VMware Cloud Foundation

HCX installation, Activation, & Site Pairing

 

Welcome to this demonstration on installing HCX in VMware Cloud Foundation.

The purpose of this demonstration is to show how easy it is to migrate existing VMs from an existing legacy site running VMware vSphere 5.5 into a new modern hybrid cloud infrastructure with VMware Cloud Foundation using VMware HCX.

  1. Click [VMware Cloud Foundation]

 

In this demo, we will show how to install the HCX Cloud Manager appliance in your Cloud Foundation environment and how to install the HCX Enterprise Manager your legacy environment.

  1. Click [HCX Cloud Manager]

 

The first step is to install the HCX Cloud Manager OVA Appliance into your destination site. Where to install the HCX Manager and service appliances depends on the VMware Cloud Foundation architecture model you have deployed. In this demo we have pre-deployed the HCX Cloud Manager into the Management Domain as this demo is using the consolidated architecture as shown. However, if you have deployed the standard architecture model, you would deploy the HCX Cloud Manager into the VI Workload Domain where you want the VMs to migrate to. Note that each VI Workload Domain has its own vCenter Server.

  1. Click [Choice of VMware Cloud Foundation]

 

We begin at the SDDC Manager dashboard,

  1. Click [Management Domain]
  2. Click [MGMT]
  3. Click [Services]
  4. Click [vcenter-1.vcf.sddc.local]
  5. Click [Launch vSphere Client]

 

From the vSphere Client we can see that the HCX Cloud Manager OVA appliance has been installed using the VMware vSphere client to deploy the OVA appliance that has been downloaded from VMware.com. During the install process the IP of the appliance was set to 10.0.0.55

  1. Click [10.0.0.55]
  2. Click the [HCX Manager browser tab] to open the HCX Cloud Appliance management interface on port :9443
  3. Click [Username] to login using the default admin account and the password set during OVA deployment.

 

Upon login you are greeted with the HCX Activation Wizard. The first step in activation is to activate the HCX Cloud Manager with the HCX Advanced License Key. Note the HCX Cloud Manager appliance requires access to the internet.

  1. Click [HCX Advanced Key]
  2. Click [Activate]

 

In order to activate HCX Enterprise features such as, Replication Assisted vMotion, OS Assisted Migration and Mobility Groups, a Enterprise License Key can optionally be activated as well. 

  1. Click [Enterprise License Key]
  2. Click [Add]

 

Next the Activation wizard needs to know the location of this site, note this is only to show a graphical representation of the site in the UI on a map. It can be changed at anytime.

  1. Click [Place Name]
  2. Click [Continue]
  3. Click [System name] to give the Appliance a Name
  4. Click [Continue]
  5. Click [vSphere] to select the instance type because this is a VMware Cloud Foundation installation
  6. Click [Continue]

 

HCX now needs to register with the VMware Cloud Foundation vCenter Server and NSX Manager. 

  1. Click [vCenter Server field] The remaining fields are automatically filled out for this demo
  2. Click [Continue]
  3. Click [Identity Sources Field] This is used to register to the PSC for Authentication
  4. Click [Continue]
  5. Click [Provide the Public URL] This URL is used when connecting two HCX manager appliances. The URL can use any FQDN that resolves to the appliance IP address or you can use an IP address.
  6. Click [Continue]

 

The HCX Cloud Manager appliance is now installed, activated and ready to have the services restarted to take effect.

  1. Click [Restart]

 

With the services restarted you can now login to the HCX Cloud Manager Site interface using vSphere credentials.

  1. Click [:9443] to remove the port and go to the Port 443 interface.
  2. Click [Username] to login with vSphere Credentials
  3. Click [Login]

 

Upon login we start at the HCX Dashboard page. Our next step is to download the HCX Enterprise Manager OVA for the Legacy vSphere 5.5 environment. This appliance is specially made for deployment in a legacy source environment where NSX is not installed. You will notice as we activate this appliance it only requires registration with the vCenter Server. To download the OVA for this site. Note the HCX Enterprise Manager, has been renamed to HCX Connector in future versions.

  1. Click [System Updates]
  2. Click [Request Download Link]
  3. Click VMware HCX]
  4. Click [OK]
  5. Click [New Browser Tab +] to open the Legacy 5.5 vSphere Web client and install the OVA appliance
  6. Click [Source_HCX_MGR] to see the installed appliance

 

The source site HCX Enterprise Manager appliance has been installed and is now running with the IP 192.168.50.160

  1. Click [192.168.50.160]
  2. Click [New Browser Tab +] to port :9443 for Activation
  3. Click [Username] to login with the default Admin account and the password used when the appliance was deployed
  4. Click [Log In]

 

An HCX activation wizard appears for this appliance, Enter the HCX Advanced License Key, then

  1. Click [Activate] This appliance will need to activate over the internet.

 

The HCX Enterprise License Key has been entered,

  1. Click [Add]
  2. Click [Place Name] to enter the label for the Source Site.
  3. Click [Continue]
  4. Click [System Name Field] to update the name
  5. Click [Continue]
  6. Click [Yes, Continue]
  7. Click to enter the Source vCenter Server 5.5 Information

 

Notice that NSX is not required as this is the special HCX Enterprise manager appliance, Notice the [Enterprise] name in the upper right corner.

  1. Click [Continue]

 

The PSC information has been entered for this site

  1. Click [Continue]
  2. Click [Restart] to restart the HCX manager Services for this appliance

 

Now we have both Source HCX Enterprise manager and Destination HCX Cloud manager appliances installed, activated and registered with their vCenter Server. We now need to connect these two sites using a process called site pairing.

  1. Click [Site Pairing]

 

Before we begin site pairing, we need both HCX appliances to trust each other’s SSL Certificates.

  1. Click [Administration]
  2. Click [Trusted CA Certificate]
  3. Click [Import]
  4. Click [URL]
  5. Click the [URL Field] to enter the URL of the Destination HCX Manager (Note: we are logged into the Source HCX manager)
  6. Click [Apply] to import the SSL certificate of the destination HCX manager
  7. Click the [VMware (Destination) HCX] Web browser tab to repeat the process
  8. Click [Administration]
  9. Click [Trusted CA Certificate]
  10. Click [Import]
  11. Click [URL]
  12. Click [URL Field]to enter the URL of the Source HCX Manager
  13. Click Apply

 

With the SSL Certificates Trusted we can now begin Site Paring.

  1. Click [Browser Tab] for the vSphere Web Client.

 

The VMware vSphere web client has been restarted and the HCX Icon now appears in the Web client user interface.

  1. Click [HCX]

 

From the HCX Dashboard we can see no sites are connected and no migrations have occurred.

  1. Click [New Site Paring] to connect the source and destination sites.
  2. Click [Remote HCX URL] to enter the Destination site HCX manager URL. This is the IP or FQDN of the HCX manager that was entered in the Public URL earlier. The credentials of the destination vSphere have been entered as well.
  3. Click [Connect]

 

HCX Installation, Activation, and Site paring is now complete. In the next demo, we will walk through the process of creating an HCX Service Mesh to prepare the network for migrating VMs to VMware Cloud Foundation.

 

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