VMware NSX

VMware NSX

Author: Wei Zhou, VMware by Broadcom — wei-wz.zhou@broadcom.com This is a community-driven project by a VMware engineer, not an official VMware product. For official VMware developer tools see developer.broadcom.com.

English | 中文

VMware NSX networking management: segments, gateways, NAT, routing, IPAM — 33 MCP tools, domain-focused.

NSX Policy API skill for NSX-T 3.0+ and NSX 4.x.

Companion Skills

Quick Install

# Via PyPI
uv tool install vmware-nsx-mgmt

# Or pip
pip install vmware-nsx-mgmt

Offline / Air-Gapped Install (from source)

This project uses the modern PEP 517 build system (hatchling), so there is no setup.py by design — that is expected, not a missing file. If you cloned the source and hit ERROR: File "setup.py" or "setup.cfg" not found ... editable mode currently requires a setuptools-based build, your pip is older than 21.3 and cannot do an editable (-e) install with a non-setuptools backend. Editable mode is a developer convenience, not needed to run the tool — do one of:

# From the source tree — a normal (non-editable) install builds a wheel:
pip install .              # NOT  pip install -e .

# ...or upgrade pip first, and editable works too:
pip install --upgrade pip && pip install -e .

For a truly air-gapped host, build the wheels on a connected machine and copy them over — the target then needs no network:

# On a connected machine, collect this package + its dependencies as wheels:
pip wheel . -w dist        # → dist/*.whl   (or: uv build, for just this package)

# Copy dist/ to the air-gapped host, then install offline:
pip install --no-index --find-links dist vmware-nsx-mgmt

Configuration

mkdir -p ~/.vmware-nsx
cp config.example.yaml ~/.vmware-nsx/config.yaml
# Edit with your NSX Manager credentials

echo "VMWARE_NSX_NSX_PROD_PASSWORD=your_password" > ~/.vmware-nsx/.env
chmod 600 ~/.vmware-nsx/.env

# Verify
vmware-nsx doctor

What This Skill Does

Total: 33 tools (20 read-only + 13 write)

Common Workflows

Create an App Network (Segment + T1 Gateway + NAT)

1. Create gateway: vmware-nsx gateway create-t1 app-t1 --edge-cluster edge-cluster-01 --tier0 tier0-gw
2. Create segment: vmware-nsx segment create app-web-seg --name app-web-seg --tz <tz-overlay-path> --subnet 10.10.1.1/24
3. Add SNAT: vmware-nsx nat create app-t1 --action SNAT --source 10.10.1.0/24 --translated 172.16.0.10
4. Verify: vmware-nsx segment list and vmware-nsx nat list app-t1

Use --dry-run to preview any write command first.

Check Network Health

1. Manager status: vmware-nsx health manager-status
2. Transport nodes: vmware-nsx health transport-nodes
3. Edge clusters: vmware-nsx health edge-clusters
4. Alarms: vmware-nsx health alarms --severity HIGH (exact-match filter; query each severity separately)

Troubleshoot VM Connectivity

1. Find VM's segment: vmware-nsx troubleshoot vm-segment <vm-display-name>
2. Check port realized state: vmware-nsx troubleshoot port-status <segment-id> (all ports on the segment: attachment, realized bindings, transport nodes)
3. Check routes: vmware-nsx gateway routes-t1 app-t1
4. Check BGP: vmware-nsx gateway bgp-neighbors tier0-gw

MCP Tools (33 — 20 read, 13 write)

Full per-tool endpoints and methods: skills/vmware-nsx/references/capabilities.md.

CLI

# Segments
vmware-nsx segment list
vmware-nsx segment get app-web-seg
vmware-nsx segment create app-web-seg --name app-web-seg --tz <tz-overlay-path> --subnet 10.10.1.1/24
vmware-nsx segment delete app-web-seg

# Gateways
vmware-nsx gateway list-t0
vmware-nsx gateway list-t1
vmware-nsx gateway create-t1 app-t1 --edge-cluster edge-cluster-01 --tier0 tier0-gw
vmware-nsx gateway bgp-neighbors tier0-gw
vmware-nsx gateway routes-t1 app-t1

# NAT
vmware-nsx nat list app-t1
vmware-nsx nat create app-t1 --action SNAT --source 10.10.1.0/24 --translated 172.16.0.10
vmware-nsx nat delete-rule --tier1 app-t1 --rule-id rule-01

# Static Routes
vmware-nsx route list app-t1
vmware-nsx route create app-t1 --network 192.168.100.0/24 --next-hop 10.10.1.254

# IP Pools
vmware-nsx ippool list
vmware-nsx ippool create tep-pool
vmware-nsx ippool add-subnet tep-pool --start 192.168.100.10 --end 192.168.100.50 --cidr 192.168.100.0/24

# Health & Troubleshooting
vmware-nsx health alarms --severity HIGH   # exact match: LOW | MEDIUM | HIGH | CRITICAL
vmware-nsx health transport-nodes
vmware-nsx health manager-status
vmware-nsx troubleshoot vm-segment my-vm-01          # VM display name
vmware-nsx troubleshoot port-status app-web-seg      # segment ID

# Diagnostics
vmware-nsx doctor

MCP Server

After uv tool install vmware-nsx-mgmt, start the MCP server with one command (v1.5.15+):

# Recommended — single command, no network re-resolve
vmware-nsx mcp

# Or via Docker
docker compose up -d

Agent Configuration

Add to your AI agent's MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vmware-nsx": {
      "command": "vmware-nsx",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": {
        "VMWARE_NSX_CONFIG": "~/.vmware-nsx/config.yaml"
      }
    }
  }
}

Alternative: uvx (no install) or legacy entry point

# Run without installing (requires PyPI access each launch)
uvx --from vmware-nsx-mgmt vmware-nsx mcp

# Legacy entry point (still works, kept for backward compatibility)
vmware-nsx-mcp

Behind a corporate TLS proxy? uvx may fail with invalid peer certificate: UnknownIssuer. Use the recommended vmware-nsx mcp form above (no network needed), or set UV_NATIVE_TLS=true.

More agent config templates (Claude Code, Cursor, Goose, Continue, etc.) in examples/mcp-configs/.

Version Compatibility

VCF Compatibility

Official Broadcom References

• SDKs: https://developer.broadcom.com/sdks — VMware NSX for Python SDK (official; future migration target), VCF Python SDK
• REST APIs: https://developer.broadcom.com/xapis — NSX-T Data Center REST API (this skill uses the Policy API subset)
• CLI Tools: https://developer.broadcom.com/tools — VCF PowerCLI 9.1 (includes NSX cmdlets)

Safety

Troubleshooting

Remote access (HTTPS) and limiting tools

By default vmware-nsx mcp speaks stdio to one local client and offers every tool. Two options change that (vmware-policy ≥ 1.21.0).

Serve over HTTPS so clients on other machines can connect. Every caller needs a bearer token:

vmware-audit token create alice          # prints the token once; give it to alice
vmware-audit token list                  # names only
vmware-audit token revoke alice          # refused from its next request, no restart
vmware-nsx mcp --transport https --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8443 \
    --cert /etc/vmware-mcp/server.pem --key /etc/vmware-mcp/server-key.pem \
    --public-name mcp.example.com

Connect a client (Claude Code shown; any MCP client that supports streamable HTTP and custom headers works):

claude mcp add --transport http vmware-nsx https://mcp.example.com:8443/mcp \
    --header "Authorization: Bearer $VMWARE_MCP_TOKEN"

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vmware-nsx": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.example.com:8443/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${VMWARE_MCP_TOKEN}" }
    }
  }
}

• The server will not start without a token, refuses Host/Origin values outside --public-name, and checks before it binds that unauthenticated requests get 401. Use a certificate your clients trust for those names.
• Behind a TLS-terminating reverse proxy on the same machine use --transport http --host 127.0.0.1 --public-name mcp.example.com and pass the Authorization header through.
• Behind a load balancer or gateway on another machine, keep --transport https (a self-signed certificate is fine), list in --public-name the host name the balancer sends as Host, and have it forward Authorization. Its health probe can use GET /healthz, which needs no token and returns only {"status": "ok"} (vmware-policy ≥ 1.23.0).
• Send traceparent or X-Request-ID with each request to have it stored on the audit row; vmware-audit log --correlation-id ID then finds the calls behind one platform request.
• The audit log records each caller as token:<name>. Calls run side by side, with or without a target: each target keeps up to VMWARE_MCP_POOL_SIZE sessions (default 2), and each session is a login on the target. A call that finds them all busy waits at most 300 s for one.
• Everyone who can reach the endpoint acts with this server's account. Tokens identify callers; they grant nothing on the platform. Run one endpoint per privilege level.
• Several people or roles on one endpoint: run vmware-audit roles enable once, then give each token a role (vmware-audit token create NAME --role reader, or a role in roles.yaml naming tools and targets; vmware-policy ≥ 1.24.0). A role limits what the token may call on this endpoint; it cannot grant more than the account has. See vmware-policy's README, "Roles for network callers".

Offer only read tools, plus the writes you choose:

vmware-nsx mcp --expose read --allow-write create_ip_pool
# or: VMWARE_NSX_MCP_EXPOSE=read VMWARE_NSX_MCP_ALLOW_WRITE=create_ip_pool vmware-nsx mcp

Tools not offered do not appear in the client's tool list. A bad value or an unknown write tool stops the server (exit 2). This limits what clients are offered; it is not authorization, so the account itself should be least-privilege.

Details: skills/vmware-nsx/references/setup-guide.md ("Serving MCP over HTTPS", "Limiting which tools are offered").

License

MIT