Release and Configuration Notes
First Published: 2/1/2024
This document contains system requirements, new features, and feature overview for ReSTNSX's CloudControl v5.5
Important Notes
As of version 5.3, the ReSTNSX application is now named CloudControl. This name change aligns with the intent of the product for multi-cloud management and migrations. The user experience has been updated to reflect the focus on multi-cloud.
System Requirements
Support matrix and system requirements for CloudControl (formerly ReSTNSX).
For REST API access, HTTPS (TCP Port 443) must be allowed through any transient firewalls for the CloudControl Appliance to access vCenter and NSX Manager. For NSX-T Central CLI and edge node troubleshooting tools, CloudControl requires SSH connectivity to the primary NSX Manager / vCenter hosts.
VMCoAWS (VMware Cloud on AWS) is supported for direct connect connections and running as an OVA within the compute cluster within a given SDDC. CGW and MGW rules must be added for HTTP for CloudControl to connect to NSX Manager and vCenter. See the CloudControl quick start guide for details.
| Role | Version | CPU | Memory | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CloudControl (Med-Large) | 5.5+ | 8vCPU | 32GB | 250GB |
| vCenter | 6.5, 6.7, 7.x, 8.x | |||
| NSX Manager (-v) | 6.3, 6.4 | |||
| NSX Manager (-T) | 3.x, 4.x | |||
| VMCoAWS | M10-M22 | |||
| VMware Clouds | NSX-T 4.x | |||
| vRNI | 3.8+ | |||
| Palo Alto | 9.x+ | |||
| Cisco ASA | 8.x+ | |||
| Fortinet | 6.x+ | |||
| Fortinet* | 7.x+ | |||
| Checkpoint | R40+ | |||
| * Required version for Hit Count per rule import |
Browser Support
- Chrome 84+ for the best user experience
- Microsoft Edge 118+
- Firefox: Deprecated
New Features
General
- Re-designed Global Dashboard that aggregates inventory across all NSX data sources - NSX-v, NSX-T, VMCoAWS and VMware powered clouds such as Microsoft Azure, Oracle, IBM and Google (GCVE)
- Official support for migrating to and managing VMware powered clouds such as Microsoft Azure, Oracle, IBM and Google (GCVE)
- Custom Login Experience. Administrators can now fully customize the user login experience text and colors. This applies to the user login page and application header once logged in. Settings are located under Admin > Login Settings
- Query > Virtual Machines now reports the corresponding vCenter for the VM (when NSX-T data sources have multiple vCenters defined) and VM Tools status
- CloudControl license usage is now calculated daily with warnings in the UI (Administrators only); system log messages and warning banners on the Admin licensing page. The calculations are still CPU (Socket count based) and will only count hosts that are in the NSX-T inventory.
- Data source polling and inventory (cache) update times are now tracked on the main NSX dashboard; data sources page and collected in system support bundles for troubleshooting purposes.
Tools
Policy Engine (formerly Policy Sync)
- Synchronization of Checkpoint firewall network objects to NSX-T. This feature enhances the Checkpoint integration from a one-time conversion to the ability to pull Checkpoint network objects (all or by specific Checkpoint tags) and update their corresponding NSX-T Security Group IP list. This feature can be scheduled or run real-time.
- Prior to running a Firewall synchronization policy, users can now preview the results. Previewing will poll the source data source and destination(s) to determine latency, how many objects/rules will be created, updated or referenced.
- Firewall policy synchronization between NSX-T Global Managers to provide consistent policy between disparate NSX Federated environments.
| NSX-v | NSX-T 3.x+ | AWS | VMware Clouds | NSX-T 4.x+ GM | NSX-T 3.x+ Tier 1 Shared Rules | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSX-v | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| NSX-T 3.x+ | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| AWS | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| NSX-T 4.x+ GM | N | Y | N | N | Y | N |
| NSX-T 3.x+ Tier 1 Shared Rules | N | N | N | N | N | Y |
Virtual Machine and Host Audit Report
- A new tool to easily report on a VM and Host configuration (NSX-T, VMware Cloud).
- Virtual Machines: Collect all NSX VM inventory, including vCenter information such as VMTools status/version; NSX settings such as Tags and host location.
- Hosts: Collect all NSX hosts in inventory with corresponding NSX status, hosted VMs and last sync time.
Workflow Management
- Custom workflows allow an administrator to build a custom workflow with specific permissions. This option enables a workflow creator to define exactly which fields a user can and cannot change. In the example below, an Admin can lock all user fields. Additionally, dropdowns and text boxes can be set to a specific value that the end user cannot change when they execute the workflow. This feature is available for NSX-v and with 5.x, NSX-T.
Reporting
- System reports now include (NSX-T, VMware Cloud):
- Edge Node details (CPU, etc...)
- Detailed NSX manager resource allocations
- Difference reports (compare NSX manager inventory) now is full-screen instead of a pop-up window.
- New Security Audit report. This new report combines multiple reports into a single output for easy auditing of NSX distributed firewall rules and objects.
Administration
- Troubleshooting BOT. This feature helps determine what issues, if any, exist between CloudControl and a given data source (NSX, vCenter, vRNI). CloudControl will poll a data source and display the response that is received from the network and data source.