Two additional virtual NICs are created on each VxRail node to support the host overlay network during the initial deployment of Cloud Foundation on VxRail. This overlay network uses encapsulation to enable the passage of Layer 2 traffic across transport zones in the VI workload domains with a Layer 3 network. The virtual NICs require routable IP addresses to be assigned using DHCP services.

Perform the following tasks to prepare DHCP services for the Cloud Foundation on VxRail deployment:

1. Prepare a pool of IP addresses that is at least equal to double the number of VxRail nodes planned for the deployment.

2. Deploy a DHCP server in the data center, if necessary.
3. Configure the pool of IP addresses for DHCP services to support the NSX-T host overlay network.
4. Configure the data center network so that NSX-T host overlay network can reach the DHCP server.

Figure 30.          NSX-T host overlay uplinks IP addresses assigned by DHCP

Note: If the VLAN cannot be extended out to the DHCP server, then enabling ‘dhcp helper’ services on the host overlay VLAN is recommended, if supported on the leaf switches.

Figure 31.          DHCP helper connects DHCP services to host overlay VLAN