VMware Cloud Foundation

HCX Network Profile, Compute Profile, Service Mesh

 

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 create the HCX Multi-Site service mesh, by creating Compute Profiles and Network Profiles for the HCX service appliances

  1. Click [Network/Compute Profiles]

We begin at the HCX Dashboard that is installed into our Legacy VMware vSphere 5.5 site. From the left hand menu.

  1. Click [Interconnect]
  2. Click [Network Profiles]
  3. Click [Create Network Profiles]

An HCX Network profile is a pool of available IPs on a specific subnet. HCX will use this pool of IPs to install the HCX service appliances. The first network profile created in this demo is for the Management subnet.

  1. Click [VLAN-0]
  2. Click [VLAN-0] to label the subnet in HCX

The remaining information has been automatically entered by this demo. As you can see, an IP range, Prefix Length, Gateway, DNS and MTU have all been entered for this Management Subnet.

  1. Click [Create]

The Management Network Profile has been created for HCX. Next create a Network Profile for vMotion.

  1. Click [Create Network Profile]
  2. Click [DPG-vMotion]

The remaining information has been automatically entered by this demo. As you can see, an IP range, Prefix Length, Gateway, DNS and MTU have all been entered for this vMotion Subnet.

  1. Click [Create]

With the necessary Network Profiles created we can now create the Compute Profile. A Compute profile tells HCX what services to install, where to install the service appliances, and what network profiles to use when creating them. 

  1. Click [Compute Profiles]
  2. Click [Create Compute Profile]
  3. Click [Name Field] to enter the Compute profile name
  4. Click [Continue]

From this screen, the various HCX Services can be enabled and disabled based on the needs of the migration. For instance, if this VM migration were to occur inside a datacenter from rack to rack, you may not need the WAN optimization service installed. For this demo we will leave the defaults selected on.

  1. Click [Continue]

From the Select Service Resources screen, we can select where (what Cluster or Resource Pool) to install the HCX service appliances.

  1. Click [Select Resources]

Cluster 1 is Selected

  1. Click [OK]

Next Select the Datastore to install the HCX Service appliances onto.

  1. Click [Select Datastore]
  2. Click [VMwareNFSVol2]
  3. Click [Close]
  4. Click [Continue]

Next we need to select the network profile that will allow the HCX service appliances to communicate with the VMware vSphere Management Subnet.

  1. Click [Select Management Network Profile]
  2. Click [Management VLAN]
  3. Click [Close]

You can see as we click and select items the architecture drawing in the window updates. This drawing now shows two HCX service appliances connected to the Management VLAN.

  1. Click [Continue]

Next we determine the networks that will be used to create the Service Mesh. You can see from this high-level architecture drawing all of the subnets that will be used in this demo.

The Uplink VLAN network is a subnet that is properly routed between the source and destination sites. The Interconnect appliances in each site need to be able to communicate with each other over this network. For this demo, the Management VLAN is routed between the two sites, so we will be using the management subnet as our Uplink VLAN.

  1. Click [Service Mesh]

From the Select Uplink Network Profile Screen

  1. Click [Select Uplink Network Profile]
  2. Click [Management VLAN]
  3. Click [Close]
  4. Click [Continue]

From the Select vMotion Network Profile. We will select the vMotion Network Profile we created earlier. The HCX Interconnect service appliance will use this profile to communicate with the vMotion subnet that is configured for the ESXi hosts in this site.

  1. Click [Select vMotion Network Profile]
  2. Click [VMotion VLAN]
  3. Click [Close]
  4. Click [Continue]

We can see the drawing has been updated to show that HCX Interconnect Appliance is connected to this subnet.

From the Select vSphere Replication Network the Management PortGroup is selected by default. Note, it is possible create and use a separate subnet for vSphere Replication if needed. This demo will use the default management subnet for all vSphere Replication traffic

  1. Click [Continue]

From the Select Distributed Switches for Network Extension screen. We need to select the vDS that we want to extend using HCX L2 network extension, to the remote site. For this demo we only have one vDS. This single vDS01 has been selected.

  1. Click [Continue]

A pop up window has appeared that now shows us the necessary ports and protocols that will be used in both the local LAN and WAN network connections. If there are any firewalls in between these networks this list can be copied and pasted to your firewall administrator.

  1. Click [LAN Connections]
  2. Click [Continue]

This source site Compute profile is now complete. The architecture drawing depicts how the HCX service appliances will be deployed when creating the automated service mesh. It will not deploy any appliances yet, this process is just for saving this configuration. 

  1. Click [Finish] to save this Compute Profile

The next step is to complete this same process for our destination VMware Cloud Foundation site.

  1. Click [HCX Manager] Browser Tab to jump to the destination site.
  2. Click [:9443] to change from the appliance admin page to the Web interface
  3. Click [Username] to login with the destination site vCenter Server Credentials
  4. Click [Interconnect]
  5. Click [Network Profiles]
  6. Click [Create Network Profile]
  7. Click [SDDC-DPortGroup-Mgmt]

The remaining information has been automatically enter by this demo. As you can see, an IP range, Prefix Length, Gateway, DNS and MTU have all been entered for this Management Subnet.

  1. Click [Create]

We will repeat this process for the vMotion Subnet

  1. Click [Create Network Profile]
  2. Click [SDDC-DPortGroup-vMotion]

The remaining information has been automatically enter by this demo. As you can see, an IP range, Prefix Length, Gateway, DNS and MTU have all been entered for this vMotion Subnet.

  1. Click [Create]
  2. Click [Compute Profiles]
  3. Click [Create Compute Profile]
  4. Click [Name Field] to enter the name
  5. Click [Continue]
  6. Click [Continue]
  7. Click [Select Resources]

SDDC-Cluster 1 within the VMware Cloud Foundation site has been selected. Next we will select where to install the HCX service appliances.

  1. Click [OK]
  2. Click [Continue]
  3. Click [Select Resource]
  4. Click [User-VM Resource Pool] 
  5. Click [Close]
  6. Click [Select DataStore]
  7. Click [VCF-VSAN]
  8. Click [Close]
  9. Click [Continue]

Now we will select the Network profiles needed for the VMware Cloud Foundation destination site.

Management Network

  1. Click [Select Management Network Profile]
  2. Click [SDDC-DPortGroup-Mgmt]
  3. Click [Continue]

Uplink Network

  1. Click [Select Uplink Network Profile]
  2. Click [SDDC-DPortGroup-Mgmt]
  3. Click [Close]
  4. Click [Continue]

vMotion Network

  1. Click [Select vMotion Network Profile]
  2. Click [SDDC-DPortGroup-vMotion]
  3. Click [Close]
  4. Click [Continue]

vSphere Replication Network

  1. Click [Select vSphere Replication Network Profile]

The Management PortGroup is Selected by Default.

  1. Click [Continue]

Select the Distributed Switches for Network Extensions.

  1. Click [Select Distributed Switches]

The only switch installed is selected by default.

  1. Click [Continue]

The Firewall rules pop up for the destination site is presented.

  1. Click [X]
  2. Click [Continue]
  3. Click [Finish]

The Compute Profile for the VMware Cloud Foundation Site is now configured and saved.

The next step is to create the Service Mesh and begin the automated process of installing the HCX service appliances. 

  1. Click [vSphere Web Client] to return to the Source Site.
  2. Click [Service Mesh]
  3. Click [Create Service Mesh]

The two sites are selected by default. If you have more than one site, you can change them here.

  1. Click [Continue]
  2. Click [Select Source Compute Profile]
  3. Click [Profile1-Source]
  4. Click [Select Remote Compute Profile]
  5. Click [Profile1-Target]
  6. Click [Close]
  7. Click [Continue]

From the Select Services to be enabled Window, you can modify what services are installed. For this demo we will continue with the defaults

  1. Click [Continue]

From the Advanced Configuration Screen, the Drawing on the bottom depicts how the HCX Service appliances will be installed in each site. If any modifications to this for the uplink network profiles need to be made, they can be changed here. For this demo we will continue. 

  1. Click [Continue]

From the Network Extension Scale out Screen, if you have more than one VDS you can add more service appliances here to allow more L2 Network extensions.  For this demo we will continue with one.

  1. Click [Configure] to see the scale out screen
  2.  Click [Close]
  3. Click [Continue]

From the Configure WAN Optimization Screen. If you need to throttle down the bandwidth used, you can set that here. For this demo we will continue with the default.

  1. Click [Continue]

From here we can review the Topology and verify that this is the correct service mesh to deploy.

  1. Click [Continue]

Name the Service Mesh

  1. Click [Interconnect]
  2. Click [Finish] to being the automated Service Mesh Deployment
  3. Click [Tasks] to see the automated tasks.

HCX Manager Automatically deploys the Service appliances and brings the Hybridity Tunnel up.

  1. Click [Appliances]
  2. Click [Back Arrow]

From the Service mesh screen, we can see each of the HCX Services with a green dot, each dot represents the status of the service.  This Service Mesh is up and ready to begin L2 Network Extension and migrating VMs to VMware Cloud Foundation.

 


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