This chapter describes the step-by-step installation of NSX and its configuration. We will begin by getting your environment ready for NSX and then go over downloading and deploying NSX. We will then go over the NSX Manager management interface and configure it with your vCenter and license it. We will spend time getting to know the NSX user interface in the vSphere web client and build our control plane by deploying controller clusters. This is followed by our data plane preparation, which involves preparing ESXi clusters for network virtualization.

In this chapter, we will cover:

• Preparing your environment
• Downloading and deploying NSX Manager
• Overview of the NSX Manager interface
• Configuring NSX Manager
• Managing NSX using the vSphere web client
• Deploying the control plane (Controller Virtual Machines)
• Deploying the data plane