when you require high local storage requirements and additional cores for your workloads on VMware Cloud on AWS. i3.metal instances offer up to 4TB of local NVMe storage and up to 96 CPU cores, giving you the power and storage you need to handle large workloads. Additionally, i3.metal instances are great for applications that benefit from high CPU-to-memory ratios, like artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data analysis, and HPC workloads.

To deploy an instance of Azure VMware Solutions, an administrator must take the following two steps:

• Create a support request with Microsoft Azure Support to create a host quota. This is required because Azure VMware Solution hosts are dedicated bare-metal servers that are not shared with other customers1. The host quota determines the number and size of hosts that can be provisioned in a subscription1. The host quota can be requested for an eligible Azure plan, such as Microsoft Enterprise Agreement or Cloud Solution Provider2.
• Deploy and configure Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute. This is required because Azure VMware Solution uses ExpressRoute to connect the private cloud to the Azure virtual network and the on-premises network3. ExpressRoute provides a secure, high-bandwidth, and low-latency connection that enables seamless workload migration and hybrid cloud scenarios3. The administrator must deploy and configure an ExpressRoute circuit, a virtual network gateway, and a virtual network3. References: 1: Deploy and configure Azure VMware Solution, 2: Plan the Azure VMware Solution deployment, 3: Tutorial: Deploy an Azure VMware Solution private cloud

A private network segment is an isolated network segment that is used for disaster recovery testing. Private network segments provide a secure and isolated environment for testing, allowing administrators to test their disaster recovery plans without risking the stability of their production environment. Private network segments also provide additional security, as they are not connected to the public internet, making them less vulnerable to external attacks. [1]

[1] https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/com.vmware.vmc-aws.networking/GUID-64D7A8F3-45C9-4A83-8528-A8C2A2C7001D.html

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-Disaster-Recovery/services/vmware-cloud-disaster-recovery/GUID-11C83D2A-A478-4823-B9B3-275AF6DD31CC.html

A protection group in VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery (VCDR) consists of members (virtual machines or VMs) and policies for snapshots. These policies define the consistent point-in-time copies of the VMs, which are used for disaster recovery. The protection group also includes virtual machine file system (VMFS) datastores, which are used to store the copies of the VMs, and VM customizations, which are used to customize the VMs. Clusters are not part of a protection group in VCDR.

One benefit of public cloud computing is cost savings on capital hardware expenses. Since the cloud provider owns and manages the hardware, the customer does not need to invest in the purchase and maintenance of physical hardware, resulting in significant cost savings. Additionally, public cloud services often provide scalability and can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection.

A VMware Cloud software-defined data center (SDDC) uses a logical switching component called a Network Virtual Distributed Switch (N-VDS) or vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) to provide layer 2 forwarding functionality [1][2]. A VDS is a network switch that provides centralized network configuration, management, and monitoring. It works with the NSX for vSphere data plane to provide layer 2 forwarding, packet filtering, and traffic monitoring services. A VDS is composed of multiple Segment Ports (which are like individual physical ports on a normal switch), Uplinks, and Transport Nodes. The Segment Ports are used to connect virtual machines to the VDS, while Uplinks are used to connect the VDS to physical networks. Transport Nodes are the physical switches that are associated with the VDS. For more information, see the official VMware documentation here: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-NSX-Data-Center/2.4/nsx_24_sdn_networking/GUID-A4A6E4A8-FD7C-4B6E-A3D3-6F9B6D0578C2.html.

Route-based IPSec VPNs provide the flexibility to dynamically learn when new networks are created, making them the ideal choice for establishing connectivity between an on-premises data center and VMware Cloud. Route-based IPSec VPNs use the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to dynamically learn and propagate routes over the VPN tunnel, allowing for scalable and secure connectivity. [1]

[1] https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/com.vmware.vmc-aws.networking/GUID-EDA5A6E5-6C5B-4F66-9C2F-2C6D4F6EF8F6.html

The two steps that the cloud administrator should complete on I/O-intensive workloads to ensure the best performance possible are to configure the VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapter and to ensure that the VMware hardware version is 7 or later. The PVSCSI adapter provides improved performance and scalability compared to the LSI Logic Parallel SCSI controller. Additionally, the hardware version should be 7 or later to ensure that the virtual machine is able to take advantage of the latest features and enhancements. Enabling the memory hot-add feature and configuring a maximum of two CPU cores per socket will not improve the performance of I/O-intensive workloads.

Why does VMware refuse to educate their customers ... - VMware ...

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Education-Services/Why-does-VMware-refuse-to-educate-their-customers/td-p/2005973

VMware Technical Support Guide

https://www.vmware.com/pdf/techsupportguide.pdf

Publishing Applications with VMware Horizon 7

https://vcdx.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/ru/pdf/techpaper/vmware-horizon-7-application-publishing.pdf

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/vmc-aws-performance.pdf

VMware Cloud on AWS also includes a paravirtualized SCSI storage adapter, PVSCSI (also called VMware Paravirtual). The PVSCSI adapter offers a significant reduction in CPU utilization as well as potentially increased throughput compared to the default virtual storage adapters, and is thus the best choice for environments with very I/O-intensive guest applications. In order to use PVSCSI, virtual machine must be using virtual hardware version 7 .or later https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/vmc-aws-performance.pdf

"It is a good idea to periodically monitor the CPU usage of the host. This can be done through the vSphere Client, using the VMware vRealizeOperations management suite, or by using resxtop. Below we describe how to interpret resxtop" https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/vmc-aws-performance.pdf

• Use the VMware vSphere Client to connect to the VMware vCenter which manages the virtual machine and examine its performance statistics. You can use charts, alarms, and events to identify CPU bottlenecks or contention.
• Use the Troubleshooting Workbench in VMware vRealize Operations Cloud to look for potential evidence. You can use dashboards, alerts, metrics, logs, and recommendations to diagnose and resolve CPU performance issues.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/vmc-aws-performance.pdf

VMware Tanzu Mission Control provides a central platform to manage and view all Tanzu Kubernetes clusters and workloads running in the environment. It allows administrators to set policies across multiple clusters, set up cluster identities, monitor cluster health and performance, and much more. Tanzu Mission Control also provides access to a variety of cloud-native tools, such as Kubernetes Dashboard, Helm, and Kubeapps.

Publishing Applications with VMware Horizon 7

https://vcdx.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/ru/pdf/techpaper/vmware-horizon-7-application-publishing.pdf

VMware Technical Support Guide

https://www.vmware.com/pdf/techsupportguide.pdf

Quick-Start Tutorial for VMware Dynamic Environment Manager ...

https://techzone.vmware.com/resource/quick-start-tutorial-vmware-dynamic-environment-manager

"VMware Tanzu® Mission ControlTM is a centralized management platform for consistently operating, managing, and securing Kubernetes infrastructure and modern applications across teams and clouds. It provides a global view of all of the Kubernetes clusters. You can use the resource hierarchy to manage and enforce consistent policies across Kubernetes clusters. "

Graphical user interface, text, application, email Description automatically generated

https://blogs.vmware.com/management/2020/01/the-cloud-operating-model.html

Aligning and connecting people, process, and technologies across layers of the IT and business organizations is an important success factor for cloud deployments. https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/docs/vmw-idc-enabling-a-cloud-operating-model-for-software-defined-infrastructure.pdf

Gateway firewalls are used to protect east-west traffic, while distributed firewalls control the I/O path to and from a VM's virtual NIC. Furthermore, gateway firewalls and distributed firewalls cannot share the same sets of rules and policies.

Based on the given guidelines, the cloud administrator should select the Elastic DRS Baseline policy [1]. This policy is designed to scale the cluster automatically when additional resources are required, while also ensuring that application performance is not affected during the scaling operation. The Elastic DRS Baseline policy also ensures that resources are allocated efficiently and optimally [1], to minimize cost while ensuring that performance requirements are met.

For more information on the Elastic DRS Baseline policy [1], see the VMware official documentation at https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/com.vmware.vmc-aws.sddc-management/GUID-FDD3A8AC-E42C-4B92-9C1D-8EB49D6C7129.html.

An extended network segment is required for a cloud administrator to create a virtual machine that requires layer 2 connectivity to an on-premises workload. Extended networks allow for the virtual machines to communicate directly with the on-premises workload while remaining isolated from the public cloud. This allows for the virtual machines to access the same services and workloads as the on-premises workloads while still remaining secure.

VMware Cloud on Dell EMC is a fully managed VMware Cloud Service which includes a physical Dell VxRail hyper-converged infrastructure built to a customer’s capacity needs and is delivered onsite preloaded with VMware vSphere®, VMware NSX®, and VMware vSAN™ software. Included with this service is full management of the hardware infrastructure, including monitoring, software patching and upgrades, security updates, lifecycle management, and break-fix service in the event of a hard failure. This service is backed by an Enterprise-grade Service Level Agreement (SLA). Figure 1 shows the VMware Cloud on Dell EMC infrastructure in greater detail, including all hardware necessary to deploy the infrastructure quickly right out of the crate.

https://cloud.google.com/architecture/private-cloud-networking-for-vmware-engine

Dedicated Interconnect provides a private [1][2], dedicated connection between your on-premises network and Google’s network. It offers low latency, high bandwidth, and a secure connection. Partner Interconnect provides a connection to Google Cloud Platform through a partner’s network, such as a service provider or a carrier. It offers the same low latency, high bandwidth, and secure connection, but is slightly slower than Dedicated Interconnect.

References: [1] https://cloud.google.com/interconnect/docs/concepts/types [2] https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/com.vmware.vmc-aws.networking.doc/GUID-6D3A8E3B-A7B1-4A05-A9A8-C4F4A4A4C1A2.html

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/com.vmware.vmc-aws-networking-security/GUID-0E34C56D-C49C-49B6-A9CF-FBFAF14A126C.html

To allow HTTPS access to a specific VM through the public Internet for VMware Cloud on AWS, the administrator should take the following two steps:

• Request a public IP address in the VMware Cloud console. This is required because the VM needs a public IP address to be reachable from the Internet1. The administrator can request a public IP address from the Networking & Security tab in the VMware Cloud console1. The public IP address is allocated from the AWS pool and is associated with the SDDC1.
• Configure a DNAT rule translating a public IP address to an internal IP address. This is required because the VM has an internal IP address assigned by the SDDC DHCP server, and the DNAT rule maps the public IP address to the internal IP address of the VM2. The administrator can configure a DNAT rule from the Networking & Security tab in the VMware Cloud console2. The DNAT rule must specify the public IP address as the source, the internal IP address as the destination, and the HTTPS service (TCP 443) as the applied to2. References: 1: Request a Public IP Address - VMware Docs, 2: Configure NAT Rules - VMware Docs

https://blogs.vmware.com/management/2021/10/introduction-to-vmware-cloud-operating-model.html

VMware High Availability (HA) is a feature of the VMware Cloud platform that monitors the health of virtual machines and restarts virtual machines on other hosts if they crash or become unresponsive. This ensures that the virtual machines are always available and that no downtime is experienced. The default response is to restart the impacted virtual machine on other hosts in the same SDDC Cluster, however, this can be customized to suit the needs of the customer.

References: [1]https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/com.vmware.vmc-aws.availability_and_scalability.doc/GUID-C7E2C2A2-B9A8-4CD0-A2F2-EA6C08C8D95B.html [2] https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/com.vmware.vmc-aws.admin.doc/GUID-F9C7F1B8-4855-4C3A-A723-C9A2F7CDBFFB.html

The best solution for enabling network extension from the cloud side to the on-premises data center in this scenario is to ensure that the on-premises environment has at least a VMware vSphere Distributed Switch with version 6.5 configured. This will enable the reverse L2E feature, which is necessary for extending the native layer 2 network segment from the cloud back into the on-premises data center. For more information on how to configure reverse L2E and extend a network segment from the cloud to the on-premises data center, please refer to the official VMware documentation here.

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/80949

Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) provides a command line tool called tkg-support-bundler which can be used to collect the necessary information and logs for troubleshooting and support cases. The command can be run on the TKG CLI and it will gather all the necessary information and logs from the TKG control plane and worker nodes, and package them into a single compressed bundle file. This bundle file can then be provided to VMware support for further analysis.

VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud supports three types of network segments: routed, extended and disconnected.

Routed networks: Routed networks allow you to route traffic between the on-premises data center and the VMware Cloud on AWS environment using a VPN or AWS Direct Connect.

Extended networks: Extended networks allow you to extend the on-premises network to the VMware Cloud on AWS environment using VXLAN. This type of network allows you to extend the on-premises VLANs to the cloud environment, providing a seamless network extension.

Disconnected networks: Disconnected networks are used when there is no direct connectivity between the on-premises data center and the VMware Cloud on AWS environment. This type of network allows you to create isolated networks in the cloud environment for specific use cases, such as disaster recovery or testing.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS-GovCloud-(US)/services/vmc-govcloud-networking-security/GUID-7E79585B-1487-454A-90FE-BA82D3122C0E.html

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tanzu-Kubernetes-Grid/1.6/air-gap-reference-architecture/GUID-deployment-guides-tkg-vsphere-vds-airgap.html

vCenter Mapping Mapping vCenters in a DR plan consists of selecting source vCenters that are registered to the protected site. Choosing a target vCenter for a Failover SDDC is simple; each SDDC contains a single vCenter instance. For VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery, keep in mind that a protected site can have multiple registered vCenters, but you can only map one vCenter on VMware Cloud on AWS per-DR plan. https://vmc.techzone.vmware.com/resource/introduction-vmware-cloud-disaster-recovery#inventory-and-resource-mapping https://vmc.techzone.vmware.com/resource/protection-groups-and-recovery-plans-vcdr#create-a-disaster-recovery-plan

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-Disaster-Recovery/services/vmware-cloud-disaster-recovery/GUID-8AE1DC05-46D1-410C-99F6-7687FEB876B5.html

The throughput provided by a Google Cloud VMware Engine private cloud network is 100 Gbps. This allows for a high level of performance and scalability, and supports a variety of services and applications. Additionally, the private cloud network is secure and reliable, providing support for different authentication methods and encryption standards.

100Gb dedicated for cluster (vSAN + east-west) 4x mellanox connect-4 lx dual port 25GbE.

According to the VMware Cloud on AWS documentation, the minimum capacity of an i3.metal host is 8 vCPUs and 64 GB of memory. Therefore, to meet the demand of an additional 60 cores and 640 GB of memory, the administrator should add two i3.metal hosts to the cluster. For more information, please refer to the official VMware Cloud on AWS documentation at: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/index.html.

"The VMware HCX on-premises deployment requires five IP addresses: two for the WAN appliance, two for the vMotion feature, and one for the management network." 

In this scenario, the cloud administrator is utilizing the vMotion feature of VMware HCX to migrate several dozen workloads from an on-premises location to a VMware public cloud. They are also stretching three networks for the migration. When using vMotion, two IP addresses will be needed per vMotioned virtual machine: one for the source and one for the target. For the migration of several dozen workloads, this will require several dozens of IP addresses. Additionally, the administrator is also utilizing the capabilities of the WAN appliance to optimize migration traffic. In order to optimize the traffic, one IP address will be needed for the WAN appliance on the on-premises site, and another IP address will be needed for the WAN appliance on the public cloud side. Therefore, the total number of IP addresses that need to be reserved for the on-premises deployment of VMware HCX is the number of IP addresses required for the virtual machines plus one IP address for the WAN appliance on the on-premises site plus another IP address for the WAN appliance on the public cloud side, which totals to five IP addresses.

To connect the workload network segment to their on-premises data center and multiple company Amazon VPCs running in US-East-2, the customer can use VMware Transit Connect. VMware Transit Connect is a service that provides secure connectivity between AWS and on-premises data centers or other clouds. It allows customers to connect and extend their networks to the AWS cloud with minimal effort and cost.

VMware Transit Connect provides high-speed, resilient connectivity and is integrated with the AWS Transit Gateway. With VMware Transit Connect, customers can connect their software-defined data center (SDDC) network, Amazon Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs), and on-premises data centers. This allows them to have a seamless networking connectivity between their VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC and their native AWS environment. So, for the given scenario where the customer wants to connect to both their on-premises data center and multiple VPCs in the same AWS region, VMware Transit Connect would be the most appropriate choice.

https://blogs.vmware.com/networkvirtualization/2020/09/vmware-transit-connect-simplifying-networking-for-vmc.html/

VMware vSAN is a distributed storage platform that is integrated into the VMware Cloud software-defined data center (SDDC). It provides policy-based storage management, allowing cloud administrators to define storage policies that can be applied to virtual machines and other workloads. These policies govern how data is stored, replicated, and secured, and are used to ensure that data is stored in a consistent and compliant manner.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/com.vmware.vsphere.vmc-aws-manage-data-center-vms.doc/GUID-EDBB551B-51B0-421B-9C44-6ECB66ED660B.html

Compatible top of rack switches are necessary to ensure that the data center is able to support the VMware Cloud on Dell EMC or VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts deployments [1]. The switches must support 10GE and 25GE ports, as well as Layer 3 routing protocols such as OSPF and BGP.

Dedicated subnets for SDDC management network are also needed for the deployment of VMware Cloud on Dell EMC or VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts [1]. The SDDC management network will be used for communication between the VMware Cloud components and the data center, and must be isolated from the customer network.

Planning your Azure VMware Solution deployment is critical for a successful production-ready environment for creating virtual machines (VMs) and migration. During the planning process, you'll identify and gather what's needed for your deployment. As you plan, make sure to document the information you gather for easy reference during the deployment. A successful deployment results in a production-ready environment for creating virtual machines (VMs) and migration.

In this how-to article, you'll do the following tasks:

Identify the Azure subscription, resource group, region, and resource name

Identify the size hosts and determine the number of clusters and hosts

Request a host quota for eligible Azure plan

Identify the /22 CIDR IP segment for private cloud management

Identify a single network segment

Define the virtual network gateway

Define VMware HCX network segments

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/com.vmware.vmc-aws-operations/GUID-961C4B32-6093-4C2E-AFE5-5B1F56BF4EEE.html

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/com.vmware.vmc-aws-operations/GUID-961C4B32-6093-4C2E-AFE5-5B1F56BF4EEE.html#:~:text=In%20a%20new%20SDDC%2C%20Elastic,AWS%20Availability%20Zone%20failure%20occurs .