find the right network automation design that addresses your application delivery needs.

Learn More

Attend the webinar on February 25th  and check out the following resources to learn more about how vRealize Automation supports network automation and NSX-V to NSX-T migration. Moreover, see how VMware network automation enables faster deployment and complete lifecycle automation of traditional and modern applications with networking and security services consistently across clouds.  It helps organizations enjoy faster time to market, operational savings, productivity gains, and business resiliency.

 

 

 

 

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Taka Uenishi

Taka Uenishi is Product Marketing Engineer of Broadcom’s VMware Cloud Foundation Division, leading cloud management: infrastructure automation product marketing.

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