VMware NSX 6.x – Part 7 – Create Segment ID and Transport Zones

In this Post, we will be discussion about creating Segment IDs and Transport Zones. Segment IDs has to be created for each NSX Manager to isolate the traffic.

Segment ID

The segment ID range determines the maximum number of logical switches that can be created in your infrastructure. Segment ID pools are used by logical segments for the VXLAN Network Identifier (VNI). In simple terms, Segment ID is like VLAN ID but for VXLAN. In VLAN we have a limitation of ID 1 to 4094 but Segment ID ranges between 1 and 16,777,215.

To Create a Segement ID, Login to Web Client -> Networking & Security -> Installation -> Logical Network Preparation -> Segment ID -> Edit.

VMware has decided to provide Segment ID starting from 5000 to avoid confusion between the VLAN ID and the VXLAN Segment ID

In our Lab, we are using the Segment ID between 5000 to 10000.

Segment ID Pool will be created.

Transport Zones

A transport zone is created to create a boundary for the VXLAN/VTEP replication scope and control plane. Based upon your requirements, you can have one or more transport zones.

To create Transport Zone, Login to Web Client -> Networking & Security -> Installation -> Logical Network Preparation -> Transport Zones -> Click on +

Provide the below information

Name: Give a name to the Transport Zone. I name it as “Zone1”

Description: Give a short description about the Zone

Clusters: Transport Zones can span across multiple clusters. Select the required clusters.

Replication Mode: Choose one replication method that VXLAN will use to distribute information across the control plane

• Multicast – Multicast IP addresses on physical network is used for the control plane. Multicast mode requires IGMP for a layer 2 topology and multicast routing for L3 topology. Entire replication is offloaded to the physical network.
• Unicast –  The VXLAN control plane is handled by an NSX controller. No special network configuration is required to configure Unicast. Recommended only for small deployments.
• Hybrid – It is also called as Optimized Unicast Mode. The Local Replication is offloaded to the physical network but the Remote Replication is done via Unicast. Hybrid mode requires IGMP for a layer 2 topology but doesn’t require multicast routing for L3 topology.

To know more about replication modes, visit VMwareGuruz

The Transport Zone will be created.

See Next:

VMware NSX 6.x – Part 8 – Create NSX Logical Switch

See Also:

VMware NSX 6.x – Part 1 – Overview
VMware NSX 6.x – Part 2 – Deployment of NSX Manager
VMware NSX 6.x – Part 3 – Registering NSX Manager with vCenter Server
VMware NSX 6.x – Part 4 – Deployment of NSX Controller
VMware NSX 6.x – Part 5 – Host Preparation
VMware NSX 6.x – Part 6 – Configuring VXLAN
VMware NSX 6.x – Part 7 – Create Segment ID and Transport Zones
VMware NSX 6.x – Part 8 – Create NSX Logical Switch
VMware NSX 6.x – Part 9 – Create Distributed Logical Router
VMware NSX 6.x – Part 10 – Backup NSX Configuration