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

A Datacenter might have a variety of applications or applications from various customers. These applications require isolation for security and also to avoid IP Conflict. The NSX logical switch creates logical broadcast domains to which the tenant virtual machines can be wired to. Each logical switch is mapped to a unique VXLAN which encapsulates the traffic before forwarding to the Physical network. The logical switch is a Virtual Machine Port Group on the vDS. The NSX Controller holds all information about the Logical Switches and the VMs attached to the logical switches.

To create the logical Switch , Login to WebClient -> Networking & Security -> Logical Switches -> Click +

Provide the required details like Name, Description and the Replication mode. Also select the Transport Zone that we created in the previous post.

The NSX Logical Switch will get created. You could see that a Segment ID of 5000 is getting assigned to the Logical Switch.

Now we would add our applications into the Logical Switch. To do so, select the Logical Switch and click Add Virtual Machine.

Select the Virtual Machines and click Next.

Select the vNICs and click Next.

Review the settings and click Finish.

Now I have two VMs running on the NSX Logical Switch.

TESTVM06 - 192.168.200.120
TESTVM07 - 192.168.200.126

You can test the switching by Ping to the VMs.

As discussed earlier, A Logical Switch is just an Port Group which is getting created on the Distributed Switch. You can see the Port Group upon navigating to the Distributed Switch.

Repeat the same steps to create multiple Switches to isolate the Traffic.

See Next:

VMware NSX 6.x – Part 9 – Create Distributed Logical Router

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