Migration from VMware NSX for vSphere to NSX-T

Migration to VMware NSX-T Data Center (NSX-T) is top of mind for customers who are on NSX for vSphere (NSX-V). Broadly speaking, there are two main methods to migrate from NSX for vSphere to NSX-T Data Center: In Parallel Migration and In Place Migration. This blog post is a high-level overview of the above two approaches to migration.

2 Methods for VMware NSX Migration

Customers could take one of two approaches for migration.

In Parallel Migration:

In this method, NSX-T infrastructure is deployed in parallel along with the existing NSX-V based infrastructure. While some components of NSX-V and NSX-T, such as management, could coexist, compute clusters running the workloads would be running on its own hardware. This could be net new hardware or reclaimed unused hardware from NSX-V.

Migration of the workload in this approach could take couple of different approaches.

Cattle: New workloads are deployed on NSX-T and the older workloads are allowed to die over time.
Pets: Lift and shift workloads over to the new NSX-T infrastructure.

In Place Migration

There is simpler method though! A method that doesn’t require dedicated hardware. It’s an in place migration approach. Curious? This method uses the NSX-T Data Center’s built in tool, the Migration Coordinator.

A Closer Look at NSX-T Migration Coordinator

Migration Coordinator is built into NSX-T Data Center and is available from the NSX-T 2.4 release onwards. It’s accessible from NSX-T Data Center GUI by clicking System -> Migrate.

This process is disabled by default because Migration from NSX for vSphere to NSX-T Data Center is not an every-day task. Enable the process by running the command, start service migration-coordinator, on NSX-T manager console.

The Migration Coordinator tool not only helps migrate from NSX from vSphere to NSX-T Data Center using the same hardware, but it also helps migrate the actual configuration over from NSX for vSphere to NSX-T Data Center via GUI. It migrates both the networking components and their configuration and the configured security posture including the rules and groups.

5 Pre-Migration Steps

Following steps are necessary, before starting the Migration Coordinator.

Install NSX-T (Migration Coordinator is a tool built into NSX-T)
Install NSX-T Edges (do not configure)
Provide a TEP pool
Create Compute Manager pointing to the vCenter connected to NSX-V
Ensure NSX-V is in a stable healthy state with no pending changes since no changes are allowed during the migration phase

5 Step Process for Migration Coordinator

Step 1: Import Configuration

In this step we connect and import existing configuration from NSX-V.

Step 2: Resolve Any Configuration Related Issues When Migrating from NSX-V to NSX-T

This step provides GUI interface to edit and accept the imported configuration to suite NSX-T. For example, in the following case, use the Resolve Configuration page to accept that a host won’t be migrated as NSX-V is not installed on it. On this page, we will also enter the VLAN to use for NSX-T Edge Transport Nodes.

Step 3: Migrate Configuration to NSX-T

Next step in this process is actual migration of configuration from NSX-V to NSX-T.

Step 3: Migrate Configuration

Step 4: Migrate Edges

Next, we migrate the edges.

Step 4: Migrate Edges

Step 5: Migrate Hosts

Finally, migrate the hosts over. There are few options here such as selecting whether the migration happens serially or in parallel and should there be a pause after migrating each group etc.