VMware vCloud Networking and Security Upgrade to VMware NSX : Migration Considerations : 4.5 NSX Controller Cluster
   
4.5 NSX Controller Cluster
The NSX Controller cluster is a completely new component, which is deployed after successful NSX Manager migration. The cluster must be deployed before any of the advanced VMware NSX features that require it can be used.
Table 2. NSX Controller Cluster Requirements
NSX Feature
NSX Controller Cluster Requirement
VXLAN transport control plane
• Multicast
• Hybrid
• Unicast
 
X symbol
Check mark symbol
Check mark symbol
Distributed firewall*
X symbol
NSX Edge services gateways
X symbol
Distributed Logical Router*
Check mark symbol
VXLAN – VLAN bridging*
Check mark symbol
ARP suppression
Check mark symbol
*These features are not natively exposed through the vCloud Director user interface or API.
The following are NSX Controller cluster design considerations:
• The NSX Controller cluster consists of NSX Controller nodes, which are deployed by NSX Manager to the vSphere environment which the NSX Manager is paired with. Therefore, the NSX Controller is running in the resource group (customer workload) vSphere clusters.
• An NSX Controller cluster always consists of three nodes (virtual machines) deployed by NSX Manager.
• For high availability purposes, each NSX Controller node must be placed on a different host. This can be achieved with a manually-created, anti-affinity DRS rule within vSphere.
• The NSX Controller node VM must be connected to a standard or distributed port group. It cannot be connected to a VXLAN-based port group (logical switch).
• NSX Controller instances must have network connectivity to NSX Manager and ESXi management vmknics. They do not need to be deployed in the same L2 subnet or vSphere cluster.