VMware Cloud on AWS Blueprint

VMware Cloud on AWS Blueprint

by Oleg Ulyanov, Michael Schwartzman, Harsha Sanku
Released February 2024
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781803238197

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Book description

Explore use cases and best practices to seamlessly migrate and scale legacy enterprise-grade applications running on on-premises vSphere environments to VMware Cloud SDDCs running on AWS infrastructure

Key Features

  • Understand data center extension, migration, disaster recovery, and app modernization through a variety of use cases
  • Become an expert at configuring, automating, and troubleshooting VMC on AWS SDDC
  • Implement design considerations, best practices, and onboarding preflight checklist for optimal performance on VMC on AWS
  • Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Book Description

If you’re looking to effortlessly transition from on-premises VMware vSphere environments or capital expenditure (CAPEX) to an agile operational expenditure (OPEX) model, trust the VMware Cloud (VMC) on AWS platform for swift re-platforming of legacy applications into cloud-native framework. This comprehensive guide addresses hybrid cloud challenges, offering detailed solutions within the VMware Cloud on AWS ecosystem.

Covering the foundational architecture, software-defined data center (SDDC) components of VMware Cloud on AWS, network and security configurations, and AWS service integrations, this book lays the foundation for you to advance to vCenter management, vSAN storage policies, NSX architecture, compute policies, SDDC console management, and the EDRS mechanism for cluster scaling. You’ll also explore integrated services such as VMware HCX for migration, VMware Aria suite, Tanzu Managed Kubernetes, and disaster recovery.

Further, the book takes you through VMware Cloud APIs and guides you in managing workloads with VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts. With the help of practical insights, configuration tips, and best practices, you’ll unlock the full potential of VMC on AWS.

By the end of this book, you’ll be equipped to successfully architect and manage VMware Cloud on AWS SDDCs, handling day-to-day operations expertly.

What you will learn

  • Examine the foundational architecture components of VMware Cloud on AWS, including vSphere, vSAN, and NSX
  • Explore the various integrated services available within VMware Cloud on AWS
  • Delve into VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC, vCenter, and vSAN optimizations
  • Build applications and apply best practices within the VMware Cloud on AWS to manage day-to-day operations
  • Streamline infrastructure management for VMware Cloud on AWS with Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
  • Extend cloud capabilities to on-premises environments using VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts

Who this book is for

The book is intended for cloud and solutions architects, DevOps engineers, site reliability engineers (SREs), system and network admins, and cloud engineers with experience in on-premises VMware or AWS administration, facilitating the seamless integration of VMware cloud technologies. Prior understanding of cloud computing, virtualization principles, VMware vSphere administration, vSAN, and NSX along with AWS cloud basics will be helpful.

Table of contents

  1. VMware Cloud on AWS Blueprint
  2. Contributors
  3. About the authors
  4. About the reviewers
  5. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
    4. Conventions used
    5. Get in touch
    6. Share Your Thoughts
    7. Download a free PDF copy of this book
  6. Part 1:VMware Cloud on AWS Foundations and VMware HCX as a Migration Tool
  7. Chapter 1: Foundation of VMware Cloud on AWS
    1. Introduction to VMware Cloud on AWS
      1. Introduction to cloud deployment models
    2. Hybrid cloud challenges
      1. Describing the challenges of the hybrid cloud
    3. Understanding VMware Cloud on AWS use cases
      1. Data center extension
      2. Cloud migration
      3. Next-generation apps
      4. Disaster recovery
    4. Understanding the VMware Cloud on AWS high-level architecture
      1. Tanzu Kubernetes with VMware Cloud on AWS
      2. SDDC cluster design
      3. Elastic Distributed Resource Scheduler
    5. Understanding Cloud Service Platform and VMware Cloud Console
      1. Cloud Service Platform and VMware Cloud Console
      2. VMware Cloud console
      3. VMware vCenter Server
      4. Restrictive access model
    6. Demystifying vSAN and host storage architecture
      1. VMware vSAN overview
    7. Summary
  8. Chapter 2: Exploring Networking, Security, and AWS Integrations
    1. Exploring VMware NSX
      1. A VMware NSX overview
      2. VMware NSX architecture
    2. Understanding the network architecture of the VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC
      1. AWS networking
      2. External connectivity options
      3. Connected VPC
      4. Understanding hybrid connectivity options
      5. Layer 2 VPNs
      6. Complimentary networking services
    3. Understanding connectivity to the AWS cloud
      1. VMware Transit Connect
      2. vTGW routing tables
      3. vTGW firewalling
      4. Connectivity best practices
      5. Unsupported flow
      6. Transit VPCs/security VPCs
      7. TGW connectivity over VPN
    4. Exploring NSX and AWS security architecture and capabilities
      1. AWS security groups
      2. Security
      3. GW firewalls
    5. Learning NSX micro-segmentation
      1. The benefits of micro-segmentation architecture
      2. Understanding NSX Distributed Firewall
    6. Discovering the NSX Advanced Firewall Add-On
      1. IPS/IDS
      2. Layer 7 app IDs
      3. FQDN filtering
      4. Identity Firewall
    7. Summary
  9. Chapter 3: Exploring VMware Cloud on AWS-Integrated Services
    1. VMware HCX
      1. An HCX component overview
      2. Migration types
      3. HCX for hybrid network extension
      4. HCX for disaster recovery
    2. VMware Site Recovery service
    3. VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery (VCDR) service
    4. The VMware Aria Operations for Logs service
    5. VMware Cloud with Tanzu services
      1. Tanzu Kubernetes networking
      2. Tanzu Kubernetes Storage
      3. TMC Essentials
      4. Packaging
    6. Summary
  10. Part 2: Configuration, Maintenance, and Troubleshooting on VMware Cloud on AWS
  11. Chapter 4: Getting Started with VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC
    1. Creating a VMware Organization
      1. Reserved Instances subscription creation
    2. VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC provisioning wizard
      1. Configuring the connected VPC
      2. AWS VPC and networking prerequisites
      3. Finalizing the SDDC creation
    3. Enabling access to vCenter Server
      1. Managing the vCenter FQDN
    4. RBAC and identity management on vCenter and CSP
      1. RBAC and identity management on CSP
    5. Application deployment example
    6. Summary
  12. Chapter 5: Configuring vCenter, vSAN, and VMware Cloud Console
    1. Managing VMware Cloud on AWS
      1. SDDC console overview
      2. Compute capacity management
      3. Managing compute capacity with Elastic DRS
      4. Microsoft licensing
    2. vSAN storage policies
      1. Management Storage Policies
      2. Storage capacity monitoring
    3. Compute Policies
    4. Contacting VMware for support assistance
      1. Maintenance model
    5. Summary
  13. Chapter 6: Understanding Networking and Security Configurations
    1. VMware Cloud on AWS NSX configuration overview
    2. Managing SDDC networking
      1. Network segments
      2. Multiple Tier-1 Gateways
      3. Internet NAT
      4. Route aggregation
      5. DHCP
      6. Domain Name System (DNS)
    3. Virtual private network
      1. Route-based VPNs
      2. Policy-based VPN
      3. Layer 2 VPN
      4. Multiple Tier-1 Gateway VPNs
    4. Connected VPC
    5. Direct Connect
    6. Transit Connect
    7. NSX security basic configuration
      1. Management Gateway firewall
      2. Compute Gateway firewall rules
    8. NSX day two operations
    9. IPFIX
    10. Port mirroring
    11. NSX Micro-Segmentation
    12. Summary
  14. Chapter 7: Exploring Integrated Services Configuration
    1. Configuring the NSX Advanced Firewall service
    2. The VMware HCX service
      1. Deploying and activating the HCX service
      2. Configuring an HCX Layer 2 network extension
      3. Migrating a workload with HCX
    3. VMware Aria Operations for Logs
    4. The Tanzu Kubernetes Grid managed service
    5. Summary
  15. Chapter 8: Building Applications and Managing Operations
    1. Application integration with native AWS services
      1. Networking between SDDC and native AWS services
      2. Integrating Amazon ELB with VMware Cloud on AWS
      3. Integrating Amazon Simple Storage Service
      4. Integrating Amazon EFS
      5. Integrating Amazon FSx for Windows File Server
      6. Integrating AWS Directory Service
    2. VMware Cloud on AWS operations and monitoring
    3. VMware Cloud on AWS integrated services
      1. VMware Aria Operations (formerly vRealize Operations)
      2. VMware Aria Operations for Logs (formerly vRealize Log Insight)
      3. VMware Aria Operations for Networks (formerly vRealize Network Insight)
      4. VMware Cloud on AWS troubleshooting
    4. SDDC upgrades and maintenance
    5. Summary
  16. Chapter 9: Infrastructure as Code with VMware Cloud
    1. Introduction to the VMware Cloud APIs
    2. Cloud Services Platform APIs
      1. VMware Cloud on AWS API
      2. SDDC APIs (vSphere API)
      3. Generating CSP API tokens
    3. Consuming Console APIs via the Developer Center
    4. NSX-T Data Center REST API
      1. Leveraging Terraform for VMware Cloud on AWS
      2. Leveraging PowerCLI for VMware Cloud on AWS
      3. vSphere Automation SDKs
    5. Summary
  17. Chapter 10: VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts
    1. What is VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts?
      1. Capabilities
      2. Use cases
      3. Benefits of VMC on AWS Outposts
    2. How does VMC on AWS Outposts work?
      1. VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts rack
      2. Underlying network connectivity
      3. Physical connectivity
      4. Service link BGP connectivity
      5. Local gateway BGP connectivity
      6. Service link infrastructure subnet
      7. Network readiness checklist
    3. AWS Outposts connectivity to AWS Region
      1. Public connectivity
      2. Private connectivity
      3. Service link disconnection
    4. VMC on AWS Outposts configuration
      1. Scalability
    5. Multi-rack network connectivity
    6. VMC on AWS Outposts support
    7. Summary
  18. Part 3: Leveraging Design Considerations and Best Practices
  19. Chapter 11: Knowing the Best Practices, FAQs, and Common Pitfalls
    1. Best practices
      1. Design and architecture
      2. Migration
      3. Workload optimization
      4. Day 2 operations
      5. Contract documentation
    2. Avoiding common pitfalls
      1. Compute
      2. Storage
      3. Networking
    3. FAQ
    4. Summary
  20. Chapter 12: Appendix: Preflight before Onboarding
    1. Purchasing and onboarding
      1. Purchasing and funding
      2. Consumption options
      3. Accessing and configuring the VMware Cloud Console
    2. SDDC deployment
    3. Hybrid cloud configuration
    4. Next steps
  21. Index
    1. Why subscribe?
  22. Other Books You May Enjoy
    1. Packt is searching for authors like you
    2. Share Your Thoughts
    3. Download a free PDF copy of this book

Product information

  • Title: VMware Cloud on AWS Blueprint
  • Author(s): Oleg Ulyanov, Michael Schwartzman, Harsha Sanku
  • Release date: February 2024
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781803238197