In my recent ‘Getting started with Oracle Cloud VMware Solution (OVCS)’ post; Getting Started With Oracle Cloud VMware Solution (OCVS) – Connecting To An On-Premises Environment we set up hybrid connectivity between our on-premises vSphere environment and our OCVS SDDC allowing our on-premises workloads to communicate with workloads running in our workload overlay network.
Posts in this series:
In this blog post, which is the last blog post in this series, we are going to install VMware HCX in our on-premises vSphere environment and set up a site-pairing between our on-premises environment and our OCVS SDDC. Once we have HCX configured, we will test our connectivity by migrating workloads between our sites. We will also configure an extended network between both sites using HCX. This allows virtual machines to move between sites without the need to change IP addresses.
NOTE: As this is not a HCX focused post, we will not be going into the details of how we configured our HCX service mesh. If you are not familiar with configuring HCX, I’d recommend following VMware’s official documentation: VMware HCX User Guide.
Here is a high-level diagram of what we are going to be configuring.
The first step in the process of installing VMware HCX in our on-premises environment is to download the HCX Connector appliance from our HCX instance running in our OCVS environment. In this article I am only going to document how to download the HCX Connector through the vCenter interface. The HCX Connector OVA can also be downloaded from the HCX Manager directly using these steps: Downloading the HCX Connector OVA
We are now presented with the SDDC information. This page contains all of the important URLs, IP Addresses, Usernames, Passwords that you’ll need to access and manage your environment.
Once logged into vCenter, we need to head into the HCX interface.
In order for the on-premises Connector to connect to the HCX Manager in OCVS, you need to make sure the following Firewall ports are open on your on-premises environment. The Security Lists for HCX were configured in my previous blog post: Getting Started With Oracle Cloud VMware Solution (OCVS) – Connecting To An On-Premises Environment
When activating the on-premises HCX Connector, you will need to copy the HCX License Key from the OCI console.
When creating the site pairing between the on-premises environment and the OCVS SDDC, you’ll need to specify the HCX Manager FQDN or IP address and then use the vCenter Initial Username and Password. Do not try and use the HCX Manager Initial Username and Password, as you’ll end up with an authentication error.
With the site pairing created, you will now need to configure your service mesh. If you are not familiar with this process, follow the VMware documentation: Creating a Service Mesh
Bulk Migration
With the site pairing and service mesh configured between our on-premises vSphere environment and our OCVS SDDC, it’s time to start migrating some workloads. For my first migration, I decided to do a simple, bulk migration of a single virtual machine from my on-premises environment over to OCVS.
Creating the network extension is a very simple process performed via the HCX interface.
With VMware HCX, migrating workloads is quick and simple, and best of all, HCX is included as part of the OVCS service. Once HCX is configured correctly, you can migrate workloads to and from your OCVS SDDC as necessary.
This is the last blog post in the ‘Getting Started With Oracle Cloud VMware Solution’ blog series. I hope you found it useful. If you have any questions, feedback, please contact me on Twitter, @simonlong_
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