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Happy NestedESXi Home Labbing! (Part 2)
In part one of this two-part series, we looked at how to physically configure an ESXi host for NestedESXi deployments. We covered how to set up the networking so that it mimics a production environment as closely as possible without breaking the bank or requiring excessive cabling and hardware. In this second part, we’ll dive into how I have configured my NestedESXi hosts and networking to handle all nested VMs as well as talk to the physical layer without external switching or routing. Let’s get started!
Configuration of NestedESXi Hosts and Networking
As you can see from the high-level design diagram below, each NestedESXi host has two network interfaces that are connected to the top-level Distributed Switch:
The Vyos Edge also has this PortGroup connected and is configured without a specific subnet configuration. The Edge provides routing and firewalling between the subnets, to, from, and within the whole environment. The 172.17.x.x addresses shown below are the NestedESXi subnets for VM traffic, management, and vSAN, and they match back to the private VLAN configuration discussed in part one:
vCenter and other NestedESXi management VMs get assigned specific top-level ports that are configured with the VLAN type of Private and the Private VLAN ID as configured in part one. The result is that any VM deployed into the Private VLAN configured PortGroups can communicate with any VM that is nested and part of the same VLAN configuration:
Inside the NestedESXi world, the networking is more straightforward and traditional. However, it is what has been configured above that makes it all tick. The configuration of the nested Distributed Switch is simply a case of creating PortGroups with VLAN IDs that match what is configured on the private VLANs:
All NestedESXi traffic flows through the LAB-TRUNK PortGroups and back through each other if the traffic is local to the same subnet. Otherwise, it will hit the Vyos Edge and be routed through and out as required:
For NestedESXi VMs, the PortGroup and IP addressing match the configured subnets on the Vyos Edge:
Distributed Switch Settings
The only change I’ve made to the Distributed Switch settings is to increase the MTU to 1600 so that it can carry NSX traffic in the future. Apart from that, it’s a standard configuration. Each PortGroup is configured with two active uplinks, and load balancing is route-based on the original virtual port:
While this setup may not be for everyone, it gives me the flexibility to test anything I want in the vSphere world. As mentioned in part one, I am all set up and ready to deploy NSX-T into this lab and also start to deploy VCD as well. I’ll cover that in future posts as well as a look at options to backup homelabs with Veeam. If you have any questions about this setup, please post them in the comments below, and I will try my best to answer them. Happy NestedESXi home labbing!
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