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14.1 - Current Release 13.1 13.0 12.1
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Install a NetScaler VPX instance on Google Cloud VMware Engine

October 26, 2023
Contributed by: 
C S

Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) provides you with private clouds that contain vSphere clusters, built from dedicated bare-metal Google Cloud Platform infrastructure. The minimum initial deployment is three hosts, but additional hosts can be added one at a time. All provisioned private clouds have vCenter Server, vSAN, vSphere, and NSX-T.

GCVE enables you to create cloud software-defined data centers (SDDC) on Google Cloud Platform with the desired number of ESX hosts. GCVE supports NetScaler VPX deployments. GCVE provides a user interface same as on-prem vCenter. It functions identical to the ESX-based NetScaler VPX deployments.

The following diagram shows the GCVE on the Google Cloud Platform that an administrator or a client can access over the internet. An administrator can create, manage, and configure workload or server VMs using GCVE. The admin can access the GCVE’s web-based vCenter and NSX-T Manager using an OpenVPN connection. You can create the NetScaler VPX instances (standalone or HA pair) and server VMs within GCVE using vCenter, and manage the corresponding networking using NSX-T manager. The NetScaler VPX instance on GCVE works similar to the On-prem VMware cluster of hosts. GCVE can be managed using OpenVPN connection to the management infrastructure.

GCVE architecture

Prerequisites

Before you begin installing a virtual appliance, do the following:

VMware cloud hardware requirements

The following table lists the virtual computing resources that the VMware SDDC must provide for each VPX nCore virtual appliance.

Table 1. Minimum virtual computing resources required for running a NetScaler VPX instance

Component Requirement
Memory 2 GB
Virtual CPU (vCPU) 2
Virtual network interfaces In VMware SDDC, you can install a maximum of 10 virtual network interfaces if the VPX hardware is upgraded to version 7 or higher.
Disk space 20 GB

Note

This is in addition to any disk requirements for the hypervisor.

For production use of the VPX virtual appliance, the full memory allocation must be reserved.

OVF Tool 1.0 system requirements

OVF Tool is a client application that can run on Windows and Linux systems. The following table describes the minimum system requirements for installing OVF tool.

Table 2. Minimum system requirements for OVF tool installation

Component Requirement
Operating system For detailed requirements from VMware, search for the “OVF Tool User Guide” PDF file at http://kb.vmware.com/.
CPU 750 MHz minimum, 1 GHz or faster recommended
RAM 1 GB Minimum, 2 GB recommended
NIC 100 Mbps or faster NIC

For information about installing OVF, search for the “OVF Tool User Guide” PDF file at http://kb.vmware.com/.

Downloading the NetScaler VPX setup files

The NetScaler VPX instance setup package for VMware ESX follows the Open Virtual Machine (OVF) format standard. You can download the files from the Citrix website. You need a Citrix account to log on. If you do not have a Citrix account, access the home page at http://www.citrix.com. Click the New Users link, and follow the instructions to create a new Citrix account.

Once logged on, navigate the following path from the Citrix home page:

Citrix.com > Downloads > NetScaler > Virtual Appliances.

Copy the following files to a workstation on the same network as the ESX server. Copy all three files into the same folder.

  • NSVPX-ESX-<release number>-<build number>-disk1.vmdk (for example, NSVPX-ESX-13.0-79.64-disk1.vmdk)
  • NSVPX-ESX-<release number>-<build number>.ovf (for example, NSVPX-ESX-13.0-79.64.ovf)
  • NSVPX-ESX-<release number>-<build number>.mf (for example, NSVPX-ESX-13.0-79.64.mf)

Deploy Google Cloud VMware Engine

  1. Log in to your GCVE portal, and navigate to Home.

    GCVE portal

  2. In the New Private Cloud page, enter the following details:

    • Select a minimum of 3 ESXi hosts to create the default cluster of your private cloud.
    • For the vSphere/vSan subnet CIDR range field, use /22 address space.
    • For the HCX Deployment Network CIDR range field, use /26 address space.
    • For the virtual network, make sure that the CIDR range doesn’t overlap with any of your on-premises or other GCP subnets (virtual networks).

    GCVE Private Cloud

  3. Click Review and Create.

  4. Review the settings. If you need to change any settings, click Previous.

    Review Private Cloud settings

  5. Click Create. Private Cloud provisioning process starts. It can take up to two hours for the Private Cloud to be provisioned.

  6. Go to Resources to verify the private cloud that is created.

    Successful private cloud

  7. To access this resource, you must connect to GCVE using point-to-site VPN. For more information, see the following documentation:

Access your Private Cloud vCenter portal

  1. Navigate to your Google Cloud VMware Engine private cloud. In the SUMMARY tab, under vCenter Login Info, click View.

    GCVE resources

  2. Make note of the vCenter credentials.

    GCVE vCenter credentials

  3. Launch the vSphere client by clicking LAUNCH VSPHERE CLIENT or navigate to VSPHERE MANAGEMENT NETWORK and click the vCenter Server Appliance FQDN.

    Launch vSphere client

  4. Log in to VMware vSphere using vCenter credentials noted in Step 2 of this procedure.

    VMware vSphere

  5. In vSphere client, you can verify the ESXi hosts that you created in GCVE portal.

    Verify the ESXi hosts

Create an NSX-T segment in the GCVE NSX-T portal

You can create and configure an NSX-T segment from the NSX Manager in the Google Cloud VMware Engine console. These segments are connected to the default Tier-1 gateway, and the workloads on these segments get East-West and North-South connectivity. Once you create the segment, it displays in vCenter.

  1. In your GCVE private cloud, under Summary -> NSX-T login info, select View.

    NSX-T login info

  2. Make note of the NSX-T credentials.

    NSX-T credentials

  3. Launch the NSX Manager by navigating to VSPHERE MANAGEMENT NETWORK and click the NSX Manager FQDN.

    NSX Manager

  4. Log in to the NSX Manager using the credentials noted in Step 2 of this procedure.

    NSX Manager credentials

  5. Set up DHCP service for the new segments or subnets.

  6. Before you can create a subnet, set up a DHCP service.

  7. In NSX-T, go to Networking > DHCP. The networking dashboard shows that the service creates one tier-0 and one tier-1 gateway.

  8. To begin provisioning a DHCP server, click Add DHCP Profile.

  9. In the DHCP name field, enter a name for the Client-Management profile.

  10. Select DHCP server as the Profile type.

  11. In the Server IP address column, provide a DHCP service IP address range.

  12. Select your Edge Cluster.

  13. Click Save to create the DHCP service.

    DHCP service

  14. Repeat Steps 6 to 13 for Server DHCP range.

    Server DHCP range

  15. Create two separate segments: one for Client and Management interfaces, and another for Server interfaces.

  16. In NSX-T, go to Networking > Segments.

  17. Click Add Segment.

    Add Segment

  18. In the Segment Name field, enter a name for your Client Management segment.
  19. In the Connected Gateway list, select Tier1 to connect to the tier-1 gateway.
  20. In the Transport Zone list, select **TZ-OVERLAY Overlay**.

  21. In the Subnets column, enter the subnet range. Specify the subnet range with .1 as the last octet. For example, 10.12.2.1/24.

    Segment details

  22. Click Set DHCP Config, and provide values for the DHCP Ranges field.

    Set DHCP Config

  23. Click Apply to save your DHCP configuration.

  24. Click Save. Save

    Successful segment

  25. Repeat Steps 17 to 24 for Server segment as well.

  26. You can now select these network segments in vCenter when creating a VM.

For more information, see Creating your first subnet.

Install a NetScaler VPX instance on VMware cloud

After you have installed and configured Private Cloud on GCVE, you can use the vCenter to install virtual appliances on the VMware Engine. The number of virtual appliances that you can install depends on the amount of resource available on the Private Cloud.

To install NetScaler VPX instances on Private Cloud, perform these steps on a desktop connected to private cloud point-to-site VPN:

  1. Download the NetScaler VPX instance setup files for ESXi host from the NetScaler downloads site.
  2. Open VMware vCenter in a browser connected to your private cloud point-to-site VPN.
  3. In the User Name and Password fields, type the administrator credentials, and then click Login.
  4. On the File menu, click Deploy OVF Template.

  5. In the Deploy OVF Template dialog box, in Deploy from file field, browse to the location at which you saved the NetScaler VPX instance setup files, select the .ovf file, and click Next.

    Note:

    By default, the NetScaler VPX instance uses E1000 network interfaces. To deploy ADC with the VMXNET3 interface, modify the OVF to use VMXNET3 interface instead of E1000. Availability of VMXNET3 interface is limited by GCP infrastructure and might not be available in Google Cloud VMware Engine.

  6. Map the networks shown in the virtual appliance OVF template to the networks that you configured on the NSX-T Manager. Click OK.

    Add network interfaces1

    Add network interfaces2

  7. Click Finish to start installing a virtual appliance on VMware cloud.

    Deploy OVF Template

  8. You are now ready to start the NetScaler VPX instance. In the navigation pane, select the NetScaler VPX instance that you have installed and, from the right-click menu, select Power On. Click the Launch Web Console tab to emulate a console port.

    Power On the VPX instance

  9. You are now connected to the NetScaler VM from the vSphere client.

    Connect to NetScaler VM

  10. On first boot, set the management IP and gateway for the ADC instance.

    Set the management IP and gateway

  11. To access the NetScaler appliance by using the SSH keys, type the following command in the CLI:

    ssh nsroot@<management IP address>
<!--NeedCopy-->

    Example:

    ssh nsroot@10.230.1.10
<!--NeedCopy-->

  12. You can verify the ADC configuration by using the show ns ip command.

    Verify using `show nsip` command

Assign a Public IP address to a NetScaler VPX instance on VMware cloud

After you have installed and configured NetScaler VPX instance on GCVE, you must assign a public IP address to the Client interface. Before assigning public IP addresses to your VMs, make sure that Public IP service is enabled for your Google Cloud region.

To enable Public IP service for a new region, follow these steps:

  1. On GCVE console, navigate to Network > REGIONAL SETTINGS > Add Region.

    GCVE regional settings

  2. Select your region and enable Internet Access and Public IP Service.

  3. Assign an Edge Services CIDR making sure that the CIDR range doesn’t overlap with any of your on-premises or other GCP/GCVE subnets (virtual networks).

    Assign Edge Services

  4. Public IP Service will be enabled for the selected region in a few minutes.

To assign public IP to the Client interface on the NetScaler VPX instance on GCVE, perform these steps on GCVE portal:

  1. On GCVE console, navigate to Network > PUBLIC IPS > Allocate.

    GCVE Public IPs

  2. Enter a name for the public IP. Select your region, and select the private cloud where the IP will be used.
  3. Provide the private IP for the interface to which you want the public IP to be mapped. This will be the private IP for your Client interface.

  4. Click Submit. Allocate public IP

  5. Public IP is ready to use in a few minutes.

  6. You must add Firewall rules to allow access to the public IP before you can use it. For more information, see Firewall rules.
Install a NetScaler VPX instance on Google Cloud VMware Engine
October 26, 2023
Contributed by: 
C S
October 26, 2023
Contributed by: 
C S

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