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Writer's pictureMohammed Bilal

Steps for configuring and Using VMware HCX - Part 2

Continuing the further steps in this part:

  • Activate and Configure VMware HCX

  • Create a Site Pairing and Service Mesh

  • Create a Network Extension

  • Use VMware HCX to Migrate a VM

Activate and Configure VMware HCX:


You activate and configure the on-premises VMware HCX instance.

  • Log in to the VMware HCX on-premises appliance

    • In the browser, open a new tab and navigate to your HCX appliance fqdn https://hcx-fqdn:9443

    • Enter the login credentials

      • User name: admin

      • Password: Password

    • Click LOG IN

  • Activate your VMware HCX instance

    • In the HCX License Key text box, enter the VMware HCX activation key

    • Click ACTIVATE

The VMware HCX instance is activated. This process takes approximately 5 minutes

  • In the Location of your data center text box, enter Virginia and select US East (N. Virginia)

  • Click CONTINUE

  • Click CONTINUE on the System Name page, where the system name is auto-populated with hcx-fqdn

  • Click YES, CONTINUE

  • Connect VMware HCX to the on-premises vCenter Server instance

    • Enter https://vcenter-fqdn in the vCenter Server text box

    • Enter administrator@vsphere.local in the Username text box

    • Enter Password in the Password text box

    • Click CONTINUE

The Configure SSO/PSC page opens

  • Click RESTART

The SA-HCX-01 services are restarted. This task takes approximately 5 minutes. The browser tab automatically refreshes to the HCX Manager dashboard.

  • Close the HCX Manager browser tab.


Create a Site Pairing and Service Mesh:


You create a site pairing to link the on-premises VMware HCX instance and the VMware HCX instance in VMware Cloud on AWS. You also deploy the HCX Interconnect service.

  • Log in to the VMware HCX user interface.

    • Open a browser tab to the VMware HCX UI

    • Enter the login credentials

      • User name: administrator@vclass.local

      • Password: Password

      • Click LOG IN

The VMware HCX dashboard opens.


NOTE: The VMware HCX user interface is also accessible using the vSphere Client plug-in.

  • Create a site pairing

    • In the left pane, click Site Pairing

    • On the Site Pairings window, click CONNECT TO REMOTE SITE

The Connect to Remote Site window opens

  • In the Remote HCX URL text box, enter the FQDN of your VMware HCX instance in VMware Cloud

You can obtain the VMware HCX FQDN from the Settings tab in the VMware Cloud SDDC

  • Enter cloudadmin@vmc.local in the Username text box

  • Enter the password for your cloudadmin@vmc.local account in the Password text box

You can obtain the cloudadmin@vmc.local credentials from the Settings tab in the VMware Cloud SDDC.

  • Click CONNECT

The on-premises and VMware Cloud instances of VMware HCX are paired. This process takes approximately 3 minutes.

  • Create a management network profile

    • Under Infrastructure, click Interconnect

    • Click the Network Profiles tab

    • Click CREATE NETWORK PROFILE

The Create Network Profile window opens

  • Under Network, select sa-mgmt

  • For Prefix Length, enter 24

  • For Gateway, enter gateway IP xx.xx.xx.xx

  • In the IP Ranges text box, enter IP range xx.xx.xx.xx-xx.xx.xx.xx

  • For Primary DNS, enter DNS server IP xx.xx.xx.xx

  • For DNS Suffix, enter domain name

  • Select the Management, HCX Uplink, and vSphere Replication checkboxes

  • Click CREATE

The profile is created

  • Create a vSphere vMotion network profile

    • Click CREATE NETWORK PROFILE

The Create Network Profile window opens.

  • Under Network, select sa-vmotion

  • For Prefix Length, enter 24

  • For Gateway, enter gateway IP xx.xx.xx.xx

  • In the IP Ranges text box, enter IP range xx.xx.xx.xx-xx.xx.xx.xx

  • For Primary DNS, enter DNS server IP xx.xx.xx.xx

  • For DNS Suffix, enter the domain name

  • Select the vMotion check box

  • Click CREATE

The network profile is created

  • Create a compute profile

    • On the Compute Profiles tab, click CREATE COMPUTE PROFILE

The Create Compute Profile window opens.

  • In the Name text box, enter compute-01 and click CONTINUE

  • Click the services to enable them: Hybrid Interconnect, WAN Optimization, Cross-Cloud vMotion Migration, Bulk Migration, Replication Assisted vMotion Migration, Network Extension, and Disaster Recovery

All available services should be enabled by default.

  • Click CONTINUE

The Select Service Resources page opens

  • Click the Select Resources drop-down menu, select the SA-Compute-01 check box, and click OK

  • Click CONTINUE

The Select Deployment Resources and Reservations page opens

  • Click the Select Resources drop-down menu, select the SA-Management check box, and click CLOSE

  • Click the Select Datastore drop-down menu, select the Datastore-02 check box, and click CLOSE

  • Click CONTINUE

The Select Management Network Profile page opens

  • Click the Select Management Network Profile drop-down menu, select the sa-mgmt check box, and click CLOSE

  • Click CONTINUE

The Select Uplink Network Profile page opens

  • Click the Select Uplink Network Profile drop-down menu, select the sa-mgmt check box, and click CLOSE

  • Click CONTINUE

The Select vMotion Network Profile page opens

  • Click the Select vMotion Network Profile drop-down menu, select the sa-vmotion check box, and click CLOSE

  • Click CONTINUE

The Select vSphere Replication Network Profile page opens.

  • Click the Select Uplink vSphere Replication Network Profile drop-down menu, select the sa-mgmt check box, and click CLOSE

  • Click CONTINUE

The Select Network Containers Eligible for Network Extension page opens

  • Click the Select Network Containers drop-down menu, select the dvs_datacenter check box, and click CLOSE

  • Click CONTINUE

Firewall rules that are required between the on-premises environment and VMware Cloud HCX instance are listed

  • Click CONTINUE

  • Click FINISH

  • Create a service mesh

    • Select the Service Mesh tab

    • Click CREATE SERVICE MESH

The Create Service Mesh window opens

  • On the Select Sites page, click CONTINUE

The Select Compute Profiles page opens

  • Click the Select Source Compute Profile drop-down menu, select the compute-01 check box, and click CLOSE

  • Click the Select Remote Compute Profile drop-down menu, select the ComputeProfile(vcenter) check box, and click CLOSE

Validation of the configuration occurs and takes approximately 2 minutes

  • Click CONTINUE

The Select Services to be activated page opens.

  • Click the services to enable them: Hybrid Interconnect, WAN Optimization, Cross-Cloud vMotion Migration, Bulk Migration, Replication Assisted vMotion Migration, Network Extension, and Disaster Recovery.

All available services should be enabled

  • Click CONTINUE

The Advanced Configuration - Override Uplink Network profiles page opens

  • Click the Select Source Site Uplink Network Profile(s) drop-down menu, select the sa-mgmt check box, and click CLOSE

  • Click the Select Destination Site Uplink Network Profile(s) drop-down menu, select the externalNetwork check box, and click CLOSE

  • Click CONTINUE

The Advanced Configuration - Network Extension Appliance Scale-Out page opens.

  • Leave the default value of 1 for appliance count

  • Click CONTINUE

The Advanced Configuration - Traffic Engineering page opens.

  • Select the Application Resiliency and TCP Flow Conditioning checkboxes

  • Click CONTINUE

The Review Topology Preview page appears.

  • Click CONTINUE

The Ready to Complete page appears

  • In the user-friendly name text box, enter vmc-mesh-01

  • Click FINISH

The service mesh is deployed. This process takes approximately 25 minutes.


Create a Network Extension:


You create a network extension to extend the virtual machine network to a VMware HCX-activated remote site.

  • Under Services, click Network Extension

  • Click CREATE A NETWORK EXTENSION

The Extend Networks window opens

  • Select the VLAN-20-App-Tier check box and click NEXT

  • In the Gateway IP Address text box, enter xx.xx.xx.xx/24

  • Click SUBMIT

The network extension is created. This process takes approximately 3 minutes

  • Click the refresh icon in the vSphere Client if the Network Extension window does not refresh automatically

Use VMware HCX to Migrate a VM:


You use VMware HCX to migrate a VM from the on-premises environment to the VMware Cloud environment.

  • Under Services, click Migration

  • Click the Management tab and click MIGRATE

The Workload Mobility window opens

  • Select the app-1a check box and click ADD

  • Under Transfer and Placement, click Mandatory: Compute Container

The Destination Compute Container window opens.

  • Select Compute-ResourcePool and click SELECT

  • Under Transfer and Placement, click Specify Destination Folder

The Destination Folder window opens

  • Select Workloads and click SELECT

  • Under Transfer and Placement, click Mandatory: Storage

The Destination Storage window opens.

  • Select WorkloadDatastore and click SELECT

  • Under Transfer and Placement, click the Migration Profile drop-down menu and select vMotion

  • Click VALIDATE

Validation is successful

  • Click GO

The migration task starts. It takes approximately 10 minutes to complete.

In the vSphere Client, the app-1a virtual machine moves to the special jump-host (172.20.10.170) before moving to the VMware Cloud Compute-ResourcePool

  • Monitor the connectivity to the app-1a virtual machine

    • Open a command prompt

    • Enter the ping -t command to run a continuous ping to the virtual machine. ping -t xx.xx.xx.xx

    • Confirm that the pings continue to return after the VMware HCX migration finishes

The ping time increases from less than 1 millisecond to approximately 41 milliseconds when the VM completes migration to VMware Cloud.




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