VMware vSphere

The Vmware vSphere integration offers provisioning of virtual machines in the network as well as automating the creation of virtual networks based on end-system access groups. In addition, data within Extreme Management Center is enriched for each end-system and conversely made available within vSphere.

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Module Configuration

Configuration Option Description
Username:

Username used to connect to the vSphere web service.

Read/Write/Execute permissions required.
Password: Password used to connect to the vSphere web service.
VMware Webservice URL : Web service URL of the VMware vSphere server.
Module enabled : Enables and Disables Module.
  • Outgoing data format: The format of the Extreme Control data

    (like last seen time, switch IP, switch port, etc.) that is written to the description fields of the VMs within VMware or XEN. You can customize the appearance and what information you want to include/exclude from there. Hint: For the VMware vSphere client the annotation field is limited in size. The default outgoing format is very close to the maximum string length allowed for this field. If you want to add additional information to this field consider replacing it with some of the existing default value.

  • Format of the incoming data: The format of the data that is

    coming from VMware or XEN and that is written to the custom field.

  • Create Private VLAN Entries: If set to false, the Datacenter

    manager will not automatically create any pVLAN entries on dvSwitches even if you configured any. This feature is disabled per default and needs to be enabled manually if needed.

  • Create Portgroups from End-system Groups: If set to true, the

    Datacenter manager will automatically create new portgroups within VMware based on the Extreme Control NAC end-system groups and your other configuration.

  • Update Portgroup VLAN IDs: Only useful if the setting above is

    set to true. If you change the “vlan=XXXX” value within an end-system group this setting will automatically also change your portgroup VLAN IDs accordingly.

  • Use Global End-system Groups: Only if this is set to true, the

    VMware module will have access to the global end-system groups that are provided by the Extreme Control module (NAC end-system groups) within the main module. This is necessary if you want to automatically create portgroups based on Extreme Control NAC end-system groups.

  • Enable Custom Attributes: En-/Disables the creation and updates

    of Custom Attributes for vCenter Servers.

  • Custom Attributes Data Format: This text field allows the

    configuration of Custom Attributes for vCenter Servers. Extreme Connect will create and update these attributes for each VM and allow for searching and sorting for this data within vCenter. Each attribute has to be configured on a single line and follow the format: NAME=VALUE where NAME is the name of the Custom Attribute and VALUE is a free text that may utilize all variables that are available in the “Outgoing data format” option. If a VM should use more than one network interface, the data for each variable is presented as “NIC1DATA/NIC2DATA/…”.

  • Deletion Group: Name of the portgroup that a VM will be

    redirected to if it’s current endsystem group is deleted.

  • Port Group Import: Enables the automatic creation of endsystemgroups in Extreme Control based on port groups. The port group name will be used for the endsystem group. Be aware that the delimiter also applies here. In the default configuration, the text after the last delimiter will be truncated from the name. | i.e. MyPortGroup_VLAN1_dvSwitch0 will be imported as MyPortGroup_VLAN1 in Extreme Control. VLAN IDs will be updated if they change.
  • Automatic Enforce after import: Enables the automatic enforcement

    of all NAC appliances and the policy domain (only for extended import) if a portgroup was imported.

  • Extended PortGroup Import: Also creates NAC Configuration and policy profiles during PortGroup Import. Requires the options for NAC Configuration, Policy Domain and Forward as Tagged also to be defined. Be aware that the truncated port group name will also be used as the VLAN name and must adhere to naming limitations. | In a special case, a VNI can be supplied by prefixing “VNI-#####-“ (with ##### being the VNI ID) to the portgroup name. i.e. “VNI-1234-PortGroup” will create a policy/control configuration with the VLAN ID set in the portgroup and the VLAN name VNI-1234-PortGroup. An EXOS switch can then use the VNI-1234 part to setup the VxLAN mapping for that VLAN.
  • Add VNI to Policy Map Adds the VNI ID from the Portgroup name to

    one of the custom fields in the policy mapping configuration in Control. This can be used to supply the VNI to a target switch using RADIUS to create a dynamic VxLAN configuration.

  • Enable PortGroup Import Removal: Delete the NAC Configuration

    and/or End-System Group if the portgroup is deleted.

  • Hypervisor Import: Creates a Device in XMC Network for each

    Hypervisor, using the pNIC, vNIC and (d)vSwitch portgroups to generate the Device Ports. LLDP data will be used if present to indicate neighbors on ports.

  • EndSystem Events: Updates the Control EndSystem Table if Radius

    or Kerberos authentication is not available. Events will use the Hypervisor Device as the connecting Switch instead of the physical LAN switch provided via Radius.

Stop then start the Extreme Management Center services (refer to Extreme Connect Installation section for instructions).

Verification

Within the vSphere Client, click on a virtual machine and then on the “Summary” tab on the right side. At the bottom of this tab there should be an annotations field that should contain the corresponding data from Extreme Management Center (for example, information on the switch port and switch IP to which this VM is physically connected).

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