Vcns on The IT Hollow

vRealize Automation 6 with NSX – Firewall

Mon, 30 Nov 2015 15:08:27 +0000

So far we’ve talked a lot about using our automation solution to automate network deployments with NSX. But one of the best features about NSX is how we can firewall everything! Lucky for us, we can automate the deployment of specific firewall rules for each of our blueprints as well as deploying brand new networks for them.

Use Case: There are plenty of reasons to firewall your applications. It could be for compliance purposes or just a good practice to limit what traffic can access your apps.

vCNS Edge SSL VPN

Tue, 13 May 2014 14:00:14 +0000

A secured, remote connection to your data is a requirement for almost all network designs these days. Mobility, telecommuting and late night help desk calls have created an environment that needs to have access to the local network in a secure fashion. vCNS Edge can provide these services to your virtual infrastructure.

In previous posts, I’ve walked through installing vCNS Manager and installing vCNS Edge appliances. These are prerequisites to setting up SSL VPN on the VMware vCloud Network and Security appliance..

vCNS Edge Network Address Translation

Tue, 15 Apr 2014 14:43:12 +0000

VMware vCloud Networking and Security (vCNS) can provide Network Address Translation (NAT) services from the vCNS Edge appliance.

There are two types of NAT that the edge appliance can provide.

Destination NAT (DNAT) is used to provide access to a private IP Address from a (usually) public IP Address for incoming traffic.
Source NAT (SNAT) is used to translate a private IP Address into a (usually) public IP Address for outgoing traffic. This type of NAT can also be called “masquerading”. (It’s a subtle difference that we won’t go into in this post.)

vCNS Edge DHCP

Thu, 10 Apr 2014 13:38:41 +0000

One of the most basic tasks that happens on a network is assigning IP Addresses. Once a VMware vCNS Edge appliance has been deployed, you can now hand out IP address through Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP).

In previous posts, I’ve walked through installing vCNS Manager and installing vCNS Edge appliances. These are prerequisites to setting up DHCP on the VMware vCloud Network and Security appliance.

vCNS Edge DHCP Setup

Log into your vShield Manager and click on the Datacenter. Click the “Network Virtualization” Tab where you’ll find the Edge appliance you’ve already deployed. Go to Actions and click “Manage”.

Deploy vCNS Edge

Mon, 07 Apr 2014 13:32:07 +0000

vCloud Networking and Security has the capabilities to provide edge services inside of your virtual environment. Edge firewalls, network address translation, DHCP, routing are all things that vCNS Edge can do for you. This post goes into the steps necessary to deploy vCNS Edge.

I should mention that vCNS and the previous name vShield may be used interchangeably in this article.

Logical Diagram

The picture below is a diagram of what our environment will look like when we’re done. We have production VMs as you might expect, and our new vCNS Edge VM. We’ve also got our new Edge network and a Shielded VM which will not be connected to the production vSwitch directly.