NSX Installation and Essential Commands Guide

Short answer: the NSX commands you need most are get transport-nodes status, get transport-node <uuid> vtep and get transport-node <uuid> vifs on NSX Manager; on the ESXi host, esxcli software vib list | grep nsx, vmkping ++netstack=vxlan for TEP connectivity, and esxcli network ip connection list to check the agent connections (port 1234 to NSX Manager, 1235 to the controllers). The log files to watch are listed at the end.

This guide provides a concise overview of essential commands to manage NSX effectively. For deeper dives, see NSX logical switching commands, NSX logical routing and diagnostics, the NSX management cluster and the NSX distributed firewall CLI. To look up any NSX CLI command by version and node type (Manager, Edge, ESXi), use the NSX CLI interactive mindmap.

NSX Manager Commands

The NSX Manager is the centralized network management component of VMware NSX, offering an intuitive interface for managing the network and security settings across your virtual environment. Below are key commands you can run from the NSX Manager CLI:

• List all ESXi hosts to get the Transport Node UUIDs: To view all ESXi hosts registered with NSX, and their respective Transport Node UUIDs, use
  get transport-nodes status
  This command is vital for identifying nodes for further configuration or troubleshooting.
• List the Transport Node Status: To check the status of a specific Transport Node, use get transport-node <uuid> status. This command provides insights into the health and connectivity status of the node.
• List the Transport Node VTEP Information: View the VXLAN Tunnel Endpoint (VTEP) information with get transport-node <uuid> vtep. This is crucial for understanding the overlay network configuration.
• Lists the VIF UUID of a VM: To find the Virtual Interface (VIF) UUID of a VM connected to a Segment on a Transport Node, use
  get transport-node <uuid> vifs
  This command is useful for troubleshooting VM connectivity issues.

Commands Run from ESXi Host

Directly interacting with ESXi hosts is sometimes necessary for detailed troubleshooting or configuration. Here are commands specific to NSX that you can run on ESXi hosts:

• List the VIBs installed on ESXi: To see all NSX-installed VMware Installation Bundles (VIBs) on an ESXi host, use esxcli software vib list | grep nsx.
• List all the NSX modules currently loaded in the system: Check which NSX modules are active with esxcli system module list | grep nsx.
• Check the User World Agents (UWA) Status: For nsx-mpa, nsx-proxy, and nsx-opsagent, use /etc/init.d/nsx-<agent> status to verify if these agents are running correctly. When a host shows Down or Host Disconnected in NSX, see troubleshooting NSX host agents.
• Check UWAs Connection: Use
  esxcli network ip connection list | grep <port number> to check connections to the NSX Controllers (Port 1235) and NSX Manager (Port 1234).

ESXi Host Networking Commands

Network configuration and troubleshooting directly on ESXi hosts are facilitated by the following commands:

• List Physical NICs/vmnic: esxcli network nic list gives a summary of all physical NICs.
• Physical NIC Details: Use esxcli network nic get -n <vmnic-id> for detailed information about a specific NIC.
• List vmk NICs: For IP addresses, MAC, MTU, and other details, use
  esxcli network ip interface ipv4 get.
• Details of vxlan IP Stack: To view the VXLAN-dedicated IP stack configuration, use esxcli network ip interface list --netstack=vxlan.
• Ping from a VXLAN TCP/IP Stack: vmkping ++netstack=vxlan x.x.x.x allows testing connectivity using the VXLAN stack.
• View VXLAN-dedicated TCP/IP Stack’s Routing and ARP Tables: Use
  esxcli network ip route ipv4 list -N vxlan and
  esxcli network ip neighbor list -N vxlan respectively.

NSX Installation Log Files

Troubleshooting NSX installations requires access to specific log files:

On NSX Manager:

• View Log Files: Use get log-file manager.log follow or
  get log-file syslog follow to tail the NSX Manager logs in real-time.

On ESXi Hosts:

• Installation and Host-related Logs: Located at /var/log/esxupdate.log for installation activities, /var/log/vmkernel.log for host issues, and
  /var/log/vmksummary.log, /var/log/vmkwarning.log for VMkernel warnings and messages. Module load failures are captured in /var/log/syslog.log.